If It's Hip, It's Here (Archives)

How Oscar Is Made & Other Cool Facts and Trivia About The Academy Award Statuette.

infographic source: LiveScience

In honor of tonight's 84rd Annual Academy Awards, here's a look at how the coveted statuette is actually made, from start to finish.

The exterior of R.S. Owens in Chicago:

Casting, Buffing and polishing:

The metal is heated to 960 degrees before pouring into the cast.

The Oscar, removed from the cast, and ready to be polished and buffed:

The rough seams are sanded:

And the statue is polished:

Electroplating:

being dipped into the nickel (the second step, it's first dipped into copper):

Dipped into the 24k plate, the fourth step (the third step is dipped into silver):

Engraving and Mounting:

Affixing the engraved plate to the base:

a close up look at base:

Placing the felt pad on the base:

Oscar Fun Facts:

• The official name of the statuette is the Academy Award® of Merit

• Oscar is 13½ inches tall and weighs 8½ pounds

• The First Recipient was Emil Jannings, named Best Actor for his performances in “The Last Command” and “The Way of All Flesh” in 1929

• Number of Awards Presented to date as of 2011: 2,809 statuettes

• It was designed by Cedric Gibbons, chief art director at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, and sculpted by Los Angeles artist George Stanley.

• The Oscar statuette depicts a knight holding a crusader's sword, standing on a reel of film. The film reel features five spokes, signifying the five original branches of the Academy (actors, directors, producers, technicians and writers.)

• How Oscar received his nickname is not exactly clear.
The most popular story is that Margaret Herrick, an Academy librarian and eventual executive director, remarked that the statuette resembled her Uncle Oscar, and the Academy staff began to refer to it as Oscar. Although the nickname was used with increasing frequency during the late 1930s, the Academy didn't officially use the name Oscar until 1939.

• The Oscar statuette hasn't been altered since his molten birth, except when the design of the pedestal was made taller in 1945.

Billy Crystal will be hosting tonight's telecast. Below is a video of some of his best Oscar moments:

Click on the image below to see this year's complete list of nominees

• And here is a look at the scheduled events for the evening. • Official Oscar site. images and info courtesy of the Academy Of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

A Board Game For Building Enthusiasts - The Modern Architecture Game.

Test your knowledge of the greatest architects, their famous buildings and their legendary quotes by answering general questions about architecture and popular culture. The second edition of the new Trivia board game – designed by Next Architecture – promises to be a party hit amongst architecture lovers as they ponder which bridge is the highest in France.

The Modern Architecture Game is the second edition of the architecture game. The first edition was launched on 30 August 1999. It was the first project collaboration involving the four partners at NEXT architects and was distributed in the private environment of Delft University of Technology.

Ten years later, they've produced a revised version of the game, analytically unraveled and improved. This edition is an international version, in the sense that it is produced in English, but also that the questions range right across the breadth of modern world history.

video:

This means that many of the questions about the Netherlands that were abundant in the first version have been dropped, unless they were significant in relation to world-wide developments. By introducing these changes, they have endeavored to make the game suitable for an extremely broad and international group of architecture enthusiasts.

Illustrated in color & black and white, 27 x 27 cm, box, English

  The board game is created and produced by NEXT architects and distributed for retailers by Idea Books.

 

Single copies can also be picked up at the office of NEXT architects in Amsterdam (€45,- each), but give them a call first so they know you're coming.

NEXT is unable to send single copies of the game by mail.

NEXT ARCHITECTS
P.van Vlissingenstr 2a
1096 BK Amsterdam
THE NETHERLANDS
P +31 (0)20 4630463
F +31 (0)20 3624745

Deal A Very Hip Hand With Steampunk Playing Cards in Bronze Debossed Tuck Cases.

At the edge of industry, therein lies Steampunk.

Ripped from the pages of science fiction, the gears are turning, the steam is pumping, and the playing cards were finally born. It wasn't easy. The paper used on these tuck cases did NOT exist and Theory11 created it just for this special deck of regulation playing cards.

.

Theory 11 made the bronze paper from scratch in order to perfectly print the ink that covers its surface in 19th century Victorian machinery.

The boldly stamped, debossed elements cast shadows of illusion and create a perspective of depth and weight. The vents on top of the box invite you to take a look inside.

Opening the box, you will discover 52 pieces of machinery. The depth of the playing cards is fittingly unreal.

So unreal, it beckons you to stare at it's seemingly infinite array of detail. Designed by Alex Beltechi and constructed of 12 million 3D polygons. The Jokers are morphed into jet turbines of steel.

The Ace of Spades is a window of opportunity to witness the gears of intricate beauty and complexity.

A joint creative collaboration between the United States Playing Card Company and theory11. Produced by theory11 and designed by Alex Beltechi in Romania.

Own a piece of science fiction. Where vintage industry meets reality.

information, description and photos from both Theory11 and Alex Beltechi.

$5.95 per deck.
buy them here.

Office Toy Satisfies His Cabin Fever In This Animated Short by Director Tom Jenkins.

'Address Is Approximate' is a sweet little stop motion animated short made as a personal project by director Tom Jenkins. A lonely desk toy longs for escape from the dark confines of the office, so he takes a cross country road trip to the Pacific Coast in the only way he can – using a toy car and Google Maps Street View.

The short was shot using a Canon 5d MkII, Dragonframe Stop Motion software and customised slider. All the screen imagery was animated - there are no screen replacements.

Music by Cinematic Orchestra. The track is Arrival of the Birds and the album can purchased on itunes here.

Produced, animated, filmed, lit, edited and graded by Tom Jenkins of The Theory

You can view 'making of' pics on Facebook here.

Three Different Designers Do An Artful Retro Take on Cyberspace and Social Media.

Three different designers have all created various posters and ads that take the most popular sites in cyberspace and give them a vintage look. From Google Plus to Facebook, the stylized retro treatment emulates everything from Propaganda posters to vintage textbooks. Take a look.

Hole In the Floor is a collection of special edition wood storage units for books that appear to be coming out of the floor by Israel based Raw Edges Design Studio.

About Raw Edges Design Studio:

above: Yael Mer and Shay Alkalay

This official collaboration between Yael Mer & Shay Alkalay started after many years of sharing life, thoughts, ideas and everything in-between. Yael’s main focus includes turning two-dimensional sheet materials into curvaceous functional forms, whereas Shay is fascinated by how things move, function and react.

Since their graduation show at the Royal College of Art in 2006, they have received several highly respected awards including The British Council Talented Award, iF Gold Award, Dutch Design Award, Wallpaper* Design Award 2009 and the Elle Decoration International Design Award for best furniture of 2008_09 and just recently the Designer of the Future Award for 2009 from Design Miami/ Basel.

Their works have been exhibited at Johnson Trading Gallery in New York, FAT Galerie in Paris, Scope Art Fair in Basel and Rossana Orlandi Milan. Their designs can be found within the permanent collection of the MoMA New-York and The Design Museum London, and in production with Cappellini, Established & Sons and Arco. In addition, Yael & Shay produce unique and limited-edition designs within their own studio in London. Their work has been featured in many major design publications and newspapers worldwide.