All Things Visual: The University of Chicago Visual Resources Center

The University for the Creative Arts recently launched a digital collection of material from Zandra Rhodes‘ personal archive of fashion materials. Rhodes was a student of UCA  The press release notes that contextual and didactic content has been put on the website in addition to the

… 500 dresses and garments that have been painstakingly prepared, catalogued and photographed over the past 18 months for the Collection which has been created for the education community through a collaborative project between UCA and the Zandra Rhodes Studio, with funding from Jisc.

The robust digital collection features photographs and detail views of 500 finished garment (with fully cataloged descriptions), more than 100 pages of fashion drawings presented as fully digitized sketchbooks (using Turning the Pages software), and many videos of Rhodes speaking about her working process and career.

For more information and to explore the website, visit the Zandra Rhodes Digital Study Collection.

We often post about new image collections and other scholarly resources pertaining to art history, but the building blocks are just as important. Based in the Netherlands, Materia is an art and architecture materials library that maintains an extensive collection of modern products in a database called Material Explorer that can be freely searched if you register for an account. They provide detailed information about product specs and contact information for the manufacturer, and users can download a PDF about the product, add it to a list of favorites, or suggest a new material to be included in the database.

Via Pixels

You may have heard a lot lately about Instagram, but it’s not the only photo manipulation application out there. PCMag.com recently wrote about 10 Awesome Alternatives to Instagram:

Instagram isn’t the only app out there that can rewind your photos 40 years; there’s a slew of apps for both iPhone and Android that can do the same things—and, in some cases, even more. Many of the apps even work in tandem with Instagram, offering an arsenal of filters and effects for your photo-editing pleasure, and then allow you to export your photo to share on Instagram. Though not all of the apps are free, they’re definitely worth the price of your morning coffee.

Via iLibrarian.

A recent article in Salon (originally published in Imprint) includes high-resolution images of 1920s Chicago Transit Posters. The article compares these posters to advertising for the London Underground.

Via Chicago History Museum.

Malaysia Design Archive is a project to map the development of graphic design in Malaysia from the period before independence (1957) until now. It is a space to trace and document Malaysian ‘endangered’ design legacy, to preserve our historical past, as well as to create a resource of Malaysian design work.

This is also another way to protect our history, provide us with space to question its meaning, recurring imagery, icons used, ideas, and how it is connected to the our political landscape at the time. This project aims to highlight the importance of archiving as a way protect and preserve our own visual history.

Via South Asian American Digital Archive.

The Noun Project presents visual symbols from around the world in a well-designed, easy-to-use online dictionary. You can browse by category and download high-quality images for use under individually-assigned Creative Commons licenses. The Noun Project mission:

The Noun Project collects, organizes and adds to the highly recognizable symbols that form the world’s visual language, so we may share them in a fun and meaningful way.

Via Deep Focus.

Get caffeinated this weekend with a camera lens coffee mug. Just be sure not to mistake it for your actual camera lens!

After finals are complete, you might consider taking a break and some inspiration from these couch cushion architects (critiqued by authors of the BUILDblog).

A brilliant synergy between the weighted foundation and the light tensile structure, this project impressed us with its attenuation of structure and bright interior spaces. The courtyard and formal entry are also well thought-out and provide a clear means of way-finding. Grade A+

A new film airing on PBS’ Independent Lens called Between the Folds chronicles the lives of ten modern paper folders. As the PBS website describes: “Through origami, these offbeat and provocative minds are reshaping ideas of creativity and revealing the relationship between art and science.” On this site, you can also test your origami knowledge by matching folding patterns with finished products, or even printing out patterns to try yourself. Explore the site further to learn about the artists and discover facts about the history of origami.

Wired.com has lots of updates from CES 2010, the world’s largest consumer electronics convention. CES 2010 took place January 7-10 in Las Vegas. This year’s highlights included a transparent OLED display prototype from Samsung, shown in a video from the conference.