Sub City New York: A Cinematic Celebration of Urbanity

We love cities, especially our current home base: New York. Last year, we featured a breathtaking love letter to NYC in HD and today, we’re back with another mesmerizing ode to one of the world’s most interesting cities.

From filmmakers Sarah Klein and Tom Mason comes Sub City New York — “a visual poem about that moment in New York when you emerge from the subway and find yourself in a new and sometimes unexpected world.”

The film is part of a larger series to be filmed in Paris, Moscow, London and Hong Kong — we can’t wait.

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Graphic USA: Miniguides to 25 Top Cities by 25 Top Designers

Four of our favorite things — graphic design, maps, cities and unconventional guidebooks — converge in Graphic USA, a brilliant new volume inviting 25 independent designers from 25 of the most noteworthy American metropolises to capture the unique vibe of their city. (And because we know you’re wondering: The cities included are Anchorage, Atlanta, Austin, Baltimore, Boston, Charleston, Chicago, Denver, Detroit, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Memphis, Miami, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, New Orleans, New York City, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Portland, Providence, San Francisco, Seattle, St. Louis and Washington D.C.) Witty, beautifully illustrated and indulgently insidery, the mini-guides are how designers do travel — and a warm invitation for you to join the aesthetically keen inner circle.

Part CitID, part Hitotoki, part something else entirely, Graphic USA is as much an absolute gem of graphic design as it is a rare and unusual guide to the most interesting parts of the most interesting cities.

Thanks, Amy

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Inside Out Project: Street Artist JR’s $100K TED Prize

What the global importance of women has to do with favela murals and graffiti in Kibera.

Last fall, in a bold and unexpected move, TED granted the $100,000 TEDPrize to shadowy Parisian street artist JR. Known for his large-scale graffiti murals tackling social justice and human rights issues like freedom and identity, the semi-anonymous 27-year-old artist made his most revealing public appearance to date on the TED stage this week, showing some of his truly incredible work and sharing his vision for how the prize will empower his art.

The launch of JR’s Inside Out Project, an ambitious global collaborative art initiative, is a truly inspired experiment in civic engagement through art — a different iteration of something we looked at earlier this week.

If JR’s project tickled your soul like it did ours, here’s how to get involved.

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