Duelity: Earth’s Story, Split Down the Middle

Darwin vs. the General Organization of Development labs, or why truth comes in pairs.

Science and religion may be odd bedfellows, but they’ve always had a shared mechanism of propagation — both are simply the product of the stories we tell ourselves and each other to explain the world, be it rationally or emotionally or mystically. So what happens when these conflicting stories are pitted against each other? That’s exactly what Duelity does in a brilliant split-screen animation telling both sides of Earth’s story, winking at the evolution of human thought and language along the way.

Directed by filmmaker Ryan Uhrich and animator Marcos Ceravolo, Duelity is a curious hybrid of humor and philosophy, mythology and ideology, capturing the tensions and frictions inherent to our cultural storytelling.

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CreativeAllies: Artist, Meet Artist

Artist meets artist, or why street cred beats petty pay every time.

The cross-pollination of disciplines and talents is a powerful beast, and we find that it’s all the more prevalent in the creative sphere — lots of musicians also design and illustrate, lots of designers also mix music, lots of filmmakers play an instrument. Startup Creative Allies has stuck its flagpole in this rich intersection by matching visual artists with their favorite musicians to create anything from album art to tour posters to music videos.

It’s a simple yet brilliant concept: The “allies” — designers, photographers, illustrators, animators and creative types alike — upload their creations inspired by music, which can then be licensed to the musicians that inspired them if the latter choose to “activate” them. Musicians can post requests for whatever they need made, be it a radio commercial or a t-shirt design, and allies can browse jobs to find something that strikes a creative chord.

It’s sort of like Threadless meets crowdSPRING, only with far more gratifying street cred if your art gets chosen by the very musician who inspired it. Licensing fees range from $25 for a high-res photograph to $200 for a Flash movie, but said street cred is no doubt priceless.

So whether Ani DiFranco needs a tour poster or the Harvest of Hope festival wants a flyer, the only thing standing between artist and artist is a simple, free signup process open to anyone anywhere in the world.

Hailing from indie music marketing support outfit Music Allies, the team has previously worked with Ani DiFranco, Sia, Aimee Mann, Jack Johnson, Mason Jennings, Martin Sexton and many other such fine musicians. And we think they’re onto something great.

Check out Creative Allies for a wonderful dose of cross-pollinated creativity.

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Live Now: In-the-Moment Inspiration

A true exercise in art therapy, or what all motivational posters should aspire to be.

It’s still January, and 2010 has already provided no shortage of loss, tragedy, and challenge. But amidst all of this digital distemper lies a website we love for its seemingly infinite supply of authenticity, hope, and optimism.

Live Now! is an art project whose mission is “powerfully pursuing the notion of ‘living now.’ Engaging participants to live meaningful lives & be happy!”

The homepage greets you with a lovely image reminding you of the importance of living in the moment. With messages like True happiness is giving it away and Practice happiness rendered in winsomely quirky typography, each click-through leads to another picture and message.

The images’ style varies, but they all share the kind of handmade energy in response to which you can’t really help but smile.

What confirms these sentiments as so much more than pablum — besides the artistry of their rendering — is the personal story of Live Now!‘s creator, designer and illustrator Eric Smith, who conceived of the project after being diagnosed with three different types of cancer.

Cancer changed the way I ate, slept, and most importantly the way I live. Before cancer I was like most folks, just cruising along. It was during my treatment, when starting to discover what cancer could give to me — the ability to absorb every moment as if each one were my whole life.

Since Live Now! launched, Davis has opened the experience to a host of other talented artists and designers (David Gibson, CD Ryan, and Kate Miss, among others); he also continues to take submissions. We were even more excited to learn that the project’s various messages are available in print form, allowing you to curate a changing rotation of inspirational messages for yourself.

Live Now! reminds us of another fantastic typographic project around personal growth and happiness, Things I Have Learned In My Life, by Brain Pickings favorite (and three-time TEDster) Stefan Sagmeister. Such collaborative initiatives augur an emerging pattern in graphic design work — call it the aesthetics of authentic life principles.

So put down the newspaper, close that Firefox CNN disaster report tab, let go of the earthquake hashtags, and swap them all for an early-morning shot of motivation and encouragement — because you can rarely have too much of either. To experience beautifully crafted messages of Carpe Diem visit Live Now!, well, now.

Kirstin Butler is writing an adaptation of Gogol for the Google era called Dead SULs, but when not working spends far, far too much time on Twitter. She currently lives in Cambridge, MA.

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