Thanksgiving has come and past, and with that, our fourth annual By a Show of Hands competition has drawn to a close. The Rule29 crew was faced with the difficult task of setting down our turkey sandwiches and picking the winning examples from an amazing turnout of 134 hand turkeys. It wasn’t easy. There were some fierce arguments over personal favorites but we came to a peaceful consensus on this year’s winners.

Without further ado… Read the rest of the entry >

What is it about graphic design that moves us and drives us?  The image above says it all: design ignites change.

But how has design itself changed over the past decade? “Graphic design has broadened its reach dramatically over the past decade,” which has become the basis of an international exhibition on display at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, MN until January 2012: Graphic Design: Now In Production.

The exhibit examined the growing cultural role in mainstream design and the designer’s expanding role in content creation as well as in bridging the gap across once exclusive fields and roles, such as typeface design, product design, animation, and more. Read the rest of the entry >

It’s hard to believe it’s been a year since our third annual hand turkey extravaganza ended with these great winners. The time is here once again, our friends, to charge up the tryptophan motivation and be a kid with some hand turkey works of art. Please check out our updated Show of Hands site, download the form, read the rules or check out the 2010 entries, and be among the first to enter the 4th annual Show of Hands competition. Remember outside of the sheer glory of being named champion, we enhance the sweet taste of victory with some  iTunes gifts to go with it.

PLEASE NOTE – part of your jury selection will be based on tweets, likes and comments. So enter early and enter often. Let everyone know about it and get some social networking love. Get your office into it, break out the crayons or oil pastels, make Grandma bust one out and your kids (oh yeah, we pick a kids winner too). Bottom line: Have some fun.

We are excited to see your tasty turkey creations, let’s get it rolling!

It’s Christmas time and your scouring the Sears catalog circling everything you want/need for Christmas from your parents. And then there it is, the ultimate present… The Omnibot 2000. It’s almost like it’s meant for you, right? Except for the fact that in 1984 it was retailing at $600.

Alright, now come back to reality, it’s 2011 and there is no such thing as a Sears catalog, there is a Target on every corner and an occasional Toys R Us. For a moment there I thought that I was really missing out on this decade’s toy selection. But now, as I look back on what is really going on in the land of toys, I realize that I have never been so wrong.

Recently I got my brother’s old Tomy 2000 Robot up and running and had this realization. He got this gift in 1984, when it was the hottest toy around. This puppy has been in seclusion in a corner of my basement for years, going through multiple floods, numerous moves, dropped, neglected, and ultimately forgotten. Read the rest of the entry >

19 films in three and a half days. This was the experience both Justin Ahrens and I (alongside our friend Eric) had at the Sundance Film Festival this past week. And if you’re curious what it takes to get 19 films in within this amount of time, let me put it this way. At 2 a.m. Sunday evening/Monday morning we were still in the Q & A session with Pfife of A Tribe Called Quest (“Beats, Rhymes, and Life: The Travels of Tribe Called Quest”) and at 6:20 a.m. the same morning, we are in standing in line for “My Idiot Brother.”

This was my fourth trip to the festival in the last five years and continue to return home with the same reflection/realization… Ironically, the festival is not about seeing movies. It’s about the conversation, about what is being “said.” There is no doubt that the festival’s leadership team views their role as somewhat of a cultural guide – point viewers to “stories worth discussing.” In fact, this was the sentiment after (almost) every film. Someone in the audience would ask the director something like, “So, what’s your position on environmental terrorism?” And the director would respond… “Well, we simply want to have a conversation regarding. This is why we made the film.”

So, what’s in store for this year’s cultural conversation? Here are a few films we saw worth discussing… Read the rest of the entry >