Dsend Best of 2012

I know your Inbox is full on a Friday morning; so to anyone who takes the time to read Dsend I say thank you. If you've ever sent me an email to say you enjoyed, or found a link useful, sent me an article or just hit reply to say hello, then I say thank you.

To those of you who don't have the time or constitution to make it through Dsend each week I offer you a round up of my favourite links of 2012 in the posts below.

 Believe it or not, this was YOUR favourite post of the year... I received a lot of replies about this and with my son starting Kindergarten I might try for a repeat of this little project.

But this... was my favourite article...

And with that little bit of nepotism, I'd just like to say Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and... thank you.

Best of 2012: D's Top Media

This is not an objective round up of the best of 2012; it's what I enjoyed and would recommend. Not all are 2012 releases but they are what I watched/read this year!

Movies

Hunger Games

A gripping and faithful adaptation of the book. 

John Carter

Awful trailer with hokey aliens about dated source material... 10 minutes in I was regretting not seeing this awesome, pulp romp on the big screen.

Dredd

I spent a lot of time and pocket money on this comic and a lot of time cursing the Stalone farce. This... was... great... A well cast, serious, hyperviolent, modern interpretation of the comic, faithful to the story and the man.

Moonrise Kingdom

A Gorgeous and heart-warming tale of forbidden tween love and innocence. Quirky, original and every shot a piece of art.

Comics

Walking Dead (1-6)

The source for the AMC T.V. series and NOT for the feint hearted.

Powers (12 & 13)

My favourite, ongoing comic series about investigators of Superhero (Powers) crime.  

Bone (the complete series)

A wonderful comic for any generation by a master of his craft. A joy to read. 
PVP (webcomic)
Still one of my favourite webcomics (or comics) having long since evolved into a rich and engaging long form style comic from its gag a a day roots.
The Abominable Charles Christopher (webcomic)
Outstanding art, unique and endearing humour and a hilarious insight into animal behaviour.

TV Series

Walking Dead Season 3
WD really hits it's stride with Season 3, finding a nice balance between character development and bloody, heartless Zombie horror action. 
Game of Thrones Season 2
Don't care who you are, if you're NOT watching this, just do it...
Parks and Recreation Season 4
As hilarious and warm as its central character, this is a great series about a small town government department for those who likes cringe comedy but find The Office too close to their working reality to enjoy.
Life's Too Short
Ricky and Steve are back with another instalment of their tested formula. Warick is fucking gold in this self pastiche that has you biting your own face off in awkwardness. 
Star Trek: Voyager
2010 was Next Gen, 2011 was DS9, 2012 was the year of my favourite Star Trek series. Revisit all these series, they still stand up and are a lot less saccharine than you remember- I promise.

Books

The Dresden Files 
Hardboiled, supernatural Noir. I read the first 13 (of 14) books this year; each better than the last. I don't know anyone who hasn't continued reading after Book 1... Also check out the Audiobooks read by James Masters.
Ready Player One  
A dystopian, cyberpunk (sort of) sci-fi story about a boy, a video game, a prize and more pop culture references than you could poke a life of 80's, morning cartoons at.
1984  
I thought this was boring in high-school. Guess I was an idiot... 
The Hunger Games Trilogy  
I read this after the upcoming movie release piqued my interest. Officially for 'Young Readers' it deals with some pretty dark themes and scenarios that set it apart from Shitelight and make it accessible to more 'sophisticated' readers.
War of the Worlds 
Another classic I visited this year and well deserving the historical kudos. Also check out the Orson Welles radio drama (which still freaks me out).

Video Games

The Walking Dead
Best game I played this year. Real, difficult choices with real, terrible consequences. Fantastic art style, great writing, compelling story and broadly accessible gameplay.
Mass Effect 3
Last episode in one of the greatest game series ever produced. Stunning visuals, engaging characters and an epic tale. Truly a masterpiece. 
Skyrim
The closest thing to a table top roleplaying game. I've clocked 150 hours on this and haven't finished the main story! Bathesda REALLY got it right with this...  
Star Wars The Old Republic
SWTOR went free to play (Along with every other MMORPG) this year and godamn I forgot how much fun these kind of game can be. SWTOR ios a solid, polished and fully realised game with a fully acted  dialogue and single player game style story choices.

Best of 2012: Photography

 

A Girl and Her Room

 The Stranger Project

Toylusions... 

Cosplay

Night Clubs By Day

Abandoned Soviet Installations

Modernist Australia  

Couples Wrapped In Plastic

 American Retail

Japanese Manhole Covers

Best of 2012: Process

Neil Gaiman’s 8 Rules of Writing

And his Key note address.

 Video Game Devloper Valve's Employee Manual

 Andy Kaufman's Screenwriters Lecture

10 Tips For Success From George Lois, The Original Mad Man

 22 #storybasics I’ve picked up in my time at Pixar

The Cost of a Logo

2012 Olympics logo

How to identify Fonts

Best of 2012: Videos

Real Actors Read Yelp Reviews More
A Conference of Fonts
Glove and Boots: The Olympics
Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee More
The Star Wars That I Used to Know

English Paralympics Advert

Voice Actor Star Wars Redux

Supercut: Sounds of Aronofsky
Supercut: Every 45 seconds of Children of Men


The Gentlemen's Rant: iPad

The Dark Room (Interactive Youtube game)

Short Film Will


Supercut: Breaking Bad POV
Give Your Kids a Terrible Present

Best of 2012: Art and Design

The new covers of Penguin's Top 100

Dr. Seuss Goes to War

 

Designer & Illustrator Mike McQuade

American Airlines Identity Redesign

Movie Poster Concepts 

Book Illustrations Collected

Hipster Movie Posters

Paper Collage by Derek Gores

Illustrator Rob Hunter

Webcomic Axe Cop by a 5 and 29 year old

Wedding Invitation

Illustrator Katie Turner

Video Game Stills

Illustrator Claire Hummel

 Movie Stills

Illustrator Blake Fiki Suarez

Alternative Playgrounds

Slasher Squad

A good friend of mine and talented film-maker Stuart Campbell is currently crowd-sourcing his current project, a short called Slasher Squad! Please visit Pozible and make a pledge!

Common Physics Misconceptions

Common Physics Misconceptions

Trailers

The Last of Us (Video Game)
Downloaded (Napster Doco)

The Girl

Obvlivion

After Earth

Pacific Rim

Man of Steel


Welcome To the Punch

The Lone Ranger

Graphic Design

U.K. designer Peter Clarkson

Swedish Studio Bedow

Recycled Sculpture

Recycled sculptural portraits by Australian artist Frey Jobbins.

Photography

The Real Toy Story: While you're shopping for that crappy $20 Secret Santa, think about the Chinese workers toiling away on the factory lines with this thoughtful and thorough photographic study by Michael Wolf...

Game Over: Henry Hargreaves' monochromatic, iconic games.

Military Photos: A breathtaking collection of fly on the wall war photography, by the soldiers themselves.

Memories of the Future: The Google archive of sites devastated by the Japanese Eartquake.

Playboy (safe): A great series of ex Playbunny's by Robyn Twomey, but be sure to check out the rest of the gallery!

Corpus Christi: Stunning, post war places of worship by Fabrice Fouillet

Arrr!

A Logo for video game Arrr! I designed while working at Infinite Interactive. Still proud of this one... 

Web Videos

Neil’s Puppet Dreams (Neil Patrick Harris’ latest web series)
Smack My Kit Up

Photography

A fantastic 4 year journey by Mark Menjivar inside peoples fridges that is succinctly annotated.

Nudes in motion by Shinichi Maruyama

Aeronautical studies by Benedict Redgrove