a picture is worth a thousand words

Quotes

La Grande Bellezza

Esta pelĂ­cula me atrapĂł hace unos aĂąos, cuando pasaba un momento difĂ­cil. Y como en casi todas las grandes pelĂ­culas de mi vida me pillĂł de sorpresa, tras un doble click tirado al azar sobre un mar de archivos. Al igual que en aquellos tiempos, en los que uno se perdĂ­a buscando tesoros en los infinitos planetas irisados que venĂ­an con las revistas.

Y asĂ­, sin preguntarme porque, ocupo el sitio como mi pelĂ­cula favorita. Seguramente porque era el momento perfecto para verla. Llego como esa pieza del puzle que la encajas y justo te deja ver lo que serĂĄ la escena completa. O quizĂĄs sea porque a veces yo me siento un poco Jep Gambardella, viejo y cansado, pero todavĂ­a sorprendiĂŠndome por los ‘destellos de belleza’ que pasan fugazmente, que te capturan, pero que te dejan el amargo sabor de aquello que no puedes atrapar en el tiempo.

Mi ilustraciĂłn no hace justicia a la poesĂ­a que surge de las imĂĄgenes y de la mĂşsica de esta pelĂ­cula. Recoge las palabras de la escena final, que pongo a continuaciĂłn.

“Finisce sempre così, con la morte,
prima però c’è stata la vita,
nascosta sotto i bla bla bla bla.

È tutto sedimentato sotto il chiacchiericcio e il rumore,
il silenzio e il sentimento,
l’emozione e la paura,

gli sparuti incostanti sprazzi di bellezza
e poi lo squallore disgraziato
e l’uomo miserabile.

Tutto sepolto nella coperta dell’imbarazzo
dello stare al mondo,
bla bla bla bla.

Altrove c’è l’altrove,
io non mi occupo dell’altrove,
dunque che questo romanzo abbia inizio.

In fondo è solo un trucco,
si è solo un trucco.”


Dream is Over

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Long time without posting! Pretty busy with too many things in my life, but now I have a little free time in my hands and a strong reason, so it’s time to come back with a kind of remake… yes I know… John Lennon again?

But this time as a tribute to one of my favourite songs, “God”. Love how minimal and strong lyrics are. It’s like someone shaking your mind and, at the same time, blowing away his own idol statue.

In a world where fans follow idols by most stupid reasons I think it’s time to ask yourself what they did for you, or what they did for the rest of us… think about it. Life is great, and it’s ok to enjoy sports, enjoy music, enjoy movies… whatever. But don’t forget where real heroes are, close to you or in a lab saving your future.

It’s my little birthday present to a special person, she is like a miracle in my life and I feel the luckiest person in the world having the opportunity to be close to her while growing. Happy birthday honey, I believe in you… and keep dreaming!, but by the real good reasons!

Be the owner of this illustration. Buy it at Opensea.com.


BIM acronyms

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I was working in a Science illustration using Socrates portrait and his quote “I know that I know nothing”, thinking about how beautiful and complex Science is, when I realised there was a better subject for this particular quote… yes, I’m talking about BIM.

Why?, because the more I know the more I feel I have to keep learning. And how to measure it’s complexity, by reading one of the most popular books about it: BIM Handbook. I just counted acronyms you can find inside the book… sounds crazy, there was around 500!

BIM (2110),IFC (230),CAD (184),MEP (99),IPD (86),AEC (81),XML (67),HVAC (61),USCG (45),LEED (39),ISO (38),DP (35),GSA (33),OPS (32),DPR (31),IFOA (31),STEP (31),ETO (29),CIS (28),OSHPD (25),FM (24),DWG (22),WSP (22),PDF (21),CFD (19),DWF (19),IAI (19),ID (19),OCCSU (19),DB (18),DXF (18),API (16),RFID (16),AIA (15),MS (15),BOM (14),CNC (14),IES (14),CM (13),GC (13),IGES (13),LPS (13),NBIMS (13),DGN (12),CIP (11),CSG (11),DBB (11),MVD (11),AGC (10),AP (10),BPMN (10),CA (10),CMMS (10),CSI (10)…

So I’m pretty sure Socrates was ahead of its time 2500 years… He saw this coming! 😀


It ain’t about how hard you hit

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This is one of those inspirational quotes you keep in memory, this time from a non-real character but I think it’s a great quote. From Rocky Balboa talking to his son:

“Let me tell you something you already know. The world ain’t all sunshine and rainbows. It’s a very mean and nasty place. And I don’t care how tough you are. It will beat you to your knees and keep you permanently there if you let it. You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life, but it ain’t about how hard you hit, it’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward, how much you can take and keep moving forward. That’s how winning is done”

The illustrations contains 100 greatest boxing fighters of all time.


Here’s Johnny!

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A tribute of a great combination of one of the best movies ever with one of the greatest actors of the cinema history. Jack (Torrance or Nicholson, your choice) in The Shining… an unforgettable moment!

Come out, come out, wherever you are.
Little pigs, little pigs, let me come in.
Not by the hair on your chinny-chin-chin.
Then l’ll huff
and l’ll puff
and l’ll blow your house in!
Here’s Johnny!

I recently moved to another architectural company and I secretly smiled remembering this scene 🙂


Muhammad Ali ‘Impossible is nothing’

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It is one of the most inspirational speeches ever from one of the most extraordinary guys. Not only because his sporting successes but also for being a free clever mind.

Muhammad Ali or Cassius Clay, who cares?, said:

“Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they’ve been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It’s an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It’s a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing.”

And I fully agree with this.

It’s, of course, a really popular speech and there is a lot of media and even companies campaigns around his words. I want to have my own version of such incredible words…

Find here some other options I tested…

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Ernest Shackleton ‘They are all Safe!’

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The Ernest Shackleton’s Antarctic travel is one of the greatest real adventures ever, you cant miss. He and another 27 men survived trough an incredible voyage aboard Endurance (or the pieces of it!).

And it’s what I think great, all of them survived… When Shackleton was able to reach Elephant Island, in the rescue mission, he anxiously counted the human figures in the distance exclaiming “They are all there!,  They are all safe!”.

After the quote I spread all crew names of Endurance and, of course, the name of the ship.

 

Buy print at Society6


  • Srinivasa Ramanujan

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    He is one of the most amazing minds ever and one of my favourite characters, Srinivasa Ramanujan. Probably because he is one of these isolated autodidacts that probe the wonder of human mind. He died very young and we have only a couple photos of himself, I choose one of these for this illustration… I feel we can see many things through that eyes.

    We have a lot of results from him, near 3900, but not too many words. I love one of his quotes “An equation has no meaning for me unless it expresses a thought of God”. I took this one and spread over his portrait.

    You can read about Srinivasa Ramanujan in his wikipedia article.

    Buy print at Society6


  • Aaron Swartz

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    This is my little tribute to Aaron Swartz. I’m sad because we did not have the opportunity to help him. I’m also very sceptical with this story, but I have to admit that I’m sceptical even with the sceptics.

    For a few days I thought about how to pay tribute… with one of his quotes (love “there is no justice in following unjust laws”), with the most relevant words of wikipedia … but the words “forever free” always ended up in my head.

    Probably because in the land of freedom it was his biggest fear, to remain free. I really think it was the weapon. But somehow he reversed the whole thing… he is now forever free. We will never forget you Aarom.


    Los insultos del Capitan Haddock

    ÂżQuien no conoce al inefable Capitan Haddock?, hĂŠroe inseparable del inolvidable TintĂ­n.

    Gracias al Revitero Morales me entero de que una web ha publicado un recopilatorio de todos los insultos lanzados por el Capitan Haddock en los 25 ålbumes con los que al autor belga HergÊ inmortalizó a Tintín.

    Lo insultos del Capitan Haddock siempre han sido celebrados por sus seguidores. Los 265 recopilados van desde los mĂĄs estrafalarios a los mĂĄs creativos, pasando por un sinfĂ­n de ellos… muchos de los cuales hoy en dĂ­a se considerarĂ­an polĂ­ticamente incorrectos. A pesar de ello no he querido dejar fuera de la ilustraciĂłn ninguno atendiendo a veracidad de los datos que se representan.

    Va por ti MiguelĂłn!.

    Update: Nino me pide que lo actualice con la versiĂłn en francĂŠs, su idioma original… como negarme a un amigo!. AquĂ­ lo tenĂŠis.


    Here is my secret…

    It’s one of my favourite quotes “Here is my secret, it is very simple: One sees well only with the heart; The essential is invisible to the eyes”. It comes from one of those unforgettable books, “The Little Prince” by Antoine de Saint-ExupĂŠry.

    I spread the quote over a portrait of Antoine (he was a pioneering aviator!) in three different languages, including French.

    This book is one of my favourite readings since I was a child. That’s the reason why I read it again from time to time… and also because I have a wonderful hand writing quote in my copy of “The Little Prince”.

    Click to see Spanish version.

    Click to see English version.

     


    The Pale Blue Dot

    In 1990 the Voyager 1 spacecraft was leaving the solar system, about 6 billion kilometers from Earth, when Carl Sagan requested to turn the camera in order to take a photo of Earth. That photograph is know as “The Pale Blue Dot” and inspired Sagan to write one of the most beautiful words I’ve ever read.

    “From this distant vantage point, the Earth might not seem of particular interest. But for us, it’s different. Look again at that dot. That’s here, that’s home, that’s us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every “superstar,” every “supreme leader,” every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there – on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.

    The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds.

    Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.

    The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand.

    It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we’ve ever known.”

    As a tribute to who filled my childhood with dreams about space, I spread this text over a portrait of Sagan. He is probably out there, somewhere, satisfying his curiosity.

    Another version I was working on.


    Sigmund Freud

    A quote of the famous creator of psychoanalysis, “The first requisite of civilization, is that of justice”, spread over his portrait.

    Buy print at Society6


  • I have a dream

    My little tribute to Martin Luther King . He said “I Have A Dream” during the March on Washington  in one of the most wonderful speeches ever.

    Martin, we still share the dream with you… a global dream!


    Winston Churchill

    Winston Churchill has exceptional quotes. But I like the most one quite simple that summarizes the personality of this brilliant man: “Never, never, never give up”.

    I spread the quote over his portrait.

    In this second illustration I used a different quote: “Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm”. Totally agree!.


    Simone de Beauvoir

    I want to share with you my work in progress files of my new tool, still in beta stage. The goal is to be able to spread full phrases, instead of single words. It’s more complicated and I still need time to adjust the variables and the find the better way to get nice results, but you can take a look at my current tryouts.

    I’m thinking that it will be very usefull to spread quotes, lyrics or even full books. There is a big scope ahead…

    The idea of the program is to find the most energy paths in the image and put a full phrase in each valid path. I added a lot of radomness so paths don’t collapse at the begining.

    For the image I took a protrait of Simone de Beauvoir and spread some of his quotes (in french!). here you have the quotes and the translation:

    On ne naĂŽt pas femme: on le devient (One is not born a woman, but becomes one).
    Choisir la vie, c’est toujours choisir l’avenir (Choose life, always choose the future).
    L’art est une tentative pour intĂŠgrer le mal (Art is an attempt to integrate evil).
    Se vouloir libre, c’est aussi vouloir les autres libres (I wish that every human life might be pure transparent freedom).

    A couple of tryouts…

    To know more about this great woman visit her Wikipedia article.

    Dedicated to Angel, who pointed me to Simone.

    Download a resolution free PDF of this image: JO-D-101126-Simone

    And finally another sample… some kind of remake of one of my old files, Lennon and the best song ever… Imagine.


    Go ahead, make my day.

    One of the most famous movie quotations spoken by Clint Eastwood as Harry Callahan, or vice versa.

    Download PDF JO-D-100706-Eastwood-ENG


    A day without laughter is a day wasted

    One of the famous quotes of Charlie Chaplin , “A day without laughter is a day wasted”, spread over an abstract image of the actor.

    Download PDF JO-D-100622-Chaplin-ENG


    The Scream

    Based in the famous painting by Edvard Munch. As you can read in Wikipedia, Munch described his inspiration for the image thus: “I was walking along a path with two friends — the sun was setting — suddenly the sky turned blood red — I paused, feeling exhausted, and leaned on the fence — there was blood and tongues of fire above the blue-black fjord and the city — my friends walked on, and I stood there trembling with anxiety — and I sensed an infinite scream passing through nature.”

    I took the last part of his description and spread it over the painting.

    Download PDF JO-D-100618-TheScream-ENG


    Humor is…

    A portrait of Groucho Marx with his quote “Humor is reason gone mad”.

    Download PDF JO-D-100510-Groucho-ENG (2.6MB)


    You must be…

    A Mahatma Gandhi portrait with one of his quotes “You must be the change you want to see in the world”.

    Download PDF JO-D-100419-Gandhi-ENG (1.38MB)


    Leonardo da Vinci

    As a tribute to one of the most interesting characters in history, Leonardo da Vinci.

    The image is a self-portrait with the quote “Art is never finished, only abandoned.” With which I feel quite identified.

    The new thing is the addition of a transparent shadow below each word, sized proportionally to the font size.

    Download PDF  JO-D-100330-LeonardoDaVinci-ENG (2.7MB).


    Starry Night Quote

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    A beautiful Van Gogh painting with the words of  his famous quote: “I often think that the night is more alive and more richly colored than the day”.

    Download PDF VanGogh-EN (957kB)