Not too much of a surprise here, given his ever-growing profile and that he did the same job last year to apparently client-pleasing effect, but it's now official that David Rockwell has been handed the production design gig for the upcoming Academy Awards. You'll recall our various posts about his work on the show last year, where he transformed the Kodak Theater (which he also designed), into a bevy of lights and glitz and glamor, all in hopes of making an incredibly dull thing to watch a little more fun. Here's the info from Variety:

Oscarcast producers Adam Shankman and Bill Mechanic asked Rockwell to return because of his creativity and familiarity with the venue -- the Kodak Theater was designed by Rockwell's firm.

His design credits include Broadway productions of "Hairspray" and "Legally Blonde," as well as the upcoming legit version of "Catch Me if You Can."

Here's to hoping we can also offer you another discount to the Carlton on Madison Avenue like we did last year, where you'll get to hang out with design celebs in the Rockwell-designed hotel. Check back with us sometime in February to find out.

A couple of web critiques to start your day off both a bit more reasoned and maybe more cranky. First up, by way of a tip, comes Perry Garvin's review of the Whitney Museum's new site redesign. We'd seen it when it launched a little while back, and played with it here and there, but hadn't really paid too too much attention. Certainly not with an overly critical eye. Garvin does the exact opposite, digging in to the user experience on the site and finding some seemingly very big flaws, claiming it to be far worse than what it replaced. "Visual confusion, counter-intuitive navigation, and illogical organization put it on par with its predecessor but setting it a step backwards is an absence of a compelling design that knits the site together into a coherent whole," he says. There are some strong arguments and examples in there, and while the Whitney's design team might not agree with some, we certainly hope some of the review makes its way to them. Second, and more funny, comes TG Daily's Andrew Thomas' commentary about auto company Audi's recent foray into "social media," wherein they requested that regular people help design a car to be released 29 years in the future, called the YouthMobile 2030 program. Although we think that Thomas takes the whole thing a bit too seriously, as the company was clearly running the program as a way to both give the brand some warm, fuzziness while also trying to foster young people's interest in design, not actually build anything because of it, he does pull out some of the program's copy and links this unbearable video, wherein Audi uses far too many empty buzzwords and jargon (if "...enabled seamless communication through a host of channels including messaging and social networking integration via mobile broadband" doesn't make you want to turn off your computer right now, then you're likely one of the people who writes such things) and generally continues to make anything connected to "social media" feel like internet leprosy. But that's enough negativity for one day. On to the positive!

As predicted, the rebranding of the 89-year-old Art Directors Club has been greeted with controversy, at least here on UnBeige, where one astute commenter compared the new logo, designed by Trollbäck + Company, to that of David Barton Gym (an identity created by Edward Leida). Meanwhile, Jakob Trollbäck has been in touch to let us know that while hot pink leads the way—and the website—the color palette of the rebranded ADC also includes bold hues of purple, green, and cyan, as well as black and white. Taste the rainbow in the image at left. Meanwhile, the new identity was also developed with elasticity in mind. "As long as the boundaries are not violated, you can pimp it out," notes the rebranding presentation Trollbäck shared with us. We've posted a couple of "pimped" versions below.

continued...

"I'm not afraid of technology. Being a photographer, I always have to deal with technology, but I think technology makes people lazy and slow. Incredibly slow. Remember when we used to make a layout, in three days? These days they all get lost in technology. I've nothing against technology, but I'm against wasting energy on artificial intelligence. The other day the electricity went off in the office, and all together they [the staff] got up. They stood up, with their hands in their pockets, and said, 'What do we do! We've got no electricity.' I was so mad. 'What do you mean you've got no electricity? You've got a brain!'"

-Oliviero Toscani in conversation with Terry Jones in i-D

Here's one for your holiday wish list: Alex Steinweiss: Creator of the Modern Album Cover. Out today from Taschen, this lushly illustrated coffee table book celebrates the career of Steinweiss, now 92, who revolutionized the way music was packaged and marketed. As Columbia Records' first art director, he created colorful, whimsical combinations of illustration and typography that helped to boost album sales for the likes of Rodgers and Hart, Cole Porter, and Henny Goodman, while breathing new life into the works of classical composers with albums covers he approached like vibrant miniature posters. In addition to Steinweiss' personal recollections and previously unpublished work, the book includes an essay by design historian Steven Heller and a foreword by Grammy Award-winning art director Kevin Reagan.

A little bird has told us that Debbie Millman (who just got this nice plug in New York for her latest book) is working together with director Hillman Cutis in creating a TV pilot for her long-running radio/podcast series, "Design Matters." We've learned that Stefan Sagmeister and Milton Glaser will be the first guests for the two episodes that will be shot with Curtis (a third episode is also planned, but the guest is apparently not yet confirmed). The tapings will take place in New York over two days, Dec 11 & 12, and we understand will involve a live studio audience. So we recommend keeping your eyes peeled on both Millman's and Curtis' sites for any announcements calling for a crowd. Once the invitation is extended, we're imagining the space will fill up pretty quickly, considering the names involved.

While we may have been running far too many stories these past couple of weeks about the thrilling world of license plate design, let's remember that we already officially claimed that 2009 is "The Year of Dinosaur Sales." And despite our faith getting wobbly back in early October, worried that maybe the dinosaurs weren't actually selling all that well after all, we have now been reassured. It's being reported that that very belief-shaking T. Rex skeleton that hadn't sold at a high-profile Las Vegas auction early last month, has now found someone to buy it. And to the tune of somewhere above $5 million. To an unnamed buyer no less, according to the AP. Here's more:

An auctioneer says a fossilized Tyrannosaurus rex that failed to sell at auction in Las Vegas last month has been bought by a private buyer who intends to have it displayed in a museum.

Tom Lindgren of auction house Bonhams & Butterfields told The Associated Press on Wednesday that the buyer is talking with several museums in North America.

As an occasionally working photographer and filmmaker, this writer has gotten questioned by the authorities why he's taking photos, been asked to leave, and has seen a hand or two come into the viewfinder. Sadly, confrontation is like kryptonite, so backing down and running away is par for the course with him, even if we were in the right all along. Fortunately, as found by way of Design Info, there are people like Shawn Nee, who has put together the fascinating and valuable photographers' rights site Discarted to help chronicle instances where professional and amateur photographers alike have been threatened, abused, or arrested by perhaps less-than-informed authority figures in the US. This week, Nee himself made the news with his recent run-in with two police officers after he tried to take a few photos inside a Los Angeles train station, landing in stories about the incident on outlets like MSNBC and getting into a fight with CNN's Rick Sanchez, who sided with the officers. The whole thing got such attention because, not known to the police, Nee was wearing a hidden camera the whole time and managed to capture the irritatingly uncomfortable event in its entirety:

The heck with it. We're officially back on the license plate wagon again. After receiving some truly well-thought, highly-informative comments in yesterday's post about New York's new plate designs (we didn't know some of those four letter word combinations even existed!), and with other plate news available, why not give the people what they want? While Montana and New York might be heading in the right direction by returning to simple, clean plates, apparently South Carolina had been going in the opposite direction, or at least trying to. A district judge in the former has just shot down the request to release a new Christian-specific plate, its layout featuring a stained glass window, a cross, and the words "I Believe" underneath the license numbers. A very similar plate, and an even more overt one, had recently been proposed and rejected in Florida. The judges in both instances claimed that the designs were too close for comfort when it came to separation of church and state issues. Supporters have cried foul, claiming this to be a freedom of speech issue, which we learned in previous posts, is a serious issue when it comes to license plate design (see? we told you how connected we are now to this world o' plates). Of course, we'll just assume that everyone has responded very calmly to the judge's decision and no one is going to spend lots of money fighting the rejection.

We're sorry ladies. It's not the masterful ab'ed Yves Behar stripping down (as was hinted at in our comments section), but there is undressing of fit people of both genders in this recently released spot for Behar's green underwear, PACT. "The Office of Eden," as it's called, was directed by one of our favorite commercial/music video-making duos, Terri Timely, and it's pretty/weird which they are always particularly adept at.

New York apparently doesn't like it when you call another state "the greatest in the Union" as we recently had about Montana after they'd decided to return to simple, clutter-less license plates, much to our great joy. But now, just two weeks later, New York has hoped on board this return to civilized, decent automobile identification with the release of their new plate design, set to hit the roads next year. And although the state would certainly never have been considered the worst in the nation, we love that they've decided to even abandon their one offense, that little strip up top with all that skyline and Niagara Falls business. Instead, it's solid gold, solid navy, and a teeny tiny outline right there in the middle. What else do you need? And thus, we say that there are now two states who have redeemed themselves. Your move now, other 48.

Enhance your resume and your vacation photos with the mediabistro mothership's two-day crash course in Adobe Photoshop, back by popular demand. In one short post-Thanksgiving weekend (December 5 and 6), you can get up and running on the program of programs—the subject of many an ethical debate—under the guidance of professional photo retoucher Mara Sachs, who has a blackbelt in Photoshop (or at least is an Adobe Certified Expert in the program). Learn more here.