In true Woody Allen style, Midnight in Paris comes to life in a marvelous new series. Parisan photographer Christophe Jacrot showcases a gorgeous set of ‘Paris in the Rain’ shots. The photographer captures the true beauty of the rain drenched streets and sidewalks – something that we can appreciate here in Vancouver.

In my opinion, there are two ways of capturing the world for a photographer; on the one hand grasping its horror, and on the other sublimating it. I have chosen the second. More specifically, I like the way rain, snow and “bad weather” awaken a feeling of romantic fiction within me (climatic excesses are another topic). I see these elements as a fabulous ground for photography, an under-used visual universe with a strong evocative power, and with a richness of subtle lights. This universe escapes most of us, since we are too occupied getting undercover. Man becomes a ghostly silhouette wandering and obeying the hazards of rain or of snow. My approach is deliberately pictorial and emotional.

When technology ingenuity and artistic creativity collide, the outcome equals – opportunity. David Choe made the mark of his life when he decided to invest in the company we know today as Facebook rather than take a simple cash payment for his artistic services. Facebook officially announced the long-anticipated $5 billion IPO today and the rest is history. We salute the instances within all of our paths when vision and opportunity collide. The key is to be ready.

The New York Times wrote a fantastic piece on how this unconventional relationship blossomed into a $200 million dollar opportunity.

The graffiti artist who took Facebook stock instead of cash for painting the walls of the social network’s first headquarters made a smart bet. The shares owned by the artist, David Choe, are expected to be worth upward of $200 million when Facebook stock trades publicly later this year.

The social network company announced its $5 billion public offering Wednesday afternoon, which is expected to value the whole company at $75 billion to $100 billion. Ultimately, that offering will mint a lot of billionaires and millionaires.

Some of them are well known, like Mark Zuckerberg, the company’s co-founder, but many others are not household names. Mr. Zuckerberg, 27, has 533.8 million shares, worth $28.4 billion based on a company valuation of $100 billion, or $53 a share. He also has undisputed control of the company, a remarkable achievement since the company has received financing from some of the world’s top business minds. He owns 28.4 percent of the company outright and he controls 57 percent of the voting rights.

Facebook’s first outside investor, Peter Thiel, the billionaire contrarian, led a $500,000 investment in Facebook in late 2004. He has 44.7 million shares that could be worth more than $2 billion. Elevation Partners, the venture capital firm of Bono, the U2 frontman, paid $120 million for a chunk of Facebook’s shares in 2010 and could receive a payout that would help mask less sage investments in Palm and Forbes.

Accel Partners, whose principal partner, Jim Breyer, invested in the start-up seven years ago, holds 201.4 million shares. Accel could have a thousandfold return on some of its investment.

Sheryl Sandberg, the company’s chief operating officer, holds 1.9 million shares, about 0.1 percent of the company. But she may ultimately collect 38.1 mil-lion additional shares, according to the filing, making her one of the richest in a tiny club of Silicon Valley women who are billionaires.

The wealth created by a technology company’s entrance into the public markets has long been startling. Netscape’s 1995 offering made millionaires of scores of people, including its founder Marc Andreessen, now a Silicon Valley venture capitalist who invested early in Facebook and holds 3.6 million shares worth nearly $200 million. When Google went to market with its $1.67 billion I.P.O. in 2004, hundreds of people joined the millionaire ranks, including secretaries, a company masseuse and a company chef.

Bill Gates controlled only 49.2 percent of Microsoft as it went public in 1986. Google’s co-founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, each owned about 15 percent of their company when it went public in 2004.

Two factors distinguish Facebook’s turn. For one, the projected value of Facebook is enormous —the largest on record for an Internet company, even several times greater than Google’s offering in 2004. The social network, founded in Mr. Zuckerberg’s dorm room at Harvard eight years ago, is expected to be valued north of $75 billion. Shares of Facebook have already traded on the secondary market, where private shares are bought and sold, above $80 billion.

And unlike Google’s public offering, a large chunk of the wealth tied to Facebook has already been realized, thanks to the thriving secondary market and an eager pool of global investors. Even if Facebook hits only the low end of expectations for its offering, it will still yield some of the greatest returns in the history of venture capital.

“Facebook will return insane amounts of money to the early stakeholders,” said Alex Gould, a technology investor and instructor at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research, who has been studying venture returns for several years. “Facebook is not just a fund-maker, it’s a firm-maker.”

It’s a big winners circle. DST Global, the investment firm led by the Russian billionaire Yuri Milner, owns roughly a 7 percent stake in the company. It bought the bulk of its shares from 2009 to 2011 at valuations of $10 billion to $50 billion.

Continue Reading at NYT.

California-based artist Mark Paul Deren, who’s known to the world as MADSTEEZ aka The Ween teams up with MAR for another amazing mural. This time the duo orchestrate a beautiful tribute to Bob Marley at the Marley Safe House in Aspen, Colorado. The Marley Safe House is a project the Marley’s organized with the Winter X-Games for a recreational area for athletes and give the world a better understanding of the Marley family. This is one of our favorite projects of the early 2012 year – we look forward to seeing more like-minded creativity.

Source: MADSTEEZ

Kenny Scharf sits down with Joseph Ian Henrickson in an interview with Living Proof Magazine. Coming to prominence in the 80s with fellow artists Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat, Scharf forever altered the artistic landscape of the world. In this interview, he speaks about the influence growing up in California had on him and his work, coming to New York, meeting Haring, his thoughts on street art, and the ups and downs of the art world.

Symbiosis Designs display the amazing Abu Samra House in Amman, Jordan. The residence was made into two cubic masses with a gallery as the connection; the house appears separated from the street view. Symbiosis Designs drew up the designs with consideration going to the dry landscape and the bright sun. The sun was plastered as the stone alternative. Beautiful views of rolling hills can be enjoyed through the gallery’s large window. Kinds of typical vegetations were planted on the dry landscape combined with kinds of garden parts that make it nice view for the house.

Source: Grand House Design

In what is one of our favorite photography presentations of this early calendar year, talented Dubai based photographer Tejal Patni presents the Splash 2012 Calendar: A New Beginning. It’s the end of the year. And as we’re all aware, next year is supposedly the end of the world too. Now while everyone has their own theories on how the world will end, Patni turns things around optimistically as he believes every end leads to a new beginning. He takes this concept of new beginnings to conceptualize a calendar for fashion brand Splash. Heavily influenced by B-movie sci-fi clichés, the calendar asks: are we destined to revisit our same life choices, or will we truly create a new beginning? Available in full viewing along with several other works on the Behance Network.

The illustrations of Oslo based artist Mari Kanstad Johnsen are a playful, eclectic, and wide-ranging series of works. Her style has said to be “so discernible it’s as if we can see inside her head.” Her use of cut and paste montage like aesthetics combined with her pure artistic talent and vision makes for a truly magnificent composition. Look out for more of her work to be published here in the coming months and years.

French illustrator Malika Favre has a amazingly new and creative typeface just waiting to be viewed by the public at large. Favre is a french artist and illustrator currently living in London. Her style is instantly recognizable, with a strong use of organic shapes and bold colors. With clients such as Wallpaper, Vitsoe, La Parisienne and Creative Review, Malika has been on our radar for some time. Recently Volcom brought her into the Volcomunity and are looking forward to being inspired by her life and unique viewpoint in London.

Ben Sherman – Conversations in Modernism – Part 1 from Ben Sherman Group Limited on Vimeo.

British designer put together a three-piece series titled ‘Conversations in Modernism’. Directed by Dan Canyon and styled by Stehen Mann, the series looks at unique interpretations of modernism – the creativity that inspires the movement and the survival of craftsmanship in a digital playground. It carefully depicts ways to pay homage to the past while pushing the envelope in creative progression.

One of the things we love about modernism is that it means a lot of things to a lot of different people. For some, it refers to specific movements within arts and culture, whilst for others it’s simply about breaking tradition.

Through the bringing together three pairs of creatives at the top of their respective fields, this debate has been brought to life: What does modernism mean to you?

When it came to it, our Conversations in Modernism ended up exploring a lot more than they set out to. Our Modernists delved into subjects such as what it means to be creative in a modern world, questioned how craftsmanship can survive the digital revolution, and whether it’s possible to push things forward whilst still paying respect to the past.

Carefully curated in order to generate vibrant discussion, each conversation has been summarised in a short film and, for those who like to dig a little deeper, an in-depth editorial feature.

For the first of our Conversations in Modernism, we brought together bespoke shoemaker Sebastian Tarek and music entrepreneur Alex Robinson to share their thoughts and experiences of being creative in the modern world. From childhood ambitions of wizardry to the apparent decline of craftsmanship in the digital era, the problem with progress to the unwritten rule of the grey shoe, the conversation flows through the lives and times of these two gentlemen, and explores much more in between.

Ben Sherman – Conversations in Modernism – Part 2 from Ben Sherman Group Limited on Vimeo.

The second episode of Conversations in Modernism brought two very creative and witty souls together: street photographer Matt Stuart and Mercury Award nominated musician Ghostpoet. It turned out that these two had a lot in common as they chatted about unconventional paths into their respective careers, documenting the modern world around them, the importance of editing and a whole lot more.

Ben Sherman – Conversations in Modernism – Part 3 from Ben Sherman Group Limited on Vimeo.

In our final episode of Conversations in Modernism we joined together sartorial and cultural raconteur Jason Jules and artist Justin Hibbs to talk about what they know best – the discussion certainly went deep. From modern architecture and art’s failures and the liberation of expressing one’s style to the meaning and value given to fashion by certain groups of people, this captivating conversation is well worth a look.

Based in Victoria, Australia, artist Michael Peck‘s oil paintings depict a childish innocence immersed within the post-modern world. Peck’s artistic practice is concerned with the sensation of disorientation and dislocation that is often felt within the conceptualized era. Exploring issues regarding the loss of cultural identity, his work particularly focuses on the effects within minority groups and individuals existing on the fringe who are challenged to assimilate within the larger community.

The scenes in Michael’s paintings are quiet, the participants are paused as they stand withdrawn, juxtaposed against a dynamic population; they are overwhelmed by mass-culture; one which has been composed from the interaction, assimilation and constant change of subcultures. His work looks at the place of the individual within a pluralistic society where a constant shift of values and beliefs leaves a great uncertainty of belonging.

“Themes of isolation and displacement have continually reoccurred in my paintings over time. I’m always seeking to create a tension in the work; the suspense in the feeling that something is just about to happen, as if the landscape could suddenly swallow everything and everyone up. I think art is a good place to be able to engage with our anxieties. We live in a social, political and environmental climate that is pretty hostile, yet we do our best to mask our fears. I think that art provides a context where people’s fears can be corroborated; it helps us to know that others share the same concerns and helps us feel less alone. Ironically there is an abstract comfort in recognition of this shared isolation”.

“Both my grandfathers fought in World War II and when they both passed away within months of one another in 2010, I could not help but think that I knew so little about their lives,” says Peck. “Both had witnessed terrible things. Bob somehow survived the sinking of two ships and Richard spent three years in a Japanese POW camp. But neither of them spoke about their experiences, preferring to bury them in the past and get on with their lives.

“Much though I loved them, I was always aware that I knew very little about the major events in their lives that had shaped them into the men I knew. My insight into their life experiences was always like a child’s – naïve at best. My world was totally safe and secure and even if they had explained it to me, I was totally incapable of feeling any true empathy for what they had themselves been through.”