We know for a fact that fantastic gifts come in mini packages—like our DNA Mini Portraits—and that’s why we’re excited for today’s Holiday Countdown Contest give-away from MOO: 100 mini-cards and a Mosaic Frame!
Half the size of a standard business card, MiniCards are great for showing off your portfolio, your products or your business. With the option of a different image on every card, upload your own artwork or choose from thousands of designs. Position (and re-position) your MiniCards in a Mosaid Frame to make the perfect arrangement.
Want a chance to win today’s prize? Re-Tweet something from our Twitter feed, publicly share or comment on one of our Facebook posts, or comment on the blog for a chance to win.
Stay tuned all week for a chance to win DNA 11 portraits, CanvasPop prints,  and more!
(And if you haven’t yet entered to win the grand prize, enter today!).
If you’ve already ordered your DNA 11 Gift Kit but still need something for the science-lover in your life, look no further! We’ve curated a few must-haves of the season, celebrating everything from molecules to DNA, sterling-silver to jellyfish.
Steampunk Rock Star Scientist Poster Art Prints (above)
If you’re like us, everyday is a celebration of Watson and Crick, the duo who together proposed the double helix/spiral staircase structure of the DNA molecule in 1953. Now you can pay tribute to your favourite scientists in style with these Steampunk Rock Star Scientist Prints.
Intro to Molecular Bonding T-Shirt
If you put six H’s, two C’s and one big O in a room together, what would happen? Consult Figure 1: Alcohol at a Party. Available as both men’s and women’s tees, it’s a perfect gift for those scientific party animals.
Biochemies DNA Plush Toys
These DNA plush toys magnetically interact where they hydrogen bond! These little guys aren’t available for purchase yet, but you can back the project on Kickstarter for first dibs on a set of your own when they’re released in March 2012. These happy bases would make great desk toys, educational tools, or gifts for current and aspiring scientists.
Molecular Cuisine Starter Kit
This culinary kit is more like chemistry set, containing sachets of agar-agar, calcium lactate, sodium alginate, soy lecithin and xanthan gum to help aspiring molecular chefs experiment at home. The kit also includes an arsenal of tools like a syringe and silicone tubing, plus a DVD of 50+ recipes for molecular implosion.
via Wired
Desktop Jellyfish Tank
Because regular aquariums just don’t cut it anymore! This kit includes all the essential tools to get started, from the 7 gallon tank, air pump and feeding tube, to a voucher for moon jellyfish delivery (they’re guaranteed to arrive alive!).  It’s the first affordable aquarium designed specifically for jellyfish and it’s as easy to maintain as a regular fish tank (which jellyfish can’t live in because they get sucked into the air filtration system). Available for pre-order.
via Kickstarter
Science Ink: Tattoos of the Science Obsessed
Body art meets popular science in this mind-blowing collection of science-inspired tattoos. Written by renowned science writer Carl Zimmer, each tattoo provides a leaping-off point for reflection on the science in question—whether it’s the importance of an image of Darwin’s finches or the significance of the uranium atom inked into the chest of a young radiologist.
DNA bases charm bracelet
Charm her with a DNA bracelet! This sterling-silver bracelet was created to honour Rosalind Franklin, who’s x-ray crystallography work was critical in Watson and Crick’s determination of the double helix structure of DNA. The bracelet features charms of the four bases found in DNA: A, C, G, and T.
We love one-of-a-kind personal art, so when we stumbled upon Kyle Bean’s Pencil Shaving Portraits via design milk we had to share:
British artist Kyle Bean, best known for his intricate sculptures made out of unusual materials, has created a series of portraits from colored pencil shavings for the contributors page of Wallpaper* Handmade 2011.
The only reference point for these delicate creations were photographs of the subjects—all of whom are fellow contributors to Wallpaper* magazine.
Twenty-four year-old Kyle specializes in hand-crafted models, set design and art direction. Since graduating in 2009, he has worked across a variety of platforms including installations, window displays, editorial and advertising.
We can’t wait to see what he creates next!
At DNA 11 we love having the opportunity to let our clients personalize the color of their DNA portraits… Â No two DNA portraits are identical after all!
With the Fingerprint Portraits and  Kiss Portraits you can choose custom colors online, but with the DNA Portraits, our in-house designers work directly with our clients to create custom colors, based on swatches or Pantone colors they provide us.
The photos below are just two of the customized portraits that the team has created.
This was a totally custom job we did for our friend. A very special one-of-a-kind job from the early days of DNA 11. It took over 4 months to complete and he was involved at every stage of the design process.
This custom color combination started with inspiration from one of our standard colors. It was customized with the help of the DNA 11 designers.
Do you have a custom color combination in mind for a DNA portrait?
- We’d love to hear from you…Share your thoughts and ideas in the comments below.
- or get started and contact our art consultants to create your customized DNA portrait.
No two people share the same fingerprint. Identical twins do not even have the same fingerprints, even though they share the same genetic DNA.
Fingerprints begin developing when ridges are formed on the outermost layer of skin, on your fingertips. The ridges form a pattern that is your unique fingerprint.
These ridges are developed during weeks 20 to 24 of gestation and will not changes as a person ages. Your fingerprint will change in size but the patterns the ridges that are formed will remain the same from infancy to adulthood.
The unique identifiers come from the varying number, and spacing of the ridges, even though everyone can be classified into three categories or patterns.
- The Loop – Â (65% of all people)
- The Whorl – (30% of all people)
- The Arch -Â Â (Â Â 5% of all people)
Wondering what category or pattern you fit into?
- Why not find out by creating your very own art from your fingerprint. Check out this fun video from Devine Design for fun design ideas and the DNA fingerprinting process.
The modern pet portrait by DNA 11 is featured in a recent People Pets article that highlights what people are doing with Pet DNA.
DNA 11 has been creating unique art pieces from the DNA of dogs, cats, horses, and even a Bengal tiger at the request of our customers since its inception in 2005.
Adrian one of the co-founders actually had a DNA Pet Portrait created of his own dog Bosley, and hangs it proudly at home.
“Bosley lays for a quick snapshot in front of his very own DNA portrait.”
Show of your creative side and evoke conversation with art made from Pet DNA.
What are your thoughts? Please join the conversation.
DNA is no longer just part of our genetic code. DNA has become the underlying inspiration for various artists, organizations, and research programs.  DNA 11 is proud to be part of the “DNA as art” movement- and we’re inspired by others that create unique concepts with DNA as part of their underlying theme.
Here are 6 inspiring DNA Art concepts:
1) PORTRAIT OF A YOUNG READER
Mangalno-Ovall developed the award winning Portrait of a Young Reader: An early DNA Portrait made from glass and steel located in The Bronx Library Center.
The Bronx Library Center commissioned artist Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle to create a custom art piece with three simple principles: Identity, New Technologies and Artistic Expression. With the help of Chicago-based architect Colin Franzen, Mangalno-Ovall developed the award winning Portrait of a Young Reader.
“DNA is the code and catalog of information from which we are individually and uniquely expressed.” Manglano-Ovall stated.
The DNA creates a unique identity principle in the work, while the use of state of the art genomic technology was used to identify the unique DNA sequence of an anonymous young reader.
Over 3000 colored glass circles are imbedded into 71 steel panels. Each glass circle represents a genetic marker of the anonymous young reader.
2) WEB 2 DNA Art Project
This is DNA11.com as a web2DNA portrait.
Thomas Baekdal, from Denmark, designed a really interesting web application he created the WEB2DNA Project that is rather simple. You can easily enter any website URL and create a unique graphic representation of the website’s structure. These images look very similar to a PCR Gel- a process used to visualize DNA.
Thomas inspiration came from two sources DNA 11’s process of turning real DNA into works of art and Marcel Salathe’s Websites as Graphs.
Try turning your Website into DNA Art here
3) DNA Jewelry
DNAStuff is a not -for-profit vendor of DNA-themed products. Their DNA Jewelry is custom designed and handcrafted. Proceeds from the sale of each piece helps to raise funds for research in genetics and bioinformatics at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. All of work done by DNAStuff represents their support and commitment to raising awareness for DNA research.
4) Ancient Art Inspires DNA Science
A new study out of the Dana-Farber Cancer institute has combined the ancient art form of Origami with nano-technology to create 3-dimensional structures known as ‘DNA Origami‘. Origami is an ancient process in which Japanese masters make a series of folds in a single piece of paper to create intricate models of animals and other shapes.
The researchers have folded sheets of DNA into multi layered objects. These objects are a thousand times smaller than the thickness of a human hair.
William Shin PhD is the senior author of the study. He believes that this development will enable scientist to make customize DNA objects, with any real 3-D size. The DNA molecules are not being used as they traditionally would be. Instead of being the blueprint for making proteins the DNA molecules are being used as a building component. It is believed that these tiny structures could be the foundation for the invention of advance delivery vehicles that would sneak drugs into patients’ cells.
5) DNA as Music?
Gil Alterovitz is a research fellow at Harvard Medical School (HMS) who has created the Musical Gene Expression. With the hope that doctors will be able to provide patients with better treatment by using technology to monitor their patients.
The Gene Expression combines art with science by paring certain protein structures with certain musical instruments.  The result will be a harmonious melody or an atonal melody depending on the health of the patient. For the purpose of the study they used a healthy patient and a cancer patient. The harmonious melody is representative of a healthy patient where as the atonal pairing denotes the sickly patient.
6)Â Genome Quilts
"Human red cone pigment gene - otherwise known as a quilt- made from your DNA"
Beverly St. Clair is a practicing psychiatrist that has combined DNA with the hobby of quilting. The “Human red cone pigment gene” quilt is featured on the cover of December 2008 Nature Genetics.  Her quilts are have strong colors and a seemingly traditional design but they reveal an entirely block of information. Beverly use’s a simple quilt block to represent the four bases in DNA: cytosine, guanine, adenine, and thymine.
Entry is easy:
You can win the ultimate unique Father’s Day gift
- Follow us on twitter (www.twitter.com/dna11).
- Tweet about us- say anything you want- just be nice
- Just add #dna #art to your tweet to automatically be entered to WIN a $199 DNA Mini Portrait.
NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. To enter, Twitter message must link to www.dna11.com. Winner will be selected at random on June 16, 2009. Open to legal residents of the 50 United States/D.C., and Canada, excluding Quebec. Entrants must be 18 or older, except employees of Sponsors their immediate families and those living in the same household. Odds of winning depend on the number of entries (Tweets) received. A.R.V. of prizes $199US. Sponsor: DNA 11 Inc., 70 George St., Ottawa, ON K1N 5V9, CANADA.
When DNA 11 was looking to create a business card we knew it has to be personalized and very custom. After all, we create the world’s most personalized art. So we turned to Moo. A very cool company that lets you make personalized business cards using a bunch of images that you can pull from your Flickr account or just about anywhere. What makes these cards different is that every card can have a unique image on the back of it. So awesome! – and worth every penny. The quality is best I’ve seen- colors so pure you would swear they are using an offset printer to make these. If you’re a designer, an artist, or a photographer these are the cards for you.
I have to say that Moo is a wonderful company. I love their website, their passion, their packaging and the customer service is top notch. Everything we strive to be too.
If you are looking to get business cards done just go to Moo and check them out. They are also giving DNA 11′s friends and clients 15% off any order of 50 or 200 cards. We’re not getting any commissions from this. This is a special offer from DNA 11 and Moo because we like you.
Follow this link to get the MOO discount. Valid until June 2! Use MOO discount code “DNAMOO” for 15% off.
If you want to get the ultimate personalized business card contact us and we can add your DNA or fingerprint to the back of your card.
Check out the cards we made with Moo below.
My fingerprint portrait on the back of my Moo business cards.
DNA Art Portraits on the back of DNA 11 Business cards. How unique!
LACMA Lights
LA has some serious art museums my favorite so far being the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA). Recently I had the opportunity to spend a day touring the museum. Nothing inspires me more than seeing the works of some of the greatest modern artists of the century.
One of the more fun exhibits was the BMW Art Cars. Artists included: Frank Stella, Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, etc. I’d love to do a BMW art car one day. I’m a pretty big fan of BMW as a company and I’ve owned several Beemers so far including an M3 that is currently in storage back in Canada -hmmmmmmm ideas anyone?
Check these out:
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- LACMA Lights
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- Me (Adrian Salamunovic) posing in front of a Mark Rothko painting at LACMA. Me happy.
There are many sections of the Museum where you are not allowed to take pictures but I managed to take this picture of a Marc Rothko – he is absolutely one of my favorite artists. In fact, it was his art that inspired us to see art in DNA images. The MoMA also has an impressive collection of Rothko paintings LACMA only has a couple but I love this one:
Me (Adrian Salamunovic) posing in front of a Mark Rothko painting at LACMA. Me happy.
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