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.
Who's DNA picture is this? Find out by scolling below...
Surfing the Internet, I came across this neat application called WEB2DNA. Thomas Baekdal, from Denmark, designed this incredibly cool web app.
He was inspired by DNA 11 and the application takes any website you enter into a DNA Portrait of the site based on different criteria; allowing you to visualize a website’s structure.
I recently had a chance to chat with Thomas about WEB2DNA and to get to know a little more about him.
Thomas, good to talk to you… tell me a little bit about yourself and what you do.
I do several things… I am a writer and run a magazine (Baekdal.com). I am also a project manager, where I manage several enterprise level projects. I’m an Internet Manager responsible for 11 websites for one of Scandinavia’s largest clothing manufacturers. And finally, I am a web application developer.
I really got into this field by chance. I happen to like working on the Internet, and I got stuck with it. Before turning to the Internet I was trying to make a living as a fashion designer, so I don’t have any formal background. I just started working doing what I do, and it turned out to be quite fun.
How did you come up with the idea for WEB2DNA?
The idea came one Saturday afternoon. I was extremely bored, and was just browsing around. I had seen Marcel Salathe’s “websites as graphs” a few weeks earlier and was generally impressed. I had also bookmarked DNA 11′s website some months back, and, somehow, my brain started piecing these two worlds together.
I got this idea of making a DNA for websites. Allowing people to submit their website, and I would then, automatically, convert it into a unique DNA, very much the same as DNA 11.
The DNA art is just really impressive. DNA 11 just appeals to me on so many levels. First, it is unique, it is about you, and it is artistic. I was just very impressed.
And for this reason the visual style of WEB2DNA was heavily influenced by DNA 11’s artwork.
Can you explain how the website’s DNA is determined?
It is both extremely technical and very simple. What it does it that it looks at all the words and all the website tags on a site. It then analyzes these according to their importance. E.g. a headline is given a higher rating the normal body text. A list container is given a higher rating than the list items themselves. The words themselves make the gaps between the lines. So if you have a lot of words you will get a lot of empty space.
In theory, each DNA is completely unique. You have to use the exact same template, using the exact same amount of words, formatted exactly the same way to get two identical DNA images. Something that is highly unlikely.
How long did it take for you to develop the application?
Version one took only about 6-7 hours to make. It was a fairly quick project.
But my server was quickly overwhelmed by the response from my visitors. So much that WEB2DNA couldn’t handle the load. It peaked at about 3 conversions per second. That is, it converted 3 websites into a unique DNA every single second.
So 5 days after its initial launch I spent another day recreating it from scratch. I had to make it a lot faster. I have probably spent a total of 3-4 days overall, optimizing, and handling a lot of technical things.
WEB2DNA has been very popular and talked about in various media… Did you expect it to be as popular as it is?
Oh no. I was completely and utterly surprised. I never imagined that it would be as popular as it was. It was something I made because I was bored, on a Saturday. I really did not expect anyone to notice.
The fun thing is that it actually took a couple of weeks before it happened. I published it on July 24, 2006 but it wasn’t until August 7 that it started to see some action.
But when it did, it took off like nothing I have ever experienced before. This was in 2006, and back then baekdal.com wasn’t really a big site. Web2DNA was getting 10 times the normal amount of traffic – continually for several months.
People started creating WEB2DNA Flickr groups. It was featured on 3 online TV channels – and a few months later, it was part of a huge article in the biggest science magazine in Scandinavia.
I was completely blown away. I am so grateful to my visitors that they allowed me to have that experience.
Have you designed any other applications such as WEB2DNA?
Yes and no. I created WEB2RSS before I created WEB2DNA, and it shares about 40% of the code. WEB2RSS is a system that takes a website, analyzes it, and outputs it to an RSS feed. WEB2DNA does the same thing, except that the output is visual instead of textual.
WEB2DNA was, however, the first “interactive art project” I have ever done.
Check out some of the pics below to see the DNA of some of our favorite websites.
It’s that time of year again – time to go out and find the perfect Valentine’s Day gift. Whether it’s a Valentine’s gift for him or for her; this year is the year to move past the classic chocolate, candles, and flowers by finding something you know they’ll remember for years to come.
Lately the biggest craze has been finding your loved one that perfect personalized gift and for years this meant a key chain with a name engraved or the ever popular “World’s Best Boyfriend” mug. Well, lately the bar has been raised and now you can name a star after your loved one or even purchase them an acre of land on the Moon with the Lunar Registry.
Although both are really cool concepts – do you think that we’ll be packing up and moving to the Moon to make use of that acre any time soon? That I’ll leave to you… But while you think about it… why not find the ideal Valentine’s Day gift personalized for him or for her with a piece of personalized DNA Art from DNA 11.
The DNA Mini Portrait is a great gift for the man looking for the latest in decor as it brings together art, technology, and pop culture at an affordable price. Measuring just 8”x10” the DNA Mini Portrait is perfect for the office or on a bedside table.
And for the perfect gift for her this Valentine’s give her more than just a kiss… immortalize it with the KISS Portrait, from DNA 11. Add your lips and her lips on the same canvas and choose from lots of color combinations and sizes. DNA 11 has partnered with M·A·C Cosmetics and a portion of the sale of every KISS Portrait will go towards the M·A·C AIDS Fund.
So now you’re probably asking yourself how you surprise someone with a portrait like this, and on top of that, how do you get someone’s DNA or lip print without them knowing? Not to worry, that’s been thought of too and it couldn’t be easier. No, you won’t have to sneak into their bathroom and take a piece of hair from her brush or secretly find a way of getting the lip print.
All you have to do is order the gift kit; complete with a DNA gift card, instructions, collection kit and everything else they need to get started on the piece you selected. It even comes in a nice metal box so they have something to open on Valentine’s. If you really aren’t sure what they want you can order gift certificates too. It will be sent over to you for wrapping or sent right to your loved one by mail, or even by email, with a message from you.
So this Valentine’s Day forget the bubble bath and the roses. Find your loved ones a truly personalized, one a kind gift and buy some DNA Art from DNA 11. There is still plenty of time to order and have your perfect gift ready before Valentine’s Day.
Sure- DNA Art is pretty cool but this is a really cool street art concept. Using only tape and garbage bags, Harris creates giant inflatable animals that become animated when fastened to a sidewalk grate. Steven Psyllos (New York Magazine)Â caught up with Harris recently to discuss his older works (including a bear and a giraffe) and unveil a new beast that looks not unlike the Cloverfield monster. Video by Jonah Green. My favorite? The Lockness Monster. I’m sure these inflatable art pieces have caused more than a couple of car accidents by distracting New York city drivers!
Video courtesy of New York Magazine:
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