Monday, August 17, 2009
Droste Effect.
In the year 1956, "the Dutch graphic artist M.C. Escher made an lithograph with the title 'Print Gallery'. It shows a young man viewing a print in an exhibition gallery. Amongst the buildings depicted on the print, he sees paradoxically the very same gallery that he is standing in."
The term was coined by the poet and columnist Nico Scheepmaker at the end of the 1970s. It is named after Droste, a Dutch brand of cocoa, whose box has a picture of a lady carrying a serving tray with a cup of hot chocolate and a box of the same brand of cocoa.
Sunday, August 16, 2009
Design Interior: Optical Illusions In Reality.
Here optical illusions are integrated in interior designs. It is really quite a nice idea to do this. The visitors who aren't standing in the proper angle won't have a clue about the concept. They wont be able to get why these lines & curves are painted on the walls. This way you can choose whom to share this little secret with.
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Saturday, August 15, 2009
Friday, August 14, 2009
How did "XOXO" come to mean hugs and kisses?
The Oxford English Dictionary, as credited by Hugkiss.com, states the first"X-as-kiss" in literature occurred in 1901. (Where it appeared isn't mentioned.)
The site, as well as Wikipedia, describes the X symbol as originally referring to the Christian cross (and the first letter of the Greek word for Christ, Xristos). This dates back to a mostly pre-literate era when the marking of a cross, or "X," on a document functioned like a signature.
The X became associated with the kiss because signatories used to pucker up and plant one on their X mark, as one would do to a crucifix or bible. Trivia-Library.com cites a hypothesis from The People's Almanac, which theorizes that the X may have also functioned as a sort of early emoticon, representing a "stylized picture of two mouths touching each other."
As for that hug-of-an-O, it's something of a mystery. Hugkiss.com says it's a "North American custom" and cites Leo Rosten's "The Joys of Yiddish" as saying that Jews who were illiterate preferred using an "O" when signing documents to avoid making the cross mark. Others speculate the O represents two arms held in a circle around another person.
All well and good, but just know if you wander in somewhere flashing three neon Xs on a marquee, you're probably going to see a whole lot more than hugs or kisses.
