Archive for February, 2009

Alex Cornell has been my intern for nearly a year now and I thought it would be a good time to bring him on as a contributor to the blog. You may remember Alex from the student project post a while back. Being a grad student at the San Francisco Academy of Art (as well as an accomplished musician), he’s exposed to a side of design I don’t often see and I think that will bring a fresh perspective to the blog. So please give Alex a warm welcome, his first post should go up later this evening.

I’m really impressed by Warp’s new signing Hudson Mohawke, I’ve had this song Monde on repeat for days now and it deserves the love its getting and has been competing with Animal Collective on my iTunes this week. Fun little fact, did you know that the new Animal Collective LP debuted in the Top 10 in the Billboard charts? I’m loving 2009 more and more.

Mux Mool sent me this track by Erobique which is on iTunes Indie Spotlight this month. The record label looks like it has some raccoon dog on it that’s wearing a hat, which I kinda love. I’d love to know what he sampled for the vocal though, its epic and comes in like a J Dilla track vocal, dare I say this might be what Dilla would of sounded like if he had to make one disco cut.

So you have bought all the Gas and Burger/Ink LPs, now what else is there? well Kompakt reissued Wolfgang Voigt’s Studio 1 alias on CD which grabs up some tracks that we’re vinyl only for awhile. It’s very minimal and straight forward dubby techno on a regular house system but when DJ’s play these tracks out I always flip for them.

I know its Caribou now since the forced name change but i’ll always think of Manitoba when I pull out his Up In Flames LP to listen to. Who can hate this Hendrix With Ko song? no one thats who because Its got something for everyone. Anyone know what synth that is at 2:40? is it just digital replica? because I want it following me around everyday.

Hudson Mohawke – Monde

Erobique – Endorphinmachine

Mike Ink. – Light Blue

Manitoba Feat Koushika – Hendrix with Ko

Ellen McFadden (aka Alki1) has the best design-related Flickr stream out there. Her husband, Irwin McFadden, did some amazing design during the 60’s and 70’s and Mrs. McFadden was kind enough to post up some examples on her Flickr. Bonus: Name that Bauhaus-eque font.

Can you name this poor, unidentified chair? Some people were asking that same question in the comments of today’s Dieter Rams post so I thought I’d put it up in the hopes that someone out there can solve the mystery because, as Joe Clay put it, that is a damn sexy chair. Sound off in the comments. First correct answer gets a Tycho single!

By the way, how badass is Univers LT Std 39 Thin Ultra Condensed? Completely, is the correct answer.

Update: That was quick, Vito called it, it’s a 620 Chair by, of course, Dieter Rams. Here’s some very nice high res shots from the link vito Provided.

Images via Vitsoe 620 Chair Program

Plastolux posted up these wonderful shots by Matthew Donaldson of various Dieter Rams artifacts in their natural habitats. Unfortunately though, if placed in my house — being the cluttered mess that it is — most of these poor creatures would wither and die in a matter of days. There just aren’t enough clean lines and pristine spaces to support their minimalist German sensibilities. Someday… Although seriously, can anyone get anything done in an environment like this? I’d love to see Jonathan Ive’s work space, I would bet it doesn’t exactly mirror his design aesthetics.

Before Justice and when Daft Punk was starting off there were some big names in the house(vinyl only) world like Bob Sinclar, Doc Martin, and Louie Vega. None of them besides Doc Martin are worth checking out now since they’ve failed in my opinion especially if you compare recent work to old. Those 3 guys though back then had catchy hooks without the flash and trendy effects over them, this Supreme track by Mogi Grumbles feels like the perfect bridge to get all this distortion house back to a enjoyable level for all the different fans on the dancefloor.

I saw Eliot Lipp play the other night with Laser Sword, Glitch Mob, and a few others. The man is very impressive live especially when he’s on the Moog playing the songs. Looks like he’ll be touring the US more in the coming month, he’s definitely worth checking out.

Sam Valenti posted this Peter Schilling song on Facebook the other day and I haven’t heard a catchier chorus in a song like this since Simple Minds I think, also you can’t ask for more than a repeating chorus at the end of a song that goes into a fade out.

If you watch TV at all you’ve probably seen the Nike LeBron James commercial with this song by Cornershop, the song is perfect for the video, I hope to see more commercial licensings as good as this in 2009. *throws chalk up in the air*

Mogi Grumbles – Supreme

Eliot Lipp – P.L.W.3-D

Peter Schilling – Major Tom

Cornershop – Candyman

I came across the HAL Project site the other day and thought I’d post. There are a lot of cool visuals inspired by the original film along with your very own HAL screensaver. Link

Back in my days in Sacramento I spent a couple years at BKWLD, a small web shop in Roseville, CA where I got to work closely with fellow designer Jeff Toll (aka Jeff Doe). Jeff has recently launched his personal portfolio showcasing a lot of the excellent web work he’s done as creative director for BKWLD. I’d urge any web designers looking for inspiration to have a look, there are some great examples in there (including the FWA site of the day he did for The Wreckers).

Jeff Doe Interactive Portfolio & Print Portfolio
Jeff’s also got an interesting blog going on here

The ISO50 Snowboard Giveaway officially ended yesterday and a winner has been picked. So, without further adieu, the big winner is…
Neil Loehlein of Portland, OR. Neil will be receiving the ISO50 / Forum Devun Walsh board which he can hopefully put to good use up on Mt. Hood. I’ve decided to do a second runner-up drawing for some shirts and posters so I’ll be notifying those winners shortly. Thanks to everyone who participated, next year I am planning on doing another snowboard and/or ski giveaway so keep an eye out for that.