Archive for June, 2009

My brother Kirk got the new Canon Rebel T1i over the weekend and it looks like it’s working out quite well for him. He used Sigma 70-300 lens in macro for his first video tests (above, wait for the ant!) and as you can see, the detail is incredible (albeit slimy). I’d like to see some more tests in different lighting situations and with different subject matter, but so far the performance looks great. Although, after seeing what Will Calcutt did with the 5D MKII in Detroit I am not sure I could settle for the T1i, but it seems like a close second for the budget-conscious. At any rate, I am pretty close to jumping ship from Nikon. Video Link

Update: Kirk added a short clip of Forrest skimboarding in Sacramento:

Jessica Helfand wrote an open letter to design sudents everywhere this morning. It is an insightful piece, and I think everyone could benefit from giving this a read really, student or no student.

If you’re graduating in the middle of a recession, it’s likely that an arc of despair trumps the impending thrill of your newly-liberated station in life. Conversely, though, I can’t imagine a better time to get out of school. Nobody’s hiring, but why let that stop you? While the mechanics of, say, having a roof over your head suggest that a little modest income might be a good thing, the actual economics of making work no longer depend on an actual employer. The portfolio no longer means a big black suitcase schlepped around from studio to studio. Get your work online, put your videos on YouTube, and get busy.

I am about 1-2 years out from graduating myself and I already feel the jitters of the “what next…” syndrome. The world of design is changing so fast, every day, and it can be quite an intimidating place to look out upon from within the graduate school bubble. Sometimes I feel like being a student is like being a star college basketball player; floating along no problem in this league—making threes, hitting jumpers, dominating the *paint*—only to be in for a big surprise when you graduate to the Pros and get dunked on by guys double your height and ability that got recruited straight out of high school.

The cries of “nobody’s hiring!” that sound throughout the design world can be periodically distressing, but also inspiring in a backward kind of way. As Ms.Helfand alludes to above, the traditional model of graduate/interview/work for studio is not what is necessary anymore (and thankfully!). New opportunities exist, and as long as you have that hyper-awareness and ready ability to adapt, you can take advantage of them just like before. At least that’s the way it seems from inside the bubble.

It does seem like a scary time to graduate now (and probably will again in a couple years), but the optimist in me agrees with her letter and isn’t concerned. Everything is going crazy and I’ll just try to stay crazy right along with it. Read the full letter on Design Observer.

Here is the 3rd installment of Images From Where? and By Who? So we all download and save images of items, graphics and photos from the internet daily and some of the time you have no idea where to give credit besides maybe the guy that posted it first or second randomly on a blog. I ‘d like to get some answers on a few of these but also just post some interesting pieces that we come across that might have been sitting on our drives for awhile that are go to for inspiration or just found randomly on a forum with no info attached and just look great. Either way hopefully the point that gets across here is that they are inspiring in some sort of way to you as well.

This first one with the polaroid packaging i’ve just always wanted to know if it was real, I mean the wear might just be too good to be true and the simplicity is just perfect, anyone know if this was an actual packaging for polaroid? if it is i’m going to find a few on ebay so I can just have the box.

If you know me I have a huge fear of large ships, just the sight of them freaks me out but its not the case here, this boat/plane is gorgeous, its like a fantasy vehicle and its soo perfect with the glass dome at the top.

Klopfer Holzhandel seems to be some kind of German company, who ever branded this company my hats off to them, i’m not sure if this is the logo or just a brochure/flyer, either way its eye catching every time I scroll by it.

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QTzJC-qICI

E3 is going down right now and the animated intro movie for The Beatles: Rock Band just came out. Beautiful imagery, I really like the sort of 2D-hybrid animation style. The whole thing feels sort of like a more refined Gorillaz. Video Link

Edit: Apparently it was Robert Valley who did the character animations for this piece.

I remember the first time hearing Piano Magic right before Greg Davis went on at the Magic Stick in Detroit, the song that was being played was called Halloween Boat, I was going to post that but its a 10USD MP3 everywhere but well worth the 18+ minute bliss. Well I dug deeper and asked a few friends on what albums I should hear and Snowfall Soon was a definite surprise, just some beautiful fuzzy guitar and strong lyrics from the post shoegaze era.

I remember there was a time when a ton of netlabels popped up and every releases was given out for free by all these labels but it also kind of hurt the industry in my opinion because full albums were going up with no one filtering them. A few stuck around and never updated their site(ugh I hate when that happens) and most of them just folded because it was a college students hobby to release friends music. One track that I remember during this time was this song by Digitalverein, I just love how the song jumps in at the beginning, so dark and angular, like some stiff and nerdy digital IDM/Dubstep without the low end and abit too much static.

Shuttle358 i’m pretty sure has a small following but the people that do follow him are always in for a treat. Its very minimal work but there are always hidden melodies and I feel like its more rewarding then most 12k releases that thrive on a sound like this.

Oh Black Moth Super Rainbow, can your crackles be more hash and lovely? can your synths be more piercing, upfront and heavy? oh god the nostalgia just oozes all over my memories of old store signs and sun splattered visions of car rides to school in the winter.

Piano Magic – Snowfall Soon

Digitalverein – Don’t Make Me Cry Again

Shuttle358 – Finch

Black Moth Super Rainbow – Seeds

I posted on Andy Gilmore last year and I stumbled across his site again today. Looks as though Andy’s been busy, there’s a lot of great new work up at his site. This stuff would be great large format.

Indexhibit is the brainchild of Daniel Eatock and Jeffery Vaska. It was started in 2006 and has since become a very popular tool for artists looking to establish their online presence. Creating an online portfolio for yourself can be extremely difficult, and Indexhibit ameliorates that process by simplifying the format side of the equation. (Both of the creators webpages are good examples.) In their words:

[Indexhibit] is a web application used to build and maintain an archetypal, invisible website format that combines text, image, movie and sound…Content flows to the edge of the browser, images can be displayed as thumbnails that can be enlarged etc., this is a break from traditional fixed layout design associated with print, and a move towards an interactive experience where the user creates their own viewing experience. (link)

What is the general consensus on Indexibit sites? I’m curious to hear how people feel about the frame format from a user perspective. Is this type of layout standardization a good thing? Personally I like landing on sites created with the Indexhibit format because the work is given center stage; navigation is clear and there is nothing about the layout or format to distract from the portfolio. Obviously it’s not right for every designer, and you lose an opportunity to develop a badass format of your own, but it’s nice to have some level of clarity at work. I am tempted to implement it for my own online portfolio, if only for the simplicity, though I’m worried people might land and say “Ah, one of those sites,” and have it be distracting in a ‘played out’ kind of way. Maybe that concern is unfounded, but I’d like to hear what people think. Also, if anyone has experience installing and working with the platform I’d be interested to hear your feedback about the process.

To get the full effect of a lot of the music posted here I usually would suggest headphones because I want you to sometimes hear all the little changes and parts in a song kind of like this Yo La Tengo song and some of the ambient pieces. I remember listening to the Summer Sun album on vinyl years ago and worrying that I was going to ruin my copy because I playing it too much. The beginning sounds like a little satellite calling out for attention and then slowly it picks up and becomes a song that almost forces you to smile because it doesn’t scream for attention but so attractive. It just sounds like its gently just having fun in the corner and you’re invited to hang out with it. When I hear this song I always picture someone crying and then stopping and then trying to hold back a smile, good work Yo La Tengo.

I can’t say I like a lot of Clue To Kalo but this song Empty Save the Oxygen reminds me of Lemon Jelly meets early Dntel, a perfect way to change pace on a mixtape for a close friend.

Soul Jazz Records Ltd doesn’t mess around and if they experiment and sign something off the beat and path of electronic music i’m willing to follow it for a while and give it a chance. This is the first i’ve ever heard of Subway, the songs give off this vibe that detailed things are growing and building around you, its perfect music for suspenseful Nouveau Circus or fans of Tangerine Dream songs that get to the point or DFA’s Delia Gonzalez and Gavin Russom.

Have you heard Shadows of Tomorrow and tried not to nod your head? its impossible and thats a fact.

Yo La Tengo – Little Eyes

Clue To Kalo – Empty Save the Oxygen

Subway – Delta II

Madlib – Shadows of Tomorrow

Ministry of Type has a great post on these beautiful El Al Playing Cards. The cards — illustrated by Jean David — came in this cardboard sleeve. The MOT article is quite in depth and includes all sorts of extra credit info: Link

These are definitely the best looking playing cards I’ve ever seen, someone needs to reproduce these and offer them for sale. I keep seeing all these nice examples of design and thinking how sad it is that most of us will never actually get to see any of them in person. Apparently MOT scored his own deck the old fashioned way, via eBay, but that’s so 2002. Somebody needs to form a non-profit pirate design company that’s sole purpose is to reproduce and freely distribute design artifacts. I’ll take a few copies of all of these.

With GM in the news, I was thinking about Detroit tonight. Detroit was the city I grew up closest to. My father grew up here and his dad worked on the Mercury Zephyr line.

Growing up near the city, the musical influence was huge. On any given weekend in the mid-to-late nineties, late night radio would mix up everything from the classic Art Of Noise song “Moments In Love” to local ghetto tech beats and new drum and bass coming out of the UK.

Much has been made about the city and why it’s music sounds the way it does. The desolate beauty, the mechanized auto factories and even the isolated water-ensconced nature of the state. All if it is true.

Here are four tracks that give me that Detroit feeling. These not the more discussed and celebrated classics, but more personal favorites.

Psyche – From Beyond (Transmat)

Carl Craig is a real legend and continues to impress. This song, under the Psyche alias is perhaps one of my favorite tracks ever. It has a crazy spell to it. It’s not quite techno and it pre-dates the breaks and jungle genres. It’s on it’s own planet. Pure late night driving music to roam the vacant freeways.

Cybotron – Cosmic Raindance (Fantasy)

Note: Please play on a proper stereo or headphones as the bassline is what holds this all together.  Juan Atkins (“The Originator”) is arguably the greatest groove maker of the Detroit techno school. Cybotron, his group with Richard Davis and John Housely is responsible for some of the most seminal cuts that have been sampled and re-interpreted endlessly. I remember driving down to the store Record Time in our friend’s Ford Fiesta, listening to this on repeat and his subs would rattle the entire frame.  Simply majestic.

Drexciya – Digital Tsunami (Tresor)

Drexciya is the most mythical duo of the Detroit techno school. The duo of the late James Stinson and Gerald Donald (also of Dopplereffekt, more on that later) made aggressive yet liquid odes to the ocean and it’s provence. This was a later cut, but got me into their brand of mutated electro. Their original pressings fetch a pretty penny on eBay and with good reason.

Suburban Knight – Collaboration Alpha (Peacefrog)

As part of the vaunted Underground Resistance Crew, Suburban Knight racked up a Detroit classic with “The Art Of Stalking” and also co-wrote tracks with Kevin Saunderson for his seminal and wildly successful Inner City project. This is a more recent track, and not a “classic” by any means, but I chose it because it’s important to recognize that Detroit techno is not a vintage style, it’s a methodology and an ethos that will continue to exist.