Archive for September, 2009

All I want to hear during this Powell song is for someone to say “Here’s the Beat Konducta on the Blue Note Records…” just kidding, the man has some talent and a great ear, check him out on iTunes I also picked up Dimension X and Crystalisation from his catalog.

Another strong release by Mr. Paul White, the 4 track EP called The Punch Drummer just leaves you wanting more though, still a good way to spend $4.

4AD picks up another great UK group called The Big Pink that can bring the wall of sound but also can maybe help veer the hipsters crowd away from the Franz Ferdinand.

I had to post this Weird Tapes edit partially because I love the song but the Laserblast sync music video just puts it over the top.

Powell – Reflexion

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Paul White – Synth March

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The Big Pink – Dominos

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Hail Social – No Paradise (Weird Tapes Edit)

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Hail Social – No Paradise (Weird Tapes Edit) Video…Kinda

The new Performance Mouse MX from Logitech didn’t make it in time for the Design Mouse Roundup post from last year but I sure wish it had. I have the MX Revolution (the original version of this new Performance MX) and I really love it, save for one fatal flaw: a defective battery. This was apparently a common issue with the old MX mice and they lose their ability to charge properly. So now it’s pulling light duty upstairs as an entertainment center controller, a purpose for which it’s surprisingly well suited.

I’ve been using the Razer Death Adder recently, and aside from it’s tacky design and even tackier name, it performs very well. I’ve been steering clear of wireless mice — I just don’t trust the accuracy and the last thing I need down in the studio are more wireless signals — but this new one is pretty intriguing. I’d really like to have hyperscroll back, I miss it on the Death Adder.

Anybody using the new Performance MX yet? How it is? Let us know in the comments

In keeping with this week’s (completely unplanned) typographic theme, I thought I’d post these excellent covers by Emil Ruder. I’d love to see someone try to get away with type layout like this on a client project.

Some additional info (apparently translated) from 80 Magazine:

“in 1953, TM held a competition to design a cover series, inside layout and advertising pages. 12 people took part, including the basel typography teachers emil ruder and robert büchler. the TM jury report on ruder’s entry:

‘the designer if his competition work chose the square as design motif, wich also resonates again in the page layout. this cover series is designed with sparkling fantasy; bold and new, far way from tested solutions, in a darling refreshing attemp. […] a really new solution which could have an interesting change from the arrangement up to now’

five covers by emil ruder were applied to break the monotony of the winning entry of robert büchler”

extracto da revista-libro ‘ruder typography ruder philosophy’. idea magazine 333. vol. 57. marzo 2009. xapon. issn 0019-1299 +

Via 80 Magazine

Just found a compilation from a label run by one of the guys from The Drums called Holiday Records, really promising fun material, there is a slew of genres being exposed, bits and pieces hint that The Drums have the depth and truly live thru their sound and are well deserving of the 2009 hype.

New Burial from the forthcoming Hyperdub compilation, i’m definitely feeling this.

There once was a time that the label Traum was pretty much outstanding week after week, firing from all angles with the some of the most beautiful compilations and rising stars, those were the days when deep minimal melodic had a chance to become what Space Disco is today.

Texture expert Farben still pops up regularly on my iTunes, the songs always dim the lights in my room when they come on, makes me think about the times I end up staring at flickering candles or when you crush up flint and sprinkle it on a lighter and you end up having a tiny little sparkler show for a short while.

The Young Friends – Make Out Point

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Burial – Fostercare

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Margo 3 – La Baumette – Broker/Dealer Remix

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Farben – Silikon

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Grain Edit has a great post on the upcoming Photo Lettering Site from House Industries. When I first saw the headline for the original post I was half hoping for some sort of digital way to achieve that awesome blurred edge style from old movie titles and magazines. Sadly, that wasn’t the case. But the reality was just about as good, a bunch of great until now defunct vintage typefaces. The Photo Lettering Site is not fully operational yet, but you can check out some posters featuring some of the fonts here.

The Spacetime Collection is a set of whimsy outer outer space-themed wall decals co-curated by Kitsune Noir and Poketo. They enlisted a talented group of artists to design the collection; Mike Perry, Cody Hudson, Damien Correll, and Andy Miller. Each set is different, but the idea is to combine them to make any kind of wall galaxy that you want.

I spent my morning pasting up the decals and my galaxy is displayed above. This was extremely fun; just pasting things every which way and creating something wacky on the spot. Compared to my normal, highly regimented routine on the computer, this was a refreshing change of pace. I find that I do less and less work “offline” so to speak, and it’s great to spend some time creating without a mouse and keyboard (or design brief and deadline for that matter). My roommates were surprised to find our whiteboard transformed into a very unusual (and exciting) combination of space diagrams and whimisical illustrations. ‘Wonderfully weird’ we determined.

Information regarding the project can be found over at Kitsune Noir or the Poketo website.

This The Streets song came to me after Sam and I shared a few UK videos that we liked, the lyrics make me think about the times I use to be a silly worrywort in high school over girlfriends, ahh glad those feelings don’t come around anymore.

The Balearic sound is still ramping up into the rest of the world, slow disco seems to be creeping into the main stream even. iTunes has been in full support of Eskimo’s incredible Cosmic Balearic Beats series which volume 1 included this Homerun track that’s a full on epic bomb. I am still waiting for a song as gorgeous as this to make it to the masses, these instrumentals just have such thought out choices in synths and kicks compared all the studio club crap.

I actually found this cover art by OTT before I found the song. I can’t say i’m in full support of the song because of the vocal but that driving Telefon Tel Aviv low end synth keeps me from thinking about the bad vox, also a ton flute action for the flute fans out there.

UK’s Dub banger RSD puts out an extraordinary track called Good Energy, the beginning synth vividly remind me of ambulance’s in the EU in the 80’s and early 90’s and cold rainy days in UK/DE/PL, I can’t believe a simple dubstep track can give off such crazy exact memories.

The Streets – Blinded By the Lights

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Homerun – The Killer Storm

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OTT – A Shower of Sparks

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RSD – Good Energy

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Big thanks to everyone who made it out Thursday for the Ghostly show in Seattle, we had a great time playing for you. Hope to see you all again soon.

By the way, did anyone catch that Mad Professor / Banga show at Nemos afterwards? Amazing, I couldn’t breathe from all that bass.

Photo by +Russ who also has some more shots of Decibel Fest up.

United by House Industries has been my go-to typeface over the last few semesters. It is a massive family — 105 total fonts (three styles, seven weights and five widths). This variety makes it an incredibly versatile collection. I really hate it when I find a typeface that I love, but find it missing a crucial weight or style. (DIN for example — would love to be able to wield more styles). United does not have this problem. I’ve used it on many projects (a few you know; ISO50 EP, Mega Cities book) and in each case the variety allowed it to be implemented in a unique and effective way.

I discovered it a long time ago while searching for the typeface used in a Nike ad (can’t recall which one, but it was amazing). I don’t actually remember if United was employed in the advert, but if you spend any amount of time searching around the typography of the sports world, you are bound to come across United at some point (Fox, I’m pretty sure, uses it for in game football graphics). There is an obvious resemblance of a few of the weights to a very collegiate look, which might be a turn off for some people, but the rest of the styles make up for this ten fold.

The most exciting part for me has always been the fact that each style has five different widths. I love condensed or extended widths and it’s nice to find a worthy competitor to the standards (Univers, Trade Gothic etc). When you need an extra touch of personality, especially if the project skews toward the technical or urban, United does the job nicely.

I don’t know many other designers (at least at school) that use it regularly and I thought I’d spread the word a little. Finding a new typeface is always pretty exciting, so hopefully if you haven’t tried United before, you can give it a shot and experience the sweetness. Anyone else have any hidden gems? I haven’t come across a new super typeface in a while — would love to hear about what people are unexpectedly enjoying these days.

Nothing too involved here, just a simple diagram outlining the key differences between Arial and Helvetica. You can find the full alphabet overlayed here. Just in case you’re unfamiliar with the unique history these typefaces share, here’s an in-depth analysis. And here’s the battle mode.

Via Swissmiss, who’s workspace is way cleaner and more Helvetica-ish than mine: