Was at the beach today listening to Schneider TM’s "Zoomer". It was a beautifully sunny day here in San Francisco, made it a little easier to cope with the reality of being home. The cover of this album is pretty interesting, well designed overall, the collage works to good effect, but I think a bit more time could have been spent on the type treatment.
Schneider TM – "Reality Check"
[audio:reality.mp3]
My brother and I made the long journey home from London via Chicago today. I’m now safely back in San Francisco sitting in the studio wondering where to start; so much to do after such a long time away. Always sort of bittersweet to come home after seeing so many beautiful things in so many new places. But it is nice to do some laundry and take a decent shower. My friend Franklin made a good point tonight: traveling somehow makes you at once appreciate your home and long to travel more. Sort a paradox I guess, or wait, is that a Catch 22? I met so many people while I was away who would ask where I was from and when I told them they would almost always say how beautiful it was here or how they had always wanted to visit. It made me realize that I probably don’t get out and appreciate the city I live in as much as I should. I spent every day I had in those other cities trying to cram in as much as I could, to "see it all", meanwhile I probably haven’t even begun to experience half of what San Francisco has to offer. Such is life I guess, the grass is always greener, or perhaps we juts desire the strange and unfamiliar.
I still haven’t posted the shots from London and Prague as the past week has been really hectic moving around a lot with spotty internet access. But I will be sure to get them posted over the next couple days. Prague and London were incredible, so many amazing things to see and photograph. I can’t wait to start sorting through the shots and processing them, but sleep comes first. I don’t think I’ve had a decent night of it in over a month. The shot above is from Prague, they have a really cool street poster scene there, lot’s of great stuff plastered up all over the place….More to come.
Regular commenter on this blog, Joaquim Marquès Nielsen, came out from Denmark to attend the Workshop in Stockholm. He’s written a rather thorough post with a lot of quotes and a good overview of the workshop. You can check it out here.
He was also kind enough to present me with a one of a kind package of genuine ISO50 Danish Cheese, which I was able to snap a shot of right before it was devoured after a long night at the Stockholm bars.
Ever since my friend Erin introduced me to Arcade Fire back when their first album came out I’ve been a huge fan. Unfortunately I have yet to see them live, but I’ll make that a priority this year. Here’s a mellow selection for a mellow London morning. Love the lyrics.
"The Arcade Fire – Une Annee Sans Lumiere"
[audio:lumiere.mp3]
Stockholm really was an incredible city, definitely a highlight of this trip. I didn’t get as many chances to get out and take pictures as some of the other cities though, we were only there for 4 days and a lot of that time was spent preparing for the workshop. We went to the Bern Hotel and saw Unit 4 play live, it was really quite a night. The fashions I saw there were great, everything is done just right, people really know how to cultivate a look in Stockholm. I wish I had my camera with me that night, would have been like an endless fashion shoot in that place.
Leaving Prague for London tomorrow, always wanted to go there so pretty excited for it. Unfortunately we’ll only be in town for a couple days. My friend Mikael from Stockholm suggested an area called Brick Lane so we should be exploring around there hopefully. Got some great shots in Prague which I will be posting shortly.
This series of images by Dietmar R. Winkler appeared in Graphis 71-72. It is perhaps the most perfect thing I have ever seen. I would love to reproduce this and print it up large format for my wall. Does anyone know where to find an original full size version? I am posting this from a KFC in Prague at the moment (sadly, it’s the only free WiFi spot in the area), will be posting some pictures soon.
Been listening to Apparat’s latest a lot during this trip, really nice stuff. It’s always amazing to me when a producer breaks out with quality vocals.
Apparat – "Arcadia"
[audio:arcadia.mp3]
Amsterdam is really an incredible place. Unfortunately it rained a lot this time around so I didn’t get as many shots as I had hoped. I wanted to make up for when I was there last year; my Lomo broke down and I dropped and broke my Nikon digital in Spain so I came home with only one roll of usable film. The sun did come out on the last day when we rode out to the Amsterdamse Bos and visited Museum Plein so not all was lost. The clouds there are something else, like a painting. I have to admit, I am not quite as inspired but the scenery there as I was by the things I saw in Asia, but that’s probably due to how similar in appearance and feeling Amsterdam is to San Francisco. The last shot is of my friend and fellow designer / photographer Jorge Calleja and was taken by my brother Dane. That’s also Jorge’s Eames chair up top.
I am writing this from my hotel room in Prague where it’s a bit overcast but otherwise dry and a lot warmer than I had expected, looking forward to getting some good shots here. I’ll be preparing a post on Sweden as time permits.
If you ride about an hour outside of Amsterdam you’ll find a very large forest park called the Amsterdamse Bos (Amsterdam Woods). It really is an incredible space; a vast network of open grass fields that seem to extend to the horizon punctuated by strips of densely wooded forest and murky canals. The above panorama was taken in five shots on one of the larger fields at the center of the forest. I’m in the process of going through all the shots from Amsterdam, will be posting more soon.
Thanks to everyone who came out to the workshop last night. I had a great time and it was a pleasure meeting so many people who are so passionate about art and design. Thanks also to Gimlet, SMUG, Grafiskt Forum, and Adobe for having me out and hosting the event. I hope to return soon, it was truly an honor to be able to speak here in Stockholm.