Posts by Scott

Some cool shots from Jonathan Mutch. Really like the color and vibe of his stuff; very authentic, filmic style. Every time I see stuff like this and check the EXIF I realize my next camera should probably be a Canon. Also, apparently I need to visit Banff. Check out the depth in that third shot, beautiful! You can find some more of Jon’s work at his Flickr

Jon: Care to elaborate on your process in the comments?

I did an interview with Norway National Radio while I was there last week. It’s brief and you’ll have to speak Norwegian to understand most of it. They seemed to focus in on the political aspects of our conversation, most of the questions centered around the role of graphic design in American politics in the wake of the 2008 elections. Also, I had a cold so that’s why I sound like I just inhaled 3 packs of Camels.

On a side note, check out that logo! Love it.

NRK Radio Norway – Scott Hansen Interview

Dave over at Grain Edit scored a book full of amazing 1970’s-era Russian posters. Incredible stuff, I really wish someone with access to these would reprint them. That first one with the bird has got to be my favorite.

Link

I’m back in San Francisco after a very long trip home (around 20 hours over three flights) from Tromsø, Norway. It was great doing the workshop and playing at Insomnia; I really appreciate everyone coming out. Unfortunately I was sick almost the whole time so I didn’t get to see and do as much as I’d have liked while in this amazing place. But thanks to my gracious hosts — Annette and Simen, who went out of their way to show me around — I was able to get out and experience some of what Tromsø has to offer. I honestly had no idea what to expect from this place; I’d been so busy that I never had the chance to do any research before I left. Saying I was pleasantly surprised would be an understatement to say the least — Tromsø is absolutely one of the most interesting and beautiful places I’ve ever had the good fortune to visit. It’s the sort of alpine paradise that conjures up idealized notions of northern Europe in the 60’s. In fact, Röyksopp hail from Tromsø and it certainly shows in their Epel video (below). I felt like I was living it when I took the gondola up the mountain.

For starters, it’s a city rich in quality design and typography, thanks in part to Tank (pronounced “Tonk”), an Oslo-based design shop founded by Tromsø natives who have now returned and formed a satellite office in their home town. They’ve designed everything from packaging for the locally brewed Mack beer to the beautifully executed branding for local cafe Kaffebønna (which now sits squarely in my top 5 worldwide list for best coffee shops — worth a visit for the awesome pricing signage alone). Incidentally, Tank’s Tromsø office sits directly above another excellent cafe, Circa, which serves up some of the best sandwiches and tea I’ve had in a while. And by the way, all that amazing furniture we have to pay and arm and a leg for here in the states? It’s everywhere in Norway… Even the smallest cafe will have some incredible couch chilling in the corner that only rich art director types have over here.

But beyond all of the man-made fare, the real attraction is the natural beauty. Tromsø is situated right above the arctic circle and, as a result, the scenery is nothing short of stunning. Sharp, snow-covered mountain peaks jutting out from sea-level make for some of the most dramatic and breathtaking scenery I’ve ever laid eyes or lens on. Sadly, the days are very short at this time of the year. That, coupled with the fact that I spent most of my time sweating out a fever in bed, means I only got a couple hours of shooting in. But that’s all the more reason for a return trip, which I’ve already begun planning.

So thanks again to everyone from Tromsø for showing me a great time. And if you have the chance, I highly recommend a visit — I feel very lucky to have stumbled into this incredible place. Oh, and if you don’t have time to visit, you can live the experience vicariously through one of my all time favorite music videos:

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBiRcAmmJVY

P.S. Anyone know where I can buy these Fribol Herbal Drops in the US? I got them in Norway, they’re amazing and I can’t find a similar alternative here. Although I assume since they actually work and contain neither sugar nor drugs, they’re most certainly illegal in the states.

Thanks to everyone for coming out to the workshop last night, I had a great time talking with you and meeting everyone afterwards. Also thanks to Heydays who spoke at the event and designed the die-cut poster (above); very inspiring work which I’ll be posting more on soon.

I haven’t had a chance to take many pictures yet but I did get to tour the offices of Tank Design who had some very interesting artifacts all around.

It’s been a great time so far — in spite of my being sick the whole time. I’m resting up for the Tycho set at Insomnia tonight, hope to see you out there!

After a very long couple days, I’m finally here in Tromsø for Insomnia. Please excuse the bad photo, there were these incredible landscapes on the way in but all I had was my little Canon Elph and it was very dark. As you can see, the Elph doesn’t handle it very well… Suffices to say, the pic doesn’t do this place justice; I’ve never seen anything like the view from the plane tonight. I have the big Nikon out now and hopefully I can get some good shots of all the amazing design and typography here over the next few days and maybe some better landscapes on the way out. I walked around a little bit this evening and this place is incredible. It seems almost fake, I don’t know what I expected but it wasn’t anything close to this. Wish I was staying longer.

Just a quick note about the video situation a lot of you were asking about in the workshop post: I will see what the organizers have planned tomorrow, but I’m not sure if they are set up to record. I will be doing similar workshops in Amsterdam and Toronto coming up though so I will try to get one of those taped properly.

Time to rest up for tomorrow, my sleep schedule is all wrong right now. Hope to see some of you tomorrow at the workshop.

I just arrived in beautiful Newark for a brief layover before the second leg of my trip. I’ll be flying into Oslo and then on to Tromsø for the Insomnia Fesitval. I’m doing an ISO50 workshop on Friday at Verdensteatret Cinematek. The workshop is free (thanks to Insomnia, Tank.no, and Grafill) — you can register here.

I’ll be covering a lot of ground during this one, walking through the process of creating the new Tycho album cover and talking about graphic design in general. Space is limited so be sure to register.

I’ll also be playing a Tycho live set at Insomnia on Satuday night. Hope to see you all out there. I just finished one of the worst salads ever at the Sam Adams Brew Club at Newark and they’re calling for first boarding so I’m off to Oslo. See you in Norway.

ISO50 Workshop Registration (free)
Insomnia Festival Tickets

Photo via NTMY

I’m posting these stills from Buffalo ‘66 partly because they’re awesome and partly because it’s a good chance to tell the story where me and Dusty saw Vincent Gallo at my neighborhood market on a Tuesday. It was surreal, I think we must have been staring uncontrollably because he was in line and had this look on his face like “are these idiots going to ask me something or stab me?” (all love knife style). We also saw him with Sean Lennon at a bar once and got some horrible blurry iPhone shot of him and Dusty. So I guess that makes us officially stalkers now.

By the way, Whatthefont says “Buffalo” is Prelo Compressed Medium. Not quite sure though.

Stills via the always incredible I Love Hotdogs.

I first noticed of Mark Brooks’s work when he designed a series of very distinct black and white posters for Barcelona based Santamonica Apparel. Tonight I noticed that he’s back with a stylistically similar, but conceptually unique new series for the same company. While the originals were great in their own right, this new series — based on a grid of stars made from the Santamonica logo — takes things to another level. Very clever stuff.

Be sure to check out the rest of his work at Behance or his personal portfolio.

Update: The 12″ is now available for Pre-Order at the ISO50 Shop.

The new Tycho single, Coastal Brake, is finally all set for release. Above you can see the 12″ vinyl cover art including the reverse and stickers. There is also a limited edition poster with alternate artwork folded into each vinyl sleeve — I’ll post more on that and the process of creating the artwork as we get closer to the release date.

I got the finished vinyl in the other day and they look great — I’ll post up some pics next week. The official release date for the vinyl and digital is December 8th but we will be taking pre-orders starting November 2nd at The ISO50 Shop. I’ll be posting more details as the become available. | Comment on this post

Update: apparently you can hear one of the remixes from the 12″ via the Ghostly Discovery App. If you dial in these mood settings, the resulting playlist should include the Lusine remix of Coastal Brake (you may have to click next a few times). Enjoy.