Posts by Collective

I just recently found out that Reuben Wu, aside from being a British DJ, producer and keyboardist for Ladytron, was also an avid photographer. Apparently the story goes that he started getting a bit more serious about photography when he decided to document his personal tour experiences and making the most out of being a musician on the road, while visiting some remarkable locations. Since then, he’s has amassed an impressive collection of cameras, which he has modified, spliced and pushed to their limits, all in the name of experimentation and discovery. This has resulted in a diverse and unusual and almost other-worldy like body of work, from urban architecture, to desert and remote landscapes.
Be sure to check out more of Reuben’s amazing on his Flickr.

Big thanks to Wendy Stenzel at NEST Artists for supplying the photos and info regarding Reueben Wu.

Posted by B3PO (Jonathan Marsh)

The amazing work of Australian artist and creative director Leif Podhajsky has been posted about here on the blog before, but I thought I would feature him again, this time as the subject of this week’s Weekend Inspiration. I have found myself revisiting his portfolio frequently over the past few weeks, In particular for his amazing album covers, as I’m working on a few myself.

He also launched the Melt Blog and has been experimenting with video and visuals.

Posted by B3PO

Poster series explaining complex philosophical theories through basic shapes, by London based designer Genis Carreras.

Aside from the posters, there is also a journal from the same series by the name of Philographics (Click on image below).

Posted by B3PO

Fascinated by the work of Paul Davies, an Australian architectural-landscape painter and sculptor. Can’t help but to find some parallels between his work and Scott’s, who both seem to have the ability to create “dream-like sequences”, through the manipulation of layers, color and texture.

In the words of Paul himself:

Much of this work has been sourced from my recent visits to America and Europe. During these visits I examined The Eames House and Schindler House, both in Los Angeles, Frank Sinatra’s holiday retreat in Palm Springs, The Bauhaus in Dessau and The Villa Savoye in Poissy. I have also visited the modernist buildings in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, by Van Mollyvan, who spent time training under Le Corbusier. Gaining access to these sites often takes many requests as some of the buildings are privately owned. I was interested in these examples of international landscapes and architecture because of the striking, atmospheric qualities I could capture when photographing them. To amplify these images, I collaged them with sourced landscape photographs, of North America’s West Coast, by Ansel Adams. Adams’s photographs, with their crisp cinematic quality, allowed me to play with the composition and to stage dramatic, non- existent scenes. The photographic images reminded me of typical holiday postcards and I have attempted to capture this in my work by intensifying the perspectives and altering the colour ways.

Although the scenes and structures that inhibit them seem picturesque, in reality, these iconic homes can often feel austere and isolated. My work investigates these images as portraits of space, devoid of human form, inviting the viewer to generate their own emotional response to the painting. The absence of people in my work encourages the viewer to wander uninterrupted through the space and appreciate the built and non-built qualities of the surrounding environment. Through my practice I have attempted to explore this concept of isolation by incorporating empty swimming pools in the picture. Throughout my school years I swam competitively and was fascinated by the vacant feeling of the outdoor pools when they were drained for winter. I recently visited David Hockney’s underwater swimming pool mural, painted in the 1980’s for The Roosevelt Hotel in Los Angeles. Hockney’s work addresses issues of space and location, and his swimming pool design is a brilliant 3D version of these concepts. This year I designed a version of Hockney’s mural, for my Father’s swimming pool, and the experience was helped by the understanding of space I learnt from my Sculpture study at NSW College Of Fine Arts. By creating my paintings devoid of people, “emptying” the swimming pools and “burning” the forests, I am attempting to convey this dislocation to the viewer and raise environmental concerns that face us today.

Posted by B3PO

Browsing for inspiration this morning, I came across this set of beautiful vintage Psychology book covers by the ever so great publishing company Penguin Books.

There’s also a great set of Penguin Book designs on this Flickr account.

Posted by B3PO via Flyer Goodness

Invisible Creature is a Seattle based design studio comprised by brothers Don and Ryan Clark. From music packaging and band posters, to logos and identity, these guys do it all and they do it well, to the point of even being nominated for 4 Grammy awards for their music packaging.
Really enjoy their great use of textures and clean vectors.

They are also behind the Sasquatch Music Festival identity, which Tycho will be playing at the end of this month, along acts such as Beck, Apparat, Purity Ring, Gardens & Villa, Com Truise, Star Slinger, Active Child, Lord Huron, to name a few.

Posted by B3PO

Daito Manabe is a Japanese artist, designer, programmer, DJ, VJ & composer, who just seems to be able to bend at will the use of technology as an artistic element. His programming skills are impressive to say the least, which are incorporated and put to use in a variety of different projects, installations and collaborations.

Below are a few examples of his work.

How good is that song in the last video? It says in the video’s description and comments that the track is by Ametsub, but that it cannot be found anywhere for download, as it was composed exclusively for the show. Maybe Jakub can find a way to get a hold of that track…? I want it. Bad.

Posted by B3PO

Lately we haven’t done much furniture postings which when we started I thought would be something we’d beat into the ground with an abundance of posts. Now that the blog keeps getting more and more great posts from the collective i’ll do my best to keep an eye out on some vintage furnishings and new work like these drawers from Finn Juhl which is classy mid modern design with a semi brighter color palette.

I stumbled on this film the other day, I’m a little late to the scene sometimes… Its a film made from 80,000 video clips that were submitted to YouTube on a single day, July 24, 2010. There were 4,500 hours of footage from 192 nations to sift through and edit into a 95 minute film. This wasn’t completely spontaneous and had some direction but still captures a very personal glimpse of a day in our world.

posted by @hallwood

I’m always drawn at the site of micro structures, pods and/or any type of compact-living unit. I guess you could say it’s the kid in me who always loved his club house (I took over a shed in our back yard, and turned it in to my personal headquarters). Also, a few years back, while living in Chile, I took a trip with 3 friends out to Pan De Azucar, a Natural Park where the desert meets the ocean, for what was supposed to be a 2 week camping trip. Fascinated by the sense of community formed by the “tent metropolis” we encountered and later experienced, we extended our stay to close to a month.

At the time, I couldn’t help but think that we were witnessing what ultimately all living communities and societies would end up turning in to, so when I came across French designer Pierre Stéphane Dumas Bubble Structures, I was brought right back to those thoughts.

Pierre wanted to create a Eco-friendly space, following a single charter:

Proximity to nature, minimum environmental impact, landscape integration, economic integration of social aspects.

He also says his “creations” are “unusual huts for unusual nights”. He explains:

Having a night under the stars or seeing the sun rise and set is not something that many people experience anymore.
A normal tent or camper van means people miss out on these things, so I designed this eccentric shelter with the aim of offering an unusual experience under the stars while keeping all the comfort of a bedroom suite. The ceiling of the bubble has the Milky Way, guests will be able to enjoy this as well as the extraordinary light variation of the sunset and sunrise.

What started off as a few tents that could be found scattered around France, has now turned in to a couple of hotels in the same country, Attrap’Rêves in Bouches-du-Rhone (near Marseille) and Sky River outside of Loir-et-Cher.

Also, if you’re looking for inspiration or a good read on microstructures, I personally recommend Micro: Very Small Buildings by Ruth Slavid. Great projects, photos and layout.

Posted by B3PO