Launch 2010 is going down this Saturday, July 31st and I’ll be displaying some design work as part of the event. I should have a good number of the giclees from the Studio Editions series up along with some unreleased stuff.

In case you missed it last year, Launch is Sacramento’s indie design and music festival. They sort of cover all the bases, showcasing the best of Sacramento music, design, and fashion. Being from Sacramento myself — a town I feel is often very much misunderstood — it’s great to see events like this that bring all the incredible talent this place has to offer together in one place.

The event goes from 6pm to 1:30am at the Artisan Gallery (1901 Del Paso Blvd, Sacramento). Admission is $10, a total steal considering the lineup. If you’re in the Sacramento area, you have no excuse not to go to this — besides all the art and music, it’s just a really good time. If you’re from the Bay Area or beyond, I urge you to make the drive out and get better acquainted with the art scene in Sacto, you won’t be disappointed. Hope to see you out there!

Full Event Info

If I ran a radio program then Keep Shelly In Athens would be played every hour like a brand new Missy Elliot single on a top 40 station. The synth work should be up everyone’s alley and vocal is brave and refreshing.

Any Bradford Cox fan is going to be excited about this announcement of a leaked single from Deerhunter’s new LP that is coming in September. Time after time these guys nail it, they should be sitting where bands like The Decemberists and Apples In Stereo sit as staple acts for this generation in “indie” music.

It took me a few songs to warm up to Tennis, the first few didn’t grab me as much as this song did, maybe its the Stereolab memories this song brings back that made me melt, loving the singing style, makes me want to meet the lovely lady that sings in the group.

Delorean doesn’t get enough credit for what they do, they literally are keeping that Passion Pit/MGMT sound afloat in my book, they keep that indie party sound attractive.

The Visual Mixtape is a series of self-initiated posters by Noa Emberson. The series contains a staggering 25 variations, all with very intriguing color palettes and images. The lockup stays largely the same, but the artist and song list changes with each poster.
See more of my favorites after the jump.

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Until now I had no idea that a laser could cause damage to a DSLR, but apparently it’s possible. In the video you can see the laser beam across the sensor of a Canon EOS 5D Mark II leaving a burn. It would be a big shame for it to happen to any of you so I just wanted to make you aware if you weren’t already.

Here is an excerpt from the International Laser Display Association:

“Lasers emit concentrated beams of light, which can heat up sensitive surfaces (like the eye’s retina) and cause damage. Camera sensors are susceptible to damage, similar to the human eye.
For large scale shows, such as on a televised concert, laser show producers work with clients to avoid TV camera locations and video projectors (ILDA Members, see this page for details). However, it is not possible for laser show producers to be responsible for all cameras and camcorders which might be at a show.
Therefore, if you attend a show as an audience member, you should take reasonable precautions not to let a laser beam directly enter your camera lens.”

If this isn’t convincing enough, here is another video.

Sourced via Planet 5D

Today at Comic-Con International, Disney debuted a solid new trailer for Tron: Legacy. What do you guys think? i’m just hoping I don’t get an anxiety attack seeing it in 3D.

This has to be the best concept rendering I’ve ever seen. Saikat Biswas designed these mock-ups to illustrate his concept for an open-source camera platform based on the original Holga camera. But unlike the original, Saikat has applied some tried and true Rams/Braun-esque styling to the exterior that’s sure to inspire lust in the hearts of design geeks everywhere.
Check his full post and you’ll see he’s really thought the whole thing out. Apparently he’s received quite a bit of interest so hopefully this thing makes it to production someday. I’m not sure, but didn’t Lomography buy the rights to the Holga a while back? Saikat might have an easier time if he gave it a different name.

Via Minimalissimo

One of the best music licensings this summer has to be the Cadillac commercial using Lindstrom & Christabelle’s Lovesick, it works great plus i’m happy to see some slow disco touching the mainstream market. Check out this beautiful job that Four Tet does with the track.

The new Panda Bear album coming sounds really really promising, I hope its a Top 10 album of the year, I have a feeling after hearing this it’s going to be a solid listen.

More Four Tet but now it’s his turn to be remixed by none other than his labelmate Caribou, reminds me a bit of Apparat and James Holden.

A shortie but easily a goodie, just don’t think about how Kanye West ruined the chipmunk vocal effect and you’ll be fine, oh wait…

I posted on Neil Krug a while back (original post link) but I stumbled on his Flickr again today and was pleasantly surprised by some great new work he’s posted since then. From what I’ve heard he uses expired Polaroid film to get that vintage look. I think someone needs to forward Neil’s portfolio to Tame Impala’s manager.

You can check out more of Neil’s work at his Flickr.

After a weekend of playing with Tycho, Mux Mool, The Sight Below and Solvent, Shigeto offers up a FREE 5 song EP for your listening pleasure. The songs have an array of influences ranging from jazz, IDM and Detroit instrumental hip hop and he also gives us a sneak peek of what’s to come on his first LP Full Circle which is coming out this fall. Download the EP here. I highly recommend the song Grandma’s Words / Rise Out Of The Stone, it grows beautifully.

Below is a sample of what Shigeto shares on his soundcloud account which includes a few unreleased song.

Qus Qus is the design studio of Dima Kuzmichev. This work is super clean — I feel like if I ran a corporation of any kind, I would have Dima do my annual report. Especially if we were based in Iceland and wanted to make our wind power turbines seem sexy. There is a cold perfectionism at work here. Great grid work, some beautiful type, pretty much everything you need. I was also really impressed with the logowork. The one for Artisanale was my favorite (and the name sounds awesome to boot).

via TSA