Since everyone has been so supportive lately we would like to giveaway a couple of tickets for tonight. The first 2 people to comment below with their info to contact them that live in Chicago will get on the Tycho/ISO50 guest list for tonight, good luck!

I can’t say I’m in love with Swisscom’s new logo by itself, but I will say that the overall rebrand feels right as a whole. The type treatment is solid and the logo — although downright ugly standing still — lends itself well to motion and reinterpretation on packaging. The rebrand was headed up by Moving Brands (apparently with help from Dalton Maag).

I’m not trying to diminish what Moving Brands has done — they know way more than I’ll ever know about brands and how people perceive them, and hell, for all I know this is the best logo ever made and it’s singlehandedly going to increase Swisscom’s annual revenue by 1600% — but seeing a room full of designers standing around an idea board like that and thinking about the hours and weeks and months and millions of dollars that go into a project like this… Well, I sometimes wonder why these big corporations don’t just surf Behance for like and hour or something, find the kid with the best logos, throw him like $50K (which will completely blow his mind and make him your slave basically) and give him like 6 months. I bet he comes up with something just about as good and you saved like $20 million or whatever the hell they pay huge agencies these days. Ok, that’s probably all a bit of a stretch, but it does cross my mind, and if I become CEO of a european telecom giant you better believe I’m at least going to look into the idea. Actually, Moving Brands should have just done the same thing and pocketed the difference, all those guys would be doing burnouts in Ferraris wearing whale skin jackets now instead of standing around a chalkboard.

All that aside, what’s amazing to me is that these companies had the presence of mind and resources to film the process. I can’t imagine what it must have been like for the poor designers over at Moving Brands having some guy with a camera always looking over their shoulder, sounds like a nightmare to me. Of course, a lot of this could have been compiled after the fact, but it’s still an interesting look inside the process of high level design shops. I’ve always wanted to do something similar for one of my posters — capture it from start to finish — but I’m convinced that the second I started the camera I would make the worst thing ever and as hard I tried I would never actually catch anything good happening. Maybe that would be more fun, the time-lapse frustrated designer movie. Video Link

More details and pictures over at Brand New

Via LogoDesignLove

Icelandic artist Siggi Odds is amazing. I think it’s great that he takes time to describe a little background for his projects — each description is perfectly concise and provides just enough context for a better understanding of his artistic choices. Not to mention the work is terrific. I would love to see what he’s been working on recently — if his older work is any indication, he is probably doing some pretty incredible design. Keep an eye out for updates on his site. Hopefully see something new soon!

via The Strange Attractor

You may know The Notwist from listening to Lali Puna or Ms. John Soda or visa versa, I guess if you break the band apart they are all pretty talented. Pilot has alway been a favorite of mine because its got this variety of style in the playing thats in the same range, i like to this of The Notwist as pretty big influence on a lot of bands albums in the mid 2000’s like Phoenix, Snow Patrol, and others that sounded like they’d fit onto an extended soundtrack for Lost in Translation.

OOIOO is a 4 piece all girl noise rock group out of Japan that release on Thrill Jockey(who is home to Tortoise, Sea and Cake, Califone, Radian, etc.) I think what attracted me to their sound is this similarity I hear to certain Slits songs and some stuff my mom listened to when I was young that was coming out in the mid 80s from Eastern Europe’s punk scene that didn’t count on just thrashing out but more distorted/experimental yet not too noisy singing style, building rhythm sections that wasn’t focused on getting you to dance but to just take over the room and the crowd, and upbeat feel at times.

If you heard this Flying Lotus & Kode9 live set that we posted awhile back then you might recognize this Rustie track as the complete crowd pleaser. Can you notice the Mike Tyson Punch Out uppercut sample? Mux Mool pointed that out, totally made the song even better for me since that was my first NES game I ever bought and played.

I’ve only met Konrad Black a couple of times, once I found out he was part of the original Circlesquare group which was great to hear since I loved the early work and the other times he was haunting dancefloors with this dark, sexier, and slower dj sets that would always make me want to pull my hair out because it was soo good. The track that has always grabbed me was this song that I had labeled “Scrawled In Blood Across Your T Shirt” but I guess that was the name of the EP, either way whatever the songs name is its off an EP called that but I have no samples to verify the track name, you’d think 240 Volts which is run by Swayzak would have some kind of info or samples or track times to help me find a copy of this song but thats fine I could never really get mad at Swayzak.

The Notwist – Pilot

[audio:notwist.mp3]

OOIOO – OROKAI

[audio:OOIOO.mp3]

Rustie – Bad Science

[audio:rustiebs.mp3]

Konrad Black & Selfpartwo – Busting Down The Door With A Shotgun

[audio:shotgun.mp3]

Flying Lotus released an EP today which included some remixes as well as 2 new ambient tracks, i’m definitely a fan of both, the man has some talent, when you see him live you’d never think this would of came out of him especially when he drops Lil’ Wayne.

Mux Mool has been on tour with Dark Party(Eliot Lipp & Leo 123) for awhile now(I think 2 or 3 months now in a Scion), he’ll probably be at the Chicago Tycho show this weekend, pinch him for me if you see him he will be the 6 foot 4 guy that should be playing but you might be able to catch him in town later the next week or in your town if you don’t live in Chicago because he has been all over the US, either way this is one of my favorites by him.

Nike has a great mix series going for people that workout unlike myself (except i’m starting up a roller hockey team, if you live in Brooklyn and play indoors let me know), one of the better ones on iTunes is the LCD Soundsystem one which is 45:33 mins long. Well DFA is doing a remix EP which includes this Prince Language remix that i’ve heard him use and kill dance floors with, hope its on vinyl.

Went to the Seaport this weekend in Manhattan to see School of Seven Bells and also caught The xx, really nice stripped down…gentle punk? is there such a thing? either way, they have a ton of buzz and definitely worth checking out.

Flying Lotus – Endless White

[audio:flyend.mp3]

Mux Mool – Eagle Fantasies

[audio:muxeagle.mp3]

LCD Soundsystem – 45:33 (Prince Language remix)

[audio:4533.mp3]

The XX – Shelter

[audio:xx.mp3]

We’re giving away two (2) tickets to the Ghostly 10 Year Show in Chicago this Friday (8/21). Just answer the following question to win:

Name 2 professional athletes that wore the number 77 or 76.

The first to comment with the correct answer will win two (2) tickets to Friday night’s show (21 and over please). Enter your answer in the comments of this post. Be sure to include your email in the form so that we can contact you if you win. And please, only enter if you plan to attend the show.

Good luck!

Color Management: A Field Guide
Whether you are designing for print or for the web, making the leap from what you see on your computer screen to the outside world can be a tricky process, fraught with unpredictable changes and unexpected results. The web is full of information regarding color management and sifting through it can be very overwhelming. Contradictory opinions abound and it can be difficult to find reliable sources of information.

Over the last few months, Scott and I have been researching this topic extensively. With the addition of the new Epson 9900 to the studio, we wanted to be sure that our printer workflow was optimized and producing a consistent output. With the help of Kirk Economos of Meridian Cyber Solutions, we have implemented a color management system that works for us. Below we have tried to aggregate this knowledge into a simple and useful guide, designed to help you ensure your studio is set up correctly. It is not intended to be the end-all article on color management by any means — but it’s a good place to start if color management isn’t something you have previously implemented or considered.

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Choir of Young Believers have finally hit the States this week, the band reminds me a lot of Band of Horses but Choir might have the upper hand on the singing end. I’ve seen Jannis sing maybe 3 times when they stayed with me this winter and each time it might of been the most impressive human talent i’ve witnessed even beating out any Nathan’s hot dog eating contest. Jannis strips the songs down live to just him singing on guitar and his lady friend on cello and some pedals and they can literally do any of their songs that usually involve up to 9 people if I remember correctly.

New Radiohead came out Monday, download it here.

After listening to this 13+ minute Destroyer song I think they should change their name for 2 reasons: first one is because I want to use the name because Destroyer might be the best band name ever and the second is this song doesn’t destroy at all, its whimsical at moments almost and drones around like a Piano Magic song until we’re introduced to an almost disco kick and it becomes a whole different exotic animal.

Slow Hands told me Manuel Tur is still in his teens?? if that’s true than this kid will be owning the electronic/disco scene by the time all this mates finish college if he can hold down this diversity and sound. Can someone like Trus’me or Prince Language do a long edit of this song, i’d love to have that on vinyl.

Choir Of Young Believers – Claustrophobia

[audio:claus.mp3]

Radiohead – These Are My Twisted Words

[audio:twisted.mp3]

Destroyer – Bay of Pigs

[audio:baypig.mp3]

Manuel Tur – Stay Feat. Larissa Kapp

[audio:stay.mp3]

I’ll be playing the Ghostly 10 Year show at The Empty Bottle in Chicago this Friday, August 21st. Should be a great night and if all goes to plan I might have a special guest join me for some songs.

Buy tickets online | More info @ Ghostly | Purchase Poster

Details:

GHOSTLY 10 YEAR ANNIVERSARY: CHICAGO
The Empty Bottle
1035 N Western Ave
Chicago, IL United States
View Map

Live Performances by:
* Tycho / ISO50
* Kill Memory Crash
* Solvent
* Dark Party
* Mike Servito

August 21, 2009
9 PM 21
$15 ADV / $20 Door

Jackson presents The Ghostly 10-Year in Chicago

As Ghostly International hits the 10-year mark, we’re throwing a series of pretty-big-deal parties in select location across the globe. Having torn the roofs off Los Angeles, San Francisco, Detroit, Miami’s Winter Music Conference, and Detroit’s Movement festival, we now aim our music cannons at Chicago. The evening’s bill includes music/design phenomenon Tycho, melodic electro legend Solvent, local industrial legends Kill Memory Crash, and Eliot Lipp’s Dark Party. A DJ set from Mike Servito rounds out a night of truly outstanding music.

I heard a lot of very good female vocalist’s this weekend that I was impressed with, PhilistineDSGN aka Danny turned me onto Velour 100 which is a band from Ypsilanti, MI(home of City Center, Wolf Eyes, etc) while I started buying up a few songs of Kate Bush on iTunes that i didn’t have on this computer, I don’t even need that Chromatic’s Running Up The Hill remix anymore.

This Fever Ray video has to be a favorite of mine now, I try to explain to musicians that a video can be done with a small budget if you have creatives on your side that aren’t into recycling old ideas or following a certain formula, to be honest i’d love to just talk to some crazy on the street and get his incite on something totally off topic and whatever he says make that the video but this Fever Ray is far from simple, she just a has a great creative head on her shoulders.

As for Warpaint I heard it at Urban Outfitter while buying shoes, I love the recording style of this band a lot because i’d never listened to it if it was cleaned up, i’d probably think it was complete trash.

Kate Bush – How To Be Invisible

[audio:howtobe.mp3]

Fever Ray – Triangle Walks

[audio:triwalk.mp3]

Velour 100 – Dolphin Grey

[audio:dolphing.mp3]

Warpaint – Elephants

[audio:elephants.mp3]

Fever Ray – When I Grow Up

Fever Ray – Triangle Walks