11.11.09

WOW

As if I couldn't be more pitiful in my last post. So, a few months later, productive & happily back in beautiful Ketchum, ID...this is what I've got going on today!

Album art for Cement Stars.
A few screen grabs from the workstation!





I have to finish this tonight...no questions...so I'll post the final versions and get some feedback. <3 from snowy country...

9.9.09

how do you break up


WITHOUT LOSING YOUR MIND

3.9.09

Mad Love for David Lawrey & Jaki Middleton

OMIGOSH omigosh omigosh. So this morning I'm perusing It's Nice That, my favorite art/design blog (for lots of reasons), and see this awesome little video depiction of Michael Jackson which uses a zoetrope (!!!) & I just have to check out the rest of this duo's work.

If you're a film history lover like me, you'll enjoy their methodology. These guys are Aussies whose "collaborative practice draws on popular visual culture, art history and cinematic traditions to create works that engage the viewer via optical phenomena, juxtaposition and repetition." Cinematic parlor tricks & -tropes galore. Take what you will from the "meaning" of the works; the simple visual effects and careful re-appropriation of old-school tricks like Pepper's Ghost are enough reason to appreciate their works.

Some of my favorites: Magic Mountain, which references not only Edward Scissorhands but also the pinnacle of my sixth-grade birthday party & beginning of obsession with horror film & cinematography, The Shining. How's that for a run-on sentence?

In another delightfully creepy Kubrick reference, Forever and ever and ever uses a mechanical Thaumatrope to juxtapose a Diane Arbus photo of twins with an image of the hallway from The Shining. Twins are just plain scary anyway, dopplegangers with mystical powers. I've never met a set of twins that didn't freak me out, and this is another reason why (sorry.)

Finally, in a very visually reminiscent style of Michel Gondry, You're not thinking fourth dimensionally is a piece with a great title that uses the Pepper's Ghost effect to produce a ghost train. Watch the vid, and remember how great it was to ride the Tower of Terror at Disney.





Looking at these pictures, I realize another element in the allure of their work: the perspective of a single viewer.

1.9.09

home is where the potential typefaces are

I'VE HAD THIS LITTLE IDEA on the brain since the last time I was in NC...April-ish. My Mom has loads of really neat antiques...dishware, prints, books, jewelry, etc. Who knows where most of them are from; my mom was adopted and is by far the youngest person alive on that side of the family, so a lot of the stories with these objects were taken to the grave when the previous owner passed.

I had never really thought about this before, but I'm sure the visual environment you're brought up with somehow informs your style later on. Not to say you have to be surrounded by amazing objects your whole life; maybe if you grow up around wicker & shag rug you can take away an uncanny sense of irony. Same way, maybe, if you're raised in the burbs, in some cookie cutter crap. Obviously this isn't the only thing that informs creative folk, but in my case at least I think it did.

Before I ramble on anymore I'll get to my original idea: taking elements from all of this stuff and developing a typeface, or at least a set of vector images. I don't claim to be a type designer, but I loooove the idea. I mean think about it. Antiques are generational; there's always going to be a battle over them amongst the kinfolk, and every time they're passed down, the objects take on new meaning (in a new physical environment, they age, stories about them become more folklore-ish. You know what I mean.)

It just seems appropriate for me to do something like this right now, as well. I spent 9 months away in Idaho somewhat disconnected from my family, and I didn't do much designing while I was out there. For fear of using a cliché I won't up & say "I'm finding myself" through this...but it's a good, fun thing to focus on for a little bit.

Anyway here are a few snapshots from Le iPhone of a few objects I have in mind. I ESPECIALLY like the black mountain-looking thing. (Sorry, at a loss for words...) Surprisingly, because I'm already so, so over the glam rock look in all the fall fashion magazines.





31.8.09

i heart you

HOTNESS

So every few days, or whenever I want, I guess, 'cause this is my little piece of internet, I'm going to do a HOTNESS posting. This will basically feature some of my favorite online finds from my horrible, horrible browsing addiction.

I used to be really bad at letting myself wander off into design-site land, but now I'm allotting a little bit of time every morning after I get a gigantic coffee & take my bro to the bus stop. That way I have a little fix in the a.m. and then can get on with my life/work later on. Now I guess I have to make a little blog time, too.

TODAY I started to wander through some past bookmarks, just to get a second look at a few things I've recently found interesting. Ill Studio is a French group with some quietly gorgeous work. I've been having a looksee around their website, which actually pisses me off a bit, since it's one of those super-long horizontal scroll set-ups, but I was in the mood to get lost in the work, so I was OK with it today. Especially nice are the Audible Visions CD packaging and fold-out (no. 01 on the 'works' page) and the Magazine no. 47 (09). I'm always into some thoughtful lo-fi (when it's good), so go you, Ill. They seem to be just as into triangles right now as I am, too.

MANIFEST BLOGSTART

Friends,

I've been meaning to get back into blogging a while ago, but I guess it takes being unemployed and living at home again to get your ass in gear sometimes. It's just not enough anymore to ferociously tag everything on delicious (although I'm sure I'll refer to my list many, many times.)

The thing I come away with a lot after perusing designer's sites is that I often learn more about them from their blogs/flickrs/etc. than I do their proper portfolio sites. There's something alluring about process work, candid writing, the occasional curse word, and the subsequent publication of all of these. That being said...I'll let you know when my portfolio site is up. For now, enjoy MANIFEST BLOGSPOT.

lurve, shayshay