WU-TANG! Protect ya neck! A big project comes out of VISUAL ID (my employer / daily providers). WESC released a headphone collaboration with RZA and Visual ID was asked to help design the new line. This project was hush hush for a while and I’m proud to say I was a minor part of the process. Mostly over the shoulder opinions and positive support, but I got to see these head wraps develop up close and personal. From sketch pad to final touches. Most of the mouse clicks and decisions were made a few feet from my desk. And it’s amazing to see the time and detail that has to be put in to create an actual headphone. Never mind the budgets and production dimensions you have to work within. Truly a grueling process when you actually focus on usability and develop new functions.
Had a big chance and was asked to design some logos for the RZA headphone, and man I’m still a bit sore from the let down. Just one of those things that you pray to work on and solve, I mean it’s RZA. In the end the cards didn’t fall in my favor, which I can easily accept. I’m just glad to be a part of the process in someway. Had a good rip at the packaging, and I can’t wait to see how it all fits together when it hits stores. Diecuts!
I love the softness and simplicity of the new headphones shape. Yeah I’m bias, but I look at them and see some comfort after 2-3 hours of use. A long airplane ride without the ear burn, what is that by the way? Just aches on the edge of your ear if you have a big round head like myself. Anyways, just glad I can use a pair next time I’m crossing the Atlantic, but who knows, maybe I’ll blow my eardrums.
Awesome work Oscar Lindblom, Niclas Svensson, Matte Wiberg, and Rasmus Rantil. Tight deadlines and all.
MORE ON THE PROJECT:
The RZA speaks on the how it all came together.
Stumbled across this image on a Rock N Roll search. It’s the image from an MC5 gig poster. I’m not sure who Grimshaw is, but I love what he (or she) is doing, or did as MC5 is from the mid 60′s. So good. I’m really into anatomical form and shape through a more abstract view. Sincerely. Ever since that life drawing course in college, I have had a deep respect.
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Going to see Leonard Kaage play to tonight at a local cafe. I’m into his tunes, he has some Buckley and Ryan Adams feel in his vocals, which I’m into. Plus Leonard is a super nice guy. End plug.
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Normally I wouldn’t give two hoots who won the Tampa Pro contest, but this year one of my all time favorite professional skateboarders took the title. Dennis is a skateboarders skateboarder, and watching the clip above just proves how much push the guy has. Inspirational that push. Glad the warmer weather is coming, maybe I’ll get a new scar this year. Most likely by full contact with a pebble or small stone.
Packing those logos in tight. Amazing inspiration all packed into one image. Click on the image to dive in a bit more. I can just stare at layouts like this for minutes, dazed, bewildered, amazed and happy all at the same time. Then I think about every person who had a hand in each individual logo, mind blowing material at that point and a big time sponge. Seriously though, so good, black and white.
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NEW ON THE JUKEBOX / CONSTANT ROTATION > Blue Sky Black Death from Seattle. Great name and even greater tunes for work. Not overly distracting yet upbeat enough to keep the mouse clicks snapping. As a music mood person I tend to have music genres in rotation like the seasons, but I have been in this shoe-gazing / electronic funk for almost a year, and I keep finding more and more great stuff to fuel the fire. I put a BSBD song on the music player, check them out.
It’s always fun to hear what people listen too when they work. Heard everything from techno, strictly Lil Wayne, the local radio station playing the top 100, all the way to some backyard bluegrass. If it works for you than more power to you. My babe Lina Bird gets down to THIS and we love her for it! Damn, what a song. Makes me want to have a beer on the beach in the 1960′s.
I’m curious about what you (yes you) listen to while working. And if you don’t work, enjoy it as long as humanly possible.
Over the holiday break I read a real page turner > WHITE LINE FEVER. It’s the autobiography of Lemmy Kilmister, and for those of you who don’t know who that is he is the front man and soul of a speed metal band called Motörhead. 65 year old Lemmy should be six feet under. I’m sure half of this book was written at a bar over some whiskey and cigarettes, but he’s still going strong. It’s always interesting to hear peoples steps to stardom, and this one is probably as fucked up as they come. Drugs, women, and rock’n roll are just the basics in Lemmy’s story, but what I really appreciated about the book was how he goes through the development of rock’n roll from the 1950′s, 60′s, 70′s, 80′s and 90′s through present day. You can see the time shifts in what bands were popular at the time, the drugs they were doing, the music they played at shows, it was almost like a timeline. Not many people can claim to be as old as rock’n roll, let alone played rock’n roll since it became a music genre. Lemmy was given some lemons, but he kept moving forward no matter what, I have big respect for an outlook and work ethic like that. Give it a read, get your party squashed by the guy who is 10 times your party on your best night.
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Updated my gear back in the states, new Macbook Pro, with a shit gloss screen. I can’t believe you have to special order a matte screen mac these days, but I had to get one as I was only there for a week and the stores only carried gloss screens, but at least I have a standard keypad, none of this crazy swedish keyboard action I have been adapting to lately. I actually run a swedish keyboard on english settings at work, so none of the buttons align right, but I got it dialed in pretty well. Hoping one day I can go straight swedish, give me a bit, learning slowly.
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2010 ends tomorrow, it’s been a wildly amazing year. So many things I am thankful for, hoping 2011 brings a whole new bag of experiences, more on this tomorrows post.
Happy new year!
FOALS has been on my play-list ever since hearing them last year on some PDX internet radio station. Foals is a five piece band from Oxford, England with only 2 album releases and a whole lot of notoriety. Were going down to Gothenburg for a long weekend and we picked up some tickets to see Foals play live. I’ve got my fingers crossed they play some tracks off the 2008 album Antidotes (above).
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NEW WORK: Visual ID posts an identity project that I created and brought to life. It’s interesting to see in this design business how a logo or identity project goes from point A to Z and how your design model and approach fit that identity case. It’s almost like snowflakes, every project, client and approach is different. Some battles are bigger than others.
Check out the Visual ID post here > SVENSKA BILSPORTFÖRBUNDET
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JASON LEVINS updates with a new image gallery and an online store. Jason is a Vermonter who lives in Portland Oregon, Jason is also a great dude to take a road trip with, among many other good qualities. Check out some of his photography and design at his internet outlet > STATIC ON THE BRAIN
Heavy / Black / Death Metal! Went to a local magazine / book shop near the office a couple weeks ago and stumbled upon a newly released (January 2010) graphic book called Lord of the Logos. It’s a collection of work from Christophe Szpajdel who is the master of this style of graphic work. So many bands, so many details. Symmetrical calligraphy folks, down to a science. He has created 7,000 logos for bands around the world, pretty amazing stuff. When a band brands their promotionals with this type style, it strictly marks them as a band and the genre of music they play. You won’t see Brittany Spears contracting Christophe anytime soon. The power of typography.
Here is an interview with Christophe at VICE.
There is something intriguing about metal. More underground music, darkness, mysticism, eye liner and a ton of black (which I can get behind). I can safely say that live metal music is just amazing and very entertaining, but I find myself not listening to it on the day to day because I find it a bit repetitive at times. This could be a complete folly on my end for not staying current, but I will always respect it highly being “tough as hell”.
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If your ever in the market for some amazing graphical books > GESTALTEN
These Germans offer everything from publishing to motion graphics, and pretty much everything in between. A highly dedicated graphic squad in my eyes.
Getting on a train and heading into southern Sweden. Heading to Gothenburg to meet up with Lina Bird and some friends to attend a music festival > WAY OUT WEST. 3 solid days of live bands through large and small venues all over town. I’m gonna be running around, and hopefully not a lot of getting lost due to the WAY OUT WEST Iphone app I just found. I don’t understand Swedish, but I can get around dates, days and time like any other Swede. Technology, still blows my mind regularly, the app has no beer tent locater, so I dock a couple points.
BANDS ON THE LIST:
The National – Ohio’s finest.
Wu Tang (word)