Check out the outstanding collaborative photography from Julia & Cody.

There’s a lot of artists out there dedicated to making something cool everyday. Charles Bergquist is another one of them. Go enjoy Charles’ photos & videos, everyday. Also, check out his surf & skate studies he did with an Olympus I3. Slow motion Friday.

I love this animated promo for Dan Bellos’ new book about language & it’s effects on the human experience. I think it’s so smart to run a promo like this, which packages the core messages the book into beautifully animated typography. Self referential in a very good way. Animation by Matt Young.

Tim got in touch to tell us he dug our site. We’ll guess what Tim? We dig your work even more. Fancy that! Check out the fine illustration & identity work from Tim here.

You know Merge Records. The Durham (woo!) based label that represents the likes of Richard Buckner, Spoon, She & Him, and The Rosebuds.  The label started by Mac & Laura of Superchunk. The label behind Arcade Fire’s grammy winning ‘best album of the year.’ You know, the label with the one woman art department… Say whaaaa!?

Yup, Maggie Fost runs the design show at Merge, and she does it all by herself.

I had the pleasure of working in the same building as Merge Records for a a couple of years, so I got to know Maggie during my time there. She’s one of those rare creatures that is both incredibly creative and yet is somehow incredibly organized at the same time. It’s a good thing too, because a one person art department at a successful record label is a very busy bee.

I’ve been thinking a lot about independent designers lately, as I recently quit my job to try my hand at freelancing. One of the things I know I’ll miss most, and something I always wonder if Maggie misses, is always having an outstanding creative team. It can certainly be difficult for designers to collaborate on projects, because it can result in disparate perspectives being forced to respect and work with one another. Which is especially tricky given that designers aren’t exactly sheepish with their opinions. BUT… when a team clicks, or when they can at least argue themselves into deferential understanding, the payoff can be enormous. Both in terms of calibre of work and the shared gratification that comes from successes. It just feels awesome to take a step back and look at something you’ve created, then turn to your compadres in triumph and say ‘Guys, we fucking ruled the farm on this one.’

Waaaaiiiiit. These aren’t uninspired ripoffs created in corel draw and printed on your mom’s hp deskjet 48000?

Nope! Eye Sea Posters sources original vintage movie posters made by the original designers that originally designed them. And they’re not that pricey! Very original.

David Baldwin of Baldwin& got in touch again recently to share some of his latest work. As I’ve come to expect, it’s another example of the type of creative thinking that will inevitably leave you smiling.

The client: BMW. The target: PGA golfers.

The challenge was to get PGA pros behind the wheels of BMW’s new M cars. These pro golfers are always inundated with invitations to promotional events every time they go on tour, so it was imperative that the BMW invites stood out. Here is Baldwin&’s solution, right from the horses mouth:

“In this case, we created a motor oil scented cologne called “15W – 50″ that evokes the essence of the race track. The cologne was then placed in the player’s lockers. A week later when the players check into their hotel rooms, they’re greeted by skid marks coming out from beneath their sinks with another message inviting them to sign up for the event.”

Awesome.

Ziemowat Maj emailed us recently to share a new series of his called ‘The Unpowerful.‘ The severity & loneliness of the compositions was appealing to me right away, but I was intrigued when he described the series as a depiction of ‘the current political scene’ in London. I didn’t pick up on that from the images, so I asked him to elaborate. This was his response -

” I try to depict the tensions I see in the British society as I see them daily on the street – to touch on the issues of class, gender, race (most visibly in the shot with the painting, but that theme in present
constantly, I find it absurd in England), current financial downhill and the way unprivileged classes here deal with it daily – and still I try to bypass the journalist tradition, as I’m not interested in working that way. I hope I can create more iconic and timeless images, that derive from current situations, but will be interesting after this conditions change as well. A lot of my work is instinct based, those major topics are in the back of my head, but I don’t shoot to ‘illustrate an idea’, I shoot when I ‘see a good image’ in front of me.”

I think this a great example of an artist forced into explaining one of the most fundamental aspects of their art and art in general. Tension. So often artists are forced to explain the subject matter of their work in literal contexts so that those interested can understand the message or statement they were trying to make. This can be a really difficult thing to do. That’s why you’ll often here artists begin an explanation of a work with what the piece is literally ‘about’ only for them to deflate the explanation later with ‘but it’s not really about that.’ This is because they are trying to communicate or capture elemental emotions or ideas that transcend the literal context in which they are represented. And so very often – this idea is tension or conflict.

If any of that can be deemed as reasonable, then the thing I often wonder about is whether the literal, contextual explanation is necessary for the piece to be deemed ‘good’ art. Does the piece need to tell a story or send a clear message, or can it just evoke an idea or a feeling in the viewer for them to interpret as they will? I go back and forth over whether the info cards at galleries are at all necessary because of this question. Do they add anything to the viewers experience? I would argue that on some occasions, they detract from work itself because it forces viewers down a certain channel of thinking and can completely alter how they interpret the piece. Which, in my opinion, negates the whole point of art.

Fantastic stuff from Duane ‘The Rock’ Hosein. ‘The Rock’ may or may not be his nickname though.

A group of my colleagues partnered with the Coalition to Unchain Dogs recently to help them promote their annual benefit concert. We were excited to be working with such a great organization, especially when based out of durty Durham. Above is the poster concept I put together for the benefit. I was pretty happy with how it turned out, but they opted for my colleagues concept instead. Das-ok though, great one for the folio!