February 5, 2013
If those are your last names, as designers, you have an obligation to start a sweet ass studio. That’s what Sofie Hannibal and Nan Na Hvass did in 2006. The work they’ve produced since is even more impressive than their moniker.
The duo has worked in damn near every format imaginable (awards, interiors, print, textiles, environmental, etc etc) and it’s never diluted their trademark style. Something to aspire to.
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December 3, 2012
Ever think about what music “looks” like? Many songwriters talk about visualizing the shape of their songs. Frank Zappa used to “draw” his music when he composed, visually represent it through arcs and blobs and stretching blips. Martin Wattenberg, as he states on his site “created a visualization method called an arc diagram that highlighted repeated sections of music–or of any sequence–with translucent arcs.” COOL.
The above diagram represents Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, Autumn. You can listen to it here.
Of course, as someone who is discovering music (theory, performance, composition and really why I like the shit I like) all over again as an adult, this, I imagine, is how an eleven year old boy feels like when he opens a certain drawer in his father’s dresser while home alone for the first time. It also may be helpful to express my musical ecstasy by providing you with a visual of the guy who introduced me to Wattenberg’s work. My piano teacher, Mike Effenberger:
I mean, look at the dude. He’s obviously a mad genius. (Photo by Enna Grazier at a PMAC fundraising event – p.s. PMAC is AMESOME).
He also happens to be the perfect fit for me as a teacher. Proof being that he knew how much of a visual person I am and that, to make the connection between the seeing and hearing world would be a huge turning point for me as a student, artist and not to get too dramatic here (but it is So. True.) a better fucking human being. If you like smart experimentation rooted in supreme knowledge and curiosity, you should check out one of the 80 projects Mike is a part of. It’ll change how you see and hear the world.
But, back to Wattenberg…
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November 27, 2012
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October 15, 2012
One of my favorite aspects of working at Wieden+Kennedy is that I get to be around and be inspired by so many amazing artists, many of whom have been featured here. Today—let’s add Ramon Coronado and his side business to that list. His bio is impressive and humbling—and so is he. Public-Library is a non-traditional design group formed by himself and equally as impressive Marshall Rake.
Keywords: Swiss inspired, experimental and well-considered typography, unexpected and superbly executed design.
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August 27, 2012
The great dudes behind Hoppy Press had a genius idea. Why not create quality art for homebrewers? There are only so many homebrew kits you can buy your brother-in-law, right?
More info, pics and screenprinting process picks after the jump!
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June 4, 2012
This past Friday was special for all of us here in Portsmouth, NH. It marked the first opening of the Seed & Pulp show for Store Gallery at 3S Artspace. Guest curated by my main man, Dylan Haigh – it brought together printmakers from around the world to show off the hand-touched medium. It took us (note: when I use the word “us” I really mean Dylan and the fantastic group of super fine volunteers, board members and partners at 3S – I just did a mediocre job of adding my unwanted opinion here and there) a couple of months of blood, sweat and freak outs to get this off the ground and ready for the First Friday Art walk in town.
To our delight and surprise, people (over 600 of them) really came out in full force to see the new space and the work. We opened at 5pm and had a continuos stream of people walking in and out, purchased prints in hand. I think one of the biggest successes of the night was the fact that people had a chance to really hang. They could walk through and look at everything on the walls and then sit outside and chat about art, Portsmouth, music, 3S, summertime, whatever. I’ve been to a fair share of art openings and my biggest complaint is always the fact that I get all dressed up and when I get there, I walk in and walk out which – all in all, takes only about 15 minutes. It’s often the art that has me bored or the discouraging fact that I can’t actually purchase anything and bring it home. A printmaking show with more accessible prices (most were in the range of $25-$75) solves that problem for sure.
For me, it was a great shift in perspective. Portsmouth is small town on the scale of my own life experience. Seed & Pulp reminded me that even in a small town, you can’t know everything and everyone. You can always learn something from and be inspired by someone new. There were so many cool looking people that I had never seen in town before! So many lucite eye glasses that I wanted! Seed & Pulp gave us all a night to think and talk about really important things like art, community and…corpse paint. Really, at one point I do remember Dylan’s mom telling us that her favorite piece was Caitlin Gallupe’s “Winter Solstice Pizza Party” (see below) and Dylan tried to explain that the face paint wasn’t KISS related. See, everyone got a valuable education. More importantly, they came, they bought, they got excited. That’s really all we could have hoped for.
If you don’t live in New England, don’t worry. What hasn’t already sold out is still available for purchase online at the 3S store.
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May 25, 2012
Illustrator and owner of Birdcage Bottom Books J.T. Yost and I go waaaaay back. We spent many-a-night in Austin belting out songs of woe as part of Earl Bible and His Stories (yeah that’s right, a myspace link… you love it) back in ’99, and drank whiskey out of mayonnaise jars while busting out rhymes as part of acclaimed freestyle rap ensemble Fresh Animals. These days, JT is hard at work cranking out comics, screen printing, painting, and being a dad. And just this week he announced his Kickstarter-backed project DIGESTATE: A Food and Eating Themed Comic Anthology.
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April 13, 2012
SILVER & LIGHT from Ian Ruhter on Vimeo.
This is a beautiful project, with beautiful people, beautiful craft, and pure Friday awesomeness. Going back to the roots without leaving society. You know what I’m going to say: RAD!
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April 4, 2012
Glen Milner is a London based filmmaker who created a short vignette of a book being created using traditional printing methods.
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March 19, 2012
I’ve been swimming in coffee and tea packaging inspiration, so I thought I’d share my world with you today. HAM is about to launch into a very exciting rebrand for a local bev maker here in NH. We’re very excited. Not to mention totally jacked up on the high quality coffee our client keeps generously sending us away with after meetings. Life is good.
Oh, and we here at Okay Great have a very exciting giveaway coming up (that’s related to this post, actually!) so keep reading and be on the lookout for that soon!
More bev porn after the jump!
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