- DESIGN
- ART
- STYLE
- ARCHITECTURE
- PHOTOGRAPHY
- FOOD
- TECHNOLOGY
- MUSIC
- MOVIES
- CULTURE
- TRAVEL
- PERSONAL
-
SUBSCRIBE
Author Archives: Luke Norris
Sébastien Tellier “My God Is Blue” Album
Don’t get too excited yet. Sébastien Tellier’s latest album isn’t set to drop till Spring next year, but he does tell us – “don’t listen to my album; listen to my message. Enter into vibration with my music. Let’s merge our dreams, together spreading this communal energy in an immense blue wave that will wash over the world and the truth will emerge.” I’m a huge fan of his music so I can’t wait to see what he has installed for us.
Posted in ART, MUSIC, CULTURE
Leave a comment
The Rap Board
This is a genius idea for an app! Signature catchphrases, grunts and unintelligible awesomeness from the biggest names in hip-hop for you to mess around with on your phone. It’s still to be approved by Apple but you can have a test run on their website.
Thanks for the find Choko Bensini.
Posted in DESIGN, TECHNOLOGY, MUSIC, CULTURE
Leave a comment
TV Poster Series by Exergian
Austrian designer Albert Exergian has created a series of modernist images inspired by TV shows. By converting some simple lines and shapes into very characteristic illustration, the designer has accomplished to capture the essence of some popular TV series. Founded in 1998, Exergian is a Vienna-based design consultancy specialized in art direction, identity and design for a multitude of applications, media & environments.
Posted in DESIGN, ART, CULTURE
Leave a comment
LUNCH WITH JOHN C JAY (STUDIO J)
Edwin Himself Interview with Mr Jay –
A few days ago, John Jay invited us (w+k12) over for lunch at his private creative consultancy space, Studio J. Over that last two months, we’d occasionally get a glimpse of him through the halls at Wieden+Kennedy, but would rarely get a chance to speak with him since he’d usually be on his way in-or-out of the building. So this was our formal introduction. John Jay is currently the executive creative director of W+K and also spends time overseeing their global offices in New York, London, Amsterdam, Shanghai, Beijing, Tokyo, Delhi and São Paulo.
Studio J is currently tackling a project with the city that would facilitate the construction of a multi-purpose hostel complex. The building would house artists, designers and creative-types looking for affordable spaces to hone their craft. This would be a definite catalyst to help re-energize Portland’s Chinatown district. Word is that Alex Calderwood, founder of the famed Ace Hotel chain, will be a collaborator of the project.
I’ve been a big fan of John Jay’s work for quite some time and followed his blogs within the NYTimes and Japan’s Honeyee. In 2008, I had the pleasure of hearing him speak at Imprint Lab alongside Jeff Staple and Hiroshi Fujiwara. This was definitely a great time to pick his brain in between bites.
During our stay, John made an interesting point about being an artist (or any creative type for that matter). He mentioned that you should always be wary of getting too comfortable and that you should always be challenging yourself. His decision to move from New York to Portland baffled his former employers at Bloomingdale’s—a brand he helped shape during the 80′s and early 90′s—but it was the challenge of a smaller city and the departure from the fashion industry that allured him to Wieden+Kennedy.
Above, are bricks of soap that will eventually be cut into smaller sizes. John and his wife Janet also utilize the space as a workshop for their boutique soap collection, Pearl+. Each block is hand crafted and made out crushed pearls. The thing that’s great about running a soap operation within your studio is that your space will always smell pretty damn good. The collection is only available at small handful of places including Colette and Ace Hotel PDX.
Below is John’s art collection. Some of my favorites were done by Chris Johanson, Tom Sachs, Jun Takahashi (UNDERCOVER) and Kaws.
Posted in DESIGN, ART, STYLE, ARCHITECTURE, PHOTOGRAPHY, CULTURE, TRAVEL
Leave a comment
Evolved Superheroes
Posted in DESIGN, ART, CULTURE
Leave a comment
Surveillance
TechCrunch Article –
Your phone might be spying on you. The many cameras you pass every day can recognize your face. Facebook, despite its grudging concessions, still wants you to broadcast your personal life. “Eye in the sky” drones are already watching over borders; next, they’ll patrol the Olympics. It won’t be long before police dronesare omnipresent in the skies over every major city, and then every town. Welcome to the 21st century. Smile! You’re probably on TV.
Especially if you live in the kind of repressive state that imprisons its citizens without trial. (You know, like America, if the US Senate has its way.) According to both Wikileaks and that well-known bastion of the left wing The Wall Street Journal, such regimes have been buying up Western-made high-tech surveillance systems like business travellers on unlimited expense accounts. To quote the former, “companies are making billions selling sophisticated tracking tools to government buyers, flouting export rules, and turning a blind eye to dictatorial regimes that abuse human rights.”
Which kind of puts Facebook privacy violations in perspective, so I’m not going to bash Mark Zuckerberg, for once. The guy probably genuinely believes in the merits of a transparency society where everybody’s life is essentially on display all the time. Or even if he doesn’t, he figures that our ever-doubling tech level means we’re inevitably heading there anyways, so he may as well make a few dozen billion dollars from that sea change while he’s at it. Fair enough.
But a transparent society can’t work if it’s built out of one-way glass. The powers that be are thrilled by the prospect of using all this new surveillance tech to keep an eye on the unruly masses, but they seem much less excited about its effect on their own privacy. The Occupy movement (which, you may recall, I have mixed emotions about) can cite a whole bunch of examples of protestors arrested or shot with rubber bullets for the sin of photographing police, and of the police expelling and restricting media from the evictions in NYC and LA.
Posted in TECHNOLOGY, CULTURE, TRAVEL
Leave a comment
Insane Photoshop Skills
Posted in DESIGN, ART, TECHNOLOGY, MOVIES, CULTURE
Leave a comment
London Philharmonic Orchestra: The Greatest Video Game Music (2011)
01 – Advent Rising Muse
02 – Legend of Zelda Suite
03 – Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 Theme
04 – Angry Birds Main Theme
05 – Final Fantasy VIII Liberi Fatali
06 – Super Mario Bros Theme
07 – Uncharted – Drake’s Fortune Nate’s Theme
08 – Grand Theft Auto IV Soviet Connection
09 – World of Warcraft Seasons of War
10 – Metal Gear Solid Sons of Liberty Theme
11 – Tetris Theme (Korobeiniki)
12 – Battlefield 2 Theme
13 – Elder Scrolls Oblivion
14 – Call of Duty 4 – Modern Warfare Main Menu Theme
15 – Mass Effect Suicide Mission
16 – Splinter Cell Conviction
17 – Final Fantasy Main Theme
18 – Bioshock The Ocean on his Shoulders
19 – Halo 3 One Final Effort
20 – Fallout 3 Theme
21 – Super Mario Galaxy Gusty Garden Galaxy
22 – Bonus Track Dead Space Welcome Aboard The U.S.G. Ishimura
Source
Posted in MUSIC, CULTURE
Leave a comment
Nike Vintage Nylon Blazer Hi
Available in either blue or red colour ways, each style features a nylon upper accented with white at the Swoosh and collar.
Posted in STYLE, CULTURE
Leave a comment
Conference of cool.
T.I, Kanye West and Jay-Z.
Source
Posted in STYLE, PHOTOGRAPHY, CULTURE
Leave a comment
Beats By Dr. Dre Studio Color Campaign
For Holiday 2011 we have reinvented our first and most popular headphone, The Studio, in a spectrum of candy colors good enough to eat. Whether you choose blue, pink, orange, or green, we have the color that “is you.”
Nero’s first live performance at our recently opened Pop-Up store in NYC. Dre, who was in attendance at the performance, chose Nero “Me & You” for the spot’s powerful track.
Album: Welcome Reality (Digital out now, CD in stores 12/13)
Posted in DESIGN, STYLE, PHOTOGRAPHY, TECHNOLOGY, MOVIES, CULTURE, TRAVEL
Leave a comment
How to Remove the Rust from Your Designing Skills
Finally realization has dawn on you that your designing skills are failing short of holding your clients back. To put it in simple English, clients are not impressed with your templates anymore and they are looking for something cool, trendy and sharp which is clearly not in your limit anymore. Since there is no alternative, unless witnessing exodus of clients, you need to accept the fact that your designing skills have gather some rust and you need to get rid of it at the earliest. Here we are going to share some quick fire tips that can help you though to some extents only remove the rust from your designing skills:
Do a Career Sabotage
It is quite though to do a career sabotage like taking one year break in this tough economic condition. But if you have the guts, provided you have the required amount of saving, you should take the risk to come up as stronger. It will have a refreshing effect your creativity. However, you should not waste the time partying hard, rather join some short-term courses. For say, if you are not that much confident working with HTML5, it makes perfect sense that you should join a small course to get the hang on it.
Participate in Some Conference
Definitely, this is not anything new and there are some people who just hate to participate in conference for some reasons unknown. But they are not that much bad. Though tediousness sermons will be delivered time and again, you can get valuable tips from industry experts around the world. Moreover, at least, you will have a clear insight of the latest trends ruling the web design industry.
Reward Yourself
Of course, you cannot pamper yourself with chocolate and ice creams when you are clearly not doing anything awesome. But to live up the expectation of the clients, you need to take up new challenges like learning a new CSS trick or completing the next chapter of HTML 5 and once you successfully completed the benchmarks, reward yourself with a 2 hours break or anything that you would just love to do.
Community
There is nothing like joining a community where some of the best and the finest minded designers gather to share their experience and views. You should join Dribbble, DesignersCouch, Forrst and their likes and you will get to know the probable future of website design and be sure to share your personal opinions. However, it is not just about online community. You need to create small community with your peers and colleagues as they are the best friends you can have to learn new techniques.
Read Books
When your designing skills require serious makeover, you need to reignite your passion for reading and there are some great publications available like O’Reilly. O’Reilly has got probably the best online library of covering almost every technical subject imaginable. So you can have truly great books on Photoshop, Dreamweaver etc. And the good thing is that there are several books available there for free.
W3C Schools
This is probably the best resource you should have, if aspire to catch up with the latest designing trends. The best part of W3C School is that they always update their content and publish a full overview of content even when they are not even supported by browsers. So, now you can race ahead of time and give your designing skill a whole new dimension.
About Guest Author:
Jacob Smith is a passionate writer and a vocal support of intellectual property rights. He has written numerous articles on blogging, social media, intellectual property, tech and he has published some articles for the guardlex.com, a website famed for its DMCA take down services.
Posted in DESIGN, CULTURE, PERSONAL
Leave a comment
David Beckham & James Bond: Background Check
HBTV2: David Beckham & James Bond: Background Check from HBTV on Vimeo.
HBTV sit down with UNDFTD’s James Bond and soccer luminary David Beckham, as they talk about the inspiration that goes into their ongoing capsule collection for adidas. Introduced through Beckham’s wife, Victoria, their partnership was one that came about through sharing the same likes and dislikes when it came to fashion and product collaborations. In describing the line, both men consider it to be “simple, yet aspirational,” and products that aren’t defined by age. Check out the interview with two men who are at the forefront of their respective professions.
Posted in STYLE, PHOTOGRAPHY, MOVIES, CULTURE
Leave a comment
Can’t wait for snowboard season to kick in!
Source
Posted in PHOTOGRAPHY, CULTURE, TRAVEL, PERSONAL
Leave a comment
SIR ANTHONY HOPKINS: “I SEE THE LINES, BUT I DON’T CARE”
The Talks Interview –
Sir Hopkins, you once said that the more life you experience the more it seems like a dream. Was there a certain moment in your life where things seemed to diverge from reality?
Most of my last 30 years have been like that. Results and manifestations of things I’d dreamed of as a young kid and wanted as a child and as a young man. I realized it maybe 30 years ago. I thought, “This is unreal. This has happened as I expected it to, as I’d pictured it.” My whole life has been like that and I’m fascinated by that power that we all have. That we create our lives as we go.
Do you think actors and filmmakers have a more powerful inner life? People often say actors are more emotional, more sensitive.
Well, I always distrust the word art when it is applied to acting. I’ve always liked to be a meat and potatoes kind of actor who doesn’t believe in any of the highfalutin stuff about acting, so I tend to be a little bit more cynical. But I guess it is a creative process; acting is a creative process, and directing and music. I think creative people – and I take myself as a creative person and it doesn’t mean you have to be an actor, a musician, or a painter – but I think if you are in a creative profession or a creative business you do have a heightened awareness. It doesn’t make you special though.
A lot of actors certainly behave as if they are…
You have to be careful of that because when you begin to believe you have license because you are a special person breathing special oxygen, that’s when you’re in big trouble. That’s the road to insanity. And a lot of people in the studios are like that. They believe that they are special. I do think actors are blessed, or cursed, with maybe a slightly heightened awareness, which you have to use. That’s all. It doesn’t mean you’re superior or better than anyone it just means that’s the way our brains tick.
Were there any directors in the past that have really inspired you?
There have been a number of them and they all have their own quirky way of working. I’ve worked with Oliver Stone, Spielberg, a number of them. Some of the best and I’ve been lucky. When I direct I try to keep it a unique design of my own. Naturally you’re influenced. Oliver Stone is a great director and I’ve seen many films over the years, but I try to create stuff out of my own imagination. I want to break all the rules and mess about with it and make a different movie just for the fun of it.
Does acting help to keep you young?
Yeah. I am young! Being creative and keeping your brain occupied is very sensible because if you don’t you die, slowly. Although sometimes I feel tired and think I ought to give it up, I don’t want to just retire. No, I enjoy it all and you just keep going until the day comes when you can’t do it anymore. And that’s what I want to do.
Are you still obsessed by acting?
I used to be a bit obsessed by it but not anymore. I do enjoy acting but I probably enjoy it more now because it’s easier. I can’t work in the theater because to me it’s too serious. It’s like being in prison for me. I admire people that can do that but I can’t do it. I’d rather live my life and do a bit of acting in between.
What does your life look like these days?
I play piano and that’s my love. I read and I paint and I compose music, so I’ve got a pretty full creative life. And it’s not because, you know, I’m obsessively creative. I enjoy painting. I don’t know if I’m good at it, but I paint. I paint very quickly. I paint in acrylic and it seems to work and I write music and compose music and play the piano and I read a lot and life’s good. So acting is something I do as a fill in.
You seem to be at harmony with yourself…
I wish when I was younger I knew what I know today, what I feel like today, a kind of ease with myself. Because when you’re younger you are much more intense and everything’s much more important and you look back and you think, “Oh what was that all about?” Nothing is that important, just live your life because we’re here so briefly.
So you enjoy getting older?
Yeah. I keep in shape. I look in the mirror and I see the lines, but I don’t care. It’s a good time. I don’t know why it’s such a good time, but it’s a good time. Mortality is the great rescuer, it finally takes you out of everything, and that makes life good, you know? Read Carl Jung. It makes life richer because this is it; none of us know where we go and this is the fun of it.
Have you achieved everything you wanted to achieve?
Beyond everything. I’ve been very lucky. I’ve had my problems in the past, I’ve had my troubles, but you move on. I had a great life and I am really thankful for it.
Posted in STYLE, PHOTOGRAPHY, CULTURE
Leave a comment