The Killers MTV Stage Design December 24, 2008
Posted by Ivan Pols in design, film, illustration.1 comment so far
I’m not a fan of the song but their stage show design at the European MTV Awards was fairly spectacular. Looks like fun.
Charlotte Mann Draws Life Size December 23, 2008
Posted by Ivan Pols in art, drawing.add a comment
I pretend to draw occasionally so I’m aware of some of the difficulties with the form. One of them is filling a wall. A mural size black and white drawing is a challenge. One which Charlotte Mann has turned into a speciality. From fashion show backdrops to house murals, Charlotte brings a charm and liveliness to her 1:1 drawings that looks effortless. Beyond scribbling on walls Charlotte also creates the odd fashion museum piece.
Moritz Waldemeyer Will Light You Up December 18, 2008
Posted by Ivan Pols in animation, art, design, games, technology.Tags: art, crystal, design, fashion, laser, LED, moritz waldemeyer, swarovski, technology
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Moritz Waldemeyer is a technical designer from East Germany with a penchant for LEDs, Crystals and Lasers. He’s built custom gadgetry for Swarovski, Chalayan, Arad & Troika. Moritz has created tables with built in LED games like Ping Pong and Roulette that look and act beautifully.
I’ve done some research into projected image interactive pieces which always look clunky but these built in LEDs are awesome. Mr Waldemeyer is already famous but I think his influence on mass communications is about to become gigantic. This man has managed to hack solutions to designer dreams and execute them with style. He also has a sense of humour. It’s a pity so much of his work is almost impossible to photograph well, however, this little reading list should educate you quite quickly on the state of the art.
This is a sampler of his work.
Click here to see his excellent “Readings” dresses that he did for H Chalayan.
Ping Pong Table
Roulette Table
Go OK Stage Costumes
Operation Game
Help Child Soldiers Fight December 5, 2008
Posted by Ivan Pols in advertising.Tags: fight, help child soldiers, john st
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Toronto agency, John St., are trying to do a very difficult thing. They’re attempting to make the horror of child soldiers in Africa, places like the Congo and Darfur, a reality to middle-class Canadians. It’s a tough sell. It’s hard to imagine your precocious hockey playing 12 year old drugged, abused and carrying an AK47 through the bush. I think they’re doing a fine job.
Roel Wouters - Running with the Beast December 4, 2008
Posted by Ivan Pols in art, culture, images, music, video.Tags: roel wouters, cocks, chickens, zZz
1 comment so far
This music video by the graphic designer Roel Wouters is stirring up some controversy. Despite all protestations that No Animal Was Hurt in the making of this video for zZz, bleeding hearts are crying fowl. No animal was hurt. It is the nature of these animals to have at each other. You could argue that these poor, dumb animals had no choice in the matter, unlike like us humans who only have complete control over our fates. Is watching this for our entertainment morally questionable? Like watching Ultimate Fighting, girls beating each other up and glorified gambling. Where is your moral centre? This video makes people pick fights. Which is exactly what I find myself doing in this post. Genius. At least the birds had referees to stop any pecking below the belt.
It’s a polarising, graphic and artful video. And unafraid.
Here’s the Making Of.
Jon McNaught Squishes Paper Beautifully December 2, 2008
Posted by Ivan Pols in art, design, illustration, images, portfolio.Tags: jon mcnaught, limited palette, print maker
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I bumped into Mr McNaught from Bristol, England quite happily today. Well, his portfolio & blog to be more precise. I’m very, very far away from Bristol so that would have been quite the bump. I digress. This print maker and illustrator is excellent. His simple, lyrical and wonderful images are hand-made and are quite fantastical. And I don’t hand that out at the drop of a hat. Or giant monster foot as in Mr McNaught’s case.
(via Drawn!)
3 Fashion Shooters to View December 1, 2008
Posted by Ivan Pols in fashion, photography.Tags: chris nicholls, chris wadsworth, fashion, josh cornell, models, photography
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Here are 3 interesting photographers I’ve had the pleasure of talking to in the last few days. They are some of Toronto’s finest fashion image makers. Hopefully you’ll like them too.
Chris Wadsworth
Josh Cornell
Chris Nicholls
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I.O.U. A Plastic Island - Welcome to Tomorrow November 5, 2008
Posted by Ivan Pols in design, film.Tags: crisis, design, documentary, economics, film, iousa, raw, vbs
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Last night Barack Obama became the poster child of optimists the world over. It was a remarkable piece of history and he was not wrong when he stated that his election was not the Change that needed to be made. The Change still needs to be done.
Here are two Changes that need to be dealt with. They effect everyone. One is a problem of the USA, the other is a problem that is the World’s.
I’m not posting these pieces just for their educational value, that’s not what I’m about really. They are excellent, startling and scary presentations of BIG problems in graphic and compelling ways. I.O.U.S.A is a 30 minute free version of their film released as a public service. Obviously you can buy the rest of the content to get the real detail, but the precis is more than enough to start with. The VBS.tv documentary is distributed through their own digital channel that is ad supported (I’m not sure where the link is with Rockband (the game) and environmental meltdown, other than their ridculous packaging).
The content delivered for both is remarkable. Worth learning from and learning about.
I.O.U.S.A, the documentary explaining the United States 8.7 Trillion Dollar debt and it’s implications has released a 30 minute cutdown on Vimeo. This is perhaps the scariest film since An Inconvenient Truth and you should spend the time to educate yourself on what it’s about and what it means to your future. Words cannot explain the magnitude of the crisis, so they use pictures to help us understand.
VBS.tv have created a 12 part documentary of their journey to the island of plastic that sits in the Pacific Ocean. It is not a myth. It is not going away. This will change the way you think about plastic.
ps. Remember to Invest in Yourself.
Kanye West’s Visual Feast October 19, 2008
Posted by Ivan Pols in art, design, music.Tags: kanye west, muppets, helmut newton, takashi murakami, blogs, celebrity
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Kanye West is a strange and interesting creator. I bumped into his blog and was a little surprised at what I found. Packaging design, store design, stills from his video productions, concept designs for giant toys and the occassional beautiful girl with running joke attached. Lots of design. I knew he had some cool CD covers and a few critically lauded videos, but I didn’t have a real appreciation for his remarkable visual sense.
His new video, Love Lockdown, is a pretty good example. It starts like an R&B video, Kanye wearing white, in a white kitchen, singing about love. Which is standard stuff. It quickly digresses into a tribal war dance, mixed with a few sexy women who are obviously provoking the men into a fervour, then there’s a spaceship… and then giant Tron women… really, neon Tron.
His genre skipping ranges from Takashi Murakami to Helmut Newton and Muppets. It’s fascinating to watch him create his reality. His interest in the world around him is reflected in the themes of the videos and music: the Olympics, the remake of Tron, super heroes and kawaii. Oh yes, and his blog of all places. I suggest you have a look. He’s having fun.
The Density of DJ Technology September 19, 2008
Posted by Ivan Pols in culture, music, technology, video.Tags: art, music, design, richie hawtins, dj, traktor, adobe cs
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DJ, Richie Hawton, has offered up a video tutorial on his technique involving a piece of software named Traktor. He runs 4 decks simultaneously with multiple loop and sampling potential on top of that. He explains how the computer takes care of all the timing so he can experiment, and collaborate with at least 4 other DJs. It’s dense layering, but I think it’s interesting how technology has helped him explore his art more thoroughly. On the other hand, the tools can have the habit of playing the operator, which can kill the joy of the mistake and create the cult of same. That’s just something I’ve noticed with design and the proliferation of Adobe CS. Same tools, similar outcomes, unless you fight with everything you have. The best DJs will avoid that bullet is my guess.
Viva Originals. Watch the video here (Vimeo is still not supported by WordPress. Tut tut.)
via PSFK
