Since I sold my soul to the menswear devil, I frequent a lot of menswear and general style blogs. I view a lot of “lookbooks” and a lot of them look the damn same. Even when they’re trying to be ironic or thinking “out of the box.” But a couple months back someone posted a video of a skateboarder wearing a menswear line, Man About Town, positing to the men of facebook whether or not it resonated with them. Frankly, I didn’t care if it did or didn’t. I loved it. May have been due to my growing up with skateboarders, having crushes on them, wearing Airwalks and trying to master an Ollie on my big brother’s retired deck. But there’s something about the skate rat dressed like a member of the Rat Pack, doing a dance of beautiful street tricks that made me swoon.
Well, today I came across the women’s fashion equivalent. A beautifully shot and soundtracked video lookbook for an Australian line of womenswear, Lover, featuring Amber Scott, Senior Artist with The Australian Ballet. It seemed like the perfect companion piece to demonstrate the potential the fashion industry has to keep pushing the envelope and show their product in a living, breathing way.
Man About Town: Autumn/Winter 2010 starring Kilian Martin
Lover: A Dance for OneOn more than one occasion I’ve found myself trying to explain to my “non-designer” friends that there’s a major blessing and a curse to being a designer, or any artist for that matter. It’s virtually impossible to turn it off. Whether sitting in front of a computer screen with the Adobe Creative Suite open or not, subconsciously or consciously, I look at the world in spacial relationships, color, composition, etc. And yes, that foot mark instead of an apostrophe on that billboard along the highway is making my eyes bleed! The blessing part is when you see that image in front of you that’s so unexpected and serendipitous that you just have to grin from ear to ear. The curse? That you forgot your camera. Well, Matt Stuart doesn’t forget his camera. If you need a bit of a pick-me-up… browse through his collection of incredible “Happy Accidents” photographs. They warm my little designer heart. Here are a select few:
(Have a Happy Accident you’d like to share?? Email me your images and I’ll post the collection to the re:mused blog. { hello@remusedstudio.com })
One of my favorite design blogs, Notcot.org, had a featured post on one of my favorite illustrators, Andrew Bannecker, this week. I stumbled upon his work a few years ago and came oh-so-close to having the opportunity to work with him on a project, and my heart sank when there was a last minute change in direction. I love love love his work, so in honor of the upcoming “holiday,” here are a few of my favorites…
It brought me Happy Joy to see that a selection of his prints are now available in his online shop.
My talented friend, Philipp Streibe, has relaunched his website, updated with some of his newest breathtaking fine art photography. Some of which were even shot here at the home of re:mused studio. I can’t decide which I like better, his color work or black and white, his portraits or landscapes… Here are a few of my personal favorites (click to view larger):
I quite often introduce Philipp as “Possibly the nicest German you’ll ever meet,” so it’s pretty easy for me to get behind this artist with my genuine support. I have no doubt you will be seeing a lot more coming from his lens. Perhaps a future collaboration project with re:mused? (ahem, hint hint, Philipp.)
View the rest of his work here.
And check out his blog for updates, inspirations, Holga photos, music recommendations, etc.
The phenomenal Bay Area talent, Elliot Randall (no, NOT the guy from Steeley Dan) came to re:mused before the holidays to do the artwork for his new album with his band The Deadmen. We’ve been working together since the first EP he put out, but collaborating this time around proved things do keep getting better with time.
First off, Elliot Randall & The Deadmen have truly hit their stride with “Caffeine & Gasoline.” Elliot co-produced the album with David Simon-Baker (ALO, Mother Hips, Jackie Greene… and just happens to be one of my favorite people), creating an alt-country/americana rock record to be reckoned with. The album officially releases on February 9, 2010. You can watch some behind the scenes footage here:
The album artwork was a blast to create, drawing inspiration from the warm, gritty, southern sound the band creates. Special thanks to photographer David Arnspiger of Traumantic Studios for letting me play with his photographs!
The band is currently touring up and down the west coast in support of the album. Check out the dates here and preview the music on their myspace page or at amazon.com (my favorite track so far: “Judgement Day”).
- I came across a painter who made my jaw drop in a group show on a gallery crawl a few months back. I’d jotted his name down and of course misplaced it. But recently I came across it and looked him up, and, damn, I remembered why I was so floored. Daniel Ochoa is amazing.
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- His statement reads:
- “The experiences I had growing up in a bicultural family fuel the imagery, and emotional quality of my work. My father is an immigrant from Mexico, and my mother a white American. On a daily basis, I navigate cultural margins depending on the context of the situation. My work explores the complexities of identity with the understanding that perception is relative. Ambiguity, movement and obscurity play a role in the relationship between the figure and environment. Body language is an important signifier of the emotional temperament of the figure. Each work requires multiple layers of paint and a variety of techniques including masking, sanding, and dripping. I use both English and Spanish words interchangeably to title works which conveys the duality of my identity.”
