Monday 27 February 2012

February Photo A Day: Day 27: Something I Ate

S.o.t.D. - Azure – Kilowatts

Azure – Kilowatts

Not sure how to describe these guys. Ambient, but a bit of slowed down, dirty glitch-hop sound as well.

Bibliophilia: Robopocalypse – Daniel H. Wilson

Reminded me a little of WorldWarZ, in terms of it being the recollection of a participant in a cataclysmic battle for the survival of humanity. Only instead of zombies it’s robots.

Bibliophilia: A Family Secret & The Search by Eric Heuvel

A Family Secret – Eric Heuvel
The Search – Eric Heuvel

These two books give a very good overview from start to finish about the experience of Nazi occupation in Holland and all that it entailed, in an easy to digest format. The intertwined stories of two girls, Esther who fled Germany with her family to the Netherlands, and the Dutch girl who befriends her, Helena. Geared mainly towards young adults, but worth reading for any age group.

I know it’s easy to say that it was all in the past, but I still think it’s important to tell our kids what happened. I got pretty verklemt reading it. I don’t know if it’s based on a true story, but it read in many ways like it might have been my families story. The Berlage Brug, which is a block away from where I was born and grew up, makes an appearance in both books. 

To think that this might have been set in the neighbourhood I (and my parents) grew up in, isn’t inconceivable. It had a large Jewish population before the war. It didn’t after the war.

Friday 24 February 2012

S.o.t.D. - Up Through The Down Pipe – Rockers Hi-Fi

Up Through The Down Pipe – Rockers Hi-Fi 

Mentioned these fellas yesterday and realized I had never posted them. The album this is off of, the played many, many times DJ Kicks: The Black Album lists this as being by DJ Grizzly, but the track I could find on YT is very, very different. Figured I’d throw this version up.

February Photo A Day: Day 24: Bathroom Cabinet

Thursday 23 February 2012

February Photo A Day: Day 23: My Shoes

S.o.t.D. - This River – Bigga Bush

This River – Bigga Bush 

This one has appeared on quite a few sets I’ve put together. Lush, flowing head nodder. Bigga Bush was at one point a member of the stellar Rockers Hi-Fi.

Bibliophilia: Simpsons: Comics Get Some Fancy Book Learnin’ by Matt Groening

Simpsons: Comics Get Some Fancy Book Learnin’ – Matt Groening

The bible, Greek myth, Shakespeare....as the great philosopher Homer said so eloquently, “Booorrrrring!”

Well with this exciting volume, all those long winded “Wherefore art thous” and “Thou shalt nots” are simplified into colourful panels with a few bite sized words per panel, with all your favourite Simpsons characters standing in.

Noah’s Ark is great, Henry 5th with Professor Frink as Henry, Bart doing the Bard, King Moe-mar Shahryar, “Apu Baba and the Four Thieves” and “Sinbart The Sailor”, Ralph plays Humpty Dumpty, Itchy and Scratchy doing Titus Andronicus.

Monday 20 February 2012

S.o.t.D. - An Ending (Ascent) – Brian Eno

An Ending (Ascent) – Brian Eno 

I think I want this played at my funeral. Or if I was having a kid, in the delivery room while it was being born.

Wednesday 15 February 2012

February Photo A Day: Day 15: Phone

S.o.t.D. - Embrace – Motionfield

Embrace – Motionfield 

So good.

Bibliophilia: Locke & Key – Joe Hill & Gabriel Rodriguez

LOVED these. Quite violent and rather gory, the first collection mainly, but the story is incredible and the art is spectacular. Each of Gabriel Rodriguez’ pages is at the caliber of the covers on most comic books. This series ranks up there with Sandman and Fables for me.

The art is so well done, that it makes already well written characters even more compelling. Bode in particular is amazing.

The first few pages of the fourth collection “Keys to the Kingdom”, have two pages done in a very different style, and the next two pages are back to more recognizably Gabriel’s style. Then back to this other cruder style for two pages, then back to Rodriguez’ more refined style. Couldn’t figure out what was going at first, but several pages later, there is a subtle hint that explains it all. See if you can catch it. One of those make you laugh out loud, wonderful touches that really add to this book.

Highly recommended.

Sunday 12 February 2012

S.o.t.D. - I Got This Feeling (G Club Classic Vocal Mix) – Baby Bumps

I Got This Feeling (G Club Classic Vocal Mix) – Baby Bumps 

Just what we need at this point in the winter - a super uplifting track.

February Photo A Day: Day 12: Closet

Bibliophilia: The Profession – Steven Pressfield

Set about 20 years in the future, and delves into the rise of private militaries. Something I find fascinating, yet ultimately unsettling. The protagonist, once an acolyte of the head of a private army large enough to do as it pleases, tries to stop him from seizing the reins of the United States. Definite parallels with the Roman Empire. Liked it, but I think I like his historical novels a bit more than his speculative novels. 

Saturday 11 February 2012

S.o.t.D. - Feeling Good (New Dawn) – Virtue

Feeling Good (New Dawn) – Virtue 

Track I found on a compilation tape. Nice to hear it again after not hearing it for years.

Type Design - Plutocrat

Another old typeface. I started this back in 91. Nothing earth-shatteringly original, simple shapes used to create a simple display face, but I still like it. A lot of the time back then my aim was simply to have something  a little funkier than what I had access to, and to have something that no one else had.

Like so many of my typefaces, this was one that I would add a couple of characters to here and there, as the need arose for a logo or headline. Sometimes I would generate an actual font to load into the system, and sometimes it would remain as a Fontographer file, with characters to be exported as needed. So a lot of my early typefaces were only Fontographer files and not having a way to access them, kept many of them locked away for ages. I’ve converted all of them with FontLab’s FogLamp, and it’s neat to see stuff I haven’t seen in a decade or more.

Back when I did this I had to spread alternate characters across three different fonts, but now with OpenType I think I’ll just stick them all into one font. 
And in use in a logo.

February Photo A Day: Day 11: Makes Me Happy

Friday 10 February 2012

More Roarshacks

S.o.t.D. - Taouage Bleu – Ben Onono

Taouage Bleu – Ben Onono 

Damn those stupid YouTube banner ads that cover up luscious female derriere.

February Photo A Day: Day 10: Self Portrait

Bibliophilia: Simon Girty: Wilderness Warrior – Edward Butts

An amazing character from Canadian history that I had never heard of before. Kidnapped at a young age by natives he lived amongst the for years and earned their skills and languages. His fluency and skills led to him being both a diplomat / translator as well as a scout / warrior for the British during the American War of Independence. Operating in the area of what is today Ohio / Indiana / Kentucky / Michigan, his exploits mean that he is thought of as a hero on this side of the border, and as a villain on the other side of the border.

Thursday 9 February 2012

Logo - 1200 Records

Logo for a record label. The dots will be recognizable to anyone who has ever used a Technics SL–1200 turntable as the pitch indicator dots along the edge of the platter.

Logo - Exploriment Needle & Thread

No particular reason for this. Just goofing around, finding things to do with Cosmodrome, and a vague notion to have some kind of symbol for the sewing branch of the Exploriment Corporation.

Logo - Sweet Handmade Ideations

A few ideas for logos for a bakery. As always, I generate a bunch of concepts, some of which I like, and some of which I am lukewarm about. But I think it’s best to throw them out there and let the client decide which are worthy of exploration and which are not. I take them to certain point, not too polished, and figure that fine tuning can proceed from there.

In no particular order of personal preference:

S.o.t.D. - Sabor De Verano (The Way Out West Mix) - Jose Padilla

Sabor De Verano (The Way Out West Mix) - Jose Padilla 

I’ve never heard anything by Mr. Padilla beyond this track I got on a compilation a decade or so ago, but I dig this.

February Photo A Day: Day 9: Front Door

Logo - DJ BASE

I mentioned a while back going through old storage mediums and consolidating all of it on one external hard disc. Sadly, I have a bunch of old projects that I may never get at again, just because of the difficulty of accessing obsolete storage mediums and obsolete programs.

This is an old logo that happily I found in another file, an Illustrator file, not a FreeHand file, like most of my stuff. Off to the side on the paste board.

Originally he wanted to call himself DJ BASS, but that name was taken. So he went with BASE instead. That allowed me to do an ambigramish logo. Couldn’t think of a way to do the DJ part so it could be flipped vertically and still read the same way.

Bibliophilia: Richard Stark’s Parker, The Hunter & The Outfit – Darwyn Cooke

Richard Stark’s Parker, Vol. 1: The Hunter – Darwyn Cooke
Richard Stark’s Parker, Vol. 2: The Outfit – Darwyn Cooke 

A late 50’s, early 60’s noir crime pulp. Absolutely loathed the character. An evil, misogynistic, murdering thief, out to recover money that he stole (murdering a bunch of people in the process) that was then stolen from him. Sometimes bad guys can be likable, but this cretin just deserves to be shot and pissed on.

Bibliophilia: The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business Is Selling Less of More by Chris Anderson

The Long Tail – Chris Anderson
The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business Is Selling Less of More – Chris Anderson

Got the comic first, and enjoyed it enough to get the actual book.

Very interesting, deals with the idea that the internet has done away with the system of hits, and opened up a huge market of niches. That even if iTunes only sells one or two of each of the millions of tracks in its inventory per month or even year, that is still a huge number. Stores were previously restricted by physical space and could only carry a small number of books, records, what have you, and ones that they knew had a decent chance of selling in order to cover their costs. But if everything is digital, bits rather than atoms, retailers can carry a massive number of niche products. Which for the consumer is great, but.....how many people are actually employed by iTunes or Amazon versus how many were employed by record stores? A decade ago, thousands of people were employed by newspapers dealing with want ads. Now Craigslist has decimated all those jobs. I read a while back that they pull in tens, hundreds of millions of dollars a year, and employ....about thirty people. Facebook, as fun as it may be for us, makes billions. But how many people do they actually employ?

Wednesday 8 February 2012

Logo - H&H Ideations

Pretty much just riffing, trying out some different ideas. Some I like and think have promise, and others I’m lukewarm about. But it’s good to get those ideas out. Sometimes looking at them gives you an idea on how to improve them, sometimes the client will make a suggestion that takes it in a whole other direction.

In more or less descending order of how much I like the idea. I’m sure more ideas are forthcoming. Still some doodles in my sketchpad that I haven’t even explored yet.

Roarshacks

This idea came to me in a dream last night. Figured it was an idea worth exploring at the very least.

S.o.t.D. - 2 Minutes - dZihan & Kamien

2 Minutes - dZihan & Kamien 

My introduction to these Austrians. Knew it wouldn’t be the only thing of theirs I wanted to hear.

February Photo A Day: Day 8: Sun