Canada Make A Mean Music Video

The makers of this NSFW video are Canada, and they're not Canadian. They are however now represented by Partizan and have done my favourite video of 2011 so far.

Canada (watch their whole reel at Vimeo)

Lagoi & Lace

I think this is an interesting portfolio piece. It's by two Cologne photographers and it's based on themed love hotels found in Japan. It's an odd, provocative and quite large project. Pretty cool to see.

Link

Makes Odd Hours

Pierre Dal Corso photographs the strangest angles. The models are puppets in his lens. It's remarkable.

Link to his portfolio

New Drawings on Boundless

There are a few new drawings at Boundless Optimism, my drawing portfolio. They're not completely safe for work, but they're drawings... so it's art. Hope you like them.

It's Where You Take Things To

CR Blog had a post that raised a traditional issue in advertising and design. Namely the "stealing" of ideas and techniques.

YouTube provides a steady stream of inspiration to advertising creatives, but it also leaves young directors vulnerable to having ideas stolen and agencies open to accusations of plagiarism. How can both directors and agencies protect themselves?

That started a fun discussion. I argued that nothing (advertising, design, art, music) is original. Everything you do is based on the work of someone else. You don't necessarily have to proclaim from the roof who you borrowed from, but don't be shy when someone points out that you are not a true original. I like Jim Jarmusch's quote, "Don't bother concealing your thievery - celebrate it if you feel like it." Just remember that you borrowed and will be borrowed from in turn (if you're any good). Just try make it better and stop feeling so damn guilty. Love your history.

How about this: Love Your Influences As You Would Be Loved. Okay, now where's that D&AD annual...

Boundless Optimism

I have updated my drawing gallery site, Boundless Optimism. It is now expanded to include the 1Thousand Drawing project, (all 1000 drawings are available to view and download, including all the videos that go with it) and several other projects that have been hidden away for the last few years and months.



There are desktop wallpapers available as well in the downloads section. I'll be starting a "members only" section in the next few weeks so if you want access, let me know. I've switched to the a service called SquareSpace. It's a widget based CSS system that helped me get the first iteration of the site up in 3 hours. It's fast, simple and seem to be fairly powerful. I will admit to one or two irritating glitches but I suspect that may be my fault. The site is hosting over 1300 images in 25 galleries without a stutter.



Please have a visit: www.boundlessoptimism.org

LED Sheep Art - Shear Genius

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2FX9rviEhw&eurl]

Unadulterated joy of life. And sheep.

Moritz Waldemeyer Will Light You Up

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.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMg_2RcNROI]
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

Official Waldemeyer Website

The Density of DJ Technology

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

Hyper Island Interactive Art Directors

Hyper Island is a digital media school in Sweden that has a remarkable amount of cool. You'd almost be willing to trust them with your career's future. They have a video on the Hyper Island page that has London agencies like Digit singing their praises. The concept and execution on their Interactive Art Director site is damn impressive. I like their student focus, their sense of humour and their diagrams of humans becoming digital. I also like their holistic viewpoint in the training of new communication pros. An ability to manage complex multimedia campaigns and explain them, let alone create them, is the new standard for creatives in all industries.  I may have to take one of their night classes.

Link