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Kinfolk + K-Swiss: Tokyo Design Meets Cali Sunshine

Matt Diehl — Fri, 10 Sep 2010 13:00:43 +0000

Last week, tastemaking style/design blog Hypebeast took notice of Tokyo biking-aficionado collective Kinfolk’s collaboration with sneaker icon K-Swiss. The pairing centers around K-Swiss’ “Malibu ‘66” collection: following the inspiration for the collection, Kinfolk curated a series of images, “A Celebration of California Culture,” that capture the classic Cali sports lifestyle, especially around the heritage pillars of beach and bike culture. It’s an apt pairing: just as K-Swiss is known for its timeless designs, Kinfolk’s aesthetic pivots around those classic elements that prove fresh and essential from generation to generation. In these images, that gestalt spans everything from idyllic Golden Coast’s beach views to fixed-gear cyclists and their time-tested gear, all bathed, naturally, in radiant sunshine.

The K-Swiss/Kinfolk collaboration also extends to an edited, limited-edition collection of gear, in line with Kinfolk’s passion for the ultimate in handmade, modern and enduring. Custom made and branded with K-Swiss’ ‘66 shield, the project embodies and combines the best of each company’s culture, imbued with the artisanal Japanese quality of Kinfolk with the SoCal flavor of K-Swiss. The bikes were recently unveiled at at Kinfolk’s bar in Tokyo’s Nakameguro nabe, and are currently being showcased in the window of the flagship K-Swiss store in Tokyo. Ten handcrafted bags and fifty hand-dyed indigo scarves from the collaboration also were commissioned—proof that when it comes to sports and innovative design, California and Japan make for good kinfolk, indeed…

Instant Classic Gadget: Droid – The Inevitable R2-D2 Star Wars Edition Smartphone

Matt Diehl — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 13:00:08 +0000

I’m going to be completely honest: I just purchased a Droid 2 today. I’d been rocking Blackberry for a minute, but… It was time to go smartphone, for so many reasons, the least of which was I couldn’t see that spinning hourglass again without feeling deep trauma. But speaking of deep trauma, as undeniably sexy as the iPhone is, I wasn’t quite ready to endure AT&T’s customer service and service woes (when I was at SXSW in Austin earlier this year, no one I knew with an iPhone could get service); as well, I chose the Droid 2 because I just can’t get down with the touch-screen keyboard—my fingers are too meaty, and I send too many emails to re-type constantly…

I was totally happy with the idea of my purchase until… I discovered there’s going to be a Star Wars edition of the Droid 2 coming out in September! Making the pain even worse… It’s going to be an R2-D2-themed phone! (check out this uber-cool preview website here). It’s going to be available to order online only, with “exclusive Star Wars content and external hardware designed to look like the trusty Droid from the film saga” and an image of R2-D2 on the back. There’s apparently some kind of crazy treasure-hunt contest involved… I’m ferklempt, just ferklempt…

Then again, with a name like “Droid” (which apparently had to be licensed from the Star Wars folks), this development was probably inevitable. Apparently the tech blogs have been up on this for a minute, so where have I been? Now, I am currently crying robot tears… Well, in two years, when I’m due for an upgrade, if they have a Bladerunner edition, we’ll be all good. Until then—the Star Wars edition is definitely the Droid I want!

Instant Classic: The Monotron, Reviewed…

Matt Diehl — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 13:00:33 +0000

So, we hipped you to the resurgence of interest in analog synthesizers already, and to the introduction of the Monotron, the first pure analog synth made by the mighty Korg company in, like, many decades. Analog synths have become downright trendy in the best way thanks to artists spanning LCD Soundsystem to Dam-Funk, and the Monotron by Korg looked like a genius move when we first encountered it: a genuine analog synth, priced for recession-era hipsters at a cool sixty bucks! But them we got our hands on an actual Monotron, and…. WOW.

A recent review called the Monotron “the Gameboy for synthesizer fiends”, and that’s pretty dang accurate. If anything, the Korg Monotron resembles another fairly new, ultra-stripped down analog synth that synth freaks covet, the Gakken SX-150. However, while the Gakken is dope in its own gritty right, the Monotron goes way further. For one, it feels way more solidly built than the kit-based Gakken, but more importantly, it features a powerful filter, taken from the classic, collectible late-‘70s era Korg MS-20, giving it a truly classic synth sound. However, what’s coolest about the Monotron, beside its Daft Punk-esque robotic moniker, is how absolutely limited it is. Unlike a full-featured synth, the Monotron only has five control knobs, giving you crucial but limited control over pitch, intensity, and that almighty filter; it also doesn’t have a traditional keyboard per se, but instead a ribbon strip that you run your finger over in a smooth continuous motion to create sound.

Despite the limited features, what’s fascinating about the Monotron is that it has no specific “sound”; everyone seems to do something slightly different with it. This is refreshing in an era where everyone seems to have an infinite number of loops, samples and software synths at their disposal, but you consistently hear the same tired sounds and tricks being used in songs. There’s no instant recall on this baby: instead, the Monotron forces the player to be truly creative with limited means—it’s like the Ramones of synthesizers! You can even run other sounds through it—guitars, other keyboards, microphones—turning the Monotron into a truly twisted guitar pedal. At the same time, with a little ingenuity, one can use it to replicate a smash hit pop song, like Lady Gaga’s “Bad Romance”:

Click here to view the embedded video.

As well, it’s possible to make an entirely serviceable trance-ish dancefloor number using just the Monotron, as this video makes abundantly clear:

Click here to view the embedded video.

It even has a practical application in worship music, as this rendition of “Amazing Grace” demonstrates:

Click here to view the embedded video.

So if you’ve always been curious about synthesis, or are a classic synth freak seeking uncharted waters, I heartily suggest you check out the Monotron. In capable hands—or even idiot ones—it’s got the potential to be both the sound of the past and the wave of the future. As one reviewer questioned, “is Korg’s Monotron a toy or a tool?” In practice, the answer is clear—it’s gloriously both.

Duke University presents ‘The Record – Contemporary Art & Vinyl’

andrew flanagan — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 16:12:03 +0000

Laurie Anderson, David Byrne, Jasper Johns, Christian Marclay, Ed Ruscha, Tunde Adebimpe, fabulous fraud Mingering Mike, are some of the more well-known contributors to Duke University’s The Record, a massive examination and expansion of the circular, dusty, untenable, near-perfect vinyl-pressed recording. The exhibition has every medium under the sun: photography, painting, performance, sculpture, installations, video, and, but of course, sound. Also the B-Side section of their website is definitely worth a look, providing a host of great links for the record-curious. The focus and the involved are unimpeachable. For those of us who can’t make it to the exhibition itself, I’m confident some lovely things will trickle and ripple out from this fascinating cross-section.

Mingering Mike

Click here to view the embedded video.

Christian Marclay Mini-Documentary

Click here to view the embedded video.

High Score! Original Pac Man Designs Revealed!

Peggy — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 13:00:18 +0000

Nerds, unite: we’ve found some vintage videogame buried treasure. Control, the “Dutch industry magazine for game developers,” just unearthed some gold: we don’t speak Dutch, but we can’t get over how cool the images are from Control’s recent article on Pac Man creator Toru Iwatani. In the piece, Iwatani reveals his original sketches—yes, that’s right, sketches, with pencil on graph paper—for the Pac Man designs.

Despite their minimalism, Iwatani imbues the designs with a whimsical geometric lyricism. It’s wild to encounter such genius in its primordial-ooze state. What Iwatani create would become one of the most perfect, addictive video games ever; funny to think it all started with a pen and a pad.

Internet Sports: Where Everyone’s A Winner…

Matt Diehl — Thu, 27 May 2010 13:00:00 +0000

Those geniuses at The Guardian over in the U.K. have compiled the ultimate list of Internet sports dominating our laptops and generally causing us to hope no one notices what exactly we’re doing at our computer when we should be working. We have a soft spot for “Celebrity Table Tennis,” personally, and you can’t go wrong with the psychedelic ping pong of “Rong”; “Zombie Football” is no joke, either (oops, maybe it is!). Soccer/footie fans, meanwhile, should prepare for an addiction to “Free-kick Fusion.” That “Flick n Kick Rugby” is played online, meanwhile, means you won’t be left bleeding and toothless at the bottom of the scrum. All in all, kiss your productivity goodbye and watch the fun level rise…

Instant Classic T-Shirt: Parra X Madlib

Matt Diehl — Thu, 06 May 2010 13:00:42 +0000

Two great tastes that go great together: the coolest, most forward and backward gold-standard hip-hop/music in general head and the coolest, most forward illustrator/designer around. This perfect combo expresses itself in the latest must want objet from collector-friendly Stones Throw: a Madlib t-shirt put through the visual genius of acclaimed Dutch designer Parra. Madlib, of course, is Stone Throw’s resident genius, the umbrella under which so much of the label’s innovative magic happens. Parra’s designs are as dope as Madlib’s beats, especially his Rockwell Clothing efforts: under Parra Rockwell provides clothes that are much like the Madlib t-shirt: whimsical yet dead serious about design, inventive with fonts, minimal yet psychedelic, all the while largely avoiding genre clichés, logo diarrhea and pop-culture gimmes. Parra’s star is ascendant—he just finished a Los Angeles retrospective in collaboration with Arkitip — and this latest collaboration with Madlib proves that he’s as on point as ever. It’s like a funky beat you can wear; we like the white-on-blue one personally, but both are perfect.

The shirt itself is a tribute to a true California design classic: the logo of Madlib’s beloved L.A. Dodgers, a perfect style addition to the current baseball season. Like we said, two great tastes that go great together.

Classic Technology: Retrofitting iPads For Old School Video Games

Matt Diehl — Wed, 05 May 2010 13:00:56 +0000

We’ve heard a lot about how the iPad can be used—for, like, reading books and s***. But we’re most excited about turning the iPad into an old-school video game arcade cabinet!

Everything seems to come back to old-school video games, doesn’t it? Whenever there’s some massive technological leap, from cell phones to Playstations, someone figures out some way to use it to play old-school video games! Well, the supreme uber-nerds at ThinkGeek have now applied this inevitable de-evolution to the iPad with the “iCade” —that’s right, a desktop arcade cabinet that the iPad docks into as the player for Donkey Kong, Dig Dug, Qbert and so on. Yes! Apparently created as a April Fool’s joke, the iCade may prove to be the most fruitful application of the iPad yet. Or at least the most fun… Time wasting starts…. NOW!

May Day Weekend Events

Matt Diehl — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 08:38:39 +0000

The coming week bodes well for lovers of culture on both coasts. From Los Angeles to New York, art, music, and happenings combine in a series of events that both bend genres and break rules. The May 1st weekend proves particularly action-packed in Los Angeles, as far as categories blurring.

On Saturday, “Los Angeles, I’m Yours”—a multimedia exhibition/bazaar subtitled “A Poketo and Kitsuné Noir Market”—opens in the Space15Twenty building, nearish to Amoeba. Running from 7 to 10 p.m., “Los Angeles, I’m Yours” brings together music—a special Portugal. The Man show, fresh off their Coachella appearance—with “a living art market. Filled with an eclectic mix of found objects, these vintage pieces are given new life as over 30 artists”—spanning everyone from Neil LaBute to Geoff McFetridge—“reinterpret and reincarnate these objects into art.”

Also on the day of May 1st in L.A., the Mochilla crew do their part for MOPLA (Month of Photography), cosigned by the likes of Waxpoetics: in this event, J. Rocc and Quantic and other crew associates provide groove sonics, along with live soundtrack to the visuals from the film premiere/ screening of Timeless, combining the aural visions of Ethiopian legend Mulatu Astatke and Brazilian genius Arthur Verocai to honor the spirit of J. Dilla.

And later in the week, on May 4th, on the other side of the world, in New York City on the Lower East Side, “A Nice Set” opens. What’s distinguishes this show is that it brings together a number of internationally diverse artists to create unique DJ slipmats, from Ray Smith to Sneaker Freaker and Yuku Shimizu. Yes, art made from DJ slipmats; of course, the music (by Tyler Askew and Butter) better be good if the art is based on dance music. This opening actually launches the tour of “A Nice Set”: with any luck, it will rewind over to a city near you…

Classic Covers: Giorgio Moroder’s Extraordinary Records

Matt Diehl — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 13:00:29 +0000

Giorgio Moroder is freaking cool, people. He invented, like, electronica, and dance music, and disco, and techno, and everything: check out songs like Donna Summer’s “I Feel Love” for proof, yo.

Click here to view the embedded video.

And I mean, dude wrote the soundtracks to Scarface AND Midnight Express! What?!?!!

You wouldn’t think Giorgio Moroder could get any cooler. Well… Think again! The maestro recently released a book, Extraordinary Records: Any Color Except Black—The High Baroque Of Vinyl Recordings, that does for album visuals what Moroder’s synthesizers did for sound. Most album design books concentrate on record cover art, but Extraordinary Records goes one cooler than that and focuses on the visual possibilities of the actual vinyl disc itself. Spanning Mastodon to Pink Floyd, the images captured here are truly freaky deaky and surreal, reminding us how wildly creative the music biz could be in days of yore. Moroder captures vinyl graphic oddities transformed into Medusa’s heads, biomorphic shapes, and psychedelic eyeballs and stuff—really, these pictures make CDs and, gosh, especially MP3s seem totally lame. Rock on, Giorgio!

Thomas Heatherwick’s British Pavillion

andrew flanagan — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 21:25:33 +0000

World’s Fairs and World’s Expositions began in 1851 in London, Britain’s groundbreaking Crystal Palace providing science fiction environs to representatives from everywhere as the Earth looked on. Nikolai Tesla pulled a similar eye-widener, turning on his reality-shifting alternating current and illuminating Chicago’s World’s Fair as if by extremely efficient electrical magic.

One hundred and fifty nine years later Shanghai’s World Expo is attempting to step into the future and back into nature with a pavilion design somewhere between seedpod and breathing orb. The British Pavilion’s exterior is constructed from 60,000 thick fiber optic juts, the tip of each twenty-five foot rod implanted with a smattering of seeds. The result is some sort of alien brain, a shifting and caressed experiment in affective space. The structure was designed by Thomas Heatherwick and his Heatherwick Studio, responsible for works such as this amazing staircase , and this amazing London pub.

Another Awesome Day At SXSW: Flatstock

Matt Diehl — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 18:16:59 +0000

At South By Southwest, it’s the bands that get the hype. But there are aspects of the conference that, if you dig deeper, prove just as rewarding, if not more. One great, somewhat under-publicized facet of SXSW is Flatstock – an exhibition organized by the American Poster Institute where designers of concert posters display and sell their work. Flatstock proves dizzying: the sheer talent involved rivals that of the bands on the posters themselves. Set up in SXSW’s main conference hall, it features row after row of booths set up by the artists themselves, selling their work (often in fine-art print quality) and of course, advertising their services to the bands that are there anyway as a captive audience. The posters span everything from incredibly surreal, biomorphic images for Dead Weather to witty pop-art takes on Lady Gaga and Willie Nelson. Indeed, for all of SXSW’s web-savvy “interactivity,” it’s the gloriously old-school paper and ink of Flatstock that provided some of the week’s greatest artistic thrills, as you’ll see here…

Click here to view the embedded video.

Calligraffiti: A Life of Fence-Sitting with Niels ‘Shoe’ Muelman

andrew flanagan — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 15:00:18 +0000

Born in Amsterdam in 1967, Niels Muelman became ‘Shoe’ at the age of 12, tagging through teenage nights while the form was barely out of its diapers. Six years later he was infamous, co-founding the still-esteemd Crime Time Kings crew and transitioning to commercial lettering work.

The genre of ‘calligraffiti’ owes its genesis to Meulman’s mentor Anthon Beeke, a self-taught design dust-kicker best known for his “Naked Ladies Alphabet”, who saw in Shoe a shared lean to rile and ruffle feather. With Beeke’s signposts Muelman came to fuse The Sharpie with classic typography, seeing in the Bauhaus-murdered art of calligraphy a discursive space of high-to-low, which wholly informs Calligraffiti.

” For the record, calligrafitti belongs to the same family as ‘street art,’ or unsanctioned art, e.g., not government sponsored. And calligrafitti is ‘post’-graffiti — not ‘territorial’ graffiti, which is more like dogs peeing to create boundaries.” – Shoe

Also, Common Ground Gallery is no bunch of slouches: “The gallery is situated in the Hip Hop Stützpunkt in Berlin, which is also the base of the publisher. The Common Ground Gallery works closely with artists and activists involved in expressions of Urban Art. Relationships with many of the artists have evolved during a course of more than 25 years of experience and participation in the Global Style Writing Movement and numerous cultural projects, exhibitions and publications in various fields of urban culture.”

Shoe prepping the space for his 2007 show in Amsterdam:

For our KSpace people in Berlin, two events with Shoe happening this week:

Special Event: Calligraffiti, lecture by Niels Meulman and Adam Eeuwens
March 11th @ 8 pm
Basement Bar
Linienstrasse 154 A
10115 Berlin

Opening & Book release party with Niels Meulman and Adam Eeuwens
March 12th @ 7 pm
Special Guests: Die Schallplattenpolizei/Amsterdam + DJs Cat 22 (CTK) & Adrenalin
Common Ground Gallery
Mo-Sa, 2-7pm
Marienburger Str. 16 A
10405 Berlin

Where the Wild Things Are Pop-Up Store

tcroberts — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 07:34:00 +0000

Okay. So we covered this film from a few angles already, but being one of our childhood favorites, Where the Wild Things Are as a real film is some kind of fantasy — something to get excited about — especially a new flick directed by Spike Jonze. The creative forces behind the film have built a pop-up space that features toys, clothing, books, etc. all inspired by the new movie (out soon), including a life-size nest and tons of drawings done during the development of the film. If nothing else, you can feel good about supporting, as the store’s proceeds will go directly to David Eggers’ (co-screen writer) charity supporting childhood literacy, 826 Valencia. If you’re in the LA area, don’t miss this chance to get inside the film’s creative minds. There are at least a few huge murals and black-and-white photos that anyone would kill for.

Space 15 Twenty
1520 N. Cahuenga Boulevard | Map
Los Angeles, CA 90028

More via Highsnobiety

Classic: Designer Milton Glaser

tcroberts — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 08:14:45 +0000

Click here to view the embedded video.

This is a great profile of the classic American graphic designer Milton Glaser, a video directed by designer Hillman Curtis. It’s amazing that you could really almost predict the level of personality that comes with his level of talent, but what really inspires is his passion for teaching. While design will always be valued, there is something so charming and old school about Glaser flipping through his flat files and the decidedly non-digital appeal of the Glaser aesthetic.

Prepsters Rejoice: Thom Browne Launches Lower-Priced Lines

tcroberts — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 06:54:33 +0000

Since Thom Browne came onto the men’s fashion scene, he’s been know for updating the classics — iconoclastic 50s/60s work and leisure wear. Revisiting the land of traditional with a twist, he’s managed to reinvigorate old school houses like Brooks Bros., and even add new dimensions for new generations to get excited about traditional styles again. However, the $2,000 barrier of entry for a pair of slacks has kept new potential consumers small, especially since there are less and less cash flush stock brokers these days.

So, get happy about the prospect of a Thom Browne style at a hefty discount. It’s actually two new lines, so perhaps these will even have a new variety in selection. The basics sound promising:

Becoming 30 to 40 percent cheaper than Thom Browne’s main line, the collection launching for spring 2010, will include classics such as gray suits, white cotton oxfords, navy coats with gold buttons, and khaki pants, while red/white/blue will include preppy outerwear, blazers, pants, cardigans, and polos.

Add a few of these to that pair of K-Swiss Classics will make for a perfect Spring outfit. Mark your calendar, because these new lines are destined to drop soon.

via Slamxhype

Classic Remixed: The Egg Chair

Matt Diehl — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 22:08:37 +0000

Sometimes it’s best to let classics alone – let them do their thing the way they always did. They’re classic, after all! But other times, it’s amazing how well the classics stand up to a little remixing. Really, it’s all about taste level and execution, and maverick designer Alexander McQueen has both in spades in his take on the absolute masterpiece of mid-century modern design, the “egg chair.”

The original egg chair was created by uber-great Danish design guru Arne Jacobsen for a Copenhagen hotel. It has since gone on to be a staple in stylish post-war homes and businesses – its comfortable, modern, clean lines, combined with a quirky anthromorphism that gives it an organic flair connects it to the natural world, make it work almost anywhere. However, the ubiquity of the egg chair threatened to turn it into a cliché. That’s where McQueen comes in…

McQueen’s innovations are subtle, humorous and ingenious all at once. For one, he whimsically makes the shape more literal and egglike; secondly, he covers this most modern shape with a houndstooth pattern - the most old school, veddy British pattern in the world. Then he adds his signature skulls, bringing the look straight into the pirate
2000s. It’s a true design statement, crafted with care and utter carelessness, given the quirky design fetishism of a boutique limited-edition sneaker. With this very now take on yesterday, McQueen triumphs again, laying an egg to hatch future design classics…

DIY: Skateboard Deck Art

tcroberts — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 05:57:28 +0000

Recently, Wired did an article on the steps to make your own custom skateboard deck. Turns out, it’s the internets FTW. Zazzle is a company that allows you to pick from a variety of styles, and make your own design online on everything from shoes to t-shirts. Now, skateboard decks are part of the on-demand experience, which makes great sense especially as the number of ‘weekend warrior’ skater types grows. Having your own steez is a major requirement. You can pick from the multitude of ‘brand’ designs, pulled from the numerous partners on Zazzle. However, the DIY setting allows you to upload your own design, add hardware and get it shipped to you in 72 hours. It seems to be an easy process, and I’m sure the many enterprising skate designers will figure out how to make it a cottage industry.

The Ultimate Accessory For Space Travel

Matt Diehl — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 07:22:40 +0000

So Louis Vuitton has designed a futuristic pod-like “trunk” to commemorate the 40th anniversary of Apollo’s first moon landing: it opens up to basically be a luxe apartment in a box (well, okay, futuristic metal egg…). You know this is what Kanye will be rocking when they finally open up commercial space travel: after all, if you’re a baller, ya gotta fly first class, even to Mars…

via Hypebeast

New Stadium Changes The Rules of The Game

Matt Diehl — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 06:10:12 +0000

The Chinese took sports architecture to bold new artistic heights in the last Olympics, but now it looks like Taiwan has shot the latest salvo in this realm. For their new stadium to host the World Games, Taiwan started the game with a decisive choice – hiring innovative Japanese architect Toyo Ito.

Ito’s designs are confrontational and playful at the same, slicing up space with ribbons of steel that evoke shapes in nature. For the World Games structure, he created an interlocking sequence of pipes that seems to writhe above the crowd’s heads: at once it captures the kinetic movement of great athletes, while at the same time the sectioning of space gives the environment a surprising lightness. The New York Times compared it to a snake - and they meant it as a compliment! Then again, Ito’s work always seems to slither out of the expected architectural and design cliché by deconstructing scale in a fresh new way, causing us to experience the world through a slightly different lens. As such, Ito’s achievement in Taiwan is a clear winner in the race to make the next great statement in sports architecture. Let the games begin!