Anterior.
Now playing in heavy rotation, clients and friends round out this mix of jazz favorites. Fusing found imagery, typography and vintage family photography, the cover art is the first in my current exploration of mixed media collage.
Return to the Lost City.
Lost City Products, purveyors of “the most beautiful hand embroidered products in the world” has expanded their collections to include pillows, scarves and one-of-a-kind chairs. They turned to us once again to design the latest iteration of their website featuring a media page for sharing their inspirations, a blog with the stories behind the products, as well as a new slide show and video player that streams content created exclusively for the site by video artists and musicians.
Twenty Ten.
Happy MMX!
Follow Us.
We’ve been tweeting for about a month now, follow us @chmstry and @tddwlsn.
Also, check out Ape Lad’s cool re-interpretations the of the Twitter bird.
Happy Birthday Tibor.
Today is the birthday of one of my design heroes, Tibor Kalman.
Tibor Kalman was an influential American graphic designer of Hungarian origin, well-known for his work as editor-in-chief of Colors magazine.
He founded the legendary, multidisciplinary design firm M&Co in 1979, which did corporate work for such diverse clients as the Limited Corporation, the New Wave music group Talking Heads, and Restaurant Florent in New York City’s Meatpacking District. Kalman also worked as creative director of Interview magazine in the early 1990s.
M&Co is one of the few studios with whom I’ve wished I’d worked, though I hear it was a real tough place. I’ve always been jealous of the fact that a good friend of mine was fortunate enough to have done some freelance for them.
I was introduced to M&Co through their quirky line of watches, clocks, and paperweights, which combine wit and whimsy with good graphic design.
I received the Askew watch for Christmas in 1987. It is the only watch I’ve worn since. I still enjoy the puzzled look I get when someone notices the watch face with its beautiful, randomly placed numbers and is prompted to ask “How do you tell the time?”
My design work has been influenced by the thoughtfulness of the M&Co ethic. I strive to create smart, concept-driven work. It been ten years since the Perverse Optimist, passed away, I admired his design work, the way he ran his business and how he shook things up. Happy Birthday Tibor!
Over There, Again.
The Muxtape music site went down just after we originally uploaded this mix, so we’ve decided to give Over There, an electronica filled chill-out set, another spin. Enjoy.
Relaunch.
Don’t call it a come back! Ever since Muxtape went down in August we’ve been searching for a way to broadcast our mixes. We found Opentape, an open-source package inspired by the Muxtape interface. Our web mixtape movement continues with a pilot test, Relaunch – an eclectic mix of rhythm & blues, electronica and downtempo.
Problem Solved.
I have been told that whenever the planet Mercury goes retrograde so do the tools of communication like phones and computers. When it comes to astrology, I’ve always been a little skeptical. I’ll be the first to admit I only believe in the zodiac when it works to my benefit, which I suppose, is very Capricorn of me. After my latest rash of technical problems with email, texts and phones, I’m starting think there may be something to it.
Whether you believe in the Mercury in retro thing or not you take this Capricorn’s practical advice and back it up. When it comes to important files get in the habit of backing up to an external hard drive, burning them to DVD or syncing them to an online service. For online I use Dropbox, also check out Backblaze. Those of you on a Mac who’d like keep track of Mercury can add this widget to your Dashboard.
As for the planet Mercury itself, NASA’s Messenger spacecraft most recent flyby yielded these amazing photographs.
Presidential Tees.
We’ve designed a series of T-Shirts inspired by our new President. Check’em out.
Zero Nine.
Have a Happy Prosperous New Year!