09 June 2011
Memory Tapes “Yes I Know” from Najork on Vimeo.
So weird…
I was turned on to the Brooklyn-based m ss ng p eces a few days ago and this video in particular has really blown my mind. I can’t even begin to guess how they did it.
also, as a PS: they have a great little documercial on Michael Wolff of Wolf Olins that floated around the blogs a bit ago but didn’t know it was them at the time.
07 April 2011
My friend Chris Crosby sent me this video along with the warning: “Be careful not to splatter your brains on your computer screen.” I’ll pass the same along to you now.
wow…
You may know if you’ve followed my work at all that I try to bring music into my design as much as possible, most notably in collaborating with long-time friend and incredible musician, Micah Anderson. This piece above does something that I’ve dreamed about attempting for years now: to visualize music—tempo, measure, time, pitch, tone, etc—using fundamental design elements, such as grid, shape, color, and so on. This is a different take on what is still brewing in my head, but it is absolutely incredible. Have a look.
This is a piece I worked on years ago back in school. There were a lot of frustrations and concessions made and at the time that we finished it I was fairly disappointed with the results. Now, however, a thousand+ days removed, I can look at this and appreciate some pretty cool stuff going on.
This is also the first music-for-media piece that Micah and I collaborated on. We created a cacophony of chaos in the first scene with samples of old Johnny Carson reruns, MIA, the Smiths, car horns, street drummers, and so on, with a lot of that audio captured on the streets of NYC. In the second scene, we did some pretty cool stuff with a bowed electric guitar, a boumbek, and some bells—the last two were reversed in the mixing to create some interesting sounds.
Anyways, check it out. I wouldn’t necessarily classify it as an “easy watch” but hopefully it will be worth your time. Let me know what you think.
13 April 2010
Since making it big with “A Million Things”, OK GO has had the daunting, but somewhat-enviable task of not just writing new pop hits, but coming up with new choreographed dance routines and artistic continuous-shot music videos. Their latest, “WTF” is another hit. The almost Pollock-like use of the frame traces of their bodies on the canvas is super cool.
24 March 2010
08 March 2010
70 Million by Hold Your Horses ! from L’Ogre on Vimeo.
This is a really fun video with an impressive mass of fun allusions to famous pieces in art history. Sadly enough, I can hardly remember what the song is like because I was so taken by the visuals.
24 February 2010
confession:
I’d say a good 5 years ago my good friend Bardhi Haliti tried to get me into Joanna Newsom. She’s this crazy woodland sprite with a squeaky soprano (I tried to find what was higher than soprano, but couldn’t get a clear answer from Google and Wikipedia) that plays the harp. The harp! It wasn’t hard to see her indie cred, but I had a hard time actually getting into her music.
And then in 2006 she released “Ys” and I kinda thought: that’s a little pretentious… an album name that’s not even a word… but all I did, I’m sure, was display my own ignorance. The album was critically acclaimed as one of the best of the year. I didn’t give it much of a chance.
And then, on a total whim, I go to npr.org today—not to listen or read any stories, but just to look at their playlist functionality for site that I’m working on. I’m haphazardly clicking on any story that has a [+] icon next to it, and I happened to add two stories about Joanna Newsom to my playlist. And, for once—even though my original intention did not include actually listening to anything—I gave her a shot.
And, sadly and predictably enough, she blew me away.
(also surprising to me, because I thought she was creature from the middle ages, she happens to be quite beautiful… definitely giving indie-darlings, Jenny Lewis and Zoe Deschanel, a run for their money)
Anyways, she released a new album, “Have One on Me” on Tuesday and it’s really good. Granted, it is much more accessible than her previous two, but in just one listen today (it’s 2+ hours long) I was blown away. Check it out on NPR—they’re streaming it for free right now.
15 September 2009
Earlier this year, the super-talented Joshua James called me up asking for some help designing the booklet for his upcoming album, Build Me This. The booklet was based on an old publication from the late 1800s and would be very typographic-driven. Right up my alley, right? So I gladly accepted. Naturally the project soon ballooned and we ended up (re)doing all the packaging, labels, and the booklet.
The photos below are not incredible because I didn’t have appropriate lighting in my house tonight. And the upload warped the colors all weird, but you should be able to get the gist.
We designed the digipack and insert book, CD face, vinyl sleeve, and vinyl face labels. I do say “we” because I want to recognize Joshua’s continual help and direction—as well as his second set of eyes at 4 in the morning before sending off to press. Also, credit to Weston Colton for the photography—much more impressive in real life/real color. Hopefully I can get some pictures soon that do the piece more justice. In the meantime, check out the music (iTunes link again…) because it really is something special. Write home about it, even. I know I did.
02 August 2009
A while back, I designed a little promo/demo piece for/with my good friend, Micah. It’s super weird and creepy and awkward, but there’s something about it that I really quite like—even if I’m the only one. Micah stained the wood and mounted the prints on there. And there’s a CD clip/nipple (i don’t know what they’re called?!) on the back to put the demo disk on. I think it’s a pretty unique demo.
And, speaking of demo, if you are ever looking for someone to score a movie, commercial, motion piece, or otherwise for you… check him out. Even if he wasn’t a best friend and a band-mate for nigh unto a decade, I would (and do) use this guy for all my musical needs. Check this piece out that he did for Jon’s Film is Not Dead workshop… Super8 footage by Leo; Edited and designed, actually, by Micah, as well. (Also, some closer shots of the demo after the jump.) (Also also, isn’t is strangely convenient that those last three links all happen to be stuff that I designed as well… unintentional, believe it or not) (Also^3, that’s my beautiful, giggling, cake-top bride—suzie—in the adidas slip-on’s.)
23 June 2009
Wired Magazine posted this a while ago—I just saw it today via Josh Spear. Sometime’s Girl Talk is a bit overwhelming to listen to if set as background musci, but I think he is an incredible artist. To thread so many elements together so seamlessly is both impressive and, I think, a culminating statement speaking to the appropriation/sample movement in art and music. His music is like speeding through the last 5 decades of pop music in lightspeed. Have a listen below and follow along with the chart above—it’s pretty fun and totally mind-blowing.
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