Christopher Jaurique
As a part of the talk I gave yesterday at Otis College of Art & Design, we also had a little competition. It was simple, students were asked to create a desktop wallpaper, the best entry would be featured on the site. I received some pretty cool designs, but the one I thought was best was this entry by Christopher Jaurique. Christopher is a senior at Otis right now, studying Communication Arts and Advertising, though he admits that he loves making films. He’s currently working on his senior thesis project, in which he’s “building a room of mirrors and lcd screens in an attempt to disorient the viewer”… sounds pretty cool to me.
I loved this image because I thought it was a perfect computer wallpaper. It’s got interesting colors and minor details, and yet it’s vague enough that it’s not going to distract you, either. That subtle mixture of just enough is hard to do, but I think Christopher nailed it. Definitely check out the rest of his work in his portfolio, and better yet, hire him to make amazing films for you.
Bobby
Alex Westgate
Well, we’re finishing up our second Sights & Sounds wallpaper series devoted to Broken Social Scene, and I couldn’t be happier with how it turned out. For BSS’s last and most recent record, Forgiveness Rock Record, we’ve got Alex Westgate, a fantastic illustrator and designer. Alex is currently studying at Ontario College of Art & Design but you can tell he’sn already is a really talented artist.
As for his wallpaper, Alex decided to take a nostalgic look at the album:
For my wallpaper I chose to focus in on the song that I felt best represented the feel and “forgiveness” theme of the album. “Sentimental X’s” is a song that undoubtably deals with the bands off and on dynamic. Emily Haines sings ” A friend of a friend you used to call. Or a friend of a friend you used. You used to call.” To me the song is about forgotten, neglected friendships and the strong emotional ties that can be formed between two people. The idea that even when a relationship is taken for granted the bond that exists between both parties is never broken. I wanted to show this through the relationship we have with material objects and the meaning we give to them, things like toys from our childhood and other objects we no longer have use for. We store them away and may never touch or even look at them for years but because of our sentimental ties, we cannot bare to part with them.
Super rad, thanks so much Alex. And yet again, a huge thanks to Andrew & Matt McCracken of Doublenaut for gathering together such an awesome crew of creative folks from Toronto. If you haven’t seen the other Broken Social Scene wallpapers be sure to click here. We’ll be back to some non-music related wallpapers next week, and in a little bit we’ll start up a new Sights & Sounds.
Bobby
Matias Palacios-Hardy
Well it’s Wednesday already, which means we’re on your third of four wallpapers celebrating the awesome music of Broken Social Scene. This week’s desktop is for their self-titled album Broken Social Scene, which came out near the end of 2005. The album was pretty different from their previous, You Forgot It In People, being a lot more about jamming and feeling less introspective. But to me personally it was an awesome step forward in their musical style.
Visualizing the album is Matias Palacios-Hardy, a wonderful Toronto based illustrator who I think did an amazing job. I was so excited to see that he painted his entry, it gives it such life and texture. Here’s what his wallpaper is all about:
My favourite Broken Social Scene record. For some reason I always call this record ‘Major Label Debut.’ It is neither the name of the album nor even a literal descriptor. It is one of their songs and it does feel apt for this release, the band at their peak.
This wallpaper is an illustration about the misconceptions of being a successful musician. Broken Social Scene is a successful Canadian band. And being a successful Canadian band is not the same as being a successful American band. We are a huge country, but with a tiny population. A gold record here isn’t what it is in other countries. And then quantify that by having to divide your cash out to 15 or so members. Sadly, that does not equate to Concorde money.
Makes you think. Hopefully one day the band can buy their own Concorde and travel the world, dreams really do come true. A huge thanks for Matias and to the Doublenaut bros for finding such a rad guy to participate. Check back next week for our last wallpaper in the series, Forgiveness Rock Record.
Bobby
Doublenaut
This week, I’m pleased to bring the second Broken Social Scene Sights & Sounds wallpaper: You Forgot It In People by Doublenaut. The Toronto brothers–Andrew & Matt McCracken–bring us a piece that intermixes daydreams with reality, all through a forgotten glow, perfectly suited for an album that I absolutely adore.
Speaking on creating the piece, here is what they had to say:
I have always been a big fan of this record. Very experimental and beautiful pop songs. Aside from being a great album, It helped put Canadian indie rock on the map and paved the way for many more talented Toronto musicians.
It was hard coming up with an image that illustrated “You Forgot It In People” as a whole so I decided to focus on a specific song. “Looks Just Like The Sun” is one of the more mellow tracks on the album. It has a really dreamy feel to it which I wanted the wallpaper to have as well. I used some imagery from the lyrics and layered all of the pieces over each other. Broken Social Scene are known for layering instruments and voices so I thought that approach would be appropriate.
The result is spectacular and a stellar entry into the series. Next week, we’ll be pushing forward to the next wallpaper for the band’s self-titled Broken Social Scene. Stay tuned and we’ll be announcing it next Wednesday!
Bobby
Peter Ryan
Our first wallpaper in this new Sights & Sounds series with Broken Social Scene comes from Peter Ryan for the album Feel Good Lost. Peter’s an awesome illustrator who’s work has a great feeling of being both classic and contemporary at the same time. He also uses a ton of color which is something I personally enjoy.
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I Slept With Bonhomme at the CBC by Broken Social Scene From Feel Good Lost
Amazingly, Feel Good Lost come out just a little over 10 YEARS AGO, which sounds insane and impossible, back in March of 2001. It was mainly recorded by the founding members of Broken Social Scene, Brendan Canning and Kevin Drew with the help of Justin Peroff, Charles Spearin, Bill Priddle, Leslie Feist, Jessica Moss and Stars’ Evan Cranley. It’s basically an instrumental album, which they found was a bit boring when they played live. So they got even more friends from the Toronto music scene to help them out on later albums to expand their sound.
Here’s how Peter explains his wallpaper for the album:
“Well, I rarely leave the world of editorial illustration, so self directed work can be quite intimidating. (particularly when interpretation is required!!) “Feel Good Lost” has very little in the way of lyrics – really, its an instrumental album for the most part. So, with my initial avenue of inspiration unavailable (lyrics) i listened to the album, again and again. At first the music made me feel down. lonely even. My fault for listening to it late at night in the month of December – but for a while i was left feeling as cold and dark as the weather, every time i put it on. This offered the image of a lone tree in snow. It wasnt till i began to further understand the album after many more listens that I started leaving it feeling hopeful and refreshed. There is so much activity in the songs. so much life. I thought for a while about exotic birds sitting in a barren tree – and that was close, but i didnt want to go overboard with hope – the dark elements still needed to dominate. after some sketching around i decided that birds resting on the limbs of the shadow of the tree was perfect. Bleak, but with an unexpected magic.”
A big thanks to Peter for a beautiful wallpaper and the Doublenaut bros for getting him to join. Check back next week for my personal favorite Broken Social Scene album, You Forgot It In People.
Bobby
Photo thanks to Edite Filipe
Well, well, well… it’s time yet again for another Sights & Sounds wallpaper series. This here series happens to be a short one, only because the focus of this series, Broken Social Scene, only has four albums. I’ve been a BSS fan for I don’t know how long, though I remember my friend Andrew giving me all of their albums over iChat probably, oh I don’t know, 5 years ago now. What’s amazing to me is that they started out as this nearly minimal techno band but grew into this multi-member group filled with so many talented people. You’ve got Feist, Stars, Metric, Kevin Drew, Jason Collett, The Weakerthans and more, all coming out of one collective. If that’s not genius, I don’t know what is.
The force behind this new Sights & Sounds wallpapers are the guys from Doublenaut, Andrew and Matt McCracken. I had come across them through Twitter and after looking though their portfolio I knew they’d be a great team to work with. As you may or may not know, Broken Social Scene started out in Toronto, and that’s where Doublenaut are located as well. they’ve gathered together their creative friends to create some awesome wallpapers, and that’s what you’re gonna get.
Tomorrow wer’re starting with Feel Good Lost by… someone awesome. You’ll find out later today, but for now it’s a bit of surprise. Nonetheless it’s worth mentioning that they’ve done a splendid job of interpreting the album and I don’t think you’ll be disappointed. Check in later today to see what greatness we’ll be up to, and a big thanks to the Doublenaut bros for doing such a great job organizing this.
Bobby
