Sounds From Los Angeles: An Interview With Travis Holcombe
For our final interview with KCRW folks, we shifted our gaze toward something they are very good at: music! Representing that world, we had a chat with Travis Holcombe, a new-ish DJ who recently has been given a huge chunk of the weekend to play with. We spoke with him about how he got to where he is today and what goes into making a DJ set. He’s a really cool guy with great taste in music. We recommend you check out his show, too.

Al Que Quiere Is Everything You Want
Al Que Quiere is a design firm that focuses on making furniture and homewares and everything they make is fantastic. Their work is a mashing of classic and new styles that result in these pieces that are so fun and like some sort of mish-mash of aesthetics. We’re super into what they are doing and, although we won’t be able to afford them for some time (if ever), we had to share the work since it’s so dang cool.

Getting A Bike At Orange 20
Our bike was stolen last year and we finally had to take the time to get a new one. After hunting around a few stores, only one had what we needed and the best service: Orange 20. The store is the quickly beating heart of Los Angeles’ bike culture and they treat every customer–regardless of their bike knowledge–like an eager student to learn about all things bikes. We walked out with a sweet bike for not-that-much and we have nothing but good things to say about it. We *highly* recommend this place.

Marnie Weber Constructs A World
Marnie Weber is an artist who does a little bit of everything–and she is what ties it together. She does performances and videos and collages and sculptures that all relate to her wonderfully bizarre circus world. She’s kind of like Cindy Sherman but if Cindy Sherman were a lion taming clown who made a bunch of objects that build out the world she believes she is in.

Jeff Burton’s Blurry Los Angeles
Luxury brand Céline recently opened a Beverly Hills store. How did they get the word out on that? They made a video about LA! Directed by photographer Jeff Burton, the video is a sweeping view of the city from a blurry, dreamy eye that makes LA look like both the best and worst place. It’s a curious video that you should give a little peek at.

Oh! Two other things: we contributed a story about a weird Beverly Hills park to Installation magazine and LA/Japan based fancy glasses maker Masunaga is having a contest to give you free glasses.

There is a wonderful scene in WALL-E of the spaceship Axion re-entering Earth’s polluted and desolate atmosphere; space waste is littering the planetary field surrounding the pale blue dot and suffocating it. Immediately seeing SMATIK’s Dead Astronaut wallpaper, I remembered this scene with great clarity.

There is currently 19,000 pieces of debris larger than 5cm and another 300,000 pieces smaller than 1cm that is hovering around our homeland. Space junk consists of a wide range of material left behind from the quest of space exploration – spent rockets, old satellites, etc. This growing beehive of debris that may collide with operational spacecrafts and other bodies.

I love the detail in SMATIK astronauts floating in dead orbit. The repetitive figure’s eye balls fixed upwards towards the sky – as if they saw their death coming.

André SMATIK Ljosaj is a graphic designer specializing in static, motion and interactive work.  He created this wallpaper for Dead Astronauts - an electronic duo comprised of Seattle-based Jared Nickerson and Toronto-based Hayley Stewart. Like TFIB, Dead Astronaut have their own Desktop Wallpaper Project featuring various graphic designers and contributors from around the globe.

I haven’t seen any images of David Chipperfield’s expansion to the Saint Louis Art Museum since they loaded it with the art, so I was very happy to bump into a video where the curator of the museum talks about the new space while cameras glide smoothly through the pristine, day-lit galleries. It’s really an impressive space.

Chipperfield’s work may be a bit conservative to some (“probably a bit more conservative” is the phrase Aaron Betsky came up with to predict the architect’s curatorial attitude during a lecture given before the Venice Biennale) but I’m actually surprised by some of the flashy details. Specifically, I’m surprised by the long and shiny grates that interrupt the White Oak flooring. At least I think they’re metal grates for the HVAC system, but in some photos they look more like dark, polished stone. Whatever they are, they call a lot of attention to themselves, and in some sweeps of the galleries it’s the first thing I noticed.

The second thing I noticed was probably the grid of the coffered ceiling. It’s such a dominant feature of the project that it actually organizes  everything, dictating where the white walls and shiny floor grates can go. But when the light floods through the skylights, as it does in the video, it somehow softens the ceiling and turns it into a heavy but benign cloud. I can only imagine how fantastic it would be to stand in the gallery and watch the shadow of a cloud pass over the ceiling grid. But then there’s the artwork.

I had no idea that the collection of the SLAM was this impressive. Whether or not the architecture is background enough seems irrelevant when it will likely be ignored once people are past the visitor’s desk. The museum is really what’s happening between the floor grates and the ceiling grid, like a frame for artwork that is mostly unframed.

Eight years since their last album, Boards of Canada is releasing a new album called Tomorrow’s Harvest on June 10/11. The first track off of the new album is called Reach for the Dead, which picks up where the band left off, continuing their minimal electronic pioneering. This track is a slow build, so be sure to sit tight, strap on some headphones, and enjoy the ride. I’m totally looking forward to hearing more from this album.

I’ve also posted the video below, in case you want some trippy, abstract visuals to accompany your music.

Last week, hundreds of new and established design makers showcased their latest wares during NY Design Week. And while there were many standouts, Seattle-based Iacoli & McAllister continue to stand apart from the crowd with their deceptively simple furniture, lighting, and accessory pieces. Founded in 2007, by Jamie Iacoli and Brian McAllister, the duo cite exploration, craft, style, and quality as creative fuel for their work which has grown from spare yet colorful stools and pendant lights to tables, objects, and jewelry.

Their latest collection includes the Hialeah coffee table, a modern marvel of steel and glass that comes either clear or smoked and paired with a marble or oak modular top. They also have a new brass or powder coated wire side table available in everything from pink and tomato red to white and aqua. I’ve long been a fan of Iacoli & McAllister’s covetable lighting pieces, and their latest brass or copper cluster pendant lights are the epitome of simple elegance. The same can be said for their brass and copper necklaces that will change and tarnish to become something else over time. It seems only fitting that the duo believe that, “Convention is boring,” as that sentiment seems to echo throughout their work. Check out more of Iacoli & McAllister’s work here.

During the week artist and designer Scotty Albrecht got in touch to let me know that he’s recently created a whole batch of new work for an exhibition that he’s having in Brooklyn this weekend. The show is a joint exhibition with artist Damion Silver and I have to say that the duo make for an excellent pairing.

Both artists work with found objects and incorporate collage and assemblage into what they do. I hadn’t been aware of Silver’s work until Scotty sent me on some images, and I really love the look of both of their styles. I think that there’s something very pure about this type of hand-crafted work, and the contrasting mix of wrought wood with their use of structured-form leads to a really interesting and strong aesthetic.

‘Wood & Pulp’ opens at the Colab Projectspace in Brooklyn this Saturday (May 25th) and runs until June 23rd. The images in this post feature work from both Albrecht and Silver (the second and forth images are by Silver). More work can be seen on each of their websites here and here.

While I’m not sure that all five of these buildings are necessarily great, the animation sure is. Titled Five Great Buildings, this short was made by Al Boardman, a expatriated Brit who loves architecture and lives in Chicago.

In his animation, five Chicago towers start as motile lines and geometries that stack and bloom into complete illustrations. Al describes his animation style as being “clean, clear and structured” which certainly applies to his work, and might explain his interest in architecture. It doesn’t explain what Trump Tower (a giant, glazed turd in my humble opinion) is doing in the lineup. If we’re sticking to towers, Studio Gang’s Aqua Tower seems more deserving, not to mention a bevy of buildings less than 20 stories tall that are all ripe for inclusion. Still, it’s an excellent video, are are Boardman’s others, including a short and informative video about the anatomy of a knife.

I have a problem with the word platonic. It defines something that is way more interesting than what it seems to be. Male friendships have now become widely accepted as a ‘Bromances’, yet the bond between females, equally as deep and meaningful, is stuck being defined by the old lifeless descriptor, platonic. A non-sexual love. Snoozer. I’m hoping Greta Gerwig, the lead in Noah Baumbach’s newest film Frances Ha, will be remembered as the femme that helped shed platonic from its drab and stuffy skin. Be it, ‘Femships’ or ‘Bromances’, Frances Ha, actualizes what every woman feels inside for her best friend, love in its lightest form.

Thankfully, this topic is in the right hands. Written by both Baumbach and Gerwig, Frances Ha is about a soul mates, making friends, un-friending, re-adding, and re-prioritizing as the looming presence of turning thirty draws near. One of the most endearing qualities of Baumbach’s filmmaking is his masterful ability to cast. Much like his earlier films Kicking and Screaming, Squid and the Whale, and Greenberg, the performances in Frances Ha’s small ensemble cast are natural and seamless.

Whether it is through Frances as a modern dancer or the corporeal comedy that Gerwig plays with, there is a physicality that is brazenly matched by its mighty location. Given his employment of budding New York actors like Adam Driver (Girls), Frances Ha has as much to do with its New York City location as anything else. Filming in black and white on location in New York City means only one thing to cinefiles- an obvious comparison to Woody Allen’s Manhattan. But despite its blatant nod toward cinema classics (there are also a number of Truffault references), this film has a heart all its own.

Depending on your age and path, Frances Ha, may lead you to question where you are in your life vis–à–vis your dreams, accomplishments and friendships. In my humble opinion, when a film is powerful enough to move you into self-reflection, it’s success is immeasurable.

Frances Ha opens nationwide on May 31.

It’s always fun to get sucked down the internet rabbit hole and led somewhere unexpected. While tooling around Etsy, I came across a store called Tiny Crystals which was selling hand-painted necklaces and journals with fantastic illustrations by Toronto-based artist Shen Plum. I was then led to her prolific online journal only to discover a world inhabited by vampire girls, ghost gangs, and skateboarding rabbits.

The illustrative worlds that Shen Plum creates—through portraits, patterns, and whimsical characters—is charming to say the least. She has a knack for capturing the anthropomorphically absurd, like beach bathing cats and fashion rabbits, but also renders bold portraits like a delicate pencil drawing of singer-songwriters Tegan & Sara framed by pastels and colorful collage. Plum’s work doesn’t seem to follow any themes, as she illustrates everything from a flock of flamingoes to a detailed Australian breakfast spread, but I’m hoping we’ll be seeing more from her in the future. And perhaps will soon see some prints in her Etsy shop, too (gentle nudge). Check out more of Shen Plum’s work here.

Frank Svengsouk

You may not have heard of Frank Svengsouk, but he’s one of the most talented guys I know. By day he works as an art director with me at Disney, creating beautiful, award winning websites that’ll knock your socks. He’s also a super talented artist as well though, dabbling in both digital and traditional mediums. Recently, Frank had a residency at the Wonderground Gallery in Downtown Disney where he debuted an epic series of pieces which he dubbed the Astro Zodiac Force.

The series takes all of the animals of the zodiac and outfits them in space suits, showcasing them adventuring across the cosmos. I loved what Frank did so much that I asked if he’d be interested in bringing the Force to the site, so he’s graced us with the luckiest member, the Rabbit. You can see the full range of animals over on Society 6, where prints of all sizes are available as well. And if you happen to be at Disneyland, Frank’s work will be on display at the Wonderground Gallery until the June 14.

Can the identity of a museum be a piece of conceptual art itself? That seems to be the road that Experimental Jetset has taken with the design system they’ve created for the Whitney Museum of American Art. In 2015, the Whitney will be moving to a beautiful new building which is bordered by The High Line on one side and the Hudson Riveer on the other. Designed by Renzo Piano, it’s a big step for the museum, and thus, a new identity was crafted for the monumental occasion.

If you’re unfamiliar with Experimental Jetset they’re a small design studio in Amsterdam made up of just three members: Marieke Stolk, Erwin Brinkers and Danny van den Dungen. You’ve probably seen their work, or an iteration of their work, in the shirt they made for 2K/Gingham called John & Paul & Ringo & George back in 2001. Since then it’s been ripped off to high heaven (you can read more about that here).

For The Whitney, they’ve created what they’re calling the “responsive W”, a flexible but infelxible identity system.

The ‘Responsive W’ can also be seen as a flexible typographic grid. The W-shaped construction is an excellent platform for all kinds of text – in this case the name ‘Whitney’. A thin, fragile line perfectly symbolizes this ambiguous, seemingly paradoxical state of being ‘open’ and ‘closed’ at the same time. On top of that, a thin line invites activity and interactivity – it represents an area that needs to be signed, that needs to filled-in (or filled-out). In other words, it symbolizes a place to interact, to engage, to connect. In that sense, a flexible W, consisting of a thin line (and in some of our early sketches, we even played with the idea of a dotted or dashed line), represents the idea of the Whitney as an blank canvas, for the artist to put his/her signature on.

The “responsive W” is interesting as a concept. Experimental Jetset started out with the idea of a line, “It would be much easier to present the history of art as a simplistic line – but that’s not the Whitney”. So the line was bent and called it a zig-zag. “The zig-zag being a metaphor for a non-simplistic, more complicated (and thus more interesting) history of art”, as their brief says. The zig-zag is then paired with a version of Neue Haas Grotesk which had been recently redrawn by Christian Schwartz, a type designer from New York. This where the idea of conceptual art and identity design starts to show itself.

On it’s face, the identity is a bent line, some words and some photos of old art. But Experimental Jetset has created a compelling backstory, a journey to follow if you will. As with most pieces of conceptual art there’s a story that goes along with it that helps you understand why the piece of art is important. For example, Dan Flavin’s work looks like a bunch of fluorescent light bulbs in an empty space, but if you learn that his intention is to change the environment of the space with his lighting installations, you start to see the beauty in his work. So, my question is, is this the same as that?

My gut tells me that this system is a little bit conceptual art, a little bit one-trick pony, and I’m sad to say, a little boring. I have a lot of respect for the Experimental Jetset team and their work in the past, but this feels like they’ve done what they always do: big Helvetica on a tight grid. The use of Neue Haas Grotesk instead of Helvetica seems to me like they didn’t want folks saying they only use Helvetica, but c’mon, as designers we know the subtle differences between are exactly that – SUBTLE. As you can see in the brochure below though, the execution (this piece was done by the Whitney staff using the Experimental Jetset templates) falls quite flat. Is it organized and clean and snapped cleanly to a grid? Yes. But does it have any soul? Not particularly.

I think the “responsive W” has a lot of potential, but I’m not sure it always works. I really like what the design staff at the Whitney has done in some of the pieces of paraphernalia, like the notepad and tote bag below, which start to give the identity system a bit of personality. Does a museum’s identity system technically need personality? Maybe not, but if you have to walk around New York and see flat, rigid branding everywhere, well, that doesn’t sound very appealing to me.

Time will tell how this experiment turns out, that and the talent of the design team at the Whitney. Perhaps Experimental Jetset have done their jobs correctly and have delivered an identity system that allows others to create many beautiful things from it? Browse through the images below and you can start to see the beginnings of this new journey.

Who knew a stack of off-kilter boxes could be so elegant? In this case, we aren’t talking about the New Museum, but the Tchoban Foundation, which will open a new museum of its very own this June in Berlin.

Designed by SPEECH, architects Sergei Tchoban and Sergei Kuznetsov have given the foundation a handome place to hang drawings. But both the architects and the building have drawings of their own. The building has drawings covering its concrete exterior; repetitive fragments of architectural sketches are etched into the cement at each level. And while the architects were finishing construction drawings of the project, they also completed at least one Piranesi-like sketch of the museum. It’s appropriate considering that the first program on display in the building will be devoted to Piranesi: Piranesi’s Paestum: Master Drawings Uncovered. After it leaves Berlin, the drawings will head to New York, where they won’t be on display at the New Museum, but rather the Morgan Library.

New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art (MoMA) is getting into the ICFF spirit by unveiling a new collection of products. “Destination NYC” is designed by new and established designers working within all five NYC boroughs, and all products are made and manufactured in the USA. They run the gamut, too, with everything from pop stools and Confettisystem party decorations to some seriously beautiful new accessory pieces.

I was taken with Leah Dumigan’s Button Stool, which is both fun and functional, and designed to allow children to take part in the threading of the seat’s buttonhole. David Barry’s Frank Wall Hook brings a colorful rabbit to any blank wall; moreover, it’s made of 16-gauge steel and can hold up to 50 pounds. Another standout from the collection is Alison Cutlan’s line of mesh bead jewelry made of hand-painted flexible mesh and filled with layers of Japanese beads. They’re stunning neck and wrist pieces that feel both natural and futuristic at the same time. There are over a hundred products in the full MoMA collection, and you can check them all out here.

Manolito’s Dream is a really sweet animation from Alla Kinda. Telling the story of Manolito, the film brings us on a journey through his subconscious as he stays slumped in the deepest of slumbers. It’s a wonderfully charming piece and it’s filled with great character design, a wonderful sense of rhythm, and a fantastic original score by Josep M. Baldomà.

Alla Kinda are a Spanish studio based in Barcelona. Made up of Txesco Montalt and Mayte Sanchez, the pair have been working in animation and illustration for over a decade and have been involved in a number of projects including Pocoyo, Jelly Jamm and the wonderful looking Saari. More of their work can be seen here.

Seth Godin is a really smart guy, and if you’re not familiar with him you should read his blog. Just about a week ago the folks at Creative Mornings put Seth’s recent talk at CM New York online, dropping a whole lot of knowledge bombs on the crowd, and in turn, the Internet at large. If you’re a creative individual, watch this and soak it all in.

Today saw the release of the newest album from Brooklyn based band The National, titled Trouble Will Find Me. I haven’t heard the album yet (they didn’t option it to Rdio, I guess) but I am enjoying the song I’ve posted above called “Don’t Swallow the Cap”. As you may have gleaned from the title the song, I believe, is about struggling with addiction. What I find funny is that every National song I hear seems so “pretty” and melodic, so you’ve got this song about a pretty serious subject that’s done so beautifully. That’s the joy of The National though and why they’re one of the best bands out there right now.

It’s summer blockbuster movie season, but for those of us interested in eschewing loud spectacles in favor of the smaller cinematic wonders, I’d like to recommend A Band Called Death for the top of your must-see list. In theaters on June 28, but available via iTunes VOD on May 24, the documentary tells the story of three teenage brothers—Bobby, David, and Dannis Hackney—from Detroit, Michigan, making punk rock before there was definable punk in the USA. Not only was this trio of misfits making killer original music at a time when disco and Motown were each having their respective moments, they were blasting the typical labels placed on artists at that time. And even though they disbanded before finishing their first album, going so far as to lock up their master tapes in an attic, they have since gone on to acquire the most unique semi-posthumous fame.

Though the band pressed a single and played local gigs, they had trouble garnering the attention of record labels as many found a trio of black punks—and their band name—too intimidating to sign. But when a 1974 demo tape found it’s way out of obscurity and began influencing a younger genration of musicians and fans, the band suddenly experienced a resurrection. I’m thrilled to find out more about the band and their first album, …For the Whole World to See, which has some fantastic cover artwork. Check out the trailer with a cameo by Henry Rollins below.

This weekend, I kind of stumbled into a rabbit hole of Japanese architecture. Or maybe it’s more like an ant farm? It started when I wanted to see what Jun Aoki was up to, and ended when I found these incredible models by Ikimono Architects. Honestly, I’m not even sure how I arrived at the firm’s website; between Jun Aoki and Ikimono Architects, it’s all a blur of white spaces and asymmetrical windows.

I didn’t realize I had seen the firm’s work before on ArchDaily and designboom because the speculative models are so distinct from the firm’s built work. And while the firm has realized some lovely built projects (I’m particularly fond of the Atelier Tinjinyama) the imagination of these unbuilt projects is outstanding. The project above is the “Eats ground project” which features a labyrinth of spaces burrowing into the site. The displaced dirt from the excavated spaces fills the volume within the project’s walls, pushing the ground inside higher and higher. Other projects are imagined as boxy volumes intermeshed with trees, as an undulating ground on top of a glass square, or even as an inhabitable bottle in the middle of the ocean. The ideas are as absurd as they are thought-provoking.

Lately I’ve been loving the work of Emmanuelle Walker’s. I discovered her while flicking through the recent Nobrow 8 (more details here) and was instantly taken with her style of illustration. Originally from Montreal, Emmanuelle currently lives in London where she works as an animation director and illustrator.

In truth I could have picked any one of her projects to share with you here but I thought that you might really like her ‘Dogs and Cars’ illustration. It features six cars, all of which are in motion, and all of which have dogs riding as passengers. It’s a fun image and Emmanuelle does a great job at capturing each dog’s enthusiasm for being in the passenger seat. The image really comes alive thanks to her great illustrative style and I think it feels like the perfect combination of Sylvain Chomet and cartoon modern. You can see more of her work online here.

I’m a sucker for a good pattern, and Liberty of London, who’s teamed up with Levi’s, has killed it with this new pattern design for their collaboration collection. The pattern was inspired by a piece by Liberty from the 70′s, recreated with watercolor pencils and set into a repeat pattern that adorns some of Levi’s classic silhouettes.

I was able to see the collection in person at the Levi’s showroom here in Los Angeles, and when I Instagrammed a photo of one of the bags, I received so much good feedback that I wanted to feature it here. As you can see in the images below they’ve found ways of working the pattern into every piece, sometimes overt and sometimes extremely subtle.

My personal favorite is the anorak, which is featured in the middle below. The combination of chambrays paired with the floral pattern is a stunner. It’s the combination of boy-ish proportions mixed with the gentle but brightly colored floral pattern is too good to pass up. If you’re interested in seeing the rest of the collaboration you should click here.