Simpleasures

Today is going to be a pretty fun day, as it’s the opening of Simpleasures, a new event here in LA that’s bringing together the best and brightest in music and art. This first time is “showcasing independent publishing and experimentation in zine making from Los Angeles and beyond.” The whole thing is being put on by the folks at Studio Number One, Forest, and The Dutch Press, and is taking place at the Sublminal Projects Gallery. There’s going to be a ton of rad artists there like Travis Millard, Souther Salazar, Mel Kadel, and Liam Devowski as well as booths and things for sale from Secret Headquarters, Giant Robot, 826LA and a ton more. Not only that, but there’s also going to be music by DJ Diabetic (Shep Fairey), Daedelus, Professor Canteloupe, Danny Holloway, Sodapop, and Lucky Dragon.

The event should be really awesome, it goes from 1PM to 9PM, and there’s even a panel discussion with Souther Salazar and Travis Millard at 7PM, which I imagine will be pretty damn funny. So if you’re in LA you should definitely stop by, it should be amazing.

Bobby

Bobby Solomon

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August 9, 2008 - See more posts by Bobby

Scott Hansen / ISO50′s New Obama Poster

Eagle-eyed reader Victor just sent me an email letting me know that Scott Hansen, better knows as ISO50 to the design-y types, has the poster he created for Barack Obama on the official Obama site. About a month ago Scott wrote on his blog that the Obama campaign had contacted him to create a poster, just like Shepard Fairey had done previously. He also described on his blog about how crazy this project became. The final file ended up being 2.77 GB, with almost 1000 layers!!! For those of you who aren’t familiar with Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator, a file of that size, with that many layers, is basically unheard of. I deal with digital images all the time, and I cringe at a 200 MB file, let alone almost 3 GB!

I think the poster turned out really amazing, it’s definitely going to be pretty damn popular. The colors are fantastic, and I’m sure there’s a TON of detail that you can’t see in the tiny image above. The poster measures 23″ x 40″, and comes in an edition of 5000, which I don’t think is that many, especially with the size of audience that is probably seeing the image. The poster isn’t officially ready, but you can pre-order it for $70 right now.

I just think it’s rad that all of these ultra-creative folks have stepped up to the plate to really show their support for Obama. It makes me really happy to see them rallying behind Obama and hopefully getting more and more younger voters into voting.

Bobby

Bobby Solomon

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May 23, 2008 - See more posts by Bobby

Shepard Fairey for Penguin Books

I’m the first to admit that I wasn’t the best student in high school. I’m a strong believer that if you can’t make something relevant to a student, then they won’t want to learn about it, and I certainly was of that mindset. Maybe Penguin Books was thinking the same thing when they asked Shepard Fairey to redesign the covers of two classic books, Animal Farm and 1984.

1984 is an obvious match up with Shepard and his style and the mantra his work embodies. Animal Farm has those same sort of ideas, but I was still a little surprised he did that one in addition. These covers stick to pretty much the same thing he’s done over and over again (think of the Smashing Pumpkins cover he just did and compare it to the Animal Farm cover), but I think this is a really smart move on the part of Penguin’s, nonetheless. If someone had handed me one of these books when I was 16, I would have instantly though, “Oh, he’s that guy who makes those Obey clothes!”, and been excited to see what the book was about.

As horrible as it sounds, kids judge a book by it’s cover. Hell, as an adult I still do. Hopefully Penguin enlists the help of more designers like Mr. Fairey to liven up the fronts of books, possibly opening up a new love of reading for kids growing up in the age of the internet. How about Futura doing the cover of Brave New World? Evan Hecox doing The Outsiders? Neckface doing Lord of the Flies? So many awesome artists out there that could help make a kid read.

Click here for more info about the project.

Found through Coudal Partners

Bobby

Bobby Solomon

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April 11, 2008 - See more posts by Bobby

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