Hass Grotesk
Helvetica’s creators, Max Miedinger and Eduard Hoffmann, would have never imagined that their sans serif masterpiece could become one of the world’s design classics. “Neue Hass Grotesk”, its original name
Video: How to Make It in America x KiD CuDi
“How to Make It in America follows two enterprising Brooklyn twentysomethings as they hustle their way through New York City, determined to achieve the American Dream. Trying to make a name for themselves in New York’s competitive fashion scene, Ben Epstein (Greenberg) and his friend and business partner Cam Calderon (Rasuk) use their street knowledge and connections to bring their ambitions to fruition. With the help of Cam’s cousin Rene (Guzman), who is trying to market his own high-energy drink, and their well-connected friend Domingo (“Kid Cudi”), the burgeoning entrepreneurs set out to make it big, encountering obstacles along the way that will require all their ingenuity to overcome”.
“How to Make It in America,” HBO’s new dollar and a dream series premieres February 14. I don’t know too much about the film, but a story about struggle, ambition, and determination plotted in Brooklyn, NY gains my attention and anticipation for something exciting.
Teaser after the jump.
Haiti Earthquake Aftermath
I couldn’t fathom the feelings of the Haitian people, I could only sympathize with them. When it all seems hopeless and everything is gone, all I can say is, hold onto your spirit; stay strong and united – that’s what’s going to bring you through these times. My prayers go out to the people in Haiti.
Courtesy of AOL.com. More photos after the jump.
Wyclef Jean & Fugees’ Pras Encourages Earthquake Aid To Haiti
Hip Hop artist Wyclef Jean and Pras is urging people to donate $5 to Jean’s Haitian charity, Yéle Haiti, by texting “YELE” to 501501. (The donation will be automatically charged to your cellphone bill.) His is one of many Haiti earthquake relief efforts underway. Pras says he’d be open to group reuniting for benefit concert.
The Haitian people were still desperately trying to recover from deadly hurricanes that hit 18 months ago before this latest devastating blow to the poorest and least prepared country in our hemisphere. The earthquake, the largest the Caribbean island has seen in more than 200 years, struck around 4:50 p.m. on Tuesday. The epicenter was around 10 miles from the capital of Port-au-Prince, which according to reports was largely destroyed by the initial quake and a series of more than 30 aftershocks.
The earthquake was felt in several areas of Jamaica including: Liguanea, Barbican, UWI, Half-Way Tree, Heroes Circle, Kingston/St. Andrew, Seaforth, St. Thomas, Annotto Bay, St. Mary, Hope Bay, Portland. The last historic earthquake to hit Jamaica was June 1692, which sunk then the chief city of Jamaica, Port Royal. Boy!, these are the times and it makes you really think about the global warming issues and 2012. I don’t think 2012 is the end, but global warming is a big issue and should be among our concerns.
A Tsunami Watch was issued at 4:53 p.m. by the Pacific Warning Centre for Haiti, Cuba, the Dominican Republic and the Bahamas. Whilst none was issued for Jamaica, a Tsunami Advisory has been issued for the region.
Summit on the Summit
Lupe Fiasco and others trying to make a change for the better. Gotta thank Kara for finding this article.
CLIMBER BLOG: Lupe Fiasco
WHY I JOINED SOTSK
One of the most utopian and challenging phenomenon of man is the process of trying to realize the ideal. To sculpt the tangible from what is the ether of the mind. It manifests in the artistic mind as a vision and translates in the world via the specific talents of the artist as a song, a painting, a poem, a sculpture, a building, etc. The ambitious among us try and take a crack at it in every category. I think the category that best fits this trek is dance. Expressing oneself through the movement of one’s own body. An inaudible rhythm that silently screams a message to the audience. A public sacrifice of sorts. Putting ones own body directly in the firing line of critics, risking humiliation and to the extreme even creating enemies of friends and friends of strangers. All because of a dance. The steps of this dance in particular are simple enough, one foot in front of the other. The stage is a harsh and meandering, chaotic thing. The cast is a mix of Juilliard graduates, street trained, pop-lock champions and downright hopeless amateurs. The music is all natural thunderclaps and raindrop drumsticks upon cold plastic rooftops. But the message is the real star of the show. The underlying manifesto is one of awe inspiring pageantry fit for carnival in the streets of Brazil or the main drags of New Orleans. It’s classic and new, unchanging but full of progression. Alvin Alley meets The Court Waltz. A “dance macabre” and the unfortunate ones amongst the skeletons are ignorance and complacency. So What’s The Message?!?
Let’s Change The World For The Better.
Inspire a generation to aspire to activate its humanity. Inform the uninformed and more importantly those deemed “uninformable.” An open-ended challenge to this world, and the one that was before it, to dance to the beat of a different drummer. Motivate the wall flowers and the rhythm-less to dominate the middle of the dance hall with uncompromising confidence.
So there you have it. And the most poignant and at the same time the most hopelessly corny wrap I can think of to finish this off is…
May I have this dance?
Source via: Summit on the Summit: Kilimanjaro
Gett’n Messy
Still work’n guys… I don’t want to ruin the surprise, y’all better like it or at least kill me with your honesty! “He’s better only cause he had better positioning.” I’ma change my position and eat the competition (and no I did not intend to rhyme). It was NICEEE though, right?
Program used, Adobe Illustrator
el fin.
Blakout!
Blakout! – Chad Harris
A little something I ended up work’n on today. This wasn’t the concept I visualized, started with, or even thought to go in this direction, however I began to stick with me as I was work’n on some Clean Mess stuff. Clean Mess? I’ll save that for another article. I digress, nevertheless, the abstract subtleties are specifically placed but they look completely random. I still need to add more work to this project – look out for it.
el fin.
TEN:15 Variant
Chad Harris, Cross Island Parkway, Rear View.
I thought about Starin’ Through my Rear View by Tupac as I looked at this photo. (Lyrics after the jump)
Brief: TEN:15
HOW DID IT START: a small group of people looking for an artistic diversion in the morning.
WHY?: We thought it would be interesting to see what one minute in time looks like in different places. A collection of life, work + play that revolves around 10:15 am.
It’s provided us with an opportunity to take a step back and look at our surroundings differently. Plus it’s always fun to see what other people are doing.
JOIN THE EXPERIMENT: If you have a camera phone or camera on you at 10:15 am, take a photo that shows a random glimpse of your life at that moment and email it in. Include your name, the location, a title for your photo and your website link (if you have one). Thanks for playing!
Bizy.Dreaming@gmail.com
SELF
You are invited to participate in “The Power of Self” an international competition celebrating the vitality of self portraiture. A panel of judges including actor Steve Buscemi, director Chris Weitz, Guggenheim curator Helen Hsu and Flavorpill founder Sascha Lewis will award one artist a package of incredible prizes including six months of free living at The Edge in New York City or $7007 in cash. The most popular portfolio as voted by the public will also receive $1,000 cash. Your images have power. Now is your moment to reveal them to the world.
Submit your work to: ArtistWanted
Landmine Ketchup
“Using a ketchup sachet, we demonstrated the horrific nature of living in a land mine affected country and how much a part of everyday life that horror is. The idea is simple: as you tear open the sachet you also rip through the child’s leg and the ketchup inside pours out like blood.”
Designed by Publicis Mojo.
Complex Exclusive: Piecebook Reloaded Gallery
For a while now, ego trip founder/Complex big homie Sacha Jenkins and Dave “CHINO BYI” Villorente have been holding it down for graffiti by compiling writers’ sketches; Piecebook: The Secret Drawings of Graffiti Writers and Piecebook Reloaded function both as dope art books and historical archives of graf legends’ hand styles. So of course we had to bring the crew around to join forces with us at Complex HQ. Sacha, Dave, and five all-city writers (DOC TC5, KAVES, STEM, CES and KEO) dropped by to lend their visual talents to a photo shoot with an insanely hot model.
Source via: Complex
More photos after the jump.
Blakroc Project week 1
11 artist who collaborated with the Black Keys x 11 days x 11 tracks. 11.27.2009. Photos by John Peets
More photos after the jump.
Know Your Medium. Iconic Advice
I’ve always said I was a print guy so I try to look at typography very closely. Animation was mad cool and I love the end results, usually, but I was never good at it. Advanced kinematics, and I’m like huh? I love what animators do, but I know my strengths. I thought about illustration but I wasn’t always the best illustrator in the class. 6th grade, Ms. Pithy class, Myself, Ricci Steez, Easy, Tyquan, and Adam used to compete for the best Dragon Ball Z illustrations. But that was way back then. I can do illustration but that’s secondary. Typographers, well, you just have to have a good eye for it and love type. I use to pride myself on penmanship. Hill Curtis leaves us with a little advice on finding your niche.
Knowing your medium is so important to the end result of any project we create. The medium or means of what you create can dictate the what and the how of your idea. Hillman curtis tells us in this edition of Iconic advice (from the pages of Computer Arts Magazine) to “Know your medium” - Taking advice from a person who has pushed the boundaries of the web and film is extremely relevant.
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Street Level x Sue Kwons
“Street Level is a two decade history of New York’s five boroughs through a photo lens. Unfettered, Sue Kwons 200 page deep book looks at average citizens paired up alongside big ticket stars like Hov, Kanye, and the Beastie Boys. Everyone is brought down to street level through the poignant black and white prints”.
Lil Wayne: The Carter documentary
Just after hearing Wayne is preparing to do a bid in February for a past gun charge, it’s a pivotal time for QD3 to present the ‘The Carter” documentary. What better way is there to pay homage to a pop icon than Sundance? “Few will ever live the life of a true rock star, Wayne is one of the few.”
Designers Against Tibetan Abuse
Since starting the program for DATA/Designers Against Human Rights Abuse, the group has created another publication entitled 3 Minutes. The premise of the book is to show the full extent of the Tibetan conflict through 10 diverse and extremely powerful 3-minute interviews, each describing the 3 minutes that changed their lives. ‘Contributors were asked to translate these minute interviews into 16 printed page booklets using primarily typography. The result is a book made up of 10 beautifully designed booklets from some of the world’s best designers showcasing considered and stunning typography.’
The London exhibition sold out and raised £5,000 for charity (personally, I wish it had been more). It was a great idea and I hope the founders continue on and keep moving the cause forward with more projects and exhibitions to continue to raise money. You can read more about DATA/DAHRA here.
Source via: Change the Thought
Blu Book
Blu published a book with Studiocromie of of their mind-boggling drawings that was hand printed and signed by the artist. Unfortunately, it’s already sold out!
Basquiat in the Place to Be xPeter Relic
Source via: Waxpoetics
Ever since Jean-Michel Basquiat created the cover art to Rammellzee and K-Rob’s immortal 1983 Tartown single, “Beat Bop” (the theme to the movie Style Wars), his place in hip-hop’s hall of ball has been secure. But as a friend of Delicious Vinyl’s Matt Dike, Basquiat was also around during the creation of some of the early DV records, making the scene at Dike’s Santa Monica Blvd. apartment/studio, where he painted the studio’s bathroom door in his indelible graf-glyph style. Rapper Def Jef remembers meeting him.
Def Jef: It was early 1988, and I was recording my first album, Just a Poet with Soul. I had the singles done. One day, as we’re working, Matt Dike goes, “Hey, this friend of mine is coming up here, he’s kind of a pain in the ass, but don’t let him annoy you too bad.” Nothing annoyed me back then, because I was so happy. So Matt’s friend came in and said, “I’m Jean-Michel.” And I was like, “Hey, Jean, I’m Jef.” He sits on the floor and takes his backpack and dumps it out on the floor, and pens and paintbrushes and all type of shit falls out. It didn’t look like a painter’s backpack—it looked like a homeless dudes backpack! Twinkies and pennies and screws, and he fishes through all the shit and comes up with a sack of weed. He’s sitting there Indian style and rolls it up. We’re smoking and talking; I’m playing my music for him. He’s like, “You cool.”
For New Eyes Only!
For my ‘Modern Design Culture’ class we were to create a movie poster for a film festival entitled For New Eyes Only. The idea is to bring classic films to new audiences. We have our posters hung up in Alumni Hall adjacent to our Student Center.
The Killers, 1946 movie poster + colophon after the jump.
Video: The Ear
THE EAR. A new short film by Yi Zhou FEATURING PHARRELL WILLIAMS MUSIC BY ENNIO MORRICONE. Inspired to Gogols short story entitled The Nose from the Petersburg tales, Yi have written her latest short film about the absurd story of the loss of an ear. The ear is actually the key element of the film, shot in RED and partly to be made in 3d animation. Throughout the film, the ear and inner ear as a whole turn themselves into an EarBrige as they get crossed by a bridge. The EarBridge is part of a public project proposal for Baku, Azerbaijan that includes a number of important international contemporary artists.
Glow In The Dark Book
KANYE WEST: GLOW IN THE DARK
Interview with tour collaborator Spike Jonze
288 pages with gatefolds / 9⅝” x 13” / 400 photographs /CD with unreleased music and interview
HC w/jacket $50.00 U.S., $62.00 Canadian, £30.00 U.K.
Deluxe edition with Clamshell case: 12½” x 16½” / 978-0-8478-3294-1
Trade Edition available on amazon.com; Limited Edition available through
Rizzoli Bookstore 1-800-52-BOOKS
Rizzoli International
Publications, Inc.
More photos after the jump.
Adrien Donot
Adrien is a graphic designer. I spotted this on Kanye’s blog; I love the composition + the contrasting colors. White x Black x Magenta looks mean on the screen.
Chad Harris
Broccoli
Keep It Surreal we can talk about what we want, when we want, how we want. Bloggers keeping it real. Our purpose is to touch on topics from art, design and musiq to life and habitat. We try to give a shining light on all creatives, especially folks with aspirations of growing viral, as well as, already established folk in pop-culture. We’ll use this blog to explore a thing or two. Hopefully you’ll contribute.
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