Musician, producer and label manger (ELM&OAK) Alex B spends a day with XLR8R in Denver, showing off some of the best places to eat, dig for records and catch a show. For more episodes like this, check out the XLR8R City Guide page.

Jeff Staple has always been a fairly huge inspiration to me.. and seems to have taken a path in his career that really resonates with my own ideals. Although this is the first of this series of interviews I’ve seen, Good To Great seems to be a healthy resource for inspirational/motivational chats with heavy hitters in and around the creative community. Check out the first of the series on the R+I Creative vimeo page. R+I Creative site.

Spike Jonze interviews Opening Ceremony about how they got their start as well as a little peek at what it takes to keep it all rolling. Personally, I’m a sucker for behind the curtain peeks at anyone’s operation, but especially young entrepreneurial types. All of this gets me super excited for the next five years.. so much to do so many people to meet.

Make sure to swing by the VBS.tv site to catch the second half of this interview.

Celeste and I made it to the Drawn Here (& There) lecture last night at The Walker Arts Center to catch a presentation from superduo Non-Format.

We found out that one of the two partners, Jon Forss, had moved to St Paul from their London HQ, just a year before we moved to MPLS. The motivational impact the Non Format mystique generated was enough to keep anyone inspired, but to find out they had an office in proximity to your own was pretty great. Aside from that and some familiarity with their work, we didn’t really know a ton about them or their operating procedure. Needless to say, we both thought it was a great lecture and helped solidify some of the ulterior motives we’ve both been scheming on lately.

We also bumped into a slew of our internet homies in the flesh. Always great to meet up and slap fives. Joy.

Whether you know a lot about Geoff McFetridge, this video still has a lot of interesting perspective on being a designer. Catching him speak is kind of radical and reveals his very genuine and the “realness” that is so great about humans. Sometimes I love to watch lectures but so caught up in the persona of the speaker… or even worse, their projected persona. Geoff keeps shit real, I think he inspires from a place only the best of us wish we could.

Make sure to peruse the catalog at DO LECTURES. There are a ton of great talks.

- Jim Coudal

Find more of these words on Designglut

As most of these types of videos do, this one shares a lot of really interesting ideas.. some of which aren’t even being highlighted. I thought it was odd that Ji put Create above Planning on his list, but then I started to think about how that could actually motivate the creative process. To me its like sitting at home and sketching all day ends up being far more productive than planning an illustration or thinking about it over and over again. The bubble project seemed to be a perfect example of an average brand to consumer relationship. People aren’t being tricked as much as a brand might like to imagine, and in this case it’s clear that people have very withdrawn feelings for most products and services. Transparency reigns supreme. Love it.

We should all strive to do work that benefits the people as opposed to the brand. A brand should be seen as a resource to the people.

I haven’t had the opportunity to check out the rest of the 99% videos but will most definitely recommend taking a peek.

First, I think its awesome that this is a video from the article section on Playboy. Had no Idea they were stepping their content game up. Nice move! Second, I think this video is very telling of the modern street artist’s dogma and way of life. To me, it’s a HUGE fuckin joke to think that these people would serve any prison time let alone as much as they sometimes do. Time and time again, I hear stories about kids getting 5+ years for this stuff. Yeah, you can say they live in terrible places like Texas — where you get more time for writing your name on a wall than selling drugs — but I mean, seriously!? This is an odd custom, humans and it’s even more strange that you think throwing a person in jail will make them “learn their lesson” Nope, they just came out unable to participate in society and now they steal shit and sell drugs and beat old women for fun. I’m exaggerating to some minimal measure, but I think you get the point.

On a positive tip, this guy is getting after his “thing” with supreme dedication, like all of us should with whatever we do. That alone, is far more uplifting and inspiring than most of what I read on the electro-webs everyday. Maybe that’s my whole interest in graffiti to start? Self reliance and dedication equals responsibility. Sounds like a good thing to me. Food for thought.

(via @jedotlu )

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