Overproof is a small collective of artistic do-gooders here in the Twin Cities. There efforts are aimed at embracing the artistic community and bringing together artists of all sorts in order to reinforce the creative commonality we all seek to share. Whoa! Sounds pretty fuckin’ rad to me. Well now that you know that little snippet, I’ll give you all a time and place to participate. It seems that every Sunday at 8 PM they throw a little get together called Guilty Pleasures. The funness is at Jitters in the NE. Live music and drinks, cool peeps and a nice time. Get on it and don’t say we didn’t give you something to do this weekend.
Scot keeps stepping his game up with every show he does! Jesus, we want more of his work and we already have a mini Faives museum taking up half the apartment. Check out some of the latest greatest shit from Scot here and here. Keep your eyes peeled this dude is doing big thangs.
This coming Monday July 14, Jaime Kopke and Angela Schwab are hosting another Pecha Kucha Night in Denver. Pecha Kucha Night is an opportunity to see, meet, and share work with other designers/creatives with only 20 images in 20 seconds a piece. It should be a blast, so def stop by and check out cool peoples like Scot LeFavor, Lynn Brunning, and The Magnet Mafia. Now all we need is a Pechu Kucha Night here in MPLS.
There may still be an small window of opportunity to become a presenter if you can get all your stuff together by this week. Check guidelines here.
So went over to Eighthourday today, to check up on updates, cruise through their work, etc. daily routine stuff. WHEN I noticed that Katie mentioned that we made her happy! How fuckin awesome is that!? Very! We heart you too Katie, a lot! Cooool, you’ve made my evening.
Shitty has done it again! Markham Maes, aka Shitty Kitten, is seriously one of the nastiest illustrators we know. He’s currently showing at Josh & Tran’s place, The Shoppe, so if you in Denver definitely swing by and peep his work and eat some cupcakes. The shit is crazy hot, Tran just informed me that everything with the exception of a handful of pieces have sold the fuck out! Now we’re scrambling to snatch some up and wishing we could have been there for all the action. Peep more pics at JoyEngine.
It’s not the latest and greatest schmoozed content from all over the interwebs. Nope, it’s just something I think deserves another mention and a little additional attention on our blog. Readymech is a line of DIY flatpack toys developed by the gentlemen over at FWIS. You can print these little babies out at home and put em together pretty fast. They have plenty of a selection of characters done by all sorts of different artists. Some of the artists you’ll bump into are Julie West, Rexbox & Dro. Super rad toys by super good designers. Make sure to swing by and try ‘em out for yourself.
In congruence with Celeste’s recent Muxtape mixes, I have compiled my own. I call it “The Letter D” simply because it is a mix of artists with names that start with D. It might sound sort of lame, but it was hard as hell to put together a mix of similar artists and make it flow right when you are limited in such a way. If anything, this is in light of the particular effort I have been trying to assert in all of my projects lately. No matter how large or small, I feel it’s important to put as much as possible into every project. And in doing that, I offer you inspiration in the form of a Muxtape, Vol. 3 to be exact. Hope you enjoy.
01. Dabrye - So Scientific
02. Dangerdoom - El Chupa Nibre
03. Daedelus - At My Heels
04. Deru - Track 11
05. Diagram of Suburban Chaos - Clogg
06. Dwight Trible - I Was Born on Planet Rock
07. Deep Puddle Dynamics - D. Mothers of Invention
08. Delarosa & Asora - Paz Suite 1
09. Dntel - Safety Scissors Spilled My Drink Mix
10. David E. Sugar VS Ears - First O.K.
11. Dosh - Um Circles & Squares
12. Diplo - Way More
*UPDATE
We going to start doing playlists once a month now, ’cause it allows for more listening time.
It’s been a while now, but it’s always worth a mention. A month or so ago TEEBEE and I were sharing some of the latest shit we’d been working on and out pops these precious little guys. A collection of samurai and sensei in a progression of skill sets. I’m definitely a sucker for vector characters and even more so those that have little back stories. Sooner than later, I hope to see Todd and Lucian take these little creations and turn them into a full line something… something…? Could be toys, paintings, stickers, characters for a short story or even (my fav) a group of characters for a super secret short animation! Ha! The moral of the story being that sharing is cool and keeps my ass inspired. Thanks gentlemen! Keep ‘em rollin’.
Srsly the hottest video I’ve seen in a long time. Directed by That Go for Thunderheist’s song Jerk it. I’m not sure if voting is still open but this video is one of the finalist and you should def vote for it here.
The lovely people over at Adult Swim have put together a follow up mix to Ghostly Swim which came out a couple months back. This mix is entitled World Wide Renewal Program and features a collection of Chocolate Industries artists. The cover art is by Razauno. The track listing is completely fantastic in my mind and has lent itself to a very productive day of designing and doodling. You’ll find some newer releases, remixes and I think a few previously unreleased tracks as well. Never the less, it’s worth a look, listen and download. Make sure to check out each of these artist in full too, they deserve it.
Above is a hand-bill created by yours truly for the Super Fresh Block Party taking place this weekend, July 5th ( FIF! ) on East Colfax! Starting at 6pm you can swing by the Rock Bar parking lot for some BBQ and check out Live Painting by: Shitty Kitten, Mike Graves, Robert Maestas, Josh Wills, Eric Cox… and possibly a few other super secret and extra special guests, Hearts of Palm will serenade your soul! The shenanigans will continue throughout the night up until around midnight… A guerilla fashion show will take place along the super block at about 10pm and will feature the Denver Roller Dolls. Opening receptions for the following art shows will also be taking place throughout the night: Watermelon Belly Featuring new works by Shitty Kitten @ The Shoppe, Layer Upon Layer featuring the work of Robert Maestas @ Plastic Chapel, Paul Moschell is showing new work @ The Fabric Lab, and IKON is showing work @ Newspeak! DJ’s will be setup all along the East Colfax corridor pumping out Block Rock’n beats that are sure to seduce your ear drums & make your ass jiggle! We could think of nothing more patriotic than collaborating together to bring you all a FREE event in an effort to celebrate our individual freedoms! Goodie bags will be handed out to all that attend while supplies last… America at it’s finest!
It seems harmless enough to take some time every so often to realign yourself based on the changes in the market. People change, their habits come and go and how they spend their money is always effected. Recently I’ve seen a lot of corporate identity refreshes. Honestly none of them seem to be doing a very good job in my opinion and I’m curious why that is.
The two most recent I came across were Walmart and Miller Coors. Neither company holds much of my interest to start with but I realize their longevity and contribution to both of their markets. My problem comes in a few forms. The first being the most important in my mind, which is the relevance of recognition to its own consumers and clients. To me, it’s quite obvious that neither of these logos have done a good job staying consistent with their placement in the each of their markets.
Walmart changed, the colorway, the typeface, changed the name to a title case structure and added a totally unnecessary sunburst icon in an attempt to be seen as a more contemporary company with “bright” ideas. I’m sure if they would have hired the bunch of hippies that make up Pentagram they would have plenty of buzz words and drawn out explanations of what the starburst means and how that color blue influences people during the recession and so on. Whatever. My problem is that the new Walmart logo looks like it should be for an investment bank like WaMu or something. I also feel they missed some great opportunities to address their fastest growing demographic, Hispanics. Shit, I think they took a leap away from addressing their original target market (boomers) and didn’t even think about trying to grab the attention of the second most important demographic, the eco-conscious young person.
Miller Coors is another story all together. Corporate identities are generally used to represent the brand and relate to the consumer or at least the product. This does neither in my opinion. It could be argued that this isn’t the intent and of course it could be said that the generic look and feel is a fair representation of a corporation that holds share in multiple businesses. With this being said I can see the reasoning behind the direction chosen but it’s hard for me to see any longevity in stripping a company of all of it’s cultural equity to prepare for the future. Pentagram takes what many might see as daring steps into reevaluating a brand and bringing it back down to earth. But more times than not, they seem to over simplify everything they touch, which of course is ok by the client as long they have some over analytical interpretation of it’s meaning to calm their curiousities.
Why does this method seem so prevalent lately? Tear it apart and leave it as a blank canvas for those who will be there to critique it in the future? Or should we all leave it alone and just get used to it? What makes more sense in this case or any other similar? Why are these refreshes turning out so poorly? I’m all spent on this for now, but let us know what you think. Give us your opinion on this trend and what you think its significance is if there is any at all.
Side Note: Sounds like Coors is moving their headquarters somewhere outside of CO. I wonder how seriously that will effect all of the CO agencies on the Coors dollar? Hmmm…
