Well, unfortunately we had some unexpected downtime. Our site was showing up as “expired.” Fortunately it was not, and we have resolved the issue now.

I was supposed to have a tutorial posted over the weekend, but instead I’ll be posting it in a couple hours.

Peace,

- m / Colorcubic™

About a month ago (around the same time we started moving into our new office) we decided it was time to change the look and feel of our site. Ever since we moved we’ve been trying to fit in what little free time we have to redesigning and developing our new site. So far everything is coming along great. We’re almost ready to start coding, but it’s going to take some time before it’s been tested and ready for a launch. Until then we decided that we would preview some of our new projects on our blog that we’ve been working on. Unfortunately we won’t be previewing everything, but there’s still enough to preview to give you an idea of what we have been busy with.

We thought it would be fun to start off with some of the brand concepts and designs we’ve had the pleasure of producing. We hope everyone enjoys them.

THE COMBI™

This is the first of 2 concepts we’ve produced for the Combi™, (a licensed product store in Australia). This project is really exciting to work on, and is still in the production stages.

With this first concept we produced, we really wanted to move in a “retro” direction. We were really inspired by mid 1970s John Deere Ads, and the early 1980s Intellivision gaming consul. Although not directly by the logos, we were more so influenced by that preconceived visual notion of what a “retro” logo should look like.

We still have another concept to deliver before a decision is made, and with this next concept we’re steering in a completely different direction.

Once we’re finished we’ll be sure to post it on here for preview.

COLIBRI COLLECTIVE™
This was a pretty fun project to work on. We produced this logo / icon for Colibri Collective™, (an electronic music collective in Germany). They provide a roster of many different producers in the electronic scene worldwide to preview and listen to.

When producing this we thought of unity, and wanted to produce an image that was timeless.

They liked it right off the bat, and they’ve already started using it on one of their social networking sites.

Check them out at www.myspace.com/colibricollective

ROGUE SAMURAI FARM™

Rogue Samurai Farm™ is an umbrella / incubator company for product and service companies. I know that sounds very boring, but it’s far from it. The whole idea behind the name was to show that a company doesn’t need to operate in such a conventional manner where all of the workers are miserable, and the top dogs reap all of the benefits.

Rogue Samurai Farm™ operates in a completely different manner. It operates more like King Arthur’s round table, or a head with many arms, or in this case “tentacles.”

We chose the calamari as a symbol for multitasking / juggling, and equality as a whole. It represents a body of many making up one strong entity, where every limb is an asset to the company. Much like the Samurai in the Edo period, only they’re not asking anyone to commit sepuku, hence the “Rogue” in Rogue Samurai Farm™.
On top of being very motivational, this was a really fun concept to produce. It’s still in the approval stages, and we still have another to produce as well. We’ll be sure to post the chosen logo / icon when the votes are in.

Anyway, I hope you’ve enjoyed this first of many visual concepts to come.

Peace,

- m / Colorcubic™

This was a poster we designed for an electronic / ambient music event at JCafe in PDX, Oregon. It was actually one that I performed at under my moniker “masmöd.” It was pretty low key, but still really fun to do.

We ran with ITC Avant Garde Gothic for the type. I think it turned out pretty well for the little amount of time we had to hash this out.

Enjoy,

- m / Colorcubic™

There is a reoccurring phenomenon that my buddy Toyo and I have been experiencing for several years now. He used to live in the same city as me, but his visa expired and he had to move back to Nihhon / Japan.

Ever since, we’ve been mailing each other gifts, packages, letters, etc…

I noticed that every time he sends me a gift I’m always really impressed with the mailer I receive. It’s so delicately designed. The colors are perfect, it’s easy to understand (if you read Hiragana, Katakana, or Kanji). Even if you don’t you can tell the directions are pretty simple. They even lay everything out for you in steps.

Then I’m faced with the embarrassment of sending off a USPS mailer to him. Not only are our mailers fugly as hell, they don’t always make it to their destination. I have a theory about that actually…

I believe it’s because our mailers are so damn ugly that they don’t make it to their destination. Seriously, who wants to look at an ugly piece of crap like that.

It’s pretty sad actually. It really made me think about how little America is concerned with aesthetics, but also how important aesthetics are, and how it is potentially detrimental to the delivery and retrieval of information, mail, shipments, etc…

I’m sure if you have someone who lives out of state from you, or out of country, you spend a lot of time mailing gifts, or letters to those people.

It’s a psychological fact people would rather look at, and receive something beautiful rather than ugly. I know I do, and what really gets under my skin is the shit the USPS post office, or FedEx expect us to write on, or use for sending gifts. That crap is embarrassing as hell to use. Even UPS got it wrong.

That’s sad too, because they had it right the first time, but they messed everything up by listening to whatever clown persuaded them to change their image to that glossy piece of web 2.0 crap they’ve plastered on the side of their trucks and planes that are now seen everywhere. I say web 2.0, because that’s exactly what it is, but it’s also used for their package design. Seriously, someone should tell them that their new “logo” is for the web only, and not for print media.

I mean, c’mon! How hard is it to produce a good looking mailer? In my opinion it takes more time to produce a piece of shit in the toilet than it does to produce a beautiful package.

Maybe this is why digital media has taken hold of everyone in this country. Nobody cares about stationary anymore, well… unless you’re a designer, or you’re 13, and even then that’s few and far between.

Don’t get me wrong, I love the internet, and I love technology, but I also really appreciate beautiful packaging. Honestly, aesthetics in any medium play such an important role.

Oh well, maybe USPS, FedEx, and UPS will get it right the next time they take their shit to the printers.

peace,

- m / Colorcubic™

Christy and I found this book by David Ogilvy who was one of the most notable advertising executives in the early 1960’s.

The book is titled: “Ogilvy on Advertising.”

It’s honestly one of the most controversial books I’ve read for it’s time when it comes to advertising (next to the United Colors of Benetton).

The Ads he helped produce were definitely the cream of the crop (and in my opinion, still are) when it comes to tangible print media, how informative it is / was to the reader, as well as how influential it is / was to the reader. He also mentions some pretty interesting guidelines to follow when producing an Ad for a large brand that I don’t necessarily agree with.

Although I disagree with his methods today, I believe his methods were appropriate for his time, thus resulting in a really strong foundation for a lot of the brand products we now take for granted.

There are also a lot of really amazing layout references in the book that are beautiful, as well as the brand identities produced in the book.
If you’re a designer then I would definitely encourage you to pick up a copy of this book. Not necessarily for the advice, but more so for the beautiful ads produced in the book. I must say though, some of the advice David Ogilvy provides should not be taken with a grain of salt, but rather a whole mound of salt… This is of course my ¢.02.

peace,

- m / Colorcubic™

Christy and I were in Coeur d’ Alene, Idaho last summer. If you’ve ever been then you’ll know that there isn’t much to do. If you plan on staying longer then a day then you’ll probably end up seeing everything there is to see in that day, and spend the rest of your time repeating that day over and over again.

Anyway, we decided to spend our time looking for rare finds at the local thrift stores, and record stores.

On top of finding some really dope records, I scored this practically new “Casio SK-1″ for only $4.00. It was originally $8.00, but Christy’s father thought that was too much for the SK-1, and he rubbed off the price, and then proceeded to negotiate the price down to $4.00. Pretty funny shit actually, but again I’m getting off topic.

If you’re familiar with the SK-1 then you’ll know why I’m so excited that I found this. This keyboard is so underrated. It’s not only amazing on it’s own, but it’s also a brilliant machine to circuit bend, although I don’t plan on circuit-bending mine until I can find another one. I’d like to keep one intact.

This keyboard has a sampling feature that allows you to sample anything, but for a limited time.

You can then save your samples and use them for quick reference during a live set, or a recording.

Now what I’ve heard people do to the SK-1 after circuit-bending it is pretty phenomenal as well, and if you’re really into circuit-bending devices then I would refer you to try circuit bending an SK-1, but if you only have one then I would refer you to NOT circuit bend it. Instead, save it until you find another one, otherwise look for another keyboard to circuit-bend as the SK-1 is no longer in production.

Anyway, I hope you found this post to be at least somewhat useful and informative.

peace,

- m / Colorcubic™

I’ve been into the whole circuit bending mess for a little while.

I’ve messed with a few toys here and there, but nothing I’m really happy with. My buddy “Air Fortress” has bent some really dope shit that is really impressive. He bent this one toy guitar and adapted it to emulate a theremin.

Anyway, a really good book that I would refer anyone to read who’s just getting involved with circuit bending is this book by: Reed Ghazala “the Father of circuit-bending.”

The book cover and graphics are a bit to be desired, but the book is really informative, and will help you along your way to building advanced circuit bent hardware.

The main reason I posted this was due to my never ending exploration of new sounds for sound designing and electronic music. I’m sure if you read this book it’ll give you a whole new perspective on producing beats, etc…

Peace,

-m / Colorcubic™

Here’s an Ad from the “fling” publication that we thought we should add to our posts.

We were pretty impressed with the layout, and use of type. The logo is not bad either. One detail I think they could have done without is the little white box with the thumbnails of the watch. I personally think it takes away from the overall aesthetic.

It’s still an impressive ad, and a stepping stone in the direction in which a lot of AD designers nowadays should look toward. It’s minimal, using the product as a “mascot” to sell the buyer, and they weren’t afraid to use small type.

I’ve noticed a lot of AD designers seem to be discouraged, or even concerned with type being smaller than 12pt.

I always feel that it’s the aesthetics that will reel the reader in close enough to read the small type, leaving the type to enhance the graphics from far away, instead of taking away from it, potentially competing for space.

This is obviously just a subjective opinion of mine, but in the end it’s what sells the product that counts.

- m / Colorcubic™

So Christy and I were researching old publications, and the comparison to old media vs. new media. We just happened to stumble upon this dope Adult magazine publication called “Fling™” from back in the day.

We traced it all the way back to 1957, but we noticed that the company kept changing their logo every decade, (give or take a year or two).

Anyway, we feel that the best decade with the best brand identity for this publication was during the early 1970s to the late 1970s. We were so impressed with it that we had to buy one and add it to our library.

When we received it, not only did we discover that the layout was brilliant, (inside and out), but their topics were relatively mild, laced with humor, and also very educational. Now I know this may seem a bit far from “classy”, but this is a perfect example of not judging a book by it’s cover.

Regardless if you’re into pornography or not… if you’re into design, or you’re into branding, layout, typography, or illustrations, you need to pick up a copy of this. You can find it on ebay for approximately $25.00

In my opinion it’s worth every penny.

- m / Colorcubic™

Hey everyone,

sorry it’s been a while since we’ve updated our site with posts.

We’ve been so slammed with projects, it’s hard to find time to update this on a regular basis. We’ve also moved offices, (which was very time consuming, but definitely worth it).
We’re catching up with a lot of topics that we feel are relevant not only to the design / development community, but also to people that are concerned with sustainability, and social entrepreneurship.

Anyway, we hope that you find the coming topics useful for your own personal, and professional growth.

Feel free to contact us with any questions that you may have regarding the content of our posts.

Ciao,

- m / Colorcubic™