pisode eight of Nueva Forma Listening Pleasures is now available for streaming or download. You can download the enhanced podcast or subscribe to it. Also, please check out the previous episodes over at Nueva Forma.

Episode 8, curated by Wolfe+585 comes right at the tailend of July, a month that saw two new releases, a single from Hello Square, and a full-length album from iameb 57. One of our favorite iameb 57 tracks from the Tipsy Hax album is featured on the mix, and it also includes songs from both Masmöd and Miori (one old, and one new). We hope that these sounds accompany you from the remaining days of this month to the next.

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image via Harrison Krix's Volpin Flickr page

image via Harrison Krix's Volpin Flickr page

image via Harrison Krix's Volpin Flickr page

image via Harrison Krix's Volpin Flickr page

image via Harrison Krix's Volpin Flickr page

(Video: Watch this video on the post page)

lthough I’m not the biggest fan of Daft Punk (I know, crazy, right?), I will say that I have always enjoyed their visual aesthetic, specifically pertaining to their costumes. So when I saw this prop work by Atlanta graphic designer Harrison Krix, I was completely blown away.

Apparently, Harrison decided that he wanted to produce his own Guy Manuel Daft Punk helmet. Obviously he nailed it, but the amount of time and dedication to seeing this through to its completion is what I’m most impressed with. This type of dedication and hard work by Harrison and people alike will always beat out the run-of-the-mill crap that others try to pass off as “great” in my honest opinion.

Just look at the subtle details of the helmet, and the LED (diodes). You can’t just make something like this overnight. This obviously takes a lot of planning, frustration, trial & error, and above all, patience.

Mad props (no pun intended) to Harrison for producing such an amazing likeness. Also, be sure to visit Harrison’s Flickr to see his photo journal of his 17-month-long journey for producing this beautiful helmet (and yes, it actually did take him 17 months to make this). Now that’s dedication.

world was made up in his head. It had landmasses, railways, and large bodies of water. There were creatures too; horses and birds and jellyfish. Humans also lived there; they ice-skated, climbed mountains that overlooked cities, and wore mascara. Some of the places looked very lonely, but several buildings displayed irregular patterns of boxy lights which may have indicated otherwise. One can’t be entirely sure. Some vacant buildings may have simply left their lights on in disguise, while other remained in the dark.

Over the course of four years, photographer Bertrand Fleuret looked for specific kinds of images. Things had to be precise, he said. Porcelain was fine, but plastic was not, trains were okay, but cars and planes were not. He defined the nature and texture of his fictional land with 35mm black and white photographs, published last year in a photobook titled, Landmasses and Railways. The science fiction film Soylent Green, Chris Marker’s experimental travelogue Sans Soleil, Tarkovsky’s psychodrama Solaris, and the cosmic sounds of Sun Ra were among his various provocations.

Though the book is divided into five chapters like a novel, it’s not meant to have a narrative, or any narrative at all. As he explained in an interview with Mårten Lange, “People looking for a story in Landmasses and Railways might end up disappointed. There is a progression through a fictional landscape but it is very linear and basic; a crash landing, a journey towards a city, the exploration of that city, then an escape and fading into nature. It is up to the viewer to imagine his own story and meanderings through that world. There are some ideas, moods or sensations I wanted to put in there, for example, a feeling that as we go further  into the journey we cannot go back, a certain timelessness of the place with a clash between medieval and futuristic aesthetics, etc.”

It was The Risk of an Early Spring, Fleuret’s first photobook that pulled me into his undertow. His photographs always felt like the final frame of a story in which I desperately tried to recall: the faint places, faces, and names that are like haunting strangers; a phone number you remember except for the last two digits; those empty but somehow meaningful things. The nuances and fragility of human memory. If a comparison could be made to music, I’d say it galvanized similar feelings to when I first dropped the needle on Burial’s track, Broken Home.

Paris-born, Fleuret has spent the past twenty years away from his home town in London and Amsterdam, and now resides in Berlin. More recently, post Landmasses and Railways, he has been distributing Remora, an anonymous zine consisting of 16 sheets of spontaneously-shot photographs. One-hundred copies of each issue are photocopied and placed in transparent sleeves and glued in different street locations to reach random audiences. Half of the fun is watching people react to Remora, in which Fleuret had remarked, “I often see some copies torn apart on the sidewalk as if someone had been really irritated. Only once I witnessed someone looking at a copy carefully and taking great care to put it back in the envelope and then in his bag to take it home; it was nice.” He compared Remora to a blog, except it’s anonymous, and Google can’t find it, nor can people leave comments. (Although Fleuret had not expressly indicated such, the word remora is a clever name thoughtfully chosen for the purpose of his project. Remora are fishes that have sucking disks by which they can attach themselves to sharks, turtles, ships, and other moving objects.)

When asked if he’d like to exhibit Landmasses and Railways in the near future, he said yes — the big prints would provide an impact that the book form could not. Meanwhile, if you want to take a closer look at Fleuret’s work, consider picking up Landmasses and Railways or The Risk of an Early Spring — both are amazing. If you’re strapped for cash, good news: both books are available as free PDF downloads. It’s not as wonderful as having the real thing in your hand, but at least the photos are much larger than I have on display in this post, resulting in what I’d imagine to be more of an elucidating and poignant experience.

Photograph by Damon Sheeley

pisode seven of Nueva Forma Listening Pleasures is now available for streaming or download. You can download the enhanced podcast or subscribe to it. Also, please check out the previous episodes over at Nueva Forma.

Episode 7, curated by The Bear & The Sea, may just be the perfect companion to an overcast morning, afternoon break, or a shy sundown. The wonderful mix of ambient, downtempo, and haunting vocal tracks touches on feelings of childhood wonder, nature, longing, and dusty memories — all compiled into a forty-nine minute long experience.

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Via Program Studio on flickr

o I just finished watching 3 Days of the Condor directed by Sydney Pollack (featuring Faye Dunaway, Robert Redford, Cliff Robertson (a.k.a Spider Man’s Uncle Ben) and Max von Sydow), based on the novel 6 Days of the Condor by James Grady. First off, this movie is truly amazing! If you haven’t been fortunate enough to see this yet, then I highly recommend renting or buying it (trust me, it’s totally worth buying. If not for anything else, than at least for the classy dialogue). Alternatively, you can stream it via watch instantly on Netflix.

Anyway, as much as I would like to go on about how great 3 Days of the Condor was, this is not what this post is about. As I was drawing near the end of the movie, I spied (pun intended) a promotional poster for the theatrical play Equus, by Peter Shaffer [see image above] (also known for his beautiful work and screenplay for Amadeus).

As soon as I saw this poster, I freaked out. I mean, just look at it. Obviously it’s beautiful. I am such a sucker when it comes to geometric iconography, and I really love discovering the origins of these classic designs, and even more so, the creative minds behind them. So of course, knowing my OCPD tendencies, I had to know who created the Equus piece, and while doing a little bit of research, I was finally able to piece together who designed it. The designer’s name is Gilbert Lesser. He was known for designing theater posters and was a former promotion director for Life magazine. Apparently eighty of his posters were exhibited at the Louvre in 1987 and at the Design Museum in London in 1989 (I sure would love to see those now). Also (via his obituary) his work is included in the permanent design collections of MoMA (the Museum of Modern Art) and the Museum of the City of New York. Unfortunately this is where I have to admit that prior to that scene in the movie, I had no idea who Lesser was. Little did I know that I had actually seen his work before…

When I dug a little deeper about Lesser, I discovered he was also the creator of the beautifully classic Studio 54 logo from back in the 70s. So obviously Lesser is an influential designer. Unfortunately I haven’t been able to find too many pieces by Lesser to really go on about how amazing his work is, but from what I have seen (and read), I’m definitely impressed. Even more so, inspired.

via Mihail Mihaylov on flickr

Even this Fortune Merchandising piece by Lesser from Graphis Annual (72 / 73) reveals a certain love for monochromatic geometry in his work. And although it hurts me to say this, I think it’s worth mentioning that Gilbert Lesser truly is the lesser-known of many great designers who have influenced the design industry in more ways than anyone will truly ever know, and unfortunately, are overshadowed by the popularized Milton Glasers, Otl Aichers, Herb Lubalins and Dieter Rams of the design industry. If someone had told me that Gilbert Lesser was a 20-something year old designer who made these pieces today, I wouldn’t be surprised at all, but I would be just as impressed and inspired. I think that says a lot about good design. Good design is long-lasting.

pisode six of Nueva Forma Listening Pleasures is now available for consumption. You can download the enhanced podcast or subscribe to it. Either way, we hope you enjoy this mix. Also, please check out the previous episodes over at Nueva Forma.

Once again, we’re here with a new episode of Listening Pleasures. Curated by iameb 57, this episode takes you through a vast soundscape of beautifully stark and abrasive beats with melancholy melodies that leave you wanting more. Ranging from a wide selection of some of our favorite friends, artists & labels out there, we hope you’ll enjoy this episode as much as we do.

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Asics Running Film from PostPanic on Vimeo.

o about a month ago I stumbled across this atmospheric promotional spot for Asics’ spring running shoe, directed by Mischa Rozema of PostPanic (in collaboration with Amsterdam Worldwide). I love the delicate use of stop-motion and CG,  coupled with the setting of the shots at that magic hour of the morning. The intricate details of the slowly reassembling shoe are amazing as well. And of course, the world around, barely catching a glimpse of this miraculous moment. A really great direction overall.

I’d highly recommend checking out more of PostPanic’s work. They seem to have a really impressive portfolio with great art direction worth perusing.

ast week, I caught a glimpse of Robert Schwartz’s exhibition called Frameshift currently showing at systM, a Berlin-based gallery and bar (why aren’t more galleries also bars?). I loved it. It reminded me of things like origami, lumbering mechas, and even alien tripod war machines from War of the Worlds. The first photo is the actual installation at systM, but the remaining are sculptures from other similar projects.

“I love the excitement of deconstructivism and the process of puzzling. My intension is to turn industrial plastic, a flat and amorphous material, into three dimensional reliefs. All objects consist of many parts that are interwoven with each other. The graphical elements correspond to their surroundings but at the same time disturb the linear conditons of any room.”

Schwartz is part of Via Grafik, a graphic design studio and art collective based in Wiesbaden, Germany, and there is much more awesome work to check out on his site.

VISION from Drasko Vucevic on Vimeo.

owadays it’s becoming harder and harder to discern between what is CG and what is real footage. And with this recent audio/ visual collaboration I stumbled upon by Drasko Vucevic, along with Alexander Gardenberg and Ola Syse, (thanks to my buddy Matthew), it’s no exception. So you can imagine I was quite surprised to discover that they just used a rather simple technique of oil in water for the basis of their beautiful Vision project.

From what I understand, most of the digital editing was done in AE (Adobe After Effects). Drasko’s Inner Life track is rather proper as well (featuring vocals by Yoko K.). Overall, this is a really beautiful, and yet humbling project. It definitely got me thinking about how sometimes I can get so caught up in trying to wrap my head around 3D programs like C4D, I sometimes forget that I can always just whip out an HD camera and try to simulate what I wanted rendered. Obviously it takes more than just simply pointing & shooting the camera to get a convincing shot. And I definitely have a huge respect for grip operators, but overall, sometimes that route is better than spending days rendering something that could simply be shot in a matter of hours. I suppose it depends on the prerogative of the individual, (along with budget, time frame, etc…). Okay, so there are more variables than just simply a matter of preference. Either way, thanks to Drasko, Alexander, and Ola for producing such beautiful work. Looking forward to seeing more from them.

A project exploring the possibility of one artist occupying another's space

Illustration for a poem in Umbigo Magazine

Alphabet Series: Letter E

Alphabet Series: Letter G

Daylight and the Sun series

Daylight and the Sun series

Daylight and the Sun series

Series: Less and Less

Series: Time

Series: Time

Series: There, for the last time

Series: There, for the last time

Series: Those are white words II

Series: Those are white words II

Series: Those are white words II

een loving the work of Cristiana Couceiro, a freelance designer living in Lisbon, Portugal. Her neutral backgrounds combined with vintage photography, typography, diagrams, and interesting geometric shapes feels familiar — maybe because I’ve seen her work in the New York Times and didn’t realize it until now, or maybe because it has a Mark Weaver-esque feel to it. Either way, she’s crafted a really warm and visually appealing style. She has worked with many marquee clients, including Audi, Condé Nast, New York Magazine, New York Times, and Wired Magazine, although my favorite work is her personal series — especially Daylight and the Sun — they’d be gorgeous book covers.