The Multics (Multiplexed Information and Computing Service) System was a time-sharing computer conceptualized around 1964. Here’s a fun fact: the design and features of Multics influenced the development of the Unix operating system. More nerdery from Wikipedia: “The name Unix (originally Unics) is itself a pun on Multics. The U in Unix is rumored to stand for uniplexed as opposed to the multiplexed of Multics, further underscoring the designers’ rejections of Multics’ complexity in favor of a more straightforward and workable approach for smaller computers.” So I find this stuff totally fascinating, but you might not, so I’ll just talk about the design now.

Oh my god, Becky, look at the cover. This 1975 Honeywell cover is reminiscent of the classic Romek Marber Penguin covers that every designer has been, in recent years, reproducing like rabbits. And it’s obvious why; it’s a minimal and timeless recipe that never fails aesthetically. There’s something really beautiful about concentric circles, especially when layered with the right hues and shades; in this case, warm browns and oranges. But surely, those circles must mean something. I mean, back then, people didn’t just make arbitrary minimal graphics do nothing but look cool, right? According to multicians.org (<– whoa, nerd alert!), “Multics ran on specialized expensive CPU hardware that provided a segmented, paged, ring-structured virtual memory.” Ahhh.

Admittedly, this is one of my darker, more fragile mixes, but despite the description, it’s mostly hopeful. A while back, I shared a Fennesz album with my friend Myrrh, and he later expressed joy in discovering that David Sylvian was a guest vocalist on one of the tracks. So, with this episode, I made a mix around that particular song that has since been tinged with Myrrh-ness, weaving in a narrative of a kind of surrealistic dream state in which you might awake feeling a little closer to finding your answer, whatever that may be.

Stream the mix below, or download (right-click to save link as) / subscribe to the enhanced podcast with track chapters and album artwork.

48:44

Listen on mixcloud

Colortones RSS Feed

There are a lot of interesting USB drives out there. Some have caught my eye, but none have managed to steal my heart, until now. Perhaps it’s because I’m a fan of sculpture, of steel and glass, of delphic descriptors like empty memory. Of art disguised as technology, or maybe the inverse. Whatever the case, damn. Logical Art, the London-based studio headed by Hanhsi Chen & Yoo-Kyung Shin, are the brains and beauties behind the two designs they appropriately call Structure and Transparency. They aim to collide technology and craftsmanship, to ponder the ultimate question of “what will happen if the technology becomes invisible.” They further describe the design as “physical emptiness in its sculptural form, giving the metaphor that you can fill the space with your own memory.” I just describe it as beautiful; maybe even heartbreaking.

It’s interesting how the collection is referred to as jewelry, and worthy to be called such. And what are memories if not personal adornments? Memory is a necklace, a ring, a precious stone. It’s wealth and storage left for posterity.

It’s been a while since I’ve checked out the Computer History Museum website, a site which I’ve spent countless hours nerding out on, so today, I was pretty excited to see that the whole thing had been redesigned (by Portland’s own Second Story, of course). It’s totally rad. Anyway, this is how I discovered the awesomeness that is the Hewlett Packard HP-01 Wristwatch made in 1977:

Combination digital wristwatch, calculator and personal calendar. Performed more than three-dozen functions to manipulate and interrelate time, calendar and numeric data. It demonstrated HP’s excellence at miniaturization.

It’s kind of hilarious that in order to use the calculator on the watch, you have to have either the tiniest fingers in the world, or use a stylus. Still though, it just looks cool, and I want the gold one.

first photo via Døgen

Last week, after some radio silence, we published a new project to our Behance portfolio while promising ourselves that we’d make a habit of doing so more often. This particular project is called Reading Local, and although it has since been abandoned by the client shortly after launch, we’re still happy with the results. See the rest over on Behance »

To be honest, this mixtape had been sitting around since the first episode was published; the holidays felt like a perfect blur, and this mix felt more like summer than winter, causing me to reflect upon it longer than necessary. My good friend Shawna (whom this mix was made for) has been ever so patient and passing the time making pretty stuff as usual. In an interview from Convention Magazine, she discussed how music influences her work:

“Music influences every part of my work! Depending on what I listen to, the drawing is shaped by that sound. My earlier work, a self portrait series called Phases, was created solely from one day of serious claustrophobia, being sick, and listening to the words of Cocorosie. My Girl-Animal pieces were inspired by songs with samples from sounds of nature – such as Yeasayer and Fever Ray. You can throw me some crazy electro-pop-dance shit and I will get feisty – well, my art does. I bet my viewers can pinpoint what genre of music I was listening to with each piece.”

With any luck, this mixtape will result in more similarly-influenced work from not only Shawna, but anyone else listening. Be sure to check out her website for more inspiration, and enjoy the mix!

Stream the mix below, or download (right-click to save link as) / subscribe to the enhanced podcast with track chapters and album artwork.

41:46

Listen on mixcloud

Colortones RSS Feed

I‘m excited and honored to announce that we were recently published in one of the latest viction:ary publications entitled, Vectorism; an illustrative graphic showcase of some really amazing illustrators and designers from around the world. The pieces we submitted were our very own Encompass print and Kontrast Komponents print. [see above]

If you happen upon Vectorism, we highly recommend you picking it up, as it’s chalk full of some amazing illustrative inspirations, including some of our inspirations and friends, (e.g. Matt Lyon & Tamer Koseli, just to name a few).

I know we haven’t been as active on here as we would like, mainly because of our workload, but I’m excited to say, we’ve got a grip of new work we’ll be rolling out in segments. For starters, we just finished this little PSA entitled, Snack Invasion. The premise involves a mysterious hand that hungers for fresh fruit, but each time it attempts to claim its bounty, a tiny troupe of rogue bandits derails the plan.

We’re still unsure of whether or not we’re going to turn this into a small series, but we’re leaning toward doing it. Either way, I hope you enjoy.

Cheers!

PressPausePlay takes a probing look at the current digital landscape and our place in its past and future and asks some hard questions along the way. The pros of the digital revolution are obvious; instant distribution of media and instant access to it. But what of the cons? Does the fact that anyone can be a filmmaker, musician, designer or artist devalue the work of professionals or create healthy competition?

The film plays like a Rorschach test. Beyond the blatant statements both pro digital and con, there are plenty of gray areas and plenty of hope and fear about the medium’s future. Seth Godin sees nothing but opportunity (possibly forgetting that he made his name before the dot bubble crash) whereas a lone music blogger sees search engines playing a more important role than the actual music he wants to write about.

All in all, PressPausePlay is a worthy film that anyone working in the arts should see. There are also a few interesting excerpts and extra footage on their YouTube page.

In the spirit of mixtaping, especially for the inaugural episode, I figured it’d be a good idea to make this one out to my dear friend Liz who, through our many delightful interstate exchanges, unintentionally helped shape the idea of Colortones. I already discussed the idea and process in my last post, so I won’t go into much detail here. This particular mix ends with Pantone 292 (and the hope that the imagined sounds of blank cassette tapes hissing in the night will be replaced with a much better reminder).

Be sure to have the album artwork displayed in your media player for the best audiovisual results. Thanks for listening!

Stream the mix below, or download (right-click to save link as) / subscribe to the enhanced podcast with track chapters and album artwork.

47:32

Listen on mixcloud

Colortones RSS Feed