steve jobs.

“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”

- steve jobs, 1955 - 2011

arguably one of our generations most important entrepreneurs, inventor (as it were) and designer. rest in peace.

times of grace

i haven't posted in a long time. here's some things from summer;

really good things: male bonding ''endless now'', letlive. ''fake history'', touche amore ''parting the sea between brightness and me'', shapes ''motonony chic'', circle takes the square ''decompositions vol I'', the james cleaver quintet ''ten stages of a make up'', das boot, american gangster, shooting stars, curb your enthusiasm season 2, george rr martin ''a storm of swords vol I & II"', la noire, falmouth with parents (past), falmouth with myself (present), falmouth with kate (upcoming)......

looking inwards/outwards

i am in a limbo period right now, and between odd jobs, driftwood ideas and the occasional ponder and despair, i'm finding comfort/taking solace in the things in art and design that i enjoy the most, or at least the items/material/physical beings that inspire me to no end and may or may not have some sort of bearing on my life.

i'm sure any who know will no doubt be aware of how much i rattle on about the importance of a meaningful record cover, so i'll start with some that have really meant something to me over the how-ever-many-years i've successfully dodged falling pianos and anvils.

here are four that have particularly inspired me the last however many years;

ISIS, oceanic, 2002 / artwork, design by aaron turner

simple. fitting. apt. i was in love with this record before i had even heard it, and i was still in love even after i realized that ISIS were not a band to ''get into'' very simply. i think that even though i didn't necessarily enjoy the music on the first couple of plays, the fact that the sound and atmosphere of this release was so dripping (literally) with nautical themes, and that the tone and recording of the album really put you into a place of crushing pressure, that a sleeve that only goes on to show the rippling of waves and a booklet composed mostly of photographs of the ocean speaks volumes.

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peter gabriel, 4/security, 1982, sculpture/design by malcom poynter/peter gabriel

there isn't much needs be said here - it's weird, just like what gabriel's pop-rock done strange is all about. i cannot even find much said about the artwork or sculpture on the internet, and thinking about it, i don't think i want to. mystery is wonder as ignorance is bliss.

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at the drive-in, relationship of command, 2000 / artwork by damon locks

like the mythological sacking of the city of troy, in which the greek soldiers lay waste to the city by hiding away inside of the hollowed wooden horse, this album does exactly that. what we have here is something that is imitating a 'regular' disk and a 'normal' inside booklet, but the real content of this record is anything but. it sneaks into your bag at the record store and then steals its way inside of your record player and before you know it, everything is over. all the things you loved about music before are wiped clean; everything you thought you knew about music is eviscerated, blown to pieces by the sheer audacity and intense aural riptides that at the drive-in make with what may as well be alien artifacts at their disposal as opposed to the mundane guitar or microphone, the sound is just that special. basically, sticking a wooden horse on the front of this album is the simplest way of not showing their sound, and the wonder from the graphic construction of the chop-cut linocuts was enough for this record to find it's way to my collection all those many years ago. well, that and an absolutely ridiculous live show of hit single one armed scissor on later... with jools holland.

nine inch nails, the fragile, 1999 / design by david carson

this, like oceanic, is another sleeve that had me hooked from the design alone, although nine inch nail's output is far more easy going than that of ISIS', though not necessarily any more simple. in fact, calling it easy going is quite ignorant of me in it's own right. irregardless, this is a true visual depiction of how this record sounds. i have nothing more i can say to back that up. i honestly cannot think of how i could even begin to prove that, or recite why i think that this is the visual that matches the aural. you don't even care. i don't even care. just have a listen to this fabulous downer of an album and have a think on that one yourself. i'll be right, you'll see.

THE TRUTH

WONDER

INTRIGUE / FACTUAL / REASONING / DEVELOPMENT / TRUTH

SUMMER 2011

THE LIES

WARSHIP

ABRASIVE / HATE / CONJURE / REASON / DOUBT

SUMMER 2011

panopticon

i keep a few of my tumblr sites to myself so that i can retain fairly anonymous to certain artwork or design, just as a playful element mostly but also because it's nice to not brand yourself sometimes. anyway, i've meant to put this into a dim, hazy limelight for some time and this isn't one of the 'secret' ones, so go follow accordingly. or not?

thenextlastday.tumblr.com

this isn't to say i am ''leaving'' blogspot, as i have lately seen a fair few folk, for i don't necessarily see the point in departing from one network to another so easily. i spent a lot of my time going through my blogs following list and i'd like to hope that one or two of them might chance across my own posting every now and again. still, it's a corner of the internet i hold down and i'm not going to drop it simply to bandwagon over to another. both will do fine.

SEARCH : PARTY : ANIMAL

spazzy irish instru-mentalists AND SO I WATCH YOU FROM AFAR recently asked facebook/the internets for people to come forward and design a 12'' cover for their newest single, search: party: animal, which you can listen to here. the competition also asked for a remix of their new song, but i'm not savvy enough for anything like that.

i fucking adore this band, they haven't released a single bad record yet and i have such high hopes for them in the next few years. hell, they're doing mint for themselves as it is, so it can only get better. the new song is from their forthcoming EP gangs and after that comes there second full length. exciting times! cannot wait to see them again at 2000 trees.

anyway, i produced three images that i thought were apt to their sound, though i only sent two of them off... i should of only sent one, actually, but i couldn't decide.




the feeling and method behind these images was captured best whilst trying to replicate the sounds i could hear in the song and their sound in general - very astute, sharp, cutting licks of guitar amongst a very chaotic, noisy but very well tuned and adjusted series of bounding rhythms. to me, i see lots of geometric shapes against a more colourfull almost 'jangley' cascading sound of things breaking - after all, they do say we they are the bull and we, the listeners, are the china shop. i wanted to capture that sonic wave of smash right down to a T, or at least my best attempt at it.

the shards are a throwback both to an old design of mine from foundation and their logo itself. i have wanted to get the cascading shards into a number of things for the last few years, albeit they have all been very personal, so i figured now would be a good time to bring them back. older incursions in sonic frequencies that cause shattering shards can be found here and here.

the images are made through a series of playful print exercises, paint, ink, cellulose thinner and pen, finished in photoshop for fine tuning and design needs.

the winners have still to be announced, and the deadline was close on two weeks now. the band say they are overwhelmed with responses and the decision is difficult to make, so even if i don't win, i'm excited to see and hear the final outcomes!