Santa Monica Legitimate Wear Posters Are Cool

These posters are killer. Check out the whole series here.

Good stuff.

Charting The Beatles Is Incredible

Michael Deal has been creating amazing, intricate, and beautiful informational graphics concerning the career of The Beatles. It's unbelievable, inspiring stuff.

Check them out here.

New Gap Logo Is An Epic Fail

The old logo for the Gap was nothing special - condensed type on a blue square, kind of boring and late 80's but not really awful or great. It was just kind of there. I recently noticed their usage of Helvetica for their 1969 Jeans campaign, and was super impressed with the quality and minimalism utilized there.

So when I saw the new logo, I was not surprised to see Helvetica, but what I was shocked to see was the terrible, horrifyingly bad blue gradient square tucked partially behind the "p". Wow, wow, wow. This looks like it was done in Windows, or Microsoft Word. It looks like a high school student redesign project, where the feedback to the young, inexperienced student would go something like this:

"While I applaud your desire to connect to the successful 1969 Jeans campaign by utilizing a concise, communicative face such as Helvetica, usage of gradients should be sparing and carefully selected. There are few times such an effect is warranted, and this truly is not one of them. I am not sure what you are attempting to communicate to your audience through this execution. For revision, eliminate any elements that are not essential and do not clearly support the message you are attempting to execute. Please continue to revise."

Take heed friends, this is what an Epic Fail looks like.

History of NYC Typography is Engaging

I love typography. I love New York City. I love history.

So the New Type York Project? Done and done.

More here.

Boardwalk Empire Already the Best Show On Television

Created and executive produced by the greatest living filmmaker, Martin Scorsese, (sorry Jean-Luc Godard) Boardwalk Empire comes with unprecedented fanfare for a television premiere. Starring the always great Steve Buscemi as lead character Nucky Thompson, based on the real life politician/gangster of the era, the show sounded like a can't miss proposition. And two episodes in, it has exceeded expectations and already become the Best Show of Television, all due respect to Dexter.

The criminally underrated Michael Pitt (he of The Dreamers and Last Days) co-stars as Thompson's driver and one time protege. But all is not right in his world. Scorsese has created a world (literally building the boardwalk in it's entirety in Brooklyn) so legitimate and true, that you feel like you literally are walking the boardwalk of Atlantic City at the beginning of prohibition.

I don't want to give any more away, other than to say that the Scorsese directed pilot looked and felt like a classic Scorsese film, from the camera pans and jump cuts to the "flash" cuts and character introductions.

Just watch it, you won't be sorry.

How to Be Miserable As An Artist is Accurate

The How To Feel Miserable As An Artist list is solid advice.

Take heed people, take heed.

The History of Type In One Handy Timeline

Over at Cha Cha they have put together a nice little History of Typography Timeline. Other than a couple mistakes here and there, it's pretty cool (Helvetica is the default setting on PC's? Really? Um, no...). Otherwise, good stuff.

Check it out in greater detail and download the PDF here.

Palladium Abandonment Series Is Awesome

Exploration #5 - Listen in Berlin from Palladium on Vimeo.

Palladium Boots has commissioned a series of documentary films on abandoned places (Detroit, NYC), but also the odd or surreal living situations (people who live in missile silos, London radio pirates). The entire series is great, they are all worth a look.

Check them out here.

BTW - Above is the Berlin abandonment episode. Enjoy.

Hearts of Love Video Is Too Cool For Words

Crocodiles - Hearts Of Love - Music Video from Mark P. Smith on Vimeo.

10 Ingredients For A Killer Music Video:

1. Knife fights
2. Washed out Super 8 footage
3. Leather jackets
4. Beaches
5. Beautiful girls in bikinis
6. A band that looks just like the Jesus & Mary Chain
7. A band that sounds just like the Jesus & Mary Chain
8. Trick photography so the band can fight themselves
9. Dudes in epic beards & wayfarers (that essentially look like me)
10. Homemade tattoos in the desert

Current Obsession: Sleep Forever, Crocodiles

New post tag here at SA&D, the Current Obsession. This will mostly focus on music, but could be anything.

Really, really digging the garage/psych stuff of late, like the self-titled debut from Darker My Love and Buy The Ticket, Take The Ride from The Black Ryder.

Anyway, this is too long a post. In the future I will just give you the basics. Here goes.

Current Obsession: Sleep Forever by Crocodiles
Essential Tracks: Sleep Forever, Mirrors, Hearts of Love
Interested: Download their instrumental EP here.
BTW: I really dug their first record - Summer of Hate - but the new record is better.