Music

entries Tagged as [music]

Sacramento, shhhh

Logotype by mehallo

The secret to being in Sacramento, CA is knowing where the cool stuff is. And a lot of it is just under the radar. The right gallery on Second Saturday, the hole-in-the-wall that has the best burrito, what cool bands are in town.

Mark Bean started Secret Sacramento as a Facebook group. And it’s become wildly popular (over 3,000 followers as I write this) – and it’s spread to Twitter.

And launched recently, the Secret Sacramento website. The new site is kinda sparse – so if you’re local, login and post your own regional finds. Share your secrets.

where i fit in
In addition to designing the logo (above), I will be contributing content from time to time.

But shhhh, it’s all a secret.

Tags: cool finds, culinary, music, thoughts, typography by steve
1 comment . . .

Vow

Video for Garbage‘s Vow. From their first album.

Tags: music by steve
1 comment . . .

Dinner at my place

Video for Navigators’ My Place. Designed by Pavel Fuksa.

Matchboxes photoset here.

Found via Ai Buenafe

Tags: cool finds, illustration, music, typography by steve
1 comment . . .

The Road Less Traveled

‘The Road Less Traveled takes its inspiration from American folk tunes from the likes of Pete Seeger and Bob Dylan . . . I have been really into the typographic work of Ed Ruscha and inspired by the typography that appears on old fruit crate labels. Both have a very ‘American’ feel to me just like the song’ -Matt Owens

Matt Owens’ The Road Less Traveled. More details here.

Found via Oded Ezer

Tags: cool finds, design history, music, typography by steve
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Rosetta Stone

From 1991: Video for Rosetta Stone’s Leave Me For Dead. From the album Adrenaline.

Tags: music by steve
2 comments . . .

Megadeth, reinterpreted

In my intermediate typography course at the California Art Institute Sacramento, students tackle CD packaging design – with a slight twist. Inspired by Project Runway, I like to put limitations on the work to force the student to engage the project where inventiveness will lead to unusual results.

If I could get them to do everything in 24 hours, with Tim Gunn checking in, I’d try that too.

project limits
In this case, students have to work with a band (or recording artist) that they do not know anything about or (preferably) simply do not like. The more they delve into a genre foreign to them, the more interesting the results have been.

Pictured is student Isla Waite’s interpretation of the Megadeth album Endgame. Her decision to reimagine the lyrics into typographic layouts (inspired by the lyrics’ subject matter) led to a unique interpretation of the traditional stylings of Heavy Metal.

Megadeth: Endgame

Tags: design, education, music, typography by steve
1 comment . . .

Friend

‘The video was fourteen months in production. Seven months in notes, research, photography, pre-production, art work and direction. It was then all sent to Philip James Cheaney with full trust and faith and he knocked it out of the park with seven more months of motion work and additional art and direction elements. It wouldn’t work without him. We’re working together under the title of Mur Mur Man Productions’ -DJG

Introducing: The first music video directed (and designed) by my friend, Danny J. Gibson. And animated by Philip James Cheaney.

Video for David Seume’s Will Ya Be My Friend, download the debut single here. From the album It Is What It Is.

Danny’s been working with David Seume since November 2008. Images of DJG’s production art can be found on Flickr. And pre-motion art can be found here.

Tags: art, cool finds, design, illustration, music by steve
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Fire

Video for Seabear’s I’ll Build You a Fire. Directed by Máni Sigfússon. From the new album, We Built a Fire.

Seabear’s official site here.

Tags: cool finds, music by steve
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The Book of Kells, animated

‘Your eye travels over Celtic crosses and through forest glades, studies architectural schematics and drinks in delicately washed landscapes . . . And it is only fitting that a movie concerned with the power and beauty of drawing – the almost sacred magic of color and line – should be so gorgeously and intricately drawn.’ –A. O. Scott, NY Times

The Secret of Kells, which premiered last year in Berlin, has been quietly gaining attention on the festival circuit, racking up awards – as well as an Oscar nomination for Best Animated Film. (tho – Disney’s Up won the statue)

The film is the story of Brendan, a 12-year-old who – in 9th century Ireland – discovers the beauty of art and sets out on a life’s journey to complete work on The Book of Kells.