If you’re a designer there’s no doubt you’ve heard of Designers.MX by now.  I’m proud to have been able to contribute to this awesome project created by fellow designer Blake Allen and  his associates at CoFinery.  Rumor has it they’re allowing mixers to post up to one mix a month… stay tuned, my friends.

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I’ve never been much of a risk taker when it comes to creativity (Ironic, I know).  I pride myself on calculation and the predictability of the final outcome. I’m a designer, I plan then build… It’s how I work. I’m so strategic, in fact, that I’m forced to have a process for not having a process. Let me explain.

You see, the approach that I take when doing a painting is a study in contrast to the way I approach a design project.   When I’m designing something it’s usually for a client, so I tend to very methodical in my execution. Every pixel, point and character is accounted for. Everything is in its place… nothing is left to chance.

Painting is a different story.   Applying the “Laws of Chance” to a piece forces me to let go in a way that I can’t with design. Sure, I typically have a loose idea of the mood I want to convey, but that’s it. I don’t draw it out or plan the composition. I just start painting, building off each component in a very linear fashion. No looking back or second guessing the brush strokes. The painting is what it is.

As you can see above, this set of paintings can be arranged in a number of ways. I’ll leave it up to the person who hangs the work to decide which arrangement fits their taste.

Last week one of my friends asked me for another playlist.  When I asked him what kind of music he wanted to hear he said something with good dance vibes.  Ladies and Gentlemen I give you the fourth digital mixtape.  Enjoy!

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When I see work like this I always wonder about the amount of planning and preparation involved, so when I saw these images on FFFFOUND I instantly started trying to deconstruct the process.  The only thing I can come up with is that the artist must be projecting the image into the space, does a tracing and then paints in the shapes.  No matter… this is done unbelievably well.

Below is the second option I provided after discussing the dynamics of the UV paint being used.

There’s no denying the power a great album cover. It can draw you in and make you take notice of a band you may have never noticed. I can still remember being a kid and rummaging through all of my parents old LPs. I would spend hours looking at those jackets, inspecting every detail, often trying to recreate them on a sheet of notebook paper at the kitchen table. To this day I buy CD’s simply for the romance of holding the packaging and reading all liner notes. It’s almost an obsession.

A few months ago a childhood dream of mine came true when I was contracted by Windup Records to illustrate the cover for Finger Eleven’s fifth studio album, Life Turns Electric. Even though I was a initially unsure as to whether or not I could pull off such a surreal concept I was ultimately happy with the way the piece turned out… and apparently, so was the band.

When Finger Eleven started planning their tour they contacted me again to do the illustration for a giant stage backdrop. I don’t want to ruin all of the surprises that the band has in store for the stage performance, but this should give you a taste. Imagine this face twenty feet tall flashing and glowing as UV lights bounce off of it. I have a feeling it’s going to be a trippy tour.

I came across this on the iso50 blog today. It’s absolutely incredible and the best part is that because it’s basically a pentatonic scale (so I believe) you can’t really mess up. Simply click on the squares in sequence or drag your cursor across the grid and listen to the melody you’ve made.

I was curious who created it so I did a bit of research. My findings led me to André Michelle, but unfortunately it’s not open source since it’s built on the AudioTool engine.

Have Fun!!!

I’ve been blessed with a really great friend in Aaron Scamihorn. He’s the kind of guy who encourages others to do things that they always talk about doing but may never make a real priority until he gives them that little extra push. In this particular instance I’m talking about showing some of my personal work in a gallery setting. Until last month I hadn’t shown any of my fine art publicly since my high school days. As a member of a local arts organization Aaron always has the inside scoop on what’s going on in the Indianapolis arts community. I have to say, participating in the Toys Exhibit at Gallery 924 was a fantastic experience, and the folks at Primary Colours really know how to organize a worthwhile event.

If you didn’t get a chance to come out and see the actual show, be sure to stop by my good friend Nate Greuel’s blog for another opinion on the experience.

Thanks again to everyone involved and everyone who came out to support us.

I’ve been compiling this mix for a while now.  Some of these songs go back into the early 2000′s.  You’ll notice that I’ve kept a loose mood in this compilation.  It’s all Indie, but some of it is tinged with twang.  Have a listen… you’ll see what I mean.

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Chora me liga by aaronhogan

Tetre by aaronhogan

SIlverfox by aaronhogan

A few years ago I was at Starbucks waiting in line for my morning fix when I noticed a small flyer hanging on the bulletin board.  As I moved in to get a closer look I noticed that the promo piece was for a local screen printing company called Flood City Studio.  The postcard sized piece of literature was well designed and I really dug the the company’s overall aesthetic.  I paid a visit to the Flood City website as soon as I could and I was surprised to find that the founding members were just kids… well college kids, but really young none the less.  As it turned out one of the members was a barista at that particular Starbucks,  so I made sure to strike up a conversation with him the next time I stopped by.   I could tell that this group of guys were doing really great stuff and made sure to keep them in my back pocket for future referernce.

Time passed and I met Peter about a year and a half later when he was interviewing for a design internship at MediaSauce .  As I browsed his portfolio I noticed he had done a lot of work with Flood City Studio.  When I asked him about his affiliation with the brand he expressed that he was one of the other founders.  I was impressed.  The kid had chops and after a discussion with the other design team members we knew that he was going to be our new intern.  The internship was brief, though, as Peter was brought on as a full fledged designer after only a few months.

Over time I’ve had the honor of getting to know Peter as a co-worker and friend.  I’m a sucker for work ethic and this guy’s got it.  While working as a designer at “The Sauce” Peter managed to finish his last year of school as well as keep Flood City Studio going, run a clothing line called This Is Hope and provide design work and art direction for multiple bands .  Peter’s understanding of print, web and apparel design paired with his photography, iconography and typography skills guarantee him a bright future in whichever branch of design that he chooses to be a part of.

If you ever bump into Peter make sure to say what’s up… you may only get a grin and a nod in return, but you can rest assured that you’ve had a brush with a guy who is going to great places in his field.

When I was six my mother sent me on a mission that would forever shape my view on music.  I was supposed to walk a few doors down to the very end of our apartment building to let my oldest sister know it was time for dinner.  Before I even reached the neighbors door I could hear  “Jam On It” by Newcleus blaring from inside the apartment.  I knocked and was let in by another kid who directed me through the house and onto the back patio where my sister and a mob of other teenagers were standing in a semi circle around two guys doing the strangest dance moves I’d ever seen.  One of the teenagers  was spinning in circles at what seemed like 100 mph… but he was doing it upside down… on his head.  I was blown away.

I made my way through the crowd never taking my eyes off of the two guys now spinning on their backs atop an old piece of cardboard. When I finally reached my sister I could tell that I had seen something I wasn’t supposed to see.  She was only thirteen but most of the other teens seemed older.  So much older, in fact, that she wasn’t even supposed to be there.  On the walk back to our apartment she told me that the Puerto Rican guy who was spinning on his head was named Angel (I think) and he was the best break dancer in our neighborhood.  She asked me to keep quiet when we got home and when we finished dinner she would take me back to watch the older kids dance.  I was ecstatic!

The eighties went on and I grew out of idolizing my older sister and wanting to be part of whatever she and her friends were into, but I always remembered that day.  By eighth grade some guys that I would skateboard with were listening to the Check Your Head album by The Beastie Boys and the feeling I felt in 1984 came rushing back.  I was listening to a lot of punk at the time but the Beasties somehow found a way to blend a multitude of genres together on their albums.  It was a great way to break back into hip hop for the second time in my life.  I was hooked on that album and listened to it on repeat for three months  until I knew every word on every track.

The next year my family was packing up to head back to the east coast, Delaware to be specific, where I could pickup stations like Q102 out of Philadelphia.  I was easing into rap music but when we moved to Maryland my best friend gave me a tape by A Tribe Called Quest called The Low End Theory.  After a single listen I was certifiably hooked on hip hop and continued to buy more and more albums until my entire dresser was covered in tape cases.

My addiction to hip hop lasted through the nineties, but when the bulk of producers stopped sampling funk, jazz , classic rock and Motown and most emcees couldn’t spit a single verse without mentioning what kind of watch they wore or  how much their car cost I lost interest.  Hip hop had gone mainstream and brands like Sprite were making a killing off of my generation’s version of rock-n-roll.  The beats got watered down and a formula was in place to sell records.  Brag a little, write a catchy hook over a regurgitated 80′s hit song and you had a record.  If an emcee didn’t mind doing a corny dance in front of a wind machine in  an empty airplane hangar he could probably go platinum.  I hated it.

I still listen to hip hop on a regular basis but these days I have to dig a little deeper to find the good stuff.  The kind of music that shaped my teenage years is back where it belongs… underground.  This play list is an homage to a small handful of groups that made the nineties, what I feel to be, the apex of hip hop.

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