Exclusive interview with skateboard designer and all-round artistic juggernaut, Don Pendleton. Do you generally design decks specifically to a brief or do you have a complete free reign? ‘It depends. Normally I have free reign but I work with the owner of Element when he has ideas to make those happen. I also work with Matt Irving who is a great designer. We collaborate on some decks and then others are just free reign. So it depends’. Are there some colours and shapes that tend to work better than others? ‘You’re working within the confines of a deck shape, so that can be pretty limiting at times if you allow it to be. I try to work with the shape of the board to add to the overall design so it looks like it belongs on a deck. As far as colours, there’s no formula so whatever looks good works for me. I try to switch up the colours to make them interesting but I’m always just trying to have fun with them’. As a creative medium, do you find the unusual size offered by a skate deck to be a challenge to fill successfully or is it a great size ‘canvas’ to work with? ‘I’ve come to accept those limitations of working within the shape of the deck since I’ve been doing it for about nine years now. It comes naturally. Personally, I love it. It’s nice to get out a square canvas once in a while for a change but as far as design goes, I’ve gotten used to making it work for me. I no longer see it as an obstacle’. Are you a fanatical skater and which deck do you use? ‘I don’t skate nearly as much as I used to but I still do it pretty regularly. I have an Element board with a more mellow concave and a little longer wheelbase. I also have a cruiser board for downhill adventures. I was never very good at the mini-ramp but I like to ride one when I get the chance. I’m just always cautious of hurting my wrists. If I blow a wrist, I’m out of work for a while and I can’t have that’. [see also Space Invader]
Also by ZOLTON
Maths explains the origin of superhero characters
I love the colours and simple reasoning in this clever series by Scottish illustrator Matt Cowen, which uses basic maths equations to explain how certain pop culture icons came to be. Read more
Star Wars Uncut: a fully crowdsourced version of Episode IV
The project of creative technologist, Casey Pugh, this full length version of the George Lucas masterpiece was created from multiple 15 second segments recreated from the original movie and submitted by thousands of Star Wars fans, which were then spliced together by editor Aaron Valdez to form the final product. Genius, as both a commentary on contemporary pop culture trends (there are references to LEGO, stop motion, memes and the like) and on the power of tapping your audience for quality material.
Filmmaker creates LEGO stop motion to propose to girlfriend
Now, this is one for the ages: back in 2010, Atlanta film-maker Walter Thompson created a jaw-dropping LEGO stop motion to propose to Nealey Dozier, his girlfriend of four years. The video took 22 hours of shooting and some 2,600 pictures to splice together, a small sacrifice to pay for years of happiness together. Right? Right! Oh, and she said yes. Bonus.
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Nothing makes me more vexed than an ungrateful driver who does not wave after you’ve let them in front of you on the road. I’m proud to say I’m a waver. Proclaimed do-gooder Cody believes his illuminated vehicle signs will result in friendlier roads and highways. Less fingers and more smiles, to be precise.
Riffing on the idea that ‘eating was tending toward breathing’, Harvard professor David Edwards, in conjunction with design studio Le Laboratoire, has created Le Whif, the breathable chocolate. No chewing, no calories, and it comes in mint, rasberry, mango, and plain chocolate flavors. The product may just be a fancy scratch-and-sniff sticker, but it looks so sleek and design-y.
This clip had such an impact on me when it first came out, back in the day. There’s just something so poignant about the idea that some people you pass on the street everyday have a little bit more insight into their world — our world — than we could ever imagine. It’s beautiful and confronting, and it’s all set to the most wonderfully evocative music.
This is a patchwork of floating garden islands located in the Northern French city of Amiens. It’s a method of farming practiced in the region since the Middle Ages. A flower and vegetable market is held on Sundays, but the real experience is taking a tour of the canals by boat. Magic. Read more
This has to be one of the best design websites going around. The greatest part of the website is how you can filter design by colour. Mix and match a couple of colours and BANG! It will show you all the designs that utilize them.
Shortstack are a Washington DC band that not many people know about outside of the the city. They recently released an EP of covers with some sweet choices on there — The Kinks, Captain Beefheart, and The Pupils, among others. Once again a band takes different styles, sounds, and time periods, and owns it like an extra finger.
Listen to the Shortstack track, House On Fire.
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Who says telling the time should be an easy task? Pleasing to the eye, not so much on the brain, Nooka watches are arguably more concerned about aesthetics than it is about function. Created by artist and designer, Matthew Waldman, its bar graph-like function lets wearers see, rather intuitively and visually, that time has passed by. We love it, but good luck trying to work out exactly how much time has gone by.
WE'RE POSTING / SOME OF THE BEST
Michelle Blade’s psychedelic artwork
Michelle Blade’s washed out paintings are deceptively simple, her washy acrylics creating psychedelic textures and conjuring ghostly figures from the past. Read more
Baltimore Mural by Josh Van Horne
My friend Josh Van Horne, a local Baltimore artist, did this amazing mural in our neighborhood that depicts the history of this warehouse-laden area.
It’s refreshing to see artists like Joe Kievitt who are contented to explore the beauty in simple forms and asymmetrical patterns. Read more
Francoise Nielly’s Yellow series
Parisian visual artist Francoise Nielly brings technicolour to the forefront in her latest series, Yellow. Featuring thick impasto palette knife strokes and trippy neon hues, Nielly captures the vulnerable expressions of her muses to a tee. Read more
Nerd-attack! Man, this TARDIS zipper robe is so much cooler than any Star Wars crap people are hawking this days. This is for the true gangsta nerd.
We love the re-Issue of the original Raised by Wolves and Furni digital watch collaboration, which comes with a built-in phone book, stopwatch, countdown timer and multiple alarm features with melody setting. Read more
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