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Design Is Kinky

Our friends over at Design Is Kinky [DIK] have undergone somewhat of a facelift, revealing a fresh new look through which to channel all the awesome creative talent they feature. We caught up with founder, and sometime Lost At E Minor contributor, Andrew Johnstone: What’s been up with DIK over the past few months? There’s the new look site, Empty magazine kicking along, Semi Permanent planning … any other fun projects on the boil? ‘Yeah the new interim site is going well. We got to a point where we were sick of the old design but haven’t had the time or inclination to put together a new full site as it’s quite time consuming to re-do all the content. So we thought something small would be enough for now. We’ll hopefully design a full site sometime soon, but it may take a while. We have a couple new projects in the works. All top secret for now of course! Everything else such as Empty and Semi Permanent [SP] are going along nicely. We’ve just launched the 2008 SP site and have a new issue of Empty coming out soon’. What was the original agenda behind setting DIK up? ‘There never really was — or ever has been — an agenda. I set the site up originally just to get involved in the, then quite small, online design community. I enjoyed getting to know people and being a part of that world of like-minded individuals. I would never have thought that the site would become so popular. It’s awesome that people like it and support us’. How do you feel Australian design is placed within the international community? ‘I think Australia is as well respected as anywhere these days. The internet has kind of made what country you’re from irrelevant anyway. But I think that Aussie designers have a good rep world wide. They are generally very creative because they are used to soaking up ideas and styles from all sorts of cultures. I think this is a really strong aspect of the local design work and people overseas appreciate that’. You guys are well known for spotting cool websites. Any in particular that have really caught your eye lately? ‘I really like the site of illustrator Alex Trochut [illustration above]. His artwork is beautiful and the site is really simple and well laid out. We had seen his work before, but he sent us the link again a week or so ago and we liked his new work so much that we invited him to speak at Semi-Permanent. Thankfully he said yes!’

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Nice doodle. That's a photorealistic line drawing of a cat riding a bicycle, right? You should sign up for our free weekly newsletter.
Sign up to receive the special Ron English edition of the free Lost At E Minor newsletter in which the Agit Pop art legend writes about his favorite cultural discoveries.
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YOU'RE SAYING (1)

Mofa said | 8 February, 2008

Nice! It really is amazing how popular DIK has become. Not only is the website popular, but to me, and many of my peers down here in Cairo, DIK is THE design hub you’ll have to check out on a daily basis if you want to have anything to do with design and whatever’s going on out there.

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Wow! So whilst Australia is quickly becoming known for its Ed Banger-styled modular stream of music, there is a little known Brisbane artist called Yeo Choong who is just insanely talented. His music is full of summer fun and Kanye West-Phoenix influences. Take my word on it, this is going to be Australia’s next answer to Sam Sparro, Mika or even Jamie Lidel, and he is only 21 years-old.

movie” value=”http://media.imeem.com/pl/JcZIhsRaCl/aus=false/”>Play it mono

I’ve loved 3D art ever since I was a kid, especially the kind that requires 3D glasses to really appreciate it. My studio, Thunderdog, is working on an art book right now of just three dimensional art, featuring a hundred artists. It should be out next Christmas.


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Legendary pop culture artist and Agit Pop founder Ron English will be a guest compiler of an upcoming issue of our email newsletter, writing about his favorite cultural discoveries. To read Ron’s edition of Lost At E Minor, simply sign up to our weekly newsletter. It’s free, you win!

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