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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Also by ZOLTON
Crimea X is the coming together of two offbeat, disparate characters, DJ Rocca (Ajello, Super Sonic Lovers, Maffia Sound System) and Jukka Reverberi from 90s Italian glam cult rockers, Giardini di Mirò, who have often have been compared with the sound of Mogwai, Arab Strap, and Godspeed You! Black Emperor. We asked them about their favourite music and they started with The Smiths song, Ask [listen below] ‘I saw them playing live on Italian TV. It was during the 80s when I was extremely young, and I’ve never stopped listening to this song’. Read the rest of Crimea X’s Secret Playlist.
I love the curated selection of abandoned swimming pool photos on Feature Shoot today, featuring work by Carlo Van de Roer and Albert Jodar, amongst others.
Win a set of Sony personal audio prizes
Thanks to Sony Australia, four Lost At E Minor readers will win personal audio prizes, including the new 8GB Walkman S series video MP3 player and the MDRXB500 Extra Bass headphones. Read more
YOU'RE SAYING (1)
HAVE YOUR SAY
It’s hard to find a misstep on the full-length debut from Melbourne band, Children Collide. The Long Now doesn’t sound like a first album: its mature, yet completely varied sound and lyrical concept makes it feel like something you’d expect from a band on their third or fourth album (you know, after the ‘cursed’ second album). Children Collide are most definitely in control, something that could have been lost while working with big-name producer, Dave Sardy. It’s rare that you pick up a CD and feel like the band has decided on everything, right down to the artwork that encases their killer album. We threw guitarist-singer Johnny Mackay a few questions about how they managed to wrap everything up in such a … errr … tight little package. Read more
No, this is not a still from a Dr Who episode. It is, instead, the facade of the Wotruba Church, built between 1974 and 1976 and located in the beautiful Austrian suburb of Mauer, the 23rd district of Vienna. Now, if only all religious buildings were so damn adventurous. It would kinda make Christmas mass more enjoyable. Read more
Very Cheap Bag totes are eco-friendly and made from 100 percent unbleached cotton. They’re sturdy, yet lightweight. We love them, and think you will too. So we have them for sale in our online store for less than nine dollars.
New York illustrator James Blagden’s work is so wonderfully trippy, I feel like I need to wear shades and a top hat when looking at them just to do them justice. Read more
We asked Ham and Pete, from New York band The Walkmen, to give us the rundown on the music that is inspiring them right now and they started off with a track from that elder statesmen of indie folk, Bonnie Prince Billy, Goin’ to Acapulco: ‘He did a remarkable job of putting a unique spin on a classic. It’s no small feat, and it’s a really impressive version’. Read more of The Walkmen’s Secret Playlist.
You heard it here first. Singer-songwriter Julian Perretta might just become the most exciting new artist of 2008. Read more
Channeling Justin Timberlake and Alan Vega, or both or neither, Spanish Dancer is on his own axis, spinning to the BPM of a lost drum. At one point, between moving back and forth between Providence, Rhode Island and Miami, Florida, he discovered punk and his uncle bought him a ratty 50 dollar Cruise VMI guitar to mess around with. Subsequently, Spanish Dancer material is a little snarky, self-aware, and fun, while still retaining all the complex spastic freakout moments of his prior band, A Trillion Barnacle Lapse. His debut album, Burned Up, Bred High, is out now and we have the lead single, The Hustler [listen below], available for free download via the Music Download section of the Lost At E Minor site.
WE'RE RESPECTING
WE'RE POSTING / SOME OF THE BEST
1970s and 80s Soviet Union buildings
Cambodian born photographer Frederic Chaubin is the editor of French magazine Citizen K. His photo series on bizarre buildings built in the former Soviet Union during the 1970s and 80s is absolutely fascinating. Read more
With the recession still biting, it may be time to whip out the glue and the cardboard and make your next pair of cool kicks. Don’t know how they’d manage in the rain though? Read more
Our celebrity-saturated culture makes many of us irrationally hateful of the faces we see on our TV screens and magazine pages. Good thing there’s Celebrity PunchOut to let off some of that steam.
Forget battery powered vehicles. Cars made from ice are the future of transportation: no pollution, no honking horns, no painful rap music blasting out of souped up stereos. And if they melt, they melt. You just swim the rest of the way down the slipstream.
Charlie Immer’s pastel-pallete sometimes obfuscates the gory violence in his surreal images. At other times, it heightens the gut-wrenching and visceral effect of his work. Read more
Thanks to Sony Australia, four Lost At E Minor readers will win personal audio prizes, including the new 8GB Walkman S series video MP3 player and the MDRXB500 Extra Bass headphones. Read more
Junior Massive is a newly launched Australian boutique t shirt label making limited edition tees using only Australia cotton. It’s street meets indie; design meets durability; edgy fashion meets edgy fashion. We have them for sale in the Lost At E Minor online store. Read more
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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.