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!’
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.
YOU'RE SAYING (1)
HAVE YOUR SAY
On the Monster Engine website, artist Dave DeVries ‘projects a child’s drawing with an opaque projector, faithfully tracing each line. Applying a combination of logic and instinct’, he then ‘paints the image as realistically’ as he can. Brilliant! Read more
These slick outdoor lighting units designed by Jordi Vilardell and Meritxell Vidal remind me of croquet wickets, but I think I’d use these more often.
B-Reel is real smooth. And when I say real, I mean really. They created the latest ad for kicks brand Onitsuka Tiger. Read more
This is a house near Adelaide by architect Max Pritchard designed like a bridge (it’s actually built over a creek) to feel airy and unobtrusive in the surrounding nature. Read more
Metal Heads Unite! And thanks to this map, it makes bridging the gap that much easier. Tread the lands of Death, Black, and every other kind of metal you can name.
How can you not love a band called ¡Apeshit!? Their name says it all. I got to catch these guys tour at a warehouse in Bed-Stuy the other night as they were capping off their most recent tour, and even though there were only 20 or so people in the audience by the time they went on, their set was absolutely epic, culminating in frontman Pat Berran being hoisted up and subsequently dropped by the drunken, sweaty, and heavily tattooed crowd. If you love fast, spastic, intensely brutal punk, this band will make you crap your pants.
These Stephanie Simek designed rabbit’s foot-like charms made from pussy willow buds dangle from the ears by strands of thin chains like silent wind chimes. The earrings are approximately 3 inches long plus ear wire and available for US$125.
WE'RE POSTING / SOME OF THE BEST
Cookie Boy’s creative cookie designs
I don’t eat cookies, so good thing Cookie Boy’s cookies are little pieces of art too pretty and cute to eat. Read more
Never ever, ever, ever, ever park here
Some friendly advice for the neighbours, who simply don’t get it, or street art? You decide which one it is.
Benjamin Edminston’s psychedelic heads seem to have some fearful wisdom behind their blissed-out eyes. Read more
It’s refreshing to see artists like Joe Kievitt who are contented to explore the beauty in simple forms and asymmetrical patterns. 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.
Sometime in 2010, the folks behind Dirty Dishes had the slightly silly idea of using cheeky vintage photos and putting them on dinner plates. After doing lots of research, talking to lots of people, and receiving loads of positive feedback, they wondered if this idea was so silly after all. And thus Dirty Dishes was born. Read more
If you have a Twitter feed that focuses on cool pop cultural things and you’d like to swap Tweets with Lost At E Minor and other like-minded Twitterers, drop us a note (with Tweet Swap in the title). We have a system in place and we’d like to have you in on it! [illustration by Brad Fitzpatrick]
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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.