He’s the founder of the infamous pre-Monster Children design magazine from Australia, Refill Mag, in its first few years easily the best creative culture journal around. Through Refill Magazine and its companion creative conference RPRSNT, Luca Ionescu brought together some of the most influential and eclectic creatives in the the world, including Pablo Ferro, Mr Cartoon, and A-Ron the Don.

The magazine and conference were not enough to contain his fascination with today’s creative thought-leaders, and so smaller projects including collaborations and art exhibitions emerged from Luca’s Sydney-based Like Minded Studio, all in the name of creative community and mutual inspiration. His innate knowledge of contemporary art, design, typography, illustration, motion graphics, and media is the product of Luca’s own creative evolution as a fan and peer of the artists he features.

You see Luca, is an artist, too, of the most eclectic kind, or should I say “type.” Luca Ionescu is a digital graffiti writer, a manipulator of common letterforms and an innovator of the art movement we know as Typography. His is the kind of work admired by niche artists including sign painters and title sequence animators. As a contemporary of the creatives he follows and admires, Luca’s beautiful commercial print and motion works graces top product and media brands including MTV, Nike, RVCA, and Tiger Beer. His personal experimentations in letterform have graced many galleries around the world, are manifested in exclusive product collections at Artsprojekt , and featured in a new collaboration with Adobe for its release of Creative Suite 5.

Luca Ionescu is a seasoned leader of the contemporary design world, creating typographic and illustrative compositions at once deserving of admiring gaze and detailed scrutiny,

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In the midst of all the apprehension and panic about the current world events we see on TV and in printed media, The LOVE POLICE intervene on our daily toil with a fresh perspective. And they are about to get hits, a lot of hits. Danny and Charles have injected us with an inoculation against the tyranny of the tube, and I for one, am interested. This diabolical duo have inserted themselves into our drone-like days of commuting to and from a box with flourescent lights which separates us from our spouses and children.

I feel like I’m getting the message loud and clear. I mean, I actually feel like an idiot for not having made the time to completely think the Government, Media, and Corporate love triangle through more competely. I could still be walking through life thinking, “Man, in this ‘Down Economy,’ I’m lucky if I have a job, and therefore should focus all my attention on trading my valuable time, family, health, and social life for less and less money. And I gotta make sure I have the right cable package, my McDonalds, and my MTV. A guy’s got his priorities!”

The LOVE POLICE’s light-hearted approach to opening minds and educating the sheepish masses is neither offensive nor heavy, but rather a crowd-engaging and humorous group experience. Their short films waver between documentary and commentary , and subject matter touches everything from pandemics to paparazzi.

Watch the video. If you laugh, good! Watch it again. And again. And remember to actually listen. Then when the media’s anesthesia finally wears off, listen to how you really feel. Aha, made you think!

The LOVE POLICE are making me think and their tightrope act of art, philosophy, and activism makes a compelling argument to use the next time you are hanging out at the water cooler: Choose Love, Not Fear.

Jim Mahfood, aka FOOD One, is a prolific neo-contemporary illustrator and painter whose work shows up in all kinds of odd places including his own 40 Oz Comics, Spiderman books for Marvel, Kevin Smith’s Clerks Comics, a mural on the Sarah Silverman Show, a brand new Simpsons collaboration with graff artist Kofie, on apparel for boutique brand King Duce, and other hotbeds of contemporary youth culture. A good night of drinkin’ and drawin’ for the accomplished comic artist includes live painting on naked girls in his local LA hotspots and around the country. I’ve painted with FOOD One, and when I say prolific I mean this guy’s got a lightning fast quickdraw with spraypaint, markers, and brushes like you wouldn’t believe.

Russ Mills, known in urban art circles as Byroglyphics, is turning heads with his unique juxtaposing of loose, tagger-esque lashings of paint and traditional portraiture. The Brighton-based illustrator and animator studied and Leeds Met and has since been showing at galleries including Signal Gallery and Red Propeller Gallery. Inspired by the Harajuku phenomenon in popular culture, Mills says he loves ‘the way every piece of popular culture from the recent past is smashed together in a garish soup and regurgitated into real life with absolutely no boundaries’. Glimpses of realism in his work are obscured by loose abstraction, and his application of that inspiration is coming though loud and clear.

Like many of the neo-contemporary artists today who have bridged the gap between analogue and digital creation, Illustrator and painter Johnny Rodriguez is a successful graphic designer, with a client list including MTV Networks, Universal Pictures, Microsoft, Lexus, Disney, and Activision. He has built an impressive portfolio of both artistic and technological accomplishments in the world of graphic design and new-media.

And his painting alias KMNDZ is built upon the premise of reflection, hope and a burning desire to live life to the fullest. Looks like he isn’t wasting much time so far. Find him on Artsprojekt, and if you’re in San Francisco, you can catch his next group show at the Shooting Gallery opening October 10.

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In the midst of a neo-contemporary art movement muddled with carbon copy exhibitions and copycat galleries from all over the globe, artists and musicians assemble in a space in East London’s Hoxton district to showcase art, make music, and create whatever the hell they want. This is the essence of multi-faceted artist Pure Evil, descendant of Utopia scribe Sir Thomas More and mastermind behind the gallery, the music, the clothing lines, and the message.

His Ethos and Principles include “We are opposed to the artist as a commodity”, “No curators allowed in the building they will be shot on sight”, “Wear your politics proudly”, and “We are an Alternate Idealogical Force.” Work available from artists including David Choe, Bast, Ron English, Gustavo Ortiz, Ephameron, and Pure Evil himself, and those who show in the gallery keep most of the art sales “because we can”. A refreshing psychedelic blast from the origins of DIY culture, Pure Evil takes street art into the 21st century with a panoramic gallery tour that you can actually visit right now from anywhere in the world.