The 1933 Group Presents a Repeal Day Celebration

December 5th, 1933 was a great day in American history. This juncture, happily signed by Franklin D. Roosevelt, marked the passage of the Twenty-first Amendment to the US Constitution. The result was the repeal of the Eighteenth Amendment and the end of the failed political experiment of American Prohibition.

To celebrate this historical moment, the 1933 Group of bars (the name makes a little more sense now) is offering libations for fifty cents on December 5th, 2012 to symbolize the death of Prohibition. From the log cabin habitat of the Bigfoot Lodge to the old-timey southern milieu of Sassafras, the watering holes in the 1933 Group offer unique themes and cocktail selections. The saloons are scattered all across Los Angeles from Highland Park to Silverlake to Culver City and all are offering the promotion.

The Academy World Citizen Series

 

My friends at The Academy in Long Beach always aim to defy the norm of apparel design and manufacturing. With locally sourcing materials, manufacturing in Los Angeles, and always working on unique, culturally significant projects; The Academy stands out.

Staying consistant with this philosophy, below are the details on their latest release:

World Peace Day Shirt by The Academy

Celebrating the September 21st observance of World Peace Day, The Academy is releasing our tropical prints inspired World Citizen Shirt series.

The indigo blue floral prints celebrates humanity's unity by incorporating the world's flowers into an updated version of the classic 'Hawaiian Shirt'.

The camouflage floral iteration turns the notion of disguise on its head. Originally designed for clothing of war, this camouflage design blends the world's flowers together in an ironic acknowledgment of Peace.

World Citizen, made in Los Angeles by The Academy. $68. More information on the shirts and purchasing information can be viewed on  The Academy website.

Capital Eyewear Follow Up

 

A while ago, I conducted an interview with the eyewear brand Capital. Capital aims to go against the grain of the current mass manufacturing practices of today by locally sourcing their materials and handmaking their glasses in the United States. The fascination with this type of business practice has led me to connect with others that use similar honest methods of manufacturing their products. Examples include The Academy and Killspencer here in Los Angeles.

Recently, I checked back in with Capital to discover their evolution as a brand. They have grown to occupying their current manufacturing space and pop up shop in San Francisco. They have also expanded into working with bioplastic acetate frames to compliment the wood frames. These plant based plastic spectacles are 100% renewable, biodegradable, and hypoallergenic.

Capital also released a video outlining a good bit of their production process:

 

Handmade in the USA from Capital on Vimeo.

 

In addition to their growth on the manufacturing and retail front, they released a few new frame designs:

 

Art Center At Night Bicycle Design Class

 

Art Center At Night is offering a 7-week bicycle and bicycle accessory design class starting Thursday, March 8- April 19. The Art Center At Night courses are an excellent way to get a feel for how Art Center classes are structured and a way to meet the professors and network. The classes are also a great way for the design professional to sharpen and expand his or her skill set. Register here.

Oliver Franklin Anderson: Hollow and the Slamdance Film Festival


 

Oliver Franklin Anderson is a local Los Angeles filmmaker. Originating from Appleton Wisconsin, Oliver graduated from the Experimental Animation program at the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts). His film, Hollow, has recently been accepted into the 2012 Slamdance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. Hollow is a cerebral experience with an ominous undertone that embraces viewer intrigue and wonder throughout its duration. Take a look at my interview with Oliver coupled with stills and the film Hollow.

 

 

TNC: What influences drew you to study Experimental Animation and what are your goals with it?

Oliver: The Experimental Animation Program at CalArts gives you freedom to work in any medium, you can do everything from live action film to writing interactive programs for gallery installations. I don't like being restrained by medium, my thinking is that whatever works for the project I'm working on works, so the program was a perfect fit, and it was a great place to learn and develop as an artist.

 

 

TNC: What films and which directors inspire your personal work and why?

Oliver: I really admire the works of Larry Fessenden and Woody Allen, that's an odd match. The two largest influences on Hollow in particular were La Gloire de Mon Pere directed by Yves Robert, and the 1987 BBC version of My Family and Other Animals directed by Peter Barber-Fleming. La Gloire de Mon Pere has this wonderful opening title sequence that takes you slowly floating over the beautiful hills of the south of France, this is coupled with the calls of cicada's which have been turned into a rhythmic base for sequence's score. That rhythmic calling of the cicadas inspired the lush symphony of insect calls that makes up Hollow's soundscape. My Family and Other Animals is a BBC mini series based on Gerald Durrell's semi autobiographical book by the same title about his childhood on the Greek island of Corfu, it's filled with atmospheric and beautiful natural history photography, particularly of small life forms, insects, lizards, fish and such, similarly Hollow is peppered with close up cameos of the creatures I encountered as a kid growing up in rural Wisconsin.

 

 

TNC: Could you describe the genesis of your film Hollow and the concept behind it?

Oliver: I wanted to do something beautiful and rural, with a hint of horror. The initial idea idea I had that lead to Hollow was the image of a murdered girls body in the grass, covered in morning dew and insects, the current incarnation of the film slowly grew from that image. I have a deep love for the natural world, ghost stories, and the macabre, all the elements over time meshed together perfectly.

 

 

TNC: Congratulations on Hollow's acceptance into the 2012 Slamdance Film Festival. What is the background on the festival and what it is all about?

Oliver: Thank you! Slamdance from my understanding is the rebellious younger brother of Sundance, it was formed by a pair of filmmakers who were rejected by Sundance in the mid 90's, Slamdance takes more chances and is far less commercial than Sundance, it's also limited to films with budgets of under 1 million.

 

 

Hollow from Oliver Franklin Anderson on Vimeo.

Ice Cube and the Eames

Los Angeles is currently featuring a voluminous show that aligns pretty much all of the museums in the region. The show is called Pacific Standard Time and is described as, "an unprecedented collaboration of cultural institutions across Southern California coming together to celebrate the birth of L.A. art".

One stand out promotion of the Pacific Standard Time exposition is Ice Cube's homage to the design and architecture of Charles and Ray Eames. Take a look at the video and remember that the 110 has gangster traffic.

 

 

Thomas Isaac's Hollywood Hobo Painting

 

Thomas Isaac is a local Los Angeles painter, friend, and fellow adventurer. He has completed his latest painting titled "hollywood-hobo wearing a thong, true-story-no-lie-ask-GINA". The piece measures 5 feet by 3 feet and Isaac describes it as an acrylic mess. The painting is inspired by the type of characters one can regularly observe on the streets of Hollywood. As a previous Hollywood resident, this painting makes total sense to me.

If you enjoy this piece, take a look at Isaac's website for more work samples and contact him for more details.

Urshuz Launch Party

Last Saturday I attended the event debuting Grant Delgatty's Urshuz brand. In an era where the norm of fashion is to immitate, Urshuz utilizes its unique modular design to innovate and push the boudaries of what is possible with footwear. The shoe's design allows the consumer to mix and match a variety of shoe uppers with an equally diverse selection of soles. 

The Urshuz launch party consisted of a demo area (where individuals could mix and match different styles and test out the Urshuz attachment system), a DJ playing tunes on the upper desk, tasty food, and excellent people. The hosting venue for the event was The Academy clothing boutique in Long Beach. In addition to their awesome apparal assortment; The Academy is decorated with mid-century antique furniture, electronics, and soft goods that are available for purchase.

Urshuz will be available for purchase on their website at the beginning of September. They will also be featured in several Urban Outfitters stores (for web purchase as well) and other assorted clothing boutiques in the United States and Canada. Take a look at the images from the event and pick up a pair of Urshuz.

 

Urshuz display inside The Academy

Shoe wall with Urshuz LEGO artwork

Aerial view of the event

Assortment of Urshuz uppers and soles

Demo table for assembling Urshuz

Examples of Urshuz packaging

More Urshuz

U-Rings used to attach uppers to soles are replaceable

U-Ring tool to attach uppers to soles is integrated into the sole

Quote by Grant

Me and Grant

Grant and his creation

Vintage California flag sold at The Academy

 

I would like to end with a quick message from Grant about the event and Urshuz:

"thanks to all those who came out and supported us at the launch!  I was very pleased with the turnout, and was encouraged with how much enthusiasm the brand received!  It's been a long road to get here, but I am excited to see what the future holds for Urshuz!  Cheers everyone!  G."

Urshuz Launch Party in Long Beach

 

In an earlier post, I mentioned that my previous Van's boss, Grant Delgatty, is launching his own footwear brand called Urshuz. The release of Urshuz is rapidly approaching so the Urshuz collective is throwing a launch party in Long Beach. The event will be held at The Academy clothing store on Saturday, August 13th. Come check it out for music, food, and good design.

 

Urshuz from ROS-B on Vimeo.

Art in the Streets Exhibit at the Los Angeles MOCA

This weekend I attended the Art in the Streets museum exhibition at the Geffen Contemporary at the MOCA in downtown Los Angeles. It was written that this was the very first major US museum display of street art and graffiti art. The obvious problem with that statement is the fact that the idea of a street art exhibition inside the whitewashed walls of a sanctioned museum is somewhat of an oxymoron. Although the display was vast and educational on the motif of graffiti and street art (and I am a fan of several of the artists), I feel like the whole thing sort of cheapened the essense of the anarchist graffiti artist. I don't think the founders and originators of the movement would have ever imagined such a spectacle. At the end of the exhibit, the old fat white security guard making sure the line to the gift shop didn't get disorderly was the metaphorical nail in the coffin for the street art movement.

Anyway, I put together a collage of my walk through the exhibit:


Gallery 1988's Wet Hot American Summer Venice Show

A little over a week ago, the Venice Beach chapter of Gallery 1988 held an opening for their current Wet Hot American Summer themed show. The show is called Camp Firewood, the name of the camp in the movie, and will be displayed until June 29th. The director of the movie, David Wain, hosted the event. Cast member of fellow The State comrade to David Wain, Jo Lo Truglio, was in attendance as well. I had the great honor of briefly chatting and snapping pictures with both of them.

The featured art came in various media from oil painting to screen prints to sculptures. Take a look.


Wet Hot American Gothic Opening @ Gallery 1988 Venice

 

Gallery 1988 is a primarily eighties themed, pop culture driven, contemporary art gallery with spaces in Hollywood and Venice Beach California. A small sampling of illustrations displayed in 1988's shows are depiction's of deranged Alice in Wonderland characters, Doc Brown, Jay and Silent Bob, Skeletor, Milton & Mr. Lumbergh, the Mario Kart players, and original TRON characters and light bikes (just to name a few).

Perfectly aligning with this nostalgic trend of cult status pop culture motifs, the Venice Beach location of Gallery 1988 is hosting a Wet Hot American Summer art show. This event glorifies the 10th anniversary of the underground comedy written, directed, and starring several alums of MTV's 90s sketch comedy classic The State. The most notable individuals involved in Wet Hot American Summer, the trio that went on to form Stella, are Michael Ian Black, Michael Showalter, and David Wain.

The event features Wet Hot American Summer themed art from over 65 artists and the opening reception is Friday, June 10th from 7-10PM. The location of the newest Venice arm of Gallery 1988 is 214 Pier Avenue, Santa Monica, CA 90405. I fully plan on attending this opening so stay tuned for images.

 

Design Research Methods Workshop in Los Angeles

 

 

Rob Curedale; founder of the highly successful product design LinkedIn groups, design mixer coordinator, and previous Denzinger Design interviewee; is gearing up to teach a series of design driven continuing education workshops. The first in this suit of classes is titled Design Research Methods 1. The course will be hosted by Yeh Studios in Los Angeles.

Yeh Studios is a design, architecture, and interior design business that was behind the inception of Obey frontman Shepard Fairey's gallery and design space, Studio Number One, in Echo Park.

Studio Number One

Design research is an imperative aspect of the product development process that generally doesn't get the regard that it deserves. In order to make informed and deliberate decisions, designers need to take the time to focus on research throughout the process. As Rob states, it is important to inform colleagues and clients why a designer is pursuing a particular design direction within projects.

The workshop will cover several paramount design research topics and implementation techniques. It will take place on Saturday, June 11th between the hours of 1-5PM. The registration fee is $139 for professionals and $79 for full time students. Visit the website for more details and registration information.

Now that the Smoke has Cleared: Judgement Day Art

Since the dawn of man, we have used the tools in our environment to depict images of the Gods believed to have created us and renderings of some sort of afterlife. The Last Judgement by Hans Memling, created during the 15th century, is a classical example of a painting portraying the Christian's end of the world belief in the rapture. 

In modern times, Harold Camping falsely predicted that the rapture would transpire on May 21st of this year. This marked his third wrong prediction (according to wikipedia). As stated before, THIS gallery, located in the Highland Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, celebrated "Judgement Night" on the night of May 20th with a one night art show. I had the opportunity to attend the event.

I would have to describe the motif of the show as a guide to post-apocalyptic survival. The first things visible in the gallery were haunting ski masks and nail-ridden baseball bats. The harshness of the Mad Max-esq baseball bat weapons were contrasted with images of colorful butterflies. The back wall of the gallery featured more zombie killing, end of time era weapons constructed of twisted metal, broken glass, rusted steel, and splintered wood.

 

 

The armageddon themed event also contained a wall of mostly geometric, grey scale artwork. A few of these pieces seemed to have slightly ambiguous cosmic undertones to keep with the tone of the night.

 

 

The final region of the show incorporated a fantastic collage containing images of the occult, S&M, voodoo, and a lone picture of Johnny Cash.

 

 

THIS gallery had recently been invaded by the French street artist Invader with a red, white and blue mosaic piece.

 

 

Lastly, the event was scored with two turntables by the awesomely eccentric punk rock icon Keith Morris. Keith is the original lead singer and founding member of Black Flag before Henry Rollins took the reins. He also leads the rowdy and raucous punk bands the Circle Jerks and, most recently, OFF!

I was slightly too awkward to snap a picture of Keith DJing so I'm going to impart his presence with YouTube videos. Below are two of OFF!'s official music videos released for their first album. The second video was filmed in a downtown Los Angeles warehouse/arts complex that hosted one of the best art shows that I have been to on the west coast. Another event that Keith Morris provided the sounds for.

 

 

Even though the "Judgement Day" weekend proved to be the uneventful psychobabble of an elderly religious weirdo, THIS Gallery embraced the opportunity to put on a hell of a party and art show. Also, the event provided excellent inspiration for home made weapons to use during the zombie apocalypse. 

Art in the Streets @ MOCA

 

The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA in downtown Los Angeles is featuring the first major US museum exhibition of street art and graffiti art. The show is called Art in the Streets and focuses on the evolution of graffiti and street art from the 1970s to what it is today. Although paintings, mixed media sculptures, and interactive installations are featured from 50 well known street artists from New York, Los Angeles, London, San Francisco, and Sao Paulo; the main focus of the show is the role Los Angeles plays in the movement.

Most notably, a special section of the show is dedicated to the art related to the locals only Dogtown skate and surf movement out of Venice Beach and Santa Monica.

Art in the Streets runs from 04.17.11 until 08.08.11 and is located here.

Referenced from: OBEY

Andrew Namminga of AN Design Interview

I first learned about AN Design Lab by attending their inaugural open house and burger mixer. At the event, I met Andrew Namminga, the founder of the design firm, and became interested in his story. Before beginning a career in Industrial Design that lead to the launch of his own design firm, Andrew worked in machine shops and built custom motorcycles.

Several weeks after the mixer, I reconnected with Andrew and he invited me down to his firm in Costa Mesa, California to chat. I decided to take a slightly different approach to this interview and recorded video clips of Andrew's responses. Take a look.

 

How did you get into Industrial Design?

Andrew Namminga of AN Design Interview from Denzinger Design on Vimeo.

 

Can you expand on your experience with custom motorcycle building?

Andrew Namminga of AN Design Interview 2 from Denzinger Design on Vimeo.

 

How did you begin freelancing as an Industrial Designer?

Andrew Namminga of AN Design Interview 3 from Denzinger Design on Vimeo.

 

 

How did you transition from freelancing to opening your own design firm?

Andrew Namminga of AN Design Interview 4 from Denzinger Design on Vimeo.

 

What were some of the challenges of developing AN Design?

Andrew Namminga of AN Design Interview 5 from Denzinger Design on Vimeo.

 

Describe the focal point of the shop environment inside AN Design Lab.

Andrew Namminga of AN Design Interview 6 from Denzinger Design on Vimeo.

 

What does the future hold for AN Design?

Andrew Namminga of AN Design Interview 7 from Denzinger Design on Vimeo.

 

After the interview, Andrew gave me a tour of his shop. AN Design Lab has amble space for the design studio and machine shop hybrid. Andrew took me through the various regions of his space.

AN Design Shop Tour from Denzinger Design on Vimeo.

The Album Cover Art of Shepard Fairey Opening

 

Over the years, Shepard Fairey has been involved with the design of a wide variety of album cover art. Additionally, the Obey frontman often uses music as a theme for his artwork. To celebrate all of this, the Robert Berman Gallery in Santa Monica is currently featuring a show called Revolutions - The Album Cover Art of Shepard Fairey.

The show opening was March 12th, and I had the chance to attend. The focal point of the show was a large cluster of small framed screen prints, featuring the album covers Shepard created, on the back wall of the gallery. The show also boasted DJ sets by Dan the Automator and Shepard Fairey himself. The show runs until April 23rd and below are a few pictures from the event.

 

California Desk

Furniture is an arm of product design that has always fascinated me. Designers can be extremely creative with it and do not have to deal with as many constraints as other forms of design. Two classmates and I designed and built a chair with a detachable ottoman my sophomore year of design school and had a blast doing it. After countless hours in the wood shop, we found ourselves with a piece of furniture that we were very proud of. J. Rusten Furniture Studio in San Francisco has taken furniture to the next level with the California Desk.

 

 

The desk screams California pride and is constructed from salvaged Claro walnut. The beautiful wavy grain of the wood compliments the asymmetrical California coast line.

 

 

For more information, check out J. Rusten. If I ever open my own design firm, this would be my conference table.