Gregarious

The xx is a new band out of England who have absolutely exploded onto “the scene” this year.  Their album, xx, has reached the top ten of numerous important-music-people’s “Best Albums of ‘09″ lists.  As awesome as their music is (listen to the track below) I’d rather talk about the band’s branding.

How amazing is that album cover?!  So simple and effective.  And once you’ve heard the record, it makes even more sense.  It perfectly describes The xx’s stripped down, minimalist “dub step” sound that exists somewhere between alternative rock and r&b.  In an age when the physical artifact of an “album” is quickly disintegrating into our ever-shrinking, pixelated futures; this iconic album cover is equally effective as a 1″ by 1″ icon on my iPod as it is on an 18″ by 24″ gig poster.

Below are some examples of covers of The xx’s singles and remix albums.  Each is an equally iconic extension of The xx’s brand.  Even when they perform live, the table that holds the equipment of the band’s dj/drum machinist is fitted with two large white glowing x’s on a black background.  The xx is a great example of how a strong brand can be used to create a truly enveloping experience for any product, be it an object or music.

The most recent storyline of “The Invincible Iron Man” has been exciting, dramatic and, overall, very entertaining. The past few issues in the “Stark Disassembled” series really caught my attention with their fantastically designed covers by Salvador Larroca and Rian Hughes.

To put it simply, most comic book covers are garbage. The presence of “graphic design” is nearly non-existent. Much like a bad movie poster, most comic book covers simply feature the most dramatic image they can muster and try and involve as much “action” and “sex appeal” as they can fit (see below).

Salvador Larroca and Rian Hughes‘ covers for this story arc of The Invincible Iron Man really add a sense of traditional simplicity and taste to the genre. I love the lack of center-aligned text, the use of horizontal rules, the simple geometry, and the modest use of black sans-serif font. All of these factors come together to deliver a refreshing dose of design into a medium that can seriously use it.

More covers from Larocca and Hughes' series

ACTION PACKED ISSUES!!!

Here is a video of Senator Al Franken drawing a map of the United States, freehand.  It’s pretty incredible.  Thanks to Core77.

I know it’s been a while since my last post but I have been pretty busy recently.  Well now that I have a steady source of income, I can actually buy things for myself, like these awesome Futurama vinyl figures! They were released a few weeks ago and I’m a huge Futurama fan so I just placed an order for 3 figures so I can begin decorating my desk at work.  They’re all pretty funny looking so I’ll be happy with any one that I get, but I’m really hoping for a Zoidberg.  On a similar note, I’m really excited that Comedy Central is raising the show from the dead; I can’t wait for new episodes!

A few days ago I saw Pixar’s “Up” in theaters and I highly recommend that anyone who hasn’t seen it yet drop what they are doing and go RIGHT NOW!  It’s another home run from Pixar who (with the exception of a certain automobile-centered film) cannot seem to make a bad movie.

However, there was one scene in “Up” that really disturbed my inner product designer.  Without ruining the plot of the movie, at a certain point, the main character, Mr. Fredrickson, must relieve some weight from his balloon-levitated home.  Until this part in the film, Mr. Fredrickson has shown a great emotional attachment to every item in his home, but now he won’t be able to “fly” his house without getting rid of these objects.  After a few seconds of inner unrest, Mr. Fredrickson then proceeds to carelessly toss all of his belongings from his home damaging and destroying them in the process.

As a recent product design graduate, I just spent four years learning about how to add value and meaning to everyday objects through design.  I felt insulted as I watched Mr. Fredrickson destroy product after product that clearly had importance in his life.  I felt like Pixar was preaching a message along the lines of, “The things that you surround yourself with are not as important as the memories of those objects.”  But where would those memories come from without the interactions with those products in the first place?

I have always been sort of a pack-rat because I enjoy connecting worthwhile memories in my life with the meaningful objects that helped make those impressions.  I guess I’m a little worried that by throwing away those objects, I will be throwing away part of that memory.  Pixar has always been a company that clearly valued the importance of design, so I could not help but feel betrayed by Pixar during this scene of the movie.

After my brief moment of inner turmoil, I still enjoyed “Up” greatly.  In my opinion, it is the funniest and most dramatic Pixar film to date.  Also, as a jobless college grad struggling to find direction at this point in my life, I really give Pixar credit for arousing such an emotional design issue.  Touché, Pixar… touché.

I have been anticipating the Wolverine movie for THREE YEARS.  While filming, there had been dozens of rumors about issues between Fox Studios and director Gavin Hood.  While reading about them I simply (maybe ignorantly) kept the faith that the right people behind the scenes would make sure that one of Marvel’s most popular characters would be adapted faithfully to his own movie.  I was wrong.

What makes Wolverine’s character so intriguing is his constant struggle between his urge to do what’s right and his mutant, animalistic instinct.  The movie did a terrible job of translating this struggle to the big screen.  The only way it was addressed the whole movie was with characters just talking about it:  “I’m not an animal!”  “Yes you are.”  What also makes Wolverine so great is his complex and fragmented past, which was completely glazed over in the film.  The movie simply seemed like an excuse to cram as many “popular” mutants (Gambit?! What a lame character!  He doesn’t even do anything in the movie!) into a film that simply had Wolverine moving the plot (if you can call it that) forward.

I should give credit where it is due; Hugh Jackman, Liev Schreiber, and Danny Huston all portrayed their characters superbly.  Even Ryan Reynolds was PERFECT for Wade Wilson/Deadpool but he only had maybe 3 minutes on screen to shine in a role that he was born for!

The most glaring issue I had with the film were the comically awful special effects.  For the first “summer blockbuster” of the year, it seemed clear that Fox tried to cut costs in post production.  The effects are so poor that they are distracting from the plot in a few scenes specifically: the scene when Wolverine is first getting used to his metal claws in a bathroom, when wolverine is fighting the Blob, and then any scene taking place in a moving vehicle.

I place all the blame on Fox Studios.  According to the rumors I referred to before, Fox is one of the most difficult film studios to work for and it must be true.  I know it is a little cliche to say this in our “post Batman Begins era” but the movie should have been darker.  Wolverine is very similar to Batman in his moral ambiguity (ignoring the means to achieve an end) but the Wolverine movie looks like a Saturday morning cartoon compared to the recent Batman movies.

I can only hope that if Wolverine SOMEHOW makes enough money to warrant a sequel, they take a drastically different approach before more movies like this are made and kill the current streak of quality comic book movies.

This is an incredibly cool animated video by M. Ward featuring backup vocals by Zooey Deschannel.  I got the She & Him (they’re band) album “Volume One” a couple weeks ago and I really love it.  They sound a lot like Jenny Lewis with a very smooth, vintage, blues/country sound.

Props to Ben and Drew for making this kick-ass poster for our IDSA Merritt Award presentations tomorrow.  I just finished making my presentation and I have to start practicing it to make sure I’m under the 10 minute limit.

The event is open to the public, so please stop by for some industrial design “MAYHEM.”  Personally, I think we should forget the presentations and just a have a cage match: the strongest designer wins.  I’m not sure if that would help or hurt my chances but it would definitely be exciting.

I just got back from the Handsome Furs concert at Brillobox, here in Pittsburgh.  It was an awesome show!  I had so much fun.  The openers, The Cinnamon Band’s drumming and harmonies were great.  They cracked a small joke about being labeled as an “Alt-Country” although I think that’s pretty accurate.

As for the Handsome Furs, they had so much energy and played a fantastic set.  Highlihgts included “Handsome Furs Hate This City,” “Nyet Spasiba” and the finale, “Radio Kaliningrad.”  The crowd was so excited it seemed that the Furs responded with matching energy.  They played their whole set with George Lucas’ first film “THSX 1138″ projected on a screen behind them, which made for a creepy yet entertaining background.  Every now and then, between songs, Dan Boeckner would turn around and hilariously comment on cool scenes in the movie.  Unfortunately, their set ran a little short and the Furs neglected to play some of my favorite tracks: “Thy Will Be Done” and “Cannot Get Started.”  Despite the short set, this was definitely one of the top 5 concerts I’ve ever  been to.

Holy crap!  There has been so much ominous news surrounding the making of this movie but thanks to the tip from NY Magazine’s Vulture blog, the trailer makes me forget all of it!  I love Spike Jonze’s music videos: “Sabotage” by The Beastie Boys, “Weapon of Choice” by Fatboy Slim, and “California” by Wax among dozens of others.  He’s also directed some visually complex and compelling movies like “Being John Malkovich,” “Adaptation” and “Jackass: The Movie” (just kidding on that last one).  Accompanied by one of my favorite Arcade Fire songs, “Wake Up,” this trailer is beyond promising for what is to come in October.