Some days, it’s all about the little things. Actually, that might be most days.
So today, I made this loading icon, a microscopic cog in the machine that will be the new Altibox TV overalt system we are working on. Big things! And small things.
I thought I should update you on some dates I have coming up, since these are gigs I’m looking immensely forward to, and have been salivating over for some time. Last friday I played at Opera, which was amongst the best gigs I have had in a while; a packed room, an audience expecting to be surprised, and Olle Abstract raving like only he can. Sorry for the namedropping, but it happened, and it was super fun.
Saturday the 15th of march I’ll be playing alongside one of our heroes at Nabovarsel: Numbers label boss Spencer. That’ll be a blast like no other, I’m going to do ALL THE THINGS.
Then, on saturday the 22nd, I’m going to Oslo to play for an unsuspecting populace at Fisk&Vilt, I’ll be rocking the back yard, so the roof is already raised.
Aaand then, on April 11th, I’ll be playing next to my main man; Øde Øyvind, at Opera again. He’ll bring some RnB from a different planet, I’ll just.. go nuts, I suppose. Party like it’s 2014, we say.
Check out the Lysgaardsounds.com website for more up-to-date info, music videos, and other stuff! For those of you not in the know; I try to keep the music and the design parts of my life a little separated, since if you like one thing that doesn’t mean you must like the other. But at times, like this one, they bleed into each other. So there! Looking forward to meeting you on a dance floor in the future.
I will not apologise for the lack of posts lately, but I can explain its reason: I’m building a brand new site, which will focus more on the stuff you’ll want to see, rather than focussing on me and my intermittent absence. It will be great. no, you can’t see it just yet. But soon.
In the meantime, I have something cool for you to check out:
Trend analysis and design academics is a big theme of mine, and the people at K-hole seem to share it. They put out reports as free PDF-s talking about the cultural shifts we experience as people and lots of wild themes you’ll find very interesting if you make things, read things, or breathe air.
At Nabovarsel, we have been doing our thing for ten years now. We figured it was grounds for a celebration, as anything is to us… And presto.
The venerable techno mastermind Ulf is about to grace our shores, hope he likes bananas!
This poster is a nod to the mid-century classical music LPs put out by Deutsche Grammophon.
The photo was taken at Rema earlier today.
The long awaited debut EP from Put Your hands Up For Neo-Tokyo will finally be out on the 13th of December, with cover art by yours truly! The record has been going on steady repeat both at work and in the house, I recommend you adopt that same routine.
You can listen to this future-pop jewel of tutti-frutti-organized madness at Soundcloud, or right here.
Coming to streaming services and all that on the 13th!
Here’s a thought.
Art is supposed to be, by some definitions, incomprehensible. Shattering, obscure, never-ending.
Design, on the other hand, is structure and organisation of content, getting the message across, explanations and obviousness. in short, the opposite. How can you make something which is both?
Both art and design takes many forms, and a lot of the time the two terms does not intermingle at all (that I can think of). Take interface design and abstract sculpture, for example. Let me see you mix those two up. Okay, so we both just did, in our heads. But you know what I mean.
Let us then think of something more familiar, like an event poster. In this realm, art and design acts more like two opposite points on an axis, two different colors of clay that can be mixed.
Let’s look at what happens when an observer views a piece, in the order they see the content:
So in order of what the observer sees (or, if you will, comprehends), it goes like this: First is the style, that is, the cultural references, the eye-catcher, is it “my kind of cool”, does it feel like it belongs to me. Then comes the information, the practical necessities and the core of the message you are trying to get across. Some times the “core” message is embedded in the other layers, and this is the most mis-used layers, as many people think it is the only one. Lastly, but in a multitude, lies the art. This can be one layer, or many, or none. The longer the piece is viewed, and the more the viewer comprehends, the deeper one sees. But since the deeper layers are covered by the ones above, it quickly gets murky and dark, leaving viewers confused and interpretations flailing.
This may seem strictly academic, and this may simply be the coffee talking, but keeping this order, as well as how to mediate the contradictions in mind, can do great things for how you work. The most important part is knowing that these “layers” exist, and identifying them in your own work.
If one or more layers are missing, you have a problem no matter what you are making. What do you think?
Time for a party! This time we are bringing back the lovely Moderna. Together with Sam Valenti they basically make Ghostly international, one of the planet’s coolest labels, happen.
If you are one of the locals, I look forward to seeing you there!
The night’s poster was made in a frenzy thinking about squinting at the sun. Squint squint.
Just a quick post here to show you something awesome – I just discovered Active Child, the new number one on my playlists. Call it post-RnB if you will. Manages to remind me a bit about Nils Bech, too.
Check the guy out on Spotify and Soundcloud! (more…)
Check out this mini-doc about creativity and making money at the same time – from the good people over at Eskimo.
See the video after the jump! (more…)
