stuff worth reading, looking at and loving

February 17, 2010

I’m superexposed to many forms of media, apart from TV which is only good for falling asleep, that I often discover really pretty things and then I talk about them exitedly and have no way of retreiving their source in my overcrowded head. Very unfortunate.

Magazines, Websites, Platforms, so much radness out there!

The internet is too fast and too full sometimes and I constantly lose things, links, articles, ladida, also because I still haven’t really made friends with Delicious (I currrently don’t even remember the email adress I used to log in which sucks). So I often find myself looking through old tweets or the facebook walls of friends or even emails to find some stuff that I happened to stumble across a while ago and want to find again.

So here you go, share my enthusiasm for those….

MONOCLE

The subscription I got for my bday, still waiting for the first issue to hit my postbox. Can’t wait, a lot of japanese stuff, a lot of english stuff and overall very pretty and out there. They don’t limit themselves at Monocle – the high gloss mag includes topics like Business, Design, Culture, Affairs and also Edits, which deal with all kinds of new stuff, inventors and travel. (Love)

You’re a creative director at an ad agency or need someone to do some illustrations for your next music video? Where to look for the right people? My work for photographer and visual artist Andreas Waldschuetz has caused me to surf the web in sleepless nights in order to find platforms that cater as a meeting point for artists and industry, and eventually, creating a business case. But like artists, most of these platforms don’t really get a lot of exposure in the media (especially not in the midget country Austria) as they are made by artists and don’t always have a strong business model to back them up. Out of all of them, there are two platforms that I have found to be truly inspirational:

Behance Network

The Behance Network is a creative thinktank and gives room for all artists, from acrobats to web designers, to showcase their work, interact and make connections, within the network and also for those looking for talent from the “real world”. It’s an invitation only platform, you can also apply to get in and once you’re there, show them what you got. I found some amazig stuff and via the job section, we’ll soon be looking for a graphic designer that’s gonna help us make a pretty rad photo project, shot in Namibia in the end of 2009 look really really ridiculously good. I’m positive we’ll find someone….

and

L’EXPOSURE

Similar approach to creativity, yet anyone can join. It’s still in it’s Beta phase, but already now has some great talent to be found. It’s also better optimised for google (I found out about that when I googled Andreas) than Behance and it offers a very pretty and well done magazine part that features also some of the artists that are in the network.

brand eins

Oh, Brand Eins, I do feel sorry for all those who can’t read german. Such an amazing, brave and smart magazine, a monthly for that matter, that I read religiously like a book, refer to it, share it’s articles, of which many are also available online. Even my mum loves it now and my dad got a subscription. It mixes all sorts of topics, politics, art, branding, advertising and philosophy and does not draw lines in between them, which is the best cause it reflects the decentralised approach to life and work that I believe in myself. It’s design is simple and unfussy, it’s core the written word. And thy even put that into audio, you can download podcasts for free if you have a subscription and listen to them on long boring stints on the motorway or at the airport.

One of the tasks I have set for myself for this century is publishing an article with brand eins, I just have to get round to finding the right topic and persuadig them of it’s relevance. peanuts

The Sixty One

A lovechild of music meeting fans. Young artists have the opportunity to put their music on here and make cash by selling records. What struck me most with this website is it’s beauty, simple handling and, of course, the hearts. I have a thing for hearts. It’s great to explore music that is brand new, and amongst others there are filters for “hot”, “top” and “moods”. Great, just great.

SELF SERVICE

This pretty number comes out twice a year and has reserved a sure spot on a worthy coffee table. A true beauty, especially the art work font-wise makes my heart leap with joy. Such a good thing that there are people who believe in visual beauty and style. Self Service brings style, the work of amazing photographers, outstading travel destinations all wrapped up nicely in a hard cover.

TWOYOUTUBEVIDEOSANDAMOTHERFUCKINGCROSSFADER

Well, last week we did a party, a costume party to be precise. Since the whole thing was a totally out-of-the-blue event, we didn’t manage to organise a DJ and I ended up playig music, from iTunes mixed with youtube videos. Not at all an artistic approach to dejaying, but what could I do? So this guy I hardly know comes up to me, looking pitiful at my attempts to create smooth change-overs from one song to the next, terribly failing. He asks me if I know twoyoutbevideosandamotherfuckingcrossfaderdotcom. I say “huh?” and frown. He shows me. The evening ended being a musical fairytale and i love that they used such a ridiculously long URL. WHAM!