All blogs in chronological order.
 
 

I'm proud. Proud to have never ever bought nor listened to a single music track online. Why shoud I, when there's labels around like Warp Records and their offshoot WarpMart?


Warp Records release limited editions of vinyl that are only availiable online through their own e-shop. Smart move one might say, but at WarpMart, what you get is more than what you see. So no complains here.

I loved getting records in the mail when I was 15 and still do as much now. Here's why: last week, I ordered myself a copy of the latest Flying Lotus 12"; number 1 in a series of 3 only available from WarpMart. This morning, the postman delivered the package. Slip into beautiful packaging paper, my order as accompanied by lots of cool freebies; 2 pins and a couple of stickers. Ahhh, feeling 15 again.



Check that new WarpMart logo; it's brillant in it's simplicity.



My next order will be from from WarpMart. Sure et certain.

 Next to being one of the signature phrases of Borat Sagdiyev, it seems to be a question a lot of people are asking these days. Especially user interface experts.

About a year ago, Microsoft unveiled Surface. More recently Microsoft announced that their next OS, which is scheduled for release in 2010, will also come with multi-touch technology as an alternative to the mouse. Here's some more multi-touch magic:

Obscura Digital demos multi-touch wall

Bill gates demoing Microsoft's TouchWall

Perceptive Pixel multi-touch wall

Asus takes it even further with motion sensing

Via Webware

For ten days solid, a selection of Belgian fashion designers and artists present their work in shop windows and surprising locations all over the city of Antwerp. Taking the general idea of a shop window to the creative limit, the participants will work around the theme MUSIC/ SOUND together with curator Senjan Jansen.
All locations get radically redressed, stocked with surprising goods or transformed into imaginative playgrounds.

VITRINE 2008: MUSIC/ SOUND takes over the city of Antwerp on various locations from June 12th until 21st 2008.

Including installations by A.F. Vandevorst/ Alex Salinas/ Anita Evenepoel/ Christian Wijnants/ Distortom/ Elsa/ Haider Ackermann/ Hannelore Knuts/ Heaven Tanudiredja/ Il Galantuomo/ Nicolas Provost/ Pelican Avenue/ Walter Verdin/ You Wear It Well 2 - Diane Pernet/...

The real star of the event is – ofcourse – photographer  Alex Salinas.


The images shown in VITRINE 2008 are a small selection out of a series of studies where a disrupted distance is created between the viewer and the subject. The picture becomes layered through the presence of the medium(flash) which actively distracts the attention from the subject hereby manifesting itself in the image. As an audience you experience a corresponding point of view to the original subject, which raises questions about position and identity.







About Alex Salinas
Alex Salinas was born and raised in Antwerp, Belgium. After studying fine arts he moved on to an evening course in photography and started assisting various fashion photographers. During which he started to develop his personal technique of extracting subtle fragility out of a raw and direct approach. Meanwhile he has worked on various assignments for Fashion Designers, brands, international editorials, portraits and a selection of record covers. Today Alex is balancing his time between assignments and personal work.

Vaktijdschriften lezen voor het slapen gaan is een slecht idee; daar slaap ik slecht van. Net voor het eten dan maar. Ook geen goed idee. Daar eet ik slecht van. Want wat zie ik? Een kort stukje over het gloednieuwe logo van Vlaamse Opera in de nieuwe Pub.

Potdomme, wat een draak! "Des gouts et des couleurs..." zeggen ze dan, maar zo simpel is het gelukkig niet. Een goed logo moet namelijk aan een paar basisvoorwaarden voldoen en dat doet dit logo duidelijk niet. Het is niet leesbaar, het is niet consistent en het is niet bruikbaar op klein formaat.

Raar toch, wat d'artagnan, de makers van deze grafische uitschuiver, maken anders meestal alleraardigst werk.




En dan te bedenken dat het vorige logo van de Vlaamse Opera ronduit fantastisch was. Kijk eens aan:

Maar goed. Zat ik van de weekend in het briljante boek "Things I have learned in my life so far" van Stefan Sagmeister te lezen. Quite a brilliant book; heerlijke verhaaltjes en prachtig vormgegeven. Hij moest al op uw boekenplank staan!

En wat zegt Stefan? "Complaining is silly. Either act or forget."
I will now act AND forget.

Topgear op TV!

When in Brussels, be sure sure to visit Wiels, a brand new museum for contemporary art. It's hosted in the ‘Blomme’ building; one of the rare examples of modernist industrial architecture in Brussels.

For the first time in Belgium, Wiels currently presents a retrospective dedicated to Mike Kelley, one of the most significant artists of the last 30 years.


Educational Complex Onwards, 1995 – 2008 is composed of a large selection of recent works — installations, videos, photographs, sculptures and paintings — on loan from some of the most prestigious international collections. The exhibition is conceived as a history, in which every work forms a chapter. Its unfurling allows to understand how and why Mike Kelley has, since 1995, made use of the notion autobiograhy to explore, in a poetic way, the forms of power and the power of forms.

Mike Kelley’s work is characterised by the way it integrates popular culture in an aristic practice, nourished by philosophy, literature and art history, and by the exuberance of his visual style which is opposed to the smooth surfaces of minimalism as well as to the neutrality of pop art and abstraction. With elements from his personal story as well as from a broader cultural history, Mike Kelley pursues a poetic deconstruction of the structures surrounding us.

Great show, great place and great graphics too. Identity by friend Sara De Bondt and lovely type by Jo.
I just love that font; the numbers look even better than the characters do.

Wat een klassieker. Die staat op m'n want list. Hélemaal bovenaan. Reeds!
Met onze eigen Danny Lademacher op gitaar. Leuke lamp overigens, maar dit geheel terzijde.

Antwerp Glamrockers A Brand release their newest hit today. Hoorah! Get it on iTunes. Straight away.
New full album "Judas" out at the end of august; here's the promo artwork as a teaser. By me.

The sequel on Microsoft Advertising's awarded campaign "The Break Up". Coming soon.

CSS is important. And it is being used more and more often. Cascading Style Sheets offer many advantages you don't have in table-layouts - and first of all a strict separation between layout, or design of the page, and the information, presented on the page. Thus the design of pages can be easily changed, just replacing a css-file with another one. Isn't it great? Let's take a look at 53 CSS-based techniques you should always have ready to hand if you develop web-sites.

Four awards, that’s LUON’s booty at the 14th annual Communicator Awards of Excellence. The awards honor LUON’s creative excellence. Great functional design that reinforces the brand experience of LUON’s clients like Sony Ericsson and MCE.

Award of Excellence for the Sony Ericsson SnowGlobe campaign

Silver Award for the MCE Executive Issue Catalogue (category Print Design)

Silver Award for the EmailGarage website (category IT/Software)

Silver Award for the Ello Mobile website (category NonProfit) If you wouldn't know the url yet: http://www.ello-mobile.be/

LUON is a Belgian marketing & sales company. LUON’s code words are customer marketing, customer intelligence, customer dialogues and highly personalized communication.

Check out www.communicatorawards.com