Monday night I went to the Piazza at Schmidt’sin Northern Liberty’s which is an “80,000 square foot open-air plaza with free events year-round, surrounded by three new buildings including 35 artist’s studios and boutiques, four new restaurants, 500 apartments and 50,000 square feet of office” (you can read more about the Piazza here). Since it was Memorial Day not everything was open; however, I did discover this cool fabric store and The Swift Half, which is a new bar owned by the same people who own Good Dog. Instead of eating a burger I enjoyed a fine SlyFox and watched the Phillies game on the 26 by 16 foot screen that is mounted to an adjacent building (see the above photo). Today, Thrillist Philadelphia featured the fabric store which reminded me of a blog post by Adam Flanagan from not to long ago regarding cool/fashionable bike wear. Among other things, Fabric Horse makes a unique U-lock belt holder, that I thought was pretty original, rad, and convenient for any city biker. All-in-all, definitely worth checking out the plaza, the stores, The Swift Half, etc.
As well, if you aren’t already a member of Thrillist I suggest you become one and quickly as they do a daily/bi-daily e-newsletter of what’s going on/new in Philly.
This year, I had the opportunity to author the visual identity of the Soundset Music Festival in Minneapolis, which took place last Sunday. The criteria were that it would be used on many different media, and it had to have a somewhat broad appeal (not specifically “HipHop,” since next year it would encompass more kinds of music). The largest challenge was that I was in Philly, and the event was a handful of weeks away in Minneapolis. That meant that I wouldn’t be there for a lot of the pieces that needed to be created, and that other designers would be rolling out much of the work for the event. From dozens of ads to web banners and sites to motion to apparel, this thing was going to have a lot of visibility, and I just wouldn’t be able to handle it on my own.
The solution was creating a straightforward, flexible logotype and usage guidelines for the event that the rest of the identity system fell out of. To capture the energy of the event, bright colors and energetic patterns and marks were created by hand as part of a graphic toolbox to accompany the logo. The logotype is based on squares (actually, boxes), and can exist with those elements, or used as a container.
The event was born out of a weekly night that Rhymesayers organized back in the late 90s. Then it was a night that showcased hiphop in the Midwest, as well as helped to cement the label as a mainstay in the Twin Cities independent music scene. Ten years later, and they’ve resurrected the event, turning it into one of the largest showcases of indie music in the country.
Most of the wayfinding and signage was made of graphics adhered to white boxes and stacked. Afterwards the boxes were used to collect recycling and carry leftover merchandise.
My homey Sims created the maingate sign based on the logotype and graphic toolbox. Sims is not only a man-about-the-toolbox, but a damn-good rapper.
Hanging mainstage banners.
Rhymesayer’s Brother Ali sauntering.
The elusive MF DOOM assails the crowd
The logotype itself is based on the square, which enables it to work in a modular fashion with the boxes. Also, the letters itself can become containers for artist photography in situ.
New York-based Def Jux label founder El-P
There were a dozen-or-so-thousand in attendance. Not too shabby.
Members of the Seventh Letter Crew came out from L.A. to do some live wall-rocking.
Soundset shirt graphics. The back graphics are a little too much for me, but hey.
Kickflippin’ at the 3rd Lair Skatepark skate demo
Slug of Atmosphere creates a lens flare out of his hand
Photos courtesty Rhymesayers Entertainment photo dept. (Jake Schaefer, Skye Rossi, Jules Ameel, Jeff Luger)
Thank you to Siddiq and Skye and RSE for the opportunity.
May 22, 2009 • 11:21 am • POSTED BY Rosemary Fahmie
While the employees of 160over90 may not officially hold the world record for highest jump, neither does the man who actually has the unofficial highest vertical jump. Yan Zhi Cheng, a Chinese Acrobat, holds the unofficial record with a whopping 96.9 inches in 1988.
Today, I continue a long-standing tradition of wearing my favorite aloha shirt to work to usher in summertime livin’. Unfortunately, nobody takes me seriously when I wear said shirt. Maybe they will when I jam this up on the conference room projector. And start wearing a chest holster under my blazer. Enjoy yer Memorial Days.
Sometime last week, I came across this video created by TAXI NY for the MoMA. It is the first of the museum’s new series in which they will play short films directed by rising film-making geniuses as an intro to main screenings shown at the MoMA’s theater. MORE
May 20, 2009 • 4:42 pm • POSTED BY Rosemary Fahmie
Over the years we’ve had many wardrobe face-offs here at the agency.
This post is the first of what hopefully will become a series “Who Wore it Better”.
While the employees of 160over90 may not officially hold the world record for highest jump, neither does the man who actually has the unofficial highest vertical jump. Yan Zhi Cheng, a Chinese Acrobat, holds the unofficial record with a whopping 96.9 inches in 1988.
