Marie Helvin looks very contemporary together with Kenzo in this David Bailey photo from 1976.
April 30th, 2009
Fancypants
April 28th, 2009
Hedi Slimane for Vogue Hommes Japan, S/S 2009
Hedi Slimane continues to publish long and beautiful stories in Vogue Hommes Japan, this being from the current issue. The styling by Nicola Formichetti reminds me of Helmuts Lang’s bottle cap collection, which is a good thing.
April 25th, 2009
Marichyasana D
I would love to do a well designed book on Yoga. I have been looking but it seems to be all but impossible to find anything that looks decent. When I do get around to it I would love for it to have photos as good as this one by Henri-Cartier Bresson.
It was published in Portfolio magazine no. 3, as part of an article called ‘Cartier-Bresson in the Orient’. Strangely enough I haven’t seen it reproduced anywhere else.
April 21st, 2009
The cowboy and the monk
I had no idea D.T. Suzuki loved westerns. At least ‘High Noon’ starring Gary Cooper – and it’s true that it is a great film. D.T. Suzuki is my favorite writer on Buddhism and ‘Zen and Japanese Culture’ is by far the best book I have found about Japanese art and its relationship to Buddhist philosophy.
According to the documentary ‘A Zen Life’ he thought Cooper’s character was ‘a real Zen man.’ I’m going to have to watch it again.
April 20th, 2009
Frankie say relax
Yes, it’s ‘SAY’ not ‘SAYS’. Apparently ‘SAYS’ is the sign of a bootleg. The original was designed by Katharine Hamnet and later adopted by Frankie Goes To Hollywood and fans. Looking around the internet there seems to be lots of bootlegs, some of which even use the original ‘SAY’ wording, all spelling out the message in a variety of typefaces. My guess is that the original used Akzidenz Grotesk, just like other Hamnet t-shirts from the same time.
The original video for ‘Relax’ was banned by MTV, but can as expected be found on Youtube. It has a gay s&m club and a tiger – of course it’s great. The replacement video directed by Brian De Palma is pretty lackluster in comparison.
April 17th, 2009
Adam Curtis & Helvetica Condensed Black
Adam Curtis is an amazing documentary filmmaker. All of his films for the BBC are likely to change the way you think about a lot of things. Related to my last post on Akzidenz Grotesk Bold Condensed – the titles for Adam Curtis’ ‘The Trap’ from 1997 would look just as good on a Raf Simons t-shirt. This time it’s Helvetica Condensed Black.
April 15th, 2009
Akzidenz Grotesk Condensed Bold – voice of reason
Similar to Helvetica Condensed Bold, though less popular by far. Something about it and the Helvetica variant, attract a certain kind of designer and a certain kind of message – maybe Katharine Hamnett started it all with her ‘58% DON’T WANT PERSHING’ t-shirt. With the economy balancing on the brink of the abyss, Akzidenz Grotsek Bold and Helvetica Condensed Bold are the typefaces for our time.
April 13th, 2009
Beautiful machines
Fellow Swedes Teenage Engineering are definitely a company to follow. Their newly announced OP-1 synth looks great. Finally a synth design that forgoes retro esthetics.
I also love the sound of FM synthesis so this looks really promising. For great examples of FM synthesis check Brian Eno’s Ambient 4: On Land album or the song Don’t Crash by Front242.
You can sign up to be a beta tester of the OP-1 before it is released sometime next year, but my guess is that most of the slots are taken.
