Complex’s Mindbending FKA Twigs Online Cover Story

Avant Garde photography and clever online animation turns feature article into a user experience art piece.
Avant Garde photography and clever online animation turns feature article into a user experience art piece.

Kudos to the staff of Complex Magazine for its approach to the feature article on Pop and R&B Art Futurist FKA Twigs.

Part artist profile, part interactive art exhibit, and part user experience multimedia experiment; it boldly shows a glimpse into the possible future of entertainment content delivery.

DJ Shiftee Explores Thirty Years of Turntablism in Fourteen Minutes

Electronic music production and DJ training facility Dubspot has been instrumental educating the public on the history and technique of the DJ and two-time DMC (Disco Music Club) turntable champion and instructor Shiftee’s examination on the craft is an arresting blend of historical lecture and performance art.

This is an excellent primer on one of the pillars of Hip-Hop culture (Break Dancing, Emceeing, DJing, Graffiti Art, and Beatboxing) and for those who wish to explore the subject in detail I recommend the following:

  • Wild Style (Film), Hip-Hop is exposed to the World in Charlie Ahern’s seminal 1983 film
  • Scratch (Film), Doug Pray’s fascinating documentary on the history of Turntablism and the cult of the DJ
  • Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop (Book), Jeff Chang explores the economic, political, and social forces that create and shape what we now know as Hip-Hop Culture
  • Last Night a DJ Saved My Life (Book), Bill Brewster traces the unexpected history of DJ culture through exhaustive research and engaging personal interviews

Cooper Hewitt Exhibit Explores “How Posters Work”

From my childhood I fondly remember staring at Richard Amsel’s Raiders of the Lost Ark poster outside of the theatre box office: it’s clean lines, graphic symmetry, and beautifully rendered images and bold colors inspired me.

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Richard Amsel’s iconic poster for Raiders of the Lost Ark.

As a designer, I have always loved to create and study posters. They have always struck the balance between information and creativity; often revealing an artist’s distinctive style and singular point-of-view as much as the product or service it’s promoting.

Cooper Hewitt’s How Posters Work Exhibition explores the theory and technique of the poster and is on view from May 8, 2015 to November 15, 2015. I have included samples below, but a detailed look at the curated pieces for the exhibition are online and print in a companion book edited by Ellen Lupton, Cooper Hewitt’s Curator of Contemporary Design.

POSTER, JUNIOR WELLS, 1966 Offset lithograph on white wove paper. Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Leslie J. Schreyer. 1979-34-37, Victor Moscoso (Designer). Source: https://collection.cooperhewitt.org/objects/18498021/
POSTER, JUNIOR WELLS, 1966
Offset lithograph on white wove paper. Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Leslie J. Schreyer. 1979-34-37, Victor Moscoso (Designer). Source: https://collection.cooperhewitt.org/objects/18498021/
This object was made for (as the client) Addo-x and designed by Ladislav Sutnar, Source: https://collection.cooperhewitt.org/objects/18647331/
POSTER, ADDO-X, 1958 Offset lithograph on white wove paper. Gift of Anonymous Donor. 1994-109-7. This object was made for (as the client) Addo-x and designed by Ladislav Sutnar in 1958, Source: https://collection.cooperhewitt.org/objects/18647331/