The definitive guide to visual art in New York and baby sister to insane D.I.Y. mega-project Tokyo Art Beat has launched!

Tonight: A celebration of ten years of LOST, L.A.'s primero graffiti magazine, celebrating the anniversary and the release of the new LOST book. 

The book contains highlights of the past decade editor/designer EyeOne has spent documenting LA writing. Includes imagery by Atlas (if you haven't caught the documentary on his work, watch it now!), Pale, Cab, Haeler, and more. Screenprinted board covers, numbered limited edition of 2000.

Even if you are not a graffiti fan per se, the LOSt book is a musthave for folks interested in Angeleno culture. More about LOST here. 

LOST is a picture-perfect example of designer as author. 

Thursday, May 1 the CalArts graphic design T-Shirt Show. T-shirts designed by design students, faculty, and alumni will be sold to raise money for the CalArts AIGA student group, for workshops, shows, and other events for the students.

Where: CalArts, Tatum coffee shop
When: May 1st, 7:30pm - 11pm

The shirts are always super-rad at this event. Go early to score new designs from famous alumni!

CalArts' graduating graphic design MFA class  is selling sets of the visiting artist posters on ebay. There are a few sets of all 24 posters and several sets of 6. The auctions will be going up throughout the week, so check back often.

They are selling them to raise money for a class trip and for the AIGA student group.

Own a piece of history. 

Check out the latest issue of The Artist's Guide. Looks rad!
"The Artist's Guide is a topic-driven art journal produced
by Matt Cassity and Sam Spratlin. "

 

One of my favorite labels these days is Creation Centre, an experimental electronic label run by Trevor Sias of Music Related. About the label in his own words:

 "Creation Centre was created as a platform to get music to people faster than traditional record pressing and distribution. Creation Centre believes that artists' creativity can be held back by slow release schedules, distribution delays and other hassles. Plus, Creation Centre is an exploration of a new distribution idea, already in use by software manufacturers. All releases on creation centre are free. Though if you like, you can give the artist a donation, as much or as little as you choose. If anything at all. Creation Centre keeps none of the money. All of the donation goes completely to the artist. Please tell your friends, post links, and enjoy Creation Centre."

There is some really amazing music available. In particular, the Marxy EP, Mesomeso EP, and Sias' alter-ego Pandatone's EP. All are worth checking out. 

Sias moonlights as a motion graphics designer and animator. To he and those who create content outside of the workplace, I salute you!

Tentacles, Horns, and Scales
April 19th Thrash Out in Koenji, Tokyo.
Artshow, toy release, sneak  attack.
Featuring all new works by Koji Harmon , Bwana Spoons, and Martin Ontiveros.
Sponsored by Dekline footwear.

 Come join us for good times, art, toys, prizes, and a few big suprises.
Thrash Out is the Flagship store and gallery of mind bending vinyl pioneers Gargamel.

Gargamel makes toys that look like Jolly Rancher coated diamonds.

Koji, Bwana, and Martin make art and toys that explode with color, depth, and endless imagination.

Collector and fan Takaomi Fujiki put it best when he said “Happy Beam Discharge!”

For more info as it becomes available,

Click to read more ...

It's been a vaguely exciting month over at Néojaponisme. We've debuted the first English review of Kawakami Mieko's 138th Akutagawa Prize-winning text Chichi to Ran (『乳と卵』, “Breasts and Eggs”), a questionable graphic novella I did years ago in Japanese, a retro review of an even more questionable Japanese submarine action thriller, talked about the northern islands ceded to Russia by Japan following World War II, dropped bootleg Cornelius radio broadcasts galore, some crappy type design, and an enquiry into Japan's attempt to reform its visual language.

There is much, much in store in the next year: limited edition clothing with a certain clothing giant and more...

If you are in LA and are vaguely interested in things Nihonesque, make sure to check out Néojaponisme Editor-in-chief W.  David Marx speaking at J-Wave at UCLA TOMORROW. A more crucial, engaging, and enlightening presentation on global fashion is going to be difficult to find.

Above: the non-LP b-side image that didn't accompany the Murakami review.

World premiere on VLU:

My new book, Parallel Strokes, is available now via the book website. It isn't officially being released for a  week, but I figured VLU readers should have the first pick.  

About Parallel Strokes:

Parallel Strokes is a collection of interviews with twenty-plus contemporary typeface designers, graffiti writers, and lettering artists around the world. The book is introduced with a comprehensive essay charting the history of graffiti, its relation to type design, and how the two practices relate in the wider context of lettering.

Interviews within include conversations with pan-European type design collecitve Underware, Japanese type designer Akira Kobayashi, American graffiti writer and fine artist Barry McGee/Twist, German graffiti writers Daim and Seak, American lettering artist, graphic designer and design eductor Ed Fella, among others. Parallel Strokes is an enquiry into the history, context, and development of lettering today, both culturally approved and illicit.

Full list of interviewees:

Akira Kobayashi
Underware
Ed Fella
Delta
Jerry Inscoe/Joker
Jens Gehlhaar
Daim
Seak
Jonas Williamsson
Handselecta
Tauba Auerbach
Lady Pink
She One
Eklips AWR/MSK
Eskae
Renos
Mike Giant
Chaz Bojorquez
Barry McGee/Twist

 

The result of a six years of research in the combined arts of lettering, graffiti, and typeface design, Parallel Strokes is a collection of interviews some of the best letterform creators in the world today.

Chaz Bojorquez talks about the origins of barrio graffiti in Los Angeles and the evolution of the craft. Fellow Angeleno, vernacular graphic designer Ed Fella, speaks about his history in lettering and how he earned the title “The King of Zing” in Detroit design and illustration circles. Famed Japanese type designer Akira Kobayashi discusses Roman and Japanese letterforms while showcasing a lifetime of type design work. European graffiti writers Daim, Seak, and Delta share their thoughts on dimensional graffiti lettering while American graffiti writer Mike Giant talks about vernacular lettering, typeface design, and the evolution of graffiti handstyles.

 
Parallel Strokes is richly illustrated throughout, featuring copious previously unpublished work by the interviewed artists, as well as supplementary illustrations and photographs detailing contemporary and historical trends in graffiti and type design.

The first 100 orders come with a two color 17" × 20" Parallel Strokes poster printed using recycled paper and soy inks at Portland, Oregon's Pinball Publishing.

 
Parallel Strokes is 244 pages thick and available for $25 with free shipping worldwide. 

Neat re-useable bags from a whole mess of neat designers.

Bag Shown: Re-bag by Airside.

Pointer has an awesome collection of artwork for their ads, they also have some lovely books and catalogues. Oh and their shoes are rad too. Check it out!

The Pecha Kucha Night: A Celebration book is finally available online. Pecha Kucha Night is a series of global events where 20 presenters take the stage to present 20 slides, about which they will speak for 20 seconds each.

This book is a "best of", with presentations by Japanese super-architect Toyo Ito, Marcus Fairs, PKN founders Astrid Klein and Mark Dytham of the insanely awesome and talented Klein Dytham architecture, Tokyo dance group Strange Kinoko, graphic designers Namaiki, type designer Odod Ezer, and British designer Sebastian Conran.

The book was edited by Uleshka deshou, founder of PingMag, and designed by, um, Ian Lynam Design. It weighs in at 176 pages, softcover, and has a nice UV gloss screenprinted cover. The text is a mixture of English and Japanese.

At ¥2000 ($18.75) each, including global priority shipping from Japan, it's a steal.

The official announcement of the launch of this new site:

PingMag MAKE is the sister site to PingMag.
We use an interview format to put the spotlight on a wide range of
people active in rural areas. We document the voices of these
unknown heroes and broadcast them to the world. It's the
Japan-based magazine about people and making things,
coming out once a week. We're passing on the passion,
ideas, skills, and life stories of people who are building today
and exploring tomorrow: craftsmen, engineers, entrepreneurs, and inventors.

The unofficial announcement from my end:

This is a really great idea- there are so many small cottage industries from "days gone by" that produce amazing handmade goods that could benefit from a bit of exposure and hopefully some fresh clientel. The site opens with a visit to a custom umbrella maker (folks use umbrellas here regularly, mind you) and a prosthetics shop.

 

Last night I went shopping at Paper Magazine’s 24 Hour Store. Killer goods in abundance from Colette, Family, Ooga Booga, Mollusk, The Smell, Orange 20 Bikes and more. If you’re in LA and want to check it out, the store will be open til 6pm tonight. It’s the perfect spot to pick up a $375 Toby Wong box cutter for your dad and a pair of Damien Hirst Levis for your other dad… It's My Two Dads!

A simple concept we all love. Thanks Julie! 

We work closely with invited artists to produce a series of screen prints in limited editions of 50, with 3 artists in each series. Each print is editioned by us by hand and individually approved by the artist. We hope we can work with artists at all stages of their career and from all corners of the globe.

Early Griffin donates 10% of the profits of each edition to a charity of the artist’s choice.

 Michael Bierut commissions Marian Bantjes to create stunningly beautiful typographic illustrations for Saks Fifth Avenue.

Geoff, always ahead of the crowd don't follow it is pointless. Via boico

Some of the best stationary and coffee ever assembled. Their corporate headquarters is a coffee shop. World meet millimeter/milligram from Seoul, South Korea.

Calartians Darren Tuozzoli and Ron Clark launch the Passenger label. Not just another T-shirt line. Read the manifesto and download the PDF.
Passenger

Visit online then go visit in person.