slow and steady wins the race

 

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there is an attraction to those who play by the rules and break them at the same time. i think that my love for SASWTR is borne of my love for their rigorous fun: in deconstructing and reconstructing the clothing we find most common, SLOW AND STEADY question form, material and class distinction.

what we're left with is simple clothing re-imagined and the divisions we draw through our systems of value made crystal clear. anyway, the stuff also looks cool. please visit SLOW AND STEADY WINS THE RACE.

the maryam nassir zadeh showroom

is this all over the internet already? i am in love with phillip low's lucite sculptures. is there anything as thrilling as pure crystalline color? sharp edges matched with brilliantly sauturated light? the maryam nassir zadeh showroom features many other amazing objects (including some beautiful arrows), but wow, these take the cake.

/maryamnassirzadeh/

jim sherraden

"advertising without posters is like fishing without worms." the hatch bros.

opened in 1879, hatch show print is among america’s oldest and most famous letterpress shops. jim sherraden is its manager, chief designer, archivist and historian. above, he shares a century of hand set graphic design.

hatch show print

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in ohio

maybe i'm always grumpy, but the issue of nationality came up in conversation tonight, and i was just not interested. what more is there to say of the differences between canadians and americans? what can i say personally?

it is interesting knowing that i'm a product of social conditioning, of toronto, of canada, yet... i tend to think of myself more a product of my childhood hobbies, drawing classes, the toronto film festival, the years i spent at sheridan, working in tv animation and finally, the time spent with girlfriends and best friends—specific things.

the people you meet, the experiences you have, and the lessons you learn are the real makers and breakers. while i'll admit that my life in toronto was leaner and cleaner than this in san francisco, i'm definitely expanding my horizons here. who knew one of my favorite weekends ever would take place in the heart of ohio? nationality aside, good peeps is good peeps. thank you americans! nick

lam

this one's for you, kid.

d v c

<<<<>>>> 

levi's casting

earlier this year, while out for coffee, my friends and i were asked if we'd be interested in going to a casting for a levi's jeans ad. i said yes. it was raining and the cab ride was paid for, and i was terribly interested to see how all this worked, so we drove off, signed information sheets, got numbers and stood around and waited. we inched closer to the front of the line and then this is how it went:

first they photographed you from the front and sides, you know, to get a good representative view. maybe some closer shots, some farther back—i can't recall. the only thing i remember clearly were the last two demands: first, for the guys to take their shirts off. i did this and exposed the doughy front of my person for the photographic scrutiny of a studio full of people. next, "okay, now do something fun." which is a much more difficult request to fulfill than you'd think. my hesitant shrug was probably about as useful for them as my formless midsection.

anyway, i wasn't called back. i did however later learn that the casting was for a series of adverts featuring photographs by ryan mcguinley, youth photographer extrordinaire, and someone who's work i had been looking a lot at. had i known the shoot was for him, i would have stripped down to totally nothing, set off some fireworks and thrown myself out the window—you know, something fun.

ryan for levi's

ryan for wrangler 

anyway, there's been a lot of talk online recently about these levi's ads, mostly because they follow in the wake of a campaign that wrangler launched over a year ago.

what's interesting to me are the differences in the campaigns; that such divergent, contrasting photographs came from the same photographer, and that they both evidence his handiwork—intimate, casual, surprising compositions of youth in the wild; a feeling of unencumbered, free, independent fun—and yet are totally different in tone and storytelling. i do tend to think the wrangler ads are more successful—as ads and as photographs—but all in all it's great to see how one person tackles similarish problems in similarish ways and arrives at related but utterly different solutions. it's good to see some range, and it's interesting to deconstruct the ideas in the ads, in the photographs and see how ryan has used light, composition, environment and subject to tell us a story: about the optimism of america and the freedom of youth, and of the dark, primal, wild animal inside youth.

check out the photography of ryan mcginley.

 

the eyes of doctor t.j. eckleburg

"This is a valley of ashes—a fantastic farm where ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque gardens; where ashes take the forms of houses and chimneys and rising smoke and, finally, with a transcendent effort, of men who move dimly and already crumbling through the powdery air. Occasionally a line of gray cars crawls along an invisible track, gives out a ghastly creak, and comes to rest, and immediately the ash-gray men swarm up with leaden spades and stir up an impenetrable cloud, which screens their obscure operations from your sight. But above the gray land and the spasms of bleak dust which drift endlessly over it, you perceive, after a moment, the eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg.

The eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg are blue and gigantic—their irises are one yard high. They look out of no face, but, instead, from a pair of enormous yellow spectacles which pass over a nonexistent nose. Evidently some wild wag of an oculist set them there to fatten his practice in the borough of Queens, and then sank down himself into eternal blindness, or forgot them and moved away. But his eyes, dimmed a little by many paintless days, under sun and rain, brood on over the solemn dumping ground.." F Scott Fitzgerald


this is an illustration i made for Sarah Schmelling's new book of literary tomfoolery, Maidens Who Don't Float, released just a few days ago. it started as a feature on the McSweeney's website, and now New York Magazine is calling it highbrow and brilliant, and i'm calling it a pleasure to have worked on.

pick one up today!

////maidens who don't float
////the great gatsby
////sad f scott (he's always sad)
////my illustrations for the odyssey