Random rants, murmurs & posts of Dave Tiedemann.

birthmoviesdeath: The official theatrical one-sheet for...

Sat, 27 Apr 2013 00:47:24 -0400

The official theatrical one-sheet for Drafthouse Films’ upcoming electrifying rockumentary A Band Called Death. Watch the trailer here – hits iTunes/OnDemand on May 24 & US theaters June 28.

And download a free, never-before-released Death demo track from 1974 here.

I love you, San Francisco

Thu, 11 Apr 2013 14:55:42 -0400

I love you, San Francisco

norrinraddical: Silver Surfer sketch by Moebius. Like the...

Tue, 09 Apr 2013 01:43:00 -0400

norrinraddical:

Silver Surfer sketch by Moebius.

Like the Silver Surfer on facebook!

wavveswavves: The scene where Stephen reaches down and grabs my...

Wed, 27 Mar 2013 04:56:00 -0400

wavveswavves:

The scene where Stephen reaches down and grabs my ass still makes me wanna cry/barf. He was so in character too on set like whispering strange things to me and playing with my hair shalsnrikekx fjosjdbcsknachjejd uuuuuughh hope this video rids me of homophobic fans my timeline seems telling of that a lot of 15 year old kids from the midwest think im a ‘faggot’

Afraid of Heights out now

My new tattoos. Made by CaseyO.

Mon, 11 Mar 2013 15:40:24 -0400

My new tattoos. Made by CaseyO.

New #tattoo from #CaseyO (at Tattoo Freestyle)

Mon, 11 Mar 2013 09:20:04 -0400

New #tattoo from #CaseyO (at Tattoo Freestyle)

johncjay: Searching for the Avant-GardeSly Stone’s delicious...

Wed, 06 Mar 2013 06:43:45 -0500

johncjay:

Searching for the Avant-Garde

Sly Stone’s delicious voice ruled the radio airwaves, “Everyday People” was the number 1 song but giving way soon to a new Aquarius as the Fifth Dimension harmonized about change in the air. 1969 was going to be one of the most radical years in our modern history. It was the year that changed America.

I am a young student with no perceivable direction, no idea about design or creative career yet, just dreaming to be somewhere bigger than my own existence in Columbus Ohio. I could always sense that there was a more dynamic world out there, a place where people arrived daily because they had a similar itch to experience life at its fullest. A place that nurtured ambition and the desire for the unknown. For me, my future was unclear but my old world intuition inherited from my parents told me that the skills you learned in school could only take you so far. Yet, to dream bigger than your friends was not something you did openly back then. But dream I did.

Prophetically, the big summer movie is Phillip Roth’s “Goodbye Columbus”.

Then it hit me. The May 1969 issue of Esquire Magazine arrives in the school library. The headline boldly declares, “The Final Decline and Total Collapse of the American Avant-Garde.” The cover captures Andy Warhol drowning in a huge can of Campbell Soup. Despite the headline, the genius of art director, George Lois made the Esquire cover each month, his own version of the avant-garde. Highly conceptual, in tune with the cultural zeitgeist and challenging the norms of society, he made Esquire covers into social commentary built with the craft of a great artist and matching intellectual rigor. Lois motivated us to think about our world in context of our existence. Like the art world’s avant-garde, he used consumerism, a magazine cover designed to sell, to raise the consciousness of the American public. He saw himself as an artist and throughout his career from editorial to advertising, he remained fearless. He was an artist and he didn’t care whether you thought so or not.

On his iconic Warhol cover, Lois comments, “You could look at it as just funny, or you could look at it as how fame swallows people — the absurdity of fame. He is drowning in his own soup.”

Years later… I arrive in New York City, in search of this avant-garde… was I too late? Was it over? My search was for a modern day Atlantis, a place where the extraordinary was everyday and its people equally mythical. I soon learned the city’s little secret… It was not just about ideas… It was about hard work, NYC was a place filled with determined dreamers, doers and makers, and like me, they often came from another place. What bonded us was our ambition and willingness to fight for the right to be creative, to be the best we could be. But clearly, dreaming alone was not going to be enough. Human nature causes us to place great value on what others think of us, they try to define what success looks like for us. Society’s opinion can charge the course of our lives but that is the antithesis of being fearless.

The avant-garde was going through its own growing pains and the critics panned its embrace of fame and fortune but the movement kept morphing. Its goals and tactics changed through corporate sponsorship, globalism, technology and the life-changing influence of the next generation. Mass media brought art to the threshold of glamour and power but the mundane always had its own power over even the most gifted. I remember having lunch at Robert Rauschenberg’s studio with him in the kitchen as he watched the daytime soaps. He knew every character and dazzled us with his appreciation of the lurid details of each daily episode. As I roamed the vast studio looking, turning each painting on a revolving rack, Rauschenberg could be heard moaning in the background because todays show was ending with an unsatisfactory ending but he knew tomorrow was a new day. It always is.

The Warhol Foundation will soon sell all of its artwork in order to operate fully as a grant foundation offering financial support for future generations of artists. That will cause havoc with all of those who have invested heavily in his legacy and the future value of his art. 26 years after his death, Andy Warhol continues to the most avant-garde of them all.

Fast forward from my initial arrival to NYC to 2011 at a glittering black-tie event in Manhattan, it is the Art Director’s Club Hall of Fame annual celebration. George Lois enthusiastically congratulates me on my induction into this extraordinary group of creative talent. Lois claims he told the jury, “This is a no-brainer.” I just hope he was speaking of my induction and not me personally! He is the youngest inductee ever into the Hall of Fame and the designer of the award itself. I stood there thinking back as a kid, and that Esquire cover in my hands. The next morning, I pull out my first edition of his book, “The Art of Advertising”. At the time of its publication, I was a young editorial art director trying to make it in journalism and this primer on mass communications laid the foundation for me on how the big idea was possible is all forms of creative expression… from magazines to fashion to advertising. Lois’s version of the Big Idea is still growing within all of us and his impatience with mediocrity remains infectious.

John C Jay Art Directors Club 2011

Last week, I received an email from a designer in San Francisco, who is a former recipient of my Jay Scholarship Fund at Ohio State University. It is a survey from Graphic Design USA’s January/February issue. The headline reads “The Most Influential Art Directors of the Past 50 Years” and George Lois, deservedly tops the list. However, as I drift down the list, I am astonished to see my name on it as well. This is far beyond anything I ever dreamed… to be on a list with George Lois. It is Graphic Design USA’s own 50th anniversary and they celebrated by naming the most influential companies and people in the past 50 years in design and advertising.

Graphic Design USA 50th Anniversary

What I love about Lois’s Esquire decade, 1962 to 72, as the magazine cover maestro was that Esquire was his moonlighting job. His night job created an extraordinary body of work, 32 of 92 covers were exhibited by The Museum of Modern Art in 2008. As his day job, he ran an ad agency with some of the most important clients in the country. His ability to think and work creatively on so many levels at once is an inspiration and shows us all how passion can take you to new places if you are willing to make sacrifices for the big idea in any media. We have a responsibility to constantly raise the creative bar and to do so, we must find more ways to be fearless.

I am still searching for the avant-garde. So I have just opened W+K Garage, a new creative shop that will work with innovative global clients but also as an entrepreneur in different forms of creative expression. It was time to resist the obvious, reject what others may feel is success, do work that is truly personal and help those in search of a more creative future. We live in the most creative moment in history and the future is just beginning. There is no turning back.

Bracket — W+K Garage

Thank you George Lois for helping all of us to overcome our own fears. Your legacy is actually just beginning.

— John C Jay

Awesome

Mornig run. #nikeplus #nikerunning #gameonworld

Sat, 02 Mar 2013 01:49:20 -0500

Mornig run. #nikeplus #nikerunning #gameonworld

New Hebrew Font is a typeface I recently designed as part of my...

Thu, 21 Feb 2013 17:22:05 -0500

New Hebrew Font is a typeface I recently designed as part of my Hebrew typography exploration. The typeface use is predominantly for heading and subheadings and can also be used for body copy. The Hebrew alphabet has 22 letters, five have different forms when they are used at the end of a word. The Hebrew language unlike the English language is written from right to left. Up until recently I didn’t understand the Hebrew letter-forms as well as the English letter-forms, but designing this typeface allowed me to enter a new typographic territory, even though Hebrew is my first language.

paperram: Hovard’s new work is a fantastic example of period...

Thu, 21 Feb 2013 17:20:45 -0500

paperram:

Hovard’s new work is a fantastic example of period authenticity being executed with a contemporary appreciation and originality. Built around an interesting and rich brand philosophy - which goes quite far to assure locality - the packaging, a retrospective appropriation and reinterpretation of classic and practical design cues, appropriately leverages the high value now placed on local-industry, hand and batch production techniques.

Photo

Thu, 21 Feb 2013 17:20:02 -0500

Photo

Thu, 21 Feb 2013 17:17:31 -0500

nerdcore: belarmy: highgatedreams: August 15, 1964 (via...

Thu, 21 Feb 2013 17:15:11 -0500

nerdcore:

belarmy:

highgatedreams:

August 15, 1964

(via billboardingparty)

Photo

Thu, 21 Feb 2013 17:12:52 -0500

Photo

Thu, 21 Feb 2013 17:09:29 -0500

Photo

Thu, 21 Feb 2013 17:08:24 -0500

madewithpaper: Last day of New York Fashion Week! Our team live...

Thu, 21 Feb 2013 17:03:25 -0500

madewithpaper:

Last day of New York Fashion Week! Our team live sketched the Calvin Klein runway show earlier today. Tonight we head to Marc Jacobs at 8pm ET. Follow along at wwdonpaper.

via wwdonpaper

Calvin Klein Fall 2013 Snow alpaca cutout detail overcoat. Black stretch vinyl oversized welt boot. Gold oversized military roller belt.

instagram: A Pumpkin by the Sea Want to see more? Visit the 南瓜...

Thu, 21 Feb 2013 17:02:30 -0500

instagram.com/p/QkFnGuTCxs/#hoshizawaa

instagram.com/p/Kuz_SWmehw/#meg_and_non

instagram.com/p/UIcYRCAnh6/#shinonono

instagram.com/p/LASvaxOCio/#shuku_eri

instagram.com/p/P4ZHj-tu5l/#koba726

instagram.com/p/LMfQn8JLbc/#tomore

instagram:

A Pumpkin by the Sea

Want to see more? Visit the 南瓜 (黄色いかぼちゃ) and Benesse House location pages.

On the tiny island of Naoshima in the Seto Inland Sea of southern Japan, artist Yayoi Kusama’s “Pumpkin” (1994-2005) sits patiently at the water’s edge. Instagrammers flock to the sleepy island to see a world-class art collection that was made possible in large part due to the philanthropy of Benesse Corporation, a Japanese company that specializes in test prep and language schools. Kusama’s “Pumpkin” is perhaps the most photogenic artwork on the island, beckoning visitors to come closer and pose with the giant spotted squash that Kusama says represents her alter-ego.

nerdcore: From Hateplow.

Thu, 21 Feb 2013 17:01:09 -0500

nerdcore:

From Hateplow.

gunsandposes: The Ultimate Warrior (1975) — This film will make...

Thu, 21 Feb 2013 17:00:25 -0500

gunsandposes:

The Ultimate Warrior (1975) — This film will make you appreciate the taste of a post-apocalyptic tomato.