If you’re looking to liven up your Thursday afternoon give Tame Impala’s Innerspeaker a listen. This record is chock full of soothing grooves, warm round bass tones, rich lo-fi guitar tones, and Ginger Baker style drum tones and beats.

Tungsten continues to be a valuable go-to typeface in my collection. Not as versatile as Knockout but perhaps even more unique, clean, and striking. Hoefler & Jones describe it as “compact and sporty sans serif that’s disarming instead of pushy — not just loud, but persuasive”

Invader 1

Invader 2

Invader 3

In a  recent trip to Cologne Germany I witnessed a number of the well known space invader mosaics created by the artist known as “Invader”. It was always a treat to spot these gems among the architecture of the city. Invaders website maps out where other global viewings can be found.

Foundation Press Open House June16th

Come on out the the grand opening of the new location of Foundation Press. FP is now in the heart of Old Town Goleta at 5959 Hollister Suite H. If you are heading to the airport on Fairview, just after you pass Hollister Ave. look for the green sign with a yellow buffalo. There will be an art exhibition displaying new works by of Erik Berg and Tad Wagner. There will be free stickers, shirts and the newest edition Foundation Press Studio shirts available for sale. A complimentary Hot Dog lunch will be available at 12:30. The event will go into the evening with live bands beginning at 6:30.

5959 Hollister Ave Suite H

As of mid April, Foundation Press has been operating out of its new space at 5959 Hollister Ave. Suite H. There will be an open house on June 16th with Art and live music in the evening. More photos to be posted soon.

Designer Julian Montague executed the pieces you see here.  My favorite part of his process is that after the specimen is collected, studied, and drawn, the final art piece is displayed in the original location that the subject of inspiration was found.

Ever since upgrading to the Canon EOS 450D xsi for the regular shop camera, more and more captured image has been showing up on textures or secondary elements in Foundation Press design and illustration pieces.  Most of my early photography education was learned on a Canon AE1 Manual.  I had two of them and they both took amazing pictures.  Romanced by the ease and affordability of the digital process, my AE1 collected dust. Soon after the seals parted and created small light leaks.  Not long after it was sold for pennies on the dollar of its true worth. A moment of silent remembrance please.

After suffering through a few mid grade Olympus 5-7 or 8 mega pixel cameras, I bit the bullet with my Canon EOS 450D xsi with a Tamron 18-250 1:3.5-6.3 DI II Lens.  Right away I felt like my old AE1 had risen from its ashes and been remade in a far easier to use modern form.  Overall I am pleased with its output.  I have learned that once you have a proper tool in your hand the main foe left to overcome is flawed user input. With this in mind I located a number of websites that help to demystify the photographic art in its new digital realm. The best of these I have found is www.kenrockwell.com.  Much of Kens work is not my sort of thing stylistically speaking, but it is fantastically executed and his site is very informative and well organized.

I am incredibly curious about the contraption this printer is using.  It seems to be a sort of leveraging bar for the squeegee pressure?  I have been around a number of graphic presses both automatic and manual, but I’ve never witnessed anything like this.  I imagine it to be a great hybrid that eases the labor load for the printer without loosing the hands on control. Anyone care to enlighten me? This is a shot of the inner workings of the Stolen Space print shop in London. They are printing Jeff Soto’s prints for his ‘Inland Emire’ show which runs from 14.05.09 - 07.06.09.

McLogans  is a Screen Printing and Sign supply warehouse down in the printing supplies district of Los Angeles. I made my way down there for the first round of poster printing inks, emulsion, and asorted planet friendly chemicals.  I found the owner who asisted me for nearly half an hour very helpful and informative.  Despite the many other customers and distractions, I got all my questions answered and even a box full of free samples.  It probably didn’t hurt that I was droping a fair amount of cash in one visit, but I was impressed nevertheless. For all who are interested: 2010 S. Main St Los Angeles, CA 90007 (213) 749-2262. Also thank you to Michael Michael Motorcycle for the tip!