JOYENGINE: cause sharing is cool

Adam Hansel, the man behind DEADVOLT just let us in on a super fresh exhibition of skateboard graphics that he’s a part of.  The exhibition, aptly titled Till Death Do Us Part showcases the wonderful world of skateboard graphics.  The exhibition includes work by legendary skateboard artists Jim Philips, Randy Laybourne and Hessenmob amongst a variety of others of the same persausion.  The art in this show is produced exclusively for it, and will simultaneously be auctioned on ebay where profits will benefit the local skateboard community in Aalborg.  More on the show and the auction here.

Since leaving Sid Factor Seven and going solo Brian Krezel has been a busy man.   He’s been doin’ some remodeling to his pad and getting his home studio all dialed in.  After a steady foray into woodworking and gettin’ gritty for a bit Krez seems to be ready to get back to his roots and start pushin’ out his signature illlustrations.  Here’s a sneak peek at what Brian is startin’ to get after… keep in mind that these little nasties were most likely done yesterday afternoon while jacked on coffee, in not much more time than it takes to run a load of laundry.  When you’re good… you’re just good.

I received a rather alarming email from the good people at conceptart.org this morning. It appears that legislation regarding artist’s image rights is being rushed through congress, and it appears to lay the groundwork for artists losing the rights to the very images they create. Please read all of this and click the links to contact your state representatives (it literally takes minutes and has been done for you) and email this story to everyone you know below!

According to the ORPHAN WORKS ACT (which will be written in the House at 2:00 today, and in the Senate tomorrow), “orphan work” is copyrighted work whose owner is unable to be located with what the infringer himself decides as “reasonably diligent search.” In a radical departure from existing copyright law and business practice, the U.S. Copyright Office has proposed that Congress grant such infringers freedom to ignore the rights of the artist and use the work for any purpose, including commercial usage.

Essentially, this will mean artists will be responsible for paying to register their images in a system that is untested, time-consuming and redundant, costing them hard-earned money and time to legally retain the rights to images THEY ALREADY OWN. A website has been created that allows us to easily contact representatives, and tell them to vote this down! Please, if you value art and the people who create it (you’re HERE so I know that you do!!!) then take a minute and help put those assholes in Washington in their place.

http://capwiz.com/illustratorspartnership/home/

This link has all your information on what this bill will mean to artists, and how to contact congress and see this changed. Things like this happen every day people, and democracy doesn’t work if we don’t participate. Don’t let this bill weaken our artists’ rights!

contact Senate Judiciary Committee:
http://capwiz.com/illustratorspartnership/issues/alert/?alertid=11349191

contact House Judiciary Committee:
http://capwiz.com/illustratorspartnership/issues/alert/?alertid=11349111

The voting is up! Go check out all the winners. I know a few local firms had some sites in the running, but I can’t seem to navigate the flash thingy well enough to find out if they won… Actually I just managed to find that Texture Media won for their PENTAX site. Congrats! Anyways, check it out, this is the creme de la creme of current web design.

This may not be really art related, but engineering and creativity surely have their place around here…and this concept is fresh! Behold the CUBE Urban Street Concept, the folding bike of the future! Full size wheels, ultra compact folded size and the badass design cues of this machine put all other “city” and “fold-able” bikes to shame. It even has a bike powered generator with LED lights that turn on automatically when it gets dark! The site is in German and english as well, but the “innovation” section with the urban bike concept is only available in German….you’ll just have to drool at the photos and video explanation. Check it out… no info on availability or price yet, but I will for sure will be keeping my eyes on this one.

Based in Rotterdam in the Netherlands, artist Joris Laarman designed this line of furniture, which mimics the structure of bones. Though partially hollow, these form a strong, almost architectural matrix of support. This polished aluminum chair was created using software that mimics the process by which bones grow over time.

 Our pal and co-conspirator in all things art & design related, Rob Angermuller, aka Lifter Baron was recently brought on by Minneapolis creative powerhouse, Seventhsin.  Rob will be formally joining the super-talented crew in mid-may and coming on as a Sr. Designer.  Yeah boyee!  The loss of Rob and his designer/partner/lady-friend Celeste  was a significant one to our little arty community, but their recent move to MN seems to be proving fruitful.  One man’s loss is often anothes gain, and we’re confident that Rob & Celeste will be upping the ante out in MN.  In a day and age where anyone and everyone with an Apple computer thinks they’re a designer, it’s quite refreshing to find a super-functional couple, both with Apple computers, formal design training, and real fucking skills.  You guys rock.  You can keep up with Rob & Celeste (and one of our favorite local design talents and all around awesome dude, Josh Wills)  and their graphically inspired adventures on their blog, becausweliketo.

With Microsoft recently trying to grab Yahoo! mega-mergers are in the news. Aside from the thousands of hours and millions of dollars required to unite two companies, enormous amounts of creative energy go into rebranding the new entities, be they created by absorption or by acquisition. Take a look at how some of history’s biggest mergers changed the brands involved.

Pe popped in to the shop today and let us in on some of Adam Hayne’s (stickfort) new work.  Put simply - it rules.  Adam has been painting up a storm.  Two of his most recent paintings are displayed below.  The top painting, entitled ‘77 is available through Adam’s site as a limited edition screenprint.  You can get more info here.  At $30.00, they’re gonna go fast, and you’re gonna be sad.  So make some moves.  Mr. Haynes has definitely carved out a niche as one of the top (no longer up’n'coming - he’s there) illustrators of our day, and he’s definitely a man to watch.  We recommend doing just that, keeping your eyes on Adam and all of the brilliant artwork he creates.  Nice work Mr. Haynes.

Our friend Carmel just alerted us that Danny Newman’s new collaborative workspace, ID345 is opening tomorrow. The idea of ID345 SPACE is to take the best elements of a coffee shop (social, energetic, creative) and the best elements of a workspace (productive, functional) and combine them to give indie workers the chance to have their own, affordable space. It’s basically a place for freelance/arty-side-job types to go to “work,” whether work is painting, writing, saving the world, blarfing, ya know. And - it’s cheap!!! 400/mo for a desk, 250/mo for a desk 3 days a week, free to swing by and hang. Check it out yo!

cypher13 recently completed their first t-shirt design for Carrot Clothing. Carrot is a rad little upstart brand, here’s a little bit about the brand and the concept, “Carrot is a lifestyle brand that is steeped in to the urban-art experience, skate & punk culture. Carrot is more than business, it is family of artists and skateboarders joined around one idea: to make cool & quality clothing for themselves, their friends, family & neighbours. After only one year Carrot has developed into a lifestyle brand with a broad exciting collection, available in more than 20 countries worldwide. We will keep with our jorney with hope that people can maybe be inspired by us in the same way we’ve been inspired by them. Peace!” Keep your eyes on Carrot for all sorts of new artist collabs continuing to drop. Yey!