JOYENGINE: cause sharing is cool

New illustrations from the cypher13 team working with GTT and MadKast.

cypher13 Design Studio just wrapped up their new boutique online store offering up their latest line of super limited edition tees. You can expect the addition of all sorts of new cypher13 products over the course of the summer, ranging from hand-made custom toys, to fonts, to apparel. Yea-ahhhhh!!!

The recently co-concepted and designed, asymmetrical, virtually hardware-less “Archetype” shelving system by Kristian Kluver, Mike Dunn, and cypher13. In typical JE/C13 fashion we rallied the posse to collaboratively design and build a new, super minimalist shelving system for the front of the house. Kluver took the concept to the next level and Mike Dunn, our main man in the custom wood department, handled the build. The system turned out quite nice after much discussion, measuring, remeasuring, lots of dry time, and some serious ass-busting on Dunn’s part. We have grand intentions of continuing to push the design of the system further. We’ll just have to see.

We have some product design and other 3D work in the mix over at cypher13. We’re going to be pushin’ SketchUp to the max! Type set in SBD001:

cypher13 was recently contracted to do some character development for Test Quest’s upcoming facebook app. Basically, we got to design some sweet samuri for SAT prep, cuz learning is awesome! So kids, go to school, study real hard and if ya need help on your SATs, maybe these little guys can help.

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!

The cypher13 team was seriously stoked to be interviewed and asked to submit work to NEWWEBPICK ISSUE 15 - FANTASY. The issue just dropped today - it’s FRESH and chock full of great work, feature articles, and interviews with all sorts of internationally acclaimed artists and designers. NEWWEBPICK is subscription based and comes out of Hong Kong. As far as online design mags go, it’s kinda the shit. For $2.50 U.S. you can download any of the past 15 issues in full screen Flash format right to your desktop. ISSUE 15 is 600+ pages of serious creative inspiration.

cypher13 intro spread:

cypher13 interview:

Tell us a little bit about your background?
cypher13 is three man tactical design/brand strategy team comprised of Alex Henry, Lucian Foehr (small-but-dangerous), and Todd Berger (TEEBEE). The c13 team eats, sleeps, and drinks art & design. We thrive on pushing one another artistically, conceptually and strategically… then delivering the fruits of our labor to our clientele.

Who are your main inspirations? / What are your influences?
Our greatest inspiration comes from challenging one another and the dialogue that ensues. We’re huge fans of exceptionally designed type, super-flat intricately detailed vector illustration, toys, and the art that our peers create. Our influences are diverse. They range from our mothers, to sneaker culture, to filmmaking, to graffiti. Perhaps our greatest influence is an intangible, a like-mindedness we all obtained in our youth, something akin to a selfless desire to create and contribute to the world at large.

How do you keep motivated and interested?
Keeping motivated and interested is fortunately not a problem. When not working on behalf of our clients we’re working for ourselves, collaboratively as well as independently. We’re very fortunate to be part of an exceptionally supportive and forward-thinking art and design community. We have a sort of competitive, yet quite healthy relationship with a number of artists and designers all aiming to raise the collective bar.

Do you have any new projects coming up that you can tell us about?
We are overwhelmingly pleased to say, that yes, we have all sorts of new projects coming up that we’re extremely excited about. We’re in the midst of a spectacular conceptual project for adidas with one of our partner firms. We’re developing a number of new cypher13 typefaces for release this summer. There’s some art toys in the works, we’re currently making some major upgrades to our studio/shop/gallery and we have some wicked-cool art projects on the horizon, including a rather massive mural.

What do you know about your country’s design/designers?
We know a great deal about US designers. We know that there’s some spectacular design happening in the US right now, by some very talented designers. We’re excited to play a small part in the larger creative movement that is currently happening in our country. With that being said, it’s safe to say that some of our favored sources of inspiration do however, come from abroad.

Any words you would like to pass it to new comer designers?
Think about the notion of communication and the inherent problems therein. Two of the main reasons clients hire designers are to either improve communication or solve current communication problems. Remember design is a tool. Question your motives. Question your clients motives. Stay focused on concept, its king. Then… work hard, really damn hard.

What is your most favorite commercial design of your own?
We’re a very process oriented team. The creative journey always seems to offer us greater rewards than the destination. Subsequently, we choose our projects carefully so we can be certain we’re always happy with the outcome. At the end of day, we love all of our children equally.

Name 8 designers you like most?
123 Klan
Bruce Mao
Build
Herb Lubalin
ilovedust
Milton Glasner
TADO
Superdeux

Any final comments:
We’re ecstatic that the kind folks at NEWWEBPICK have provided us the opportunity to expose some our work and share some of our ideas.

Have a nice day everybody.  Yey!!!

To raise awareness for breast cancer and self examination, The T-Bar is throwing a fashion show tomorrow night, click here for the low down.  cypher13 did all the design work pro bono and Rage Unlimited crushed the print job (yeah half tone discharge!).  The shirts will be available for purchase tomorrow night at the fashion show so come out and support some boobies!!!

Markham curated and contributed to one helluvah show last night at the D-Note (full photo recap later). Nice work out there man! The c13 crew took it down to the wire crankin’ out their owls yesterday in a furious onslaught of priming, polying, masking, taping, painting, unmasking and more polying. Here’s how it went down…

In preparation for a little arty cypher13 side project we whipped up a DIY blank owl template last night and then the three of us mixed it up. We have intentions of turning these owls into super-sized stencils and breakin’ out the Krylon (they’re reversed so… the black will comprise the positive stencil, and the white will be cut to take paint). After all, Shitty does have a show tomorrow night (Night Owls at the D-Note)… and… we really oughtta be done by now if we’re gonna participate. We’ll see… Night owls, right?

The T-Bar presents “Touch These!!!” a breast self examination awareness fashion show. The event will be going down April 16th, 8pm at Bacaro. The $5 at the door goes to the Susan G. Komen foundation. All your local heros will be strutin’ their stuff in the latest lingerie from The T-Bar. The boys and myself (cypher13) donated our time to design the flyer and accompanying shirt. Touch These!!! Yeah! We’ll see you at the show!