The Experts Agree

Fluid beauty

owentroy — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 07:34:02 +0000

My friend Jen recently convinced me to join Twitter and introduced me to the hot topic of the curator’s code. I am returning to blogging after being remiss for months with a tour de force of curation, replete with absolute full disclosure of all sources. I’ll even use the new unicode symbols, though whether I am being ironic in their use or not is up to the reader.

Act 1: Alberto Seveso

I find these ink and water pieces astonishing because they read like ropy solids that dissolve into smoke without ever being liquid. They are beautiful, if a bit frightening in their squid/dementor-like sense of agency.

↬Jen, Lots more ᔥthisiscollosal

Act 2: Shinichi Maruyama

Seveso’s work reminds me of this Japanese artist, whose inks aren’t blooming in water but bursting and suspended in air. The moments he is able to capture of suspended inks, waters and paints are sublime. While I’d seen his sumi ink pieces before tonight was the first time I’d seen this lush, mysterious “Gardens” series. Its vignetted, moody lighting and levitating-fluids casting shadows give them all the tension of a David Lynch still.

Remembered as being ᔥthemorningnews galleries from 2010. But my 2009 post proves that was a recovered memory. Drama! ᔥgraphic-exchange.

Act 3: Ferrofluids

Suspend ferrous particles in water or oil and introduce magnets and you have something magical if somewhat disturbing.

↬My old friend Shani on her incredibly well-curated Typologica. A whole lot more can be found ᔥ the charmingly titled fuckyeahfluiddynamics tumblr.

Chapter 4: R.I.P Moebius

I can’t help but think I’ve been in a water-art kick recently because I keep going back and looking over galleries of work by Moebius, who died last week. Jean Giraud was a one-of-a-kind talent (and a major visual inspiration for Star Wars, Dune, Tron, and Alien, great article ↬coudal ᔥcasualoptimist). His sense of fluidity and float were uncanny.

Plenty more Moebius all over the web especially these days but as usual I like the curation ↬butdoesitfloat

The four-act structure and source-checking probably does have to do with Mike Daisey lying to Ira Glass. Did you read David Carr ᔥNYT on that? Ok ok, I’ll stop.

Photo Monday: Siracusa

samanthatroy — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 20:09:13 +0000

Here are some more pictures from our travels; these are from Sicily as well, this time from the awesome Siracusa. I wish I could go there right now.

Typografriday: Anderson+Hische

owentroy — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 07:08:16 +0000

Wes Anderson is probably my favorite director, and certainly my favorite film stylist. We all love him here at the ‘Agree; Jessica’s handprinted Max Fischer extracurricular activities pencils are probably proof enough. We’re very very very excited about his new movie Moonrise Kingdom.

Typographically, he’s been very consistently an all-caps-Futura man. While he outlined it for The Life Aquatic, Bollywood half-opened something not-quite-Futura for The Darjeeling Limited and emboldened and threw it on a curve for Fantastic Mr. Fox, he’s established an iconic typographic style that is very recognizable. That said, I’m not at all sad that he hired the fabulous Jessica Hische to make a custom script for this one! It fits in with his aesthetic perfectly, and grants the coming of age story a wistfulness that the cold caps of Futura wouldn’t.

*Note that all-caps Futura does make an appearance at least thrice in the trailer, notably on the awesome mimeographed-handwriting-practice-paper letterhead.

Etsy Schmetsy: A super-sparkly, star-spangled Schmetsy!

samanthatroy — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 15:30:01 +0000

Row 1: Tiny Star Necklace from Ringostone; Vintage Box of Gummed Stars from aniandrose; Vintage Starburst Earringsfrom tipsynumber9
Row 2: Silver Glitter Stars from CardsbyCarla; Vintage Lucite Handbag from 22BayRoad; Moravian Origami Stars from theStarcraft
Row 3: Stained Glass Star from SNLCreations; White Star Ornaments from TwiggyandLou; Origami Kusudama Ornamentfrom bookBW
Row 4: Starlette Crown from giantdwarf; Star Lanterns from greenbaboondesigns; Metallic Star Clip from MXWLLL
Row 5: Vintage ring from MindiLynJewelry; Vintage Hi-tops from outdated; Lucky Stars Paper Strips from OrigamiJoy

Fictional Landscapes

samanthatroy — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 05:01:28 +0000

I am a sucker for art that uses tiny plastic people — like Slinkachu’s public art works or Lisa Swerling’s Glass Cathedrals — and Kyle Kirkpatrick’s altered-book landscapes are no exception. These put a smile on my face the second I saw them on Colossal Art & Design; I think they are really lovely. You can see more of Kirkpatrick’s work here.

Colossal Art & Design found these via I want your lungs to stop working without me, which I think is a fantastic and hysterical blog name.

Design des Troy Giveaway!

samanthatroy — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 21:47:09 +0000

Design des Troy is giving away one Teeny-Tiny but still pretty colorful calendar and a set of six Hand-printed Calligraphic Thanks cards to one of our lucky Twitter follower. The winner will be chosen at random tomorrow, January 11th.

Follow @designdestroy

Photo Monday: Taormina

samanthatroy — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 07:19:02 +0000

This Christmas I made my family Blurb books from some of our past vacations. I had such a good time going through literally thousands of pictures — though it did take forever. I thought it would be fun to share them here, so I’ll be uploading some of them over the next few days. This first bunch is from Taormina, Sicily.

Etsy Schmetsy: Counting the Days, 2012

samanthatroy — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 15:30:41 +0000

It’s a new year and that means it is time for a new calendar! We’ve sorted through a bazillion calendars on etsy, and here are some favorites.

Here’s to a fabulous 2012!

Row 1: girlingearstudio; ScoutCreative; desTroy
Row 2: smeurer8; cicadastudio; michellesmith
Row 3: curiousdoodles; dirtybandits; pistachiopress
Row 4: ellanerine; MissWyolene; LolasRoom
Row 5: TheMadeShop; VioletMay; snugstudio

Renegade Craft San Francisco

samanthatroy — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 20:03:26 +0000

If you are in San Francisco today, you should definitely come down to Renegade Craft Fair (we’re here until 6). There are a ton of awesome vendors, including many etsy sellers we’ve posted about in the past. Owen and I are here with some new items that aren’t yet in our shop!

Typografriday: Round Sans Roundup

owentroy — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 16:15:58 +0000

Stupid type joke: T-Mobile uses VAG in pink, AT&T uses Omnes in orange (which they took on after consuming Cingular). If the former absorbs the latter their rebrand is going to look like Dunkin’ Donuts. Ha. Anyway. Ahem.

We’re in the age of the rounded sans. Why, ten years ago, Helvetica rounded and VAG were about all there was. Now not only do we have a plethora of new loveliness like Omnes, Sauna, Bryant, Estilo, Brevia and ooh look at Mija wouldya — we’re also seeing new releases of rounded versions of classics and recent favorites like FF Unit, Gotham, Museo, Din, AG Book, and Proxima Nova.

Here are a few of our favorites: