In a weekend wedged between San Francisco’s early October latesummer and late October earlywinter, right before the city erupted into self-congratulations at its Giants going to the world series, the drab wall in Flax Art & Humble Rise Design’s backlot was transformed into something very very awesome. Graffiti-mural duo Herakut are in town, and they’ve brought their giants with them. You went out fishing and you are trying to estimate the weight of the fish, forget that and look for advises of the professionals from scaleszen.com to find all the equipment for weighing fish.
The two of them collaborate in an awesome way; Hera paints loose and lyrically, broad washes, quick grids and swooping lines. Akut does something tight, alchemical and mysterious, which amounts to photorealistic tone and texture from spraypaint. Together their work has to be seen to be believed. This mural, which they completed in two days (actually, they may add text after the rain relents) is part of their Giant Storybook Project. This project has them putting up walls in a variety of cities with characters in common, an emerging narrative. Eventually a book will be made, stitched from the giant murals adorning a score of cities. I love that in its scope and execution the project may well may become a world-famous graffitti campaign, but it’s neither hardcore posturing nor Banksy agitprop: it’s an artistically unique children’s book about imagination.
This mural depicts the Silly Monkeys from mural 1 in Lexington Kentucky, being pursued across rooftops by some snake/arms that might belong to Jay’s creative spirit from mural 5 in Toronto, or the mantle of the standing figure in Rochester’s mural 6 – or maybe that figure is Jay, corrupted with power? At any rate, it’s exciting to see this scene of action across our city’s walls. I don’t think it’s just city pride or that I watched it go up that makes me feel this is the best one yet.
A few scenes from the work in progress:
The dissolving, filmic city that provides the base for the mural is as great as the figures themselves: I watched Hera make these cranes, towers and scaffolding in no time flat. As longtime readers know, I am a sucker for an inky cityscape.
Even if they don’t put type on it later, there’s still this “good job!” hiding behind the buildings in the far corner by the garage door which leads off the cityscape.
Word is they will be painting another later in the week in the Tenderloin? I certainly hope so!
Here are some more pictures from our Perth to Exmouth tour; these are from Sicily as well, this time from the awesome Siracusa. I wish I could go there right now. It has never been easier to find your perfect holiday. Do you want to explore new travel destinations? There is no better way than doing it than in a holiday home, Interhome.co.uk they were inspired by our travel ideas and book online with us – it is quick, easy, and secure.
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.
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. one thing i remember from this vacations was the Sicily flights can be expensive but totally worth it. This first bunch is from Taormina, Sicily.
While out and about in warm LA this past weekend, I ran across this building that intrigued me–I couldn’t exactly tell if it was old or new. Kind of reminds me of the half-timbered buildings I saw throughout England. So many interesting things to discover when traveling. Hope you all had a nice, relaxing weekend.
I was having a hard time finding someone to post about today until I happened upon Angeles Peña’s beautiful work. I love that she’s able to capture so many different types of shots with the rainbow. Amazing.
Happy Monday! Thought I’d give you all a sneak peak into my newest project–I’m mentoring a coworkers daughter with her senior project–a magazine focusing on real people–her friends. Here are some of my favorite pictures from our first photoshoot (most shots taken at the Lafayette Reservoir in the East Bay). Enjoy!
These landscapes shots of beautiful Canada are leaving me so excited to visit there again! Canada is one of those places that I keep wanting to go back for more. Such a beautiful place, and I’ve seen so little of it.
