February 13, 2012 - Comments Off on Meter and Mezzo

Meter and Mezzo

I can easily say music is the most inspiring thing in my day to day life. The first CD player I remember owning was a gold Sony Walkman. Now it's iPhone every day, morning and night, at the office or at home. It's what gets me through my art, code, errands and commute all alike. I've always felt the right song can make anything better which is why I love DJing at parties and the like.

Sound Barrier

The sketch this week came out of some doodles I was doing for a friend's concert poster. I went with a block-print look in the coloring and I feel it came out wonderfully. I'd like to spend more time on the lines and colors, especially of the character, since I made her nearly perfectly symmetrical to save time.

I love going to concerts and seeing people dressed to the nines as she is. But most of the time, music is my escape rather than my destination. That's why if you ever see me in the street, I'm always wearing my headphones and while I don't own a pair of Urban Ears, I greatly respect every aspect of the company's design. While I could easily highlight them for their strengths in stills, video and web, I think I'll just share their photography for now.

Urban Ears Purple

Urban Ears Cream

Besides the great choice of vibrant colors used in their products, I love how they've incorporated their products into these intricate, and bemusing, scenes that capture the customer's attention. Give their site a quick look and revel in the catchy hues and fun videos showcasing their headsets. They're very affordable and stylish, I'd love to give them a try sometime.

I've felt for awhile now that the music one listens to can be a quite a defining characteristic of a person. Assuming others use music as I do; to enter into their own world outside of their surroundings, it must reflect how they think in order to allow us to detach. If a person creates music, we can learn that much more about them. Clearly Dan Mall realizes this as personal description on his site changes from "pianist" to "designer" to "speaker" to "new dad" in sequence.

Dan Mall

The site is filled with such marvelous little touches that go miles towards clearly differentiating him as not only a superb designer but also a superb individual. It's hard not to like the guy even though we're only "meeting" him through his own website. Take a look at his "About" section which includes funny little snippets like "Days without soda" and "I cut my own hair." On top of that, his portfolio, blog and more are all laid out beautifully, simultaneously respecting and pushing the gridded layout of his site. Walking this line between the order and organic can be quite difficult but he pulls it off marvelously.

Obviously music and video have been intricately linked since the birth of MTV. However the new era of digital distribution has redefined the musical handbook. Simply watch the documentary PressPausePlay previously showcased in the Voice if you don't believe me. There is a new era for both musicians and music video creators with an incredibly low barrier to entry. This is most clearly embodied by the rise to fame of OK Go thanks in large part to their ingenious viral music videos. I especially love the number of amazing animated music videos now being released on a seemingly daily basis. I was overjoyed to see a new such video from one of my favorite musicians, Gotye, who will actually be coming to NYC soon. The touching story of a girl growing up and leaving behind her childhood (in the form of a pack of cute buffalo creatures) accompanies his song "Bronte" perfectly.

Keep listening as I know I will and feel free to share your great new musical finds. Mine? Phantogram.

The Sketching Mechanism is a series of weekly posts, published on Mondays, containing the artistic musings of Mobile Designer/Developer Ben Chirlin during our Monday morning meeting at the NY Creative Bunker as well as his inspiring artistic finds of the week.

Published by: benchirlin in The Sketching Mechanism

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