P.S. Script Finished

Over the past few months film maker Rick Gawel and I have worked hard on writing a new script for 2012 under Herbivore Productions. The script is finally done and has been copyrighted. The script is for an original short film titled P.S. which will be shot this spring.

P.S. is a psychodrama about a new tenant to an apartment building that grows suspicious of his elderly next door neighbor who only communicates to him by leaving him bizarre notes at his door. As the story unfolds, his paranoia grows about who this mysterious woman is and why she continues to pursue him.

In the weeks to come more details on the cast and crew will be revealed.

Office Ampersand

Sometimes it’s the small things in life that make me smile. Like this all natural forming office ampersand. After listening to a long, frustrating voice message at work I hung up the phone and the cord formed an ampersand. Now that’s a message I don’t mind receiving!

Winter in the Midwest – III

The Winter in the Midwest series is a collection of photographs I have taken from various parts of the Midwest that I’m sharing for the first time with anyone.

For this particular photo I parked on the shoulder of a highway in Wisconsin, grabbed my camera, and sprinted across the street into an abandon barn that had caught my eye on the drive. I began snapping a few photos when I received a text from my girlfriend who was still sitting in the passenger seat. She told me although the barn may look abandoned, she’s fairly confident that it’s owned by the people that live in the small house across the street from it (who she could see through their back window). She kindly suggested that I get my ass out of there before there’s a bullet in it. Despite her warning, I took a few more shots (like this one) before I booked it. I then Frogger-ed my way across the highway back into my car where I floored it happy and bullet wound free.

Winter in the Midwest II

Winter in the Midwest

The Kabel Font

Earlier this week I came across The Kabel Font. It’s an awesome new font from a German designer named Mathias Nösel. It’s a free font currently featured on Font Fabric. This discovery couldn’t have come at a better time either. For a long time now I’ve been looking to combine my passion for indie tunes with typographic design and create something visibly exciting and easily accessible. (The ultimate goal is to create an entire series with this theme.)

 

In my previous post I briefly stated how there is a great relationship between music and design. I illustrate this relationship with the design above. Midnight City by M83 was not only a personal favorite track of mine from 2011, but it made big waves in the indie music scene too. It’s a very colorful, full sounding song. I pulled the lyrics The city is my churchand based the design off those words. Having downloaded The Kabel Font a day earlier, it was still fresh on the forefront of my typographical mind and I felt it would be perfect for the urbanity of this project. The typeface beautifully captures the curvature and nuances of neon lights. Very energetic. Very youthful. Very electronic. Very M83.

 

With the type in place, I enlarged the typeface’s letter i and used it ambiguously representing both a city’s skyline and a church’s pipe organs. Anyway, that’s the concept behind the design. That too is free to download as a pdf.

 

Click here to download The Kabel Font.

Click here to download my design TheCityIsMyChurch.

Top 50 Indie Songs of 2011

After spending hours on iTunes, I finally put together my top 50 indie songs of 2011. Although this post isn’t directly about art or design, music is heavily intertwined with the two. Not only does music act as a source of inspiration, it also acts as a spark for many projects. My high school art teacher once said that artists always want to be musicians and musicians always want to be artists. Well in the case of Chaz Bundick, he’s both! Ironically, my top song of this year comes from Toro Y Moi (aka Chaz Bundick) who has a bachelor’s in graphic design. Anyway, here is my list…

"Elise" from Toro Y Moi's album Underneath The Pine

1. Elise / Toro Y Moi
2. Helplessness Blues / Fleet Foxes
3. Get Away / Yuck
4. Midnight City / M83
5. Valentine / Dispatch
6. Cruel / St. Vincent
7. East Harlem / Beirut
8. Bumper / Cults
9. Blue Jeans / Lana Del Rey
10. Separator / Radiohead

11. Polish Girl / Neon Indian
12. Nothing’s In The Flowers / Company of Thieves
13. Wait & See / Holy Ghost!
14. Bizness / tUnE-yArDs
15. Shell Games / Bright Eyes
16. Vomit / Girls
17. Bad Street / Twin Sister
18. By Your Hand / Los Campesinos!
19. FFunny FFriends / Unknown Mortal Orchestra
20. Every Night My Teeth Are Falling Out / The Antlers

21. Don’t Move / Phantogram
22. Will Do / TV On The Radio
23. Killin the Vibe / Ducktails (ft. Panda Bear)
24. Belispeak / Purity Ring
25. MoneyGrabber / Fitz & The Tantrums
26. End of the Night / Smith Westerns
27. Need You Now / Cut Copy
28. Shake It Out / Florence + The Machine
29. Get Some / Lykke Li
30. Under Cover of Darkness / The Strokes

31. The Words That Maketh Murder / PJ Harvey
32. Whirring / The Joy Formidable
33. Dystopia / YACHT
34. Punching In A Dream / Naked and Famous
35. Changing / The Airborne Toxic Event
36. Major Minus / Coldplay
37. Holdin’ On To Black Metal / My Morning Jacket
38. It’s Real / Real Estate
39. Second Chance / Peter Bjorn & John
40. Coming Down / Dum Dum Girls

41. The Suburbs (Arcade Fire cover) / Mr. Little Jeans
42. Screws Get Loose / Those Darlins
43. Sweet 17 / Dirty Beaches
44. Keep You / Class Actress
45. Fuck Her Tears / Times New Viking
46. Street Joy / White Denim
47. Yonkers / Tyler, The Creator
48. The Wilhelm Scream / James Blake
49. Wait In The Dark / Memory Tapes
50. How Come You Never Go There / Feist

For other “Best of” lists for 2k11 and the latest happenings in the indie music world, be sure to check out: Pitchfork, Gorilla vs Bear, My Old Kentucky Blog, Daytrotter, Hipster Runoff, and RCRD LBL.

Feel free to share your list with me @ChrisTyre.