And you thought the most interesting thing about vintage porn was the music (or possibly the glaring lack of pubic grooming). Well, think again; thanks to South African artist Brandt Botes’ (aka Von Brandis) latest Flickr set, Obscene Interiors, we can now clearly see how vintage porn really excelled in “set design”. By removing the actual pornstars from old skool shots he sourced on the internet, we can now check out, unhindered, the no-holds-barred shag carpeted key party glory of it all. Plus the white silhouettes, positions discernible from the outlines but the details and money shots blurred away, are tantalizing little brainteasers. Are they? Aren't they? I'm pretty sure they are, but you can't see it… so who knows?

On a side note, if you're into Mr. Botes/Brandis, then he's also got a tee design up for vote on Threadless.

Tavis Coburn is kind of a big deal. Not just because we're writing about him twice in a week, his (unknown) stance on the use of Sex Panther or his inevitably discerning taste in sneakers — but because Nike, the NFL, Time Magazine and the Discovery Channel are just a few of the companies and publications knocking down his door to commission his deliciously retro artwork. When the opportunity for us to interview him arose, we couldn't really resist asking him about his shoes, nightmare clients and having him make a playlist for us, so maybe we could channel some of his pure badassedness into our own.

JoshSpear.com: You're a little bit of a mystery as far as Google is concerned. Give us a little background on you; who you are, where you went to school, what kind of shoes you're wearing right now…

Tavis Coburn: My name is Tavis Coburn and I'm an illustrator and graphic designer. I'm 32 years old, live in Toronto, and I'm obsessed with anything from the 1940s – 1960s. I'm not wearing shoes right now bit I just kicked off a pair of Red Wing Originals. An ice storm just hit Toronto so my babied, limited-edition kicks are safely in my closet. As for schooling, I spent a semester at the Ontario College of Art & Design and then spent four years at the Art Center College of Design, in Pasadena, completing my Bachelor of Fine Art. READ MORE…

The methods of printing date back centuries, and if it weren’t for this extensive history, we might be printing today’s hot graphics onto tees using rudimentary rubbings of impressions from wood blocks instead of the modern silkscreening from which we’ve become all too accustomed. Could you imagine? But like with any art, there’s beauty to be found in older methods of production (see the success of Lomo, for instance, and Heather’s post today about the pretty Gocco-printed calendars from annacote at Etsy). It’s a subject the New York Times covered yesterday in an interesting story called “The Cult of Gocco.” Gocco is a Japanese-made tabletop printing tool that has a following despite its limited circulation (primarily amongst crafters and in-the-know artists) and is currently enjoying a renewed interest from a niche that still adores its convenience despite its impending demise announced by the maker company a few years ago. The Gocco uses ink and lightbulbs like in screenprinting, but the no-fuss catch is that it combines the process of image-burning and printing into one quick step. Word is that it might not go the way of the dinosaur after all, but the decision hasn’t been confirmed yet. Get on it fast while it’s still out there. You can stock up on remaining supplies or watch a video of the Gocco in action at Paper Goods.

On the first of October, Pantone will launch their latest color system, Goe. Featuring over 2,000 new Pantone colors, Goe promises to offer users a “simpler, more complete, user-friendly workflow from the moment of inspiration to the realization of a finished project” by adding a few new tools and interactive software to the classic Pantone package. If this is something that makes you antsy, there’s enough information here to tide you over, until you can nail the real deal.

Do you design in the janitor’s closet of a strip joint in between showtimes? Yeah? Then maybe you should enter I.D. Magazine’s I.D.40: Designer Workplaces competition, a face-off between the most interesting studios/garages/shacks around. The rules are pretty lenient, with any environment supporting any kind of design work up for consideration, so shoot a few low-res photos and a brief description of who’s there/what goes on there to press@fwpubs.com by September 7th, 2007. If your space is chosen, you’ll be featured in I.D.’s Jan/Feb ‘08 issue, then forced to deadlock your studio door to ward off all the flesh-hungry groupies. More info at Core77…

Last night, around ten o’clock, I swooped a copy of Charlotte Rivers’s Poster-Art; three hours later, I set it down, not even halfway through the 150+ pages of incredible poster design. A compilation of mass-market, personal, and limited-edition work by both new and old designers, the internationally compiled coffee table-ish book not only introduces the reader to an enormous selection of the best concert/event/for no particular reason posters out there, it also discusses the creative inspiration behind the work. Because posters are capable of having so many layers of meaning and influence, and are more conducive to creative freedom than, say, a full-on advertisement, they have always been one of my favorite mediums from which to analyze graphic design — and with the book’s addition of a explanatory paragraph for each design, I’m in heaven. There’s an impossible amount of inspiration in Poster-Art, so if you’re in a dry spell, pick one up for 30 buckaroos here.

Josh Brown and Jeff Rooney, founders of creative agency Capacitor Design Network, formed their roots at a well-known Vermont studio called JDK. Sometime in the middle of working on some minor stuff — like working on the Xbox logo (in conjunction with cinco design) — the two boys decided they were ready to branch out on their own. Perhaps I should say two branch out on their own, because the resulting company landed Josh and Jeff in separate locations, and almost 3,000 miles apart. Over the next few years, Josh (in Vermont) and Jeff (in Portland) slowly gathered clients, and soon they were doing some of the things they’d dreamed of doing — like album covers and branding for the biggest snowboarding company around.

Now, over a decade after Josh and Jeff first opened shop, CDN can take credit for a large amount of notable work. Probably their biggest accomplishment to date is a three-years-running relationship with Anon, Burton’s optics division. Anyone who’s spent time on the mountain would know this relatively new line of eyewear killed it from the moment it was born, and much of the credit lies with CDN, as well as the great branding they did — and continue to do — for the company. Another area in which Capacitor shines is album design, a few of the results of which we’ve even written up before (the beautiful His and Hers artwork, for instance, was theirs).

We had a chance to toss a few questions Jeff’s way, and he responded with some very candid answers…he even threw in a few pictures from his incredible sketchbooks for good measure. Read on for a closer look into the sometimes exciting, sometimes gruelling world of marketable creativity.

Joshspear.com: Tell us a little bit about yourself: what led you to design; what keeps you in design; what’s on your to-do list for the future?

Jeff: I got into design by accident in school. I didn’t make it into the architecture program and fell into design as Plan B. Luckily for me, I loved it. Once out of school my biggest influence as a designer was working at JDK in Vermont. There were so many talented designers there who I got to work with. It certainly shaped the way I think as a designer today and the kind of work I’ve been involved with since. READ MORE…

A few years ago, two backpacks, each carrying a 350-page blank book, video camera and a T-shirt, were sent off by Barcelona creative studio Vasava in totally opposite directions to artists and groups in 35 cities, from Medellin to Montreal, an undertaking that went by the name Place Project. The bags and their contents covered a frequent-flyer’s dream of 160,000 miles in 18 months. The idea? To have people to document how the choice of where they live influences their creative process. The project itself is over but the exhibit displaying the sugary-sweet fruits of that labor, Place: The World in a Suitcase, is still traveling. Sao Paulo is the current host of the exhibit while it makes its jaunt through South America. Brazil’s contributions come from Sao Paulo’s renowned motion graphics design house Lobo and Rio de Janeiro’s artist Tonho. Other participants included Los Angeles’ and JS favorite Kozyndan, Milan’s Niko Stumpo and Hong Kong’s Rex Koo.

My sisters and I used to love inflatable toys because they could be kicked and thrown around without causing too much damage (always good for staing un-grounded) to both furniture and ourselves. Sao Paulo artist Pinky Wainer has the same affectionate endearment for the inflatable animals that she as a kid would buy from corner street vendors, but she’s found a way, after much experimenting, to keep them enduring through the years without losing air or novelty. The secret is in layers. She blows up the inflatable animals, like elephants, horses and cats, to their full size and coats them in layers of various materials — secret, of course — waiting lots of time in between each layer before finally finishing off the last one with slick, shiny, automotive paint that she uses to make a design. In the end, the plastic toys are fully functional again, but as contemporary art pieces. Wainer’s currently working on an inflatable plane and doll and what she says are unexpected forms. You can get them at her eclectic shop-slash-book publishing unit, Loja do Bispo.

Okay. This is hard to swallow, but there once was a time when the words “peanut butter” and “jelly” didn’t really sound right together. And, as much as the thought of a PB+J-less life makes us all feel like withering up into little human-raisins, we must realize that at one point there were nuts, and there were berries, and mashing them together would have made us look like huge weirdos.

Good thing some people just don’t care if they look crazy, because if not for them I would be malnourished. Additionally, the world would be missing Doane Paper Version 2.0, an item that is entirely inedible but in all other aspects a similar example of mix-mashed goodness. Chad Doane was in a product design meeting, and noticed about half the room was using legal pads while the other half used grid notebooks. Doane, torn over which side he identified most strongly with, decided to squash the two together, resulting in a patent pending stationery design that incorporates grid and ruled lines onto a single sheet (eureka!). Then, Doane was sort of like, “I could sell this!”… and then he was all, “I COULD PUT THIS ON MY SITE FOR FREE DOWNLOAD!”

That Chad Doane is a smart man. Now if he could just figure out a way for me to eat this paper…

The team at Behance (who we introduced you to not long ago) is offering a great alternative to the traditional lined and boxed sketch guides so omnipresent on the desks of graphic designers. Instead of overtaking your sketches (and muddling up the scan), the Dot Grid Book offers a very light geometric dot matrix that, according to one fan, “disappears immediately after drawing a line over it,” and allows you to scan the image into Photoshop with minimal need for adjustment. Also, while you’re checking out this handy helper, be sure to browse the other great stuff Behance offers creative types; their Action Method system is a super-helpful tool in keeping all of that brainstorming/creative genius heading in the right direction.

If creativity were a thing we could turn on and off (or for that matter, a thing we had any control over whatsoever) making a living as any sort of artist might strike less fear in the hearts of our mothers. However, as it currently stands, creativity is the kind of thing that’s hard to count on when we need it the most, yet graciously pops up when we least expect it. Those savvy to this common turn of events generally take to carrying a pocket-sized notebook everywhere they go, but others who have yet to adopt the habit still stick to an old standby: the paper napkin. In celebration of this desperate form of mind-jotting, The Gallery Soho in London is hosting an exhibition based solely on the napkin-doodlings of over 40 well-known UK-based designers, illustrators, typographers and artists. The resulting exhibition — fittingly called Napkin — will display the artists’ work, all of which will be offered for sale to benefit charities fighting against food crises. Napkin will open its doors to the public on June 28th, and will run through the 13th of July, so if you’re in the area, stop by for what sounds like a fun, yet potentially complex, exhibit.

A week or so ago, the Josh Spear team fell hard for the Boston Bike by Puma and Biomega. The Boston, also dubbed “The Puma Bike,” (same bike, different branding) racked up scores of points for its clean design, its in-house bike lock (that breaks the whole bike if ever broken into; take that, you bandits!) its 8-speed adaptability, and, its foldable frame- a useful trait that promises to make switches from bus to pedal-power that much easier. In fact, we loved this portable and pollution-free solution to getting around town so much that we just about fell over when we got the chance to ask Jens Martin Skibsted, one of the main brains behind the Boston, a few in-depth questions about urban mobility, the driving force behind the new bike. So, lucky readers, read on; the concept of urban mobility, when applied to the bike as we currently know it, is a huge idea with even bigger implications for the future….

JoshSpear.com: What are some things you found most creatively exciting in the process of working on the Boston/Puma Bike?

Jens Martin Skibsted: Just to clarify; The bike is called “The Puma Bike” or “Boston” depending on whether respectively Puma or Biomega markets it. The term urban mobility is a word that has been used by Vexed Generation, Puma & Biomega to depict this field we were working within: Mobility in the cities.

READ MORE…

“Collaborations. Everyone's at it – stores, brands, websites, blogs, magazines, toy companies, musicians (often in the very loosest sense of the term) and pretty much anyone who wants to get involved.” The collaboration has long since departed from the time when it was thought special and unique. Upset with the hoardes of collaborations, or as was so eloquently worded, “collabortions”, the team over at Sneaker Freaker have created the Top Ten Sneaker Collaboration Commandments: a witty advisory to those looking to design sneakers, including commandments like, “Thou Shall Take More Than Five Minutes to Design the Product,” and “Thou Shall Leave the Colorway in the Hands of Those Who Know What They're Doing.” The Commandments are a great set of rules for any designer to take into consideration, and hopefully they will aid in stopping all this “collabortion” madness.

Glancing at other peoples’ workspaces is a voyeuristic habit of mine, so with NowNow (virtually) publishing desktop//desktop, a study of designers’ desks and their immediate surroundings, I’m tickled pink. If you’re anything like me, you instantly consider about how you would rearrange any or all of the items on a desk, and this site just sent me overboard. Much like the products he designs at ATYPYK, I am more than intrigued by the workspace of Jean Sebastien Ides, although it might be because I’ve never seen an iron, a life-size fake deer, and five images with containing the word “kamasutra” framed in the same picture. A deep-seated extension cord phobia prevents me from falling in love with Robert Bolesta’s work area, but I am naturally drawn to Giuseppe Demaio’s chaos of an office because it reminds me of teenage years when I thought writing on the ceiling and having mismatched pictures of places I’d never been was like, totally friggin’ awesome.

–Stephanie Young