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Hanging out at E3 twenty-eleven

A couple days back we made the trek up to LA for the E3 show. Pretty amazing stuff there, the new PSVita & Nintendo WiiU were there, along with the huge, marked out, lines that went along with wanting to play on them. New games, new consoles, new technology, everything & then some was there. Check after the jump for more pics & a little writeup.

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Land of the Ice & Snow iPhone 4 Case

Hot off the presses is our "Land of the Ice & Snow" Viking Head iPhone 4 case. $25 shipped anywhere in the world. Check it out in our shop....

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NXTZ W11/12 Catalog & POP

Sometimes, in the heat of the battle, we forget to post up stuff that we’ve done. This is one of those times. We started working with Dale Rehberg about a year ago now on his new endeavor, brand manager of NXTZ. Facemask designs turned into catalogs which turned into POP & branding. A season’s designs are down & now we’re working on new designs & more evolved branding. check after the jump for a few more items we’ve done for NXTZ.

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Nike Chosen

Nike covers all the action sports bases with this unique night-shot trailer. I have to admit it's pretty cool that they're giving action sports athletes close to the same coverage as stick & ball athletes. ...

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Two wheels & a microphone

Pretty interesting goulash of bicycle noises Roger Lima mixed into a nice beat. Specialized Beats from WhiteNoise | Lab Thanks to Core 77 for the video!...

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Polish Book Cover Contest

Pretty cool contest over here, put on by the folks at 50 Watts. Design a book cover, Polish style. Anyone who's ever eaten a Pierogi knows that Polish people are some amazing cooks but did you know they also have some pretty amazing design? Check it out, enter, have fun! Polish Book Cover Contest thanks again to Grain Edit for the...

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Dana Tanamachi chalking it up

Great work by Dana Tanamachi at theAce Hotel, chalking it up. She does some amazing work & it's pretty cool to see her rock it on time-lapse camera...

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Valhalla Mix by DJ Enki

What are you doing over Memorial Day weekend? Well, it's not complete without a free DJ mix! For our first freebie, we're throwing out a mix made for us by Oakland's finest - DJ Enki. A little of this, a little of that. Did we mention it's free? Tell anyone & everyone you want. If you like it, please comment...

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Anatomy of a Mashup

Pretty cool little visualization here showing how Cameron Adams split up 23 different Daft Punk songs to do make a new blend. Great if you like mashups or are interested in mixing, even better if you love Daft Punk! Check it out...

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Lost Type Co-op

Pretty cool deal here. The Lost Type Co-op is based on the "pay what you can" model for some pretty amazing typefaces. All the donations go to the font designer. Check it out & throw the designers a few bucks, making a font isn't a short or easy task....

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He’s drawing with a Bic pen

This is amazing. I almost wish he showed the end result before showing him draw it because you'd never guess he got there the way he did. He's drawing with 2 Bic ballpoint pens. Goes to show, it's not what you're working with, it's what's inside your noggin'. Again, thanks to Godmachine for the video....

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Free Von Glitschka patterns

Adobe asked Von Glitschka to create some repeat patterns & we're (like, everyone) the winners because they're free! Click up above or here to go to Adobe's download page for them...

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T-minus 6 months & counting

to the best holiday of the year. Can't wait. Before Halloween was a reason to dress slutty, it was amazing. This video is proof. Thanks to Godmachine for the video....

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If it was only this easy…

Sometimes while dreaming, I draw this quickly (and this well), just sometimes though. Really cool time-lapse video with Kevin Tong on his making of the Mogwai poster shown down below (which, of course, is sold out). If was only be as easy as he makes it look...

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Getting all nostalgic

This one's for all the photo-nerds in the house. Saw these gems over on Werd. Seeing as how I've spent a few months / years paychecks on film & camera gear, I got all nostalgic. Pretty cool USB drives by Photojojo. Perusing around their store, this keyboard cover is pretty incredible for Photoshop / Final Cut / Pro Tools peoples, too. ...

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Stoked Sessions 2011

Next Friday, May 20th 2011, I’m going to be in an art show / auction benefiting Stoked Mentoring called Stoked Sessions up in Culver City, CA. A whole get-down is planned for opening night; DJs, drinks, who knows…. maybe even dancing. The whole thing benefits Stoked Mentoring & the great programs they have for kids so if you’re a) bored or b) in the Culver City area or c) need a reason to head to LA, stop in & check it out. The Stoked Sessions has an overview of what’s happening on Friday night, including a slideshow of the pieces that will be there. Check after the jump if you’d like to see my contribution.

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The Business

Now that our cards have been on featured on For Print Only, I figure it’s time to get around to putting them here. A few months back, after realizing I had 14 business cards left with a tradeshow in a couple weeks. I worked with Tim at Quality Letterpress to create some pretty cool cards.

Check after the jump for more photos & a bit of a writeup on the cards

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Pow Wow Hawai’i

Great live street-art even in Hawai'i a couple months back, covered by HBTV: Pow Wow Hawaii 2011 Part I ...

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We Recommend: Helvetica

Newly featured in our We Recommend section is Helvetica. A Documentary Film by Gary Hustwit. Great movie for anyone interested in design and even pop culture. It's crazy how far the typeface's grasp is, yet it stays at the forefront of design. Check out our mini-review in our We Recommend section....

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Helvetica Film

The film goes in depth on the history of the font, from it's origins as an "updated Akzidenz Grotesk" to it's place today. Featuring interviews with a just about every big name you can think of in the design world; Massimo Vignelli, David Carson, Lars Müller, Neville Brody & Stefan Sagmeister, amonst others. Great movie for anyone who's even slightly interested...

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Vintage Beer Collection

Great collection of vintage beer cans. All are amazing, some are also amazingly funny. Up top, who are you going to drink with – The Duke or JR Ewing? Check out JR’s tag line down at the bottom of the can. Follow the jump for 36 more cans & a link to the source with 130 more!

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Vintage Packaging Round 2

Found some more great examples of packaging from the past. Seems like more often than not, it would be better if they left it alone…. Follow the jump for about a dozen more examples.

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Outdoor Research Labels & Trims

Sometimes doing what we do, it seems like a lifetime passes between handing off the final files & the product releasing. A while back we did a label package for OR’s new “Sidecountry” line of outerwear which was released, with great excitement, to the public this past Fall.

Check after the jump if you want to see more of the trim package we did.

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KAWS x Standard Hotel

Pretty fancy lightbulb set by KAWS for the Standard Hotel. Unlike everything else he touches, these aren't a cagillion dollars...

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the CBS Eye logo

On Sunday October 17th, 1951 CBS revealed their new logo placed over a cloud formation photograph. What was intended as a logo to be used for one year has went on to become one of the most recognized logos ever created. CBS President Frank Stanton wanted a new logo, Bill Golden - CBS' Creative Director was asked to fulfill...

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Check check check check it out

Can't deny it, I've loved the Beastie Boys music since I was in 7th grade. Thick or thin, whether they were popular or not, they're like Star Wars for me. Check out their new album on Soundcloud for freeeeeeeeeee http://soundcloud.com/beastieboys...

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Doyald Young collabenefit poster

Saying Doyald Young was a master typographer is putting it lightly. He was on a whole different level. The poster above started as a gift for a he & Josh Higgins' mutual friend. Unfortunately, Doyald passed away before the project was completed. In stepped Jessica Hische to finish the project for a Doyald Young type scholarship fund. Great work for...

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Hand Lettered Movie Titles

Came across a pretty interesting collection of hand-lettered movie titles by German poster designer Hans Otto Wendt for Warner Bros in, well, Germany.

Collection available @ this link or follow the jump for a bit of the story & more examples.

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Making of the DC Commercials

Pretty interesting Behind the Scenes look @ the making of the DC commercials. Pretty sure Chris Cole is the next wave of video games, in that he's a living video game character. Thanks AWSM...

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History of the RCA logo

So, the story goes like this. The logo we (American’s) know as the RCA logo is one of the first instances of company branding. See, way back in 1899 the Gramophone company bought a painting by Francis Barraud with a dog listening to a record of his dead owner’s voice. Interested? Follow the jump to find out the whole story.

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Type (dork) Post

This is just too cool not to share. The good folks at House Industries took on the herculean task of getting Photo Lettering's catalog of work online for non-house employees to use in their stuff! LOADS of great work over there, so many unique fonts, the place is a goldmine! Order any single setting for $7, that's right - seven...

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Patience, young grasshopper

That's what I thought when I saw this great piece which would make Rube Goldberg a happy man. (via Quipsologies) ...

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75 Abandoned Theaters

Great gallery of 75 abandoned theaters across the good ol' USA. Like the Abandoned Houses photo essay we posted a while back, it's sad to see such glory rotting away. Makes you appreciate the work that went into restoring the old greats like LA's Pantages Theater to their former glory. Check out the photo essay here - 75 Abandoned Theaters...

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Secret Wars SemiFinal

Cool live-art battle in the land of OZ between Ken Taylor & Drew Funk. Thanks to OMG Posters for the heads up....

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Custom font for Angels & Airwaves

Our work with Angels & Airwaves continues to trickle out. Their newly relaunched website features our custom-created AvA font that we just wrapped up for them a couple days back. Check it out on their site AngelsandAirwaves.com! We'll keep posting more of our work with them as it get released!...

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Valhalla x ArtsProjekt x Speck

Just got a few of of our new Valhalla x ArtsProjekt x Speck iPhone 4 cases in, available in our shop for $27 shipped! Fits Verizon / AT&T phones. We have both Full Moon on Abbey Road and Valhalla Battle Shield designs available. We only have the 4's in the shop, if you have a 3GS - you can get one...

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Chock full of awesome!

Put together a lookbook of our most current work which is available for download. 41 pages, chock full of case studies, branding, advertising & consumer goods. Download the 6.5mb PDF for freeee! Valhalla Lookbook ...

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Valhalla’s 2011 Lookbook

Put together a lookbook of our most current work which is available for download. 41 pages, chock full of case studies, branding, advertising & consumer goods.

Download the 6.5mb PDF for free here:Valhalla Lookbook or follow the jump for more shots!

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1986 called

A quickie for you all today, just got back in the shop after the SIA shredfest last week, complete with literal bone-chilling -20° temps in the mtns. In celebration of the mtns though, we found this jewel above after clicking a couple links which started over on Quipsologies. Pretty amazing collection of VHS tape box Horror Movie art – Monster Brains Awesome!
More after the jump!

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RIP Hubba Hideout

Hubba Hideout, a piece of SF's legendary skateboarding puzzle is done. Sure am glad the nefarious characters who congregate around in the area will be left alone now that there's not skaters to scare them off. Read about it Here. Sad to know that another legendary skate spot is gone, kids can't make a pilgrimage there to see how absurdly...

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Another (random) Post

Cool graphic design oriented Venn Diagram by How Would You Like Your Graphic Design?. A 160pg PDF of Stefan Kanchev's work on logo design from behind the Iron Curton on LogoBlink. In line with the random title page link from the other day is all the MGM movies title & end title stills collection. Up above is from Adios LA,...

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I’m gonna make color theory better

Cool Video we found over on Under Consideration's Quipsologies blog originally by Clim. We unofficially rolled a similar saying for a while there, We Make It Better, until our friends @ Shilo heisted it & rolled out We Make it Good a few years back. Oh wells, cool video none the less. Also, in case you forgot Color Theory...

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LOVE by Angels & Airwaves

This is huge and it's really just the beginning. Been working for the past couple months with the band Angels & Airwaves and their management on the branding / collateral for their five-year-in-the-making movie, LOVE. The Apple Trailer site just went up this evening, up above is the poster & we're also doing multiple tiers of packaging (just wait till...

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Another Super (random) Post

Another random post for you all today. What you're looking at up above is the seriously ridiculously awesome work of ...

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Super (random) Post

On our semi-regular list of checks is the DDC site. Draplin & I have been running in the same circle for a number of years & only a matter of time until our paths cross in person. It's always interesting to see what he has to say In light of his appendix taking him out of commission, We thought we'd...

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JP, Jeremy, Simon & Crew get downnnnnn

ESPN's Real Snow videos are up. Up above is JP Walker's edit where he puts some good midwest mid-century architecture to good use (others do as well). Pretty cool clips. Jeremy Jones' work with his ridiculous spinnermajig binder is crazy and Simon Chamberlain's rail skills definitely shouldn't be in question after viewing his video. Check 'em out, definitely worth a...

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Secret Wars Melbourne

Pretty cool live-art battle in what's supposed to be an amazing city in the land down under with Ken Taylor taking on Deb. Thanks to OMG Posters for the vid....

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AT-AT Day Afternoon

AT-AT day afternoon How about an awesome video from Patrick Boivin to stave off your case of the Mondays?...

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Chair 23, where are you?

Saw this over on Boardistan & couldn't not post it. 23's an amazing chair which serves Mammoth's lift-accessed steep terrain like the Wipeout / Dropout chutes & the Paranoids amonst others. This tube is there to protect you from the not-so-subtle winds that go hand in hand with Mammoth. With 17 feet of snow this week it got...

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How to make a skateboard: video

How to make a skateboard: video. Pretty interesting insight on how they do it. Don't know if this is how the 5yr olds make them in China but it's interesting none the less. We found it over on AWSM...

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Stop action skateboardin’

Skateboardanimation from Tilman Singer Found it over on Quipsologies. While your there, check out #98 & the response #108...

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Tron: Legacy = Awesome?

Call us dorks stuck in the 80's but sorry, we can't say we're not excited about this upcoming release. We just hope, pray & whatever other adjective that will fit here that they don't JarJar Binks us on this one. Probably won't rock the midnight showing but an opening weekend viewing is a more than likely possibility. Got the link...

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It was broughten 12/7/10 @ 2pm

If you happened to attend the Art Institute of California San Diego, you may have caught me iced tea'd up & running my mouth about design there yesterday on December 7th @ 2pm in Henry Hikima's "Design Research and Marketing Design" class. A lot of random stories that had the answer to the question somewhere in the response & "tales...

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Lubalin’s U&lc available online!

Pretty cool news here that I spotted over on Grain Edit a few days ago. Back Issues of U&lc (that's upper & lower case) magazine are available online! The first 3 are up, AD'd by the late, great Herb Lubalin! Check em out while they're up & check back every month to get the next year's issues! Get them here:...

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A couple sites we frequent

We're extremely busy pumping stuff out for clients to the left and right at the moment & don't want you to feel neglected, so we decided to post up a couple sites which are on our regular check list. If you guys like this, let us know & we'll pop some more up for people to check out! Anyone who's been...

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The Bottle Cap Man

Came across a cool resource today, more bottle caps than you can shake a stick at! Tons to look at, check it all out by clicking up above or here Bottle Cap Man More after the jump

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Optical Dillusion on Quipsologies!

Our Optical Dillusion font was featured on Under Consideration's Quipsologies blog a few days back. Pretty cool to be amongst such amazing work! It's currently on page 9 but that'll probably change by the end of the day. Click on the pick up above to see it or on the link up above to check the blog!...

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Gettysburg Address

Nice illustrative depiction of Lincoln's Gettysburg Address by Adam Gault, via the folks @ Make the Logo Bigger And a rare moment in advertising where an agency used wit & humor to sell rather than the standard crap anecdote of sex sells (also from Make the Logo Bigger)...

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Whole lotta awesome

Dang, check this jem out! Veer's Fred & Fred Jr Moose Trophy Puzzles. Amazing. Thanks to James for alerting of of this Jewel!...

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From back then up ’til about now

Spent the weekend putting together a collection of branding projects I've done over the years. Most of them are in here, there's a few that aren't which were lost to the great hard drive crash of '03 & a couple which haven't launched yet, so I have to keep quiet about them. None the less, this is basically an retrospective...

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We’re featured on Werd & Boardistan

Our Full Moon on Abbey Road is on werd.com! Pretty excited about this one, Werd's one of our favorite sites! Also, not to be outdone, our friends over at Boardistan popped our shirt up on their site, too. Fancy stuff, thanks guys!...

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Reef light = AMAZING

Amazing work here by Dutch Designer Tanja Soeter & Freedom of Creation. It’s actually pretty reasonably priced (comparatively speaking when you figure the price of modern lighting) at $600 for the small & $1k for the large. It’d be a nice piece to design a room around for sure. More after the jump

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Full Moon on Abbey Road shirt

That’s right, our first foray into merchandise celebrates the greatest holiday ever, Halloween! Full Moon on Abbey Road is available for Men & Women, Ghosts & Ghouls in just about every size you can imagine. Printed on black ringspun / combed cotton (men’s / women’s) these are ready to go. Check out a design detail after the jump or click on the picture above to go to the store & get one!

The store’s up & running!

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Happy Leif Erickson Day!

Happy Leif Erikson day! Well, happy pre-Leif Erickson day! The gem to the left up above is from the Sioux Falls Family YMCA & on the right is Leif in front of Hallgrímskirkja, in Reykjavik, Iceland – a present from the good ol’ USA .

Today’s his day and we’re going to party like it’s 999ad! To celebrate, we’re offering a 25% discount in our new store all weekend long! Use the code “LEIF”

In fourteen hundred ninety two
Columbus sailed the ocean blue

The land was grand which he found
which Leif Erickson should be renowned

for first finding this land a new
in the year one thousand two

Check after the jump to some background on Leif & this day

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Full Moon on Abbey Road shirt!

That’s right, our first foray into merchandise celebrates the greatest holiday ever, Halloween! Full Moon on Abbey Road is available for Men & Women, Ghosts & Ghouls in just about every size you can imagine. Printed on black ringspun / combed cotton (men’s / women’s) these are ready to go. Check out a design detail after the jump or click on the picture above to go to the store & get one!

There’s still time to get a shirt by Valhalloween!

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This is Valhalloween, Valhalloween…..

That's right, it's not Halloween, it's VALHALLOWEEN! We're big fans of the greatest holiday ever over here, so much so that we do a special Valhalloween website for our main portfolio, check it out! Valhalloween site...

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Life Flashing Before My Eyes

Saw this on So Much Pile Up. One on the left is By Vince Collins from 1984, I think the right one is Goosebumps - Don't go into the Basement. Warning, these get a big Far Out & Trippy if you keep following them, just a fair warning...

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AWSM Jim Phillips interview

Saw Remind’s product over on AWSM & checked out an interview they have on their site, Remind Insoles. We got the chance to work with Jim a few years back on the Ascape project we did & he was the coolest guy to work with. Funny that one of the things he’s most proud of about his career is inspiring kids to become artists & designers… It’s safe to say that he’s a major inspiration & one of the reasons I’m doing what I do. I can think of a slew of things that would be worse than hanging out with Jim Phillips for the weekend, these guys did it & filmed it for us to check out. There’s 4 parts in the series, the rest are after the jump.

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Interbike 2010 post

Interbike 2010 went down last week and we made the annual trip out to Vegas for the extravaganza. Sadly, this is the last show in Vegas for at least 3 years, as it’s set to move up the road to Anaheim for at least the next three years. See more inside!

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Photographer – Leigh Ortenburger

Stumbled upon some amazing photographs tonight at the bookstore. I noticed an amazing photograph on the cover of Alpinist magazine. I picked it up & was blown away by amazing image after amazing image. We’re all really lucky to have had people like Leigh Ortenburger & Ansel Adams in our human history. Think about it, not only did they climb, hike & adventure out to some of the most amazing places on earth, they did all that with huge-a** 4×5 film cameras, lenses, tripods & all the rest of the gear that went along with such cameras. More photos & dribble after the jump

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5,4,3,2,1…. LAUNCH


We’ve been working with the crew at Ninthward Skis for a couple months now & the fruits of our labor are ready for the world to see. If you’re unfamiliar with Ninthward, they’re a freestyle ski company going after the urban / hip hop inspired market. Super cool guys, great product and an amazing team. The site’s getting some good response a few days into the launch, check it out if you have a few – Ninthward Skis.

Or if you just want to stay on our fantabulous site, check after the jump for some screenshots.

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I want to ride my bicycle…..

I’ve alway enjoyed a bicycle ride. Whether it was BMX growing up (or maybe last week) or trying to hurt myself downhilling at Mammoth on a mtn bike, it’s always a good time. Interbike falls right near my birthday every year so we always make a trek out to the show to see bicycles, catch up with our friends from Shadow and try not to lose too much $$ in the hellhole known as Vegas. In light of the upcoming show, here’s a few bike related clips to check out. More after the jump

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Design For You.. and you and you


It’s no secret that Herman Miller is one of the greatest companies ever made. Wait, you didn’t know that? Well, welcome out from underneath your rock & to the real world. For anyone in question of the above statement, Eames worked extensively with them. Nothing else needs to be said. Case in point referenced below (Eames also designed the molded gems used for the contest).

Follow the jump to see the other artists renditions in this contest.

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Gettin’ AWSM

WHOAA, I recognize that logo. Oh, wait...

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Shepard’s Arctic print

Today's apparently turning into Shepard Fairey Day over here at WDC (that's We Design & Conquer, get it? ). We're suckers for the snow, bears, anniversaries & awesome shading, so I guess it isn't too surprising that it's up here, is it? ...

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Shepard – Cincinnati – HDR

Looks like Shepard's been getting busy in the non-mistake by the lake city in Ohio, Cincinnati. Saw this over at OMG Posters & couldn't pass up posting it on here. All the murals he put up around the city in HDR. Nice of the Noble Visions crew to put this together for all non-Cincinnati folks to check out. Click Here or...

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Stay Gold

Emerica's new video just dropped and the word on the street is it's jaw dropping. Seeing as how the premiere was a few weeks ago & the movie released on DVD / iTunes on Sept 1 - we should have a full review but, well, we've been busy as hell the past couple months so we haven't had the chance...

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the Shadow Conspiracy BTS10

A few weeks back our amigos at the Shadow Conspiracy released their Back to School 2010 line and, once again, we've got a few shirts in their collection. Read Between, Bloodbath, and a hat & t-shirt of the Pinstripe design are available at Dan's Competition if you wanna buy them. ...

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A hot cup of what the!?!

Saw this over on Werd and it's just too AWSM to not post. Apparently Canon, being the photography badasses that they are, decided to make these up for the photographers at the recent Vancouver Olympics. Pretty dang amazing in my book, almost makes me want to start drinking coffee...

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Classic soda packaging

A while back, we did a post on vintage packaging (here). Looking around on the treasure trove known as Lovely Package today while doing some research, we came across some more jewels from yesteryear. Follow after the jump if you want to see more!

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The land of fist bumps & high fives


The bi-annual brofest known as ASR is going down in SD right now and, as hard as we tried, we were sucked into it once again. This year wasn’t especially any different than any other years, still lots of dudes rolling around trying their hardest to be seen by anyone willing to look. More after the jump with a slew of pictures to keep you abreast of the art that seemed to be the theme this year.

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Is the red blood?


We came across Jeff’s work somewhere in the last few days and thought we’d post it up on here. These are cut paper people, not multiple layered photoshop documents. Nice to see someone getting their hands dirty (or bloody when fingertip & xacto meet, you think the red on this one is blood?) and doing some amazing stuff for people to see. More of his artwork after the jump!

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The 27th Letter


The Ampersand symbol, every designer’s long-time beloved friend has an interesting story. Around the world, it’s known as “the and sign” but did you know that it was once the 27th letter in the alphabet? What about how it got it’s name? Read more & see some cool examples inside.

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Denver’s got it going on

The world’s longest post delay here. Drove around the Mile High City after SIA and came across a pretty nice looking skatepark. More inside.

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Shepard Fairey gets busy in Hillcrest

This may be old news to the super-Shepard or Hillcrest Regular crowd but I was down there the other day & noticed a gigantic wall of his on the side of the new(ish) Urban Outfitters on 5th. The thing is huge, like 120′ x 30′ huge. More inside

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Get your surf on

We don't post a ton about surfing on the blog but we saw this over on Todd Richard's AWSM site today and thought it was pretty relevant to our deal. Great title graphics, interesting editing & random Iron's brother looking like Eazy E in a couple quick snippits make it look like an interesting view. Julian WIlson's Quiksilver Movie Projectis...

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Seattle’s Worst Logo?

Next up on Logo Rants & Raves is the new Seattle's Best Coffee logo. Is it a rant or a rave? Well, in case you can't read any longer before you know, It's our first RANT! Yep, Seattle leapfrogged the logo which we had planned for our first rant to take the honors! While I don't necessarily hate the theory...

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Book of the Month

We finally got up our book of the month for June...

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A thumbprint to skate? Really?

Saw this article while perusing the interweb yesterday. Apparently a skatepark not too far from Valhalla HQ in Poway, CA recently implimented a thumbprint scanning entry system for people wishing to skate the Poway Skate Park. Really? A thumbprint to skate? Wow. Child predators lurk around school campuses but yet skaters have to register & give a thumbprint to skate....

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E3 Twenty Ten


E3’s going on right now. We rolled up there last week to meet up with some people and check out what’s going on in the world of video games. Microsoft’s Natal Kinect was everywhere & it was pretty a impressive deal. By the looks of the sheer amount of games released at the show, there’s going to be a lot of synchronized dancing going on in the world next year.. Lots more inside.

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AWSM Bro!

AWSM
Got a call a little while back from Olympic commentator / wiseguy / business owner / pro skiboarder, Todd Richards needing a logo for his new project, AWSM. The creative brief was pretty epic, “bright and colorful and fun. not really needing an icon as the the awsm is the logo too.” Check out AWSM here or check after the jump to see the logo we did in larger format.

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Whimsical Works of David Weidman

Up for the book of the month this month is a winner by David Weidman called The Whimsical Works of David Weidman and also some Serious Ones. Mr Weidman has one of the best styles I've ever seen & this book is amazing. Every page turn has more & more to astonish. The man at work...

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This couldn’t be much more awesome

David Beckham, Daft Punk, Snoop, DJ Neil Armstrong, the Gallagher brothers (not the funny ones, the Oasis ones)? Dang...

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A PSA that’s worth watching

This has been around for a little while but it's pretty creative none the less and definitely worth watching. It's definitely a watchable public service ad, words which don't always go together....

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Rube Goldberg would be proud

The video's been around a while but it's hard to argue that the visuals in it are pretty awesome. The Rube Goldberg style of continual randomness is just to awesome not to post up....

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Optical Dillusion

Optical Dillusion font by Valhalla
Dropped a font this week named Optical Dillusion. Two years in the making and countless minuscule changes and tweaks which nobody but us would ever notice it’s ready to go. If you want to see more or hear the story behind it, follow the jump!

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Shoebox storage days are numbered

Puma - Clever little bag
Perhaps you’ve seen this newfangled fanciness or perhaps you haven’t. Either way, the idea’s pretty good. Next year Puma’s bringing a whole new game to the shoe world, The Clever Little Bag. More after the jump.

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Evolution of the Google Logo

Evolution of the Google Logo
Wired has a pretty cool little article on how Google got their colorful logo. The article follows through the preliminary concepts through the final design. Check it out here. Or see more after the jump

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Roll over your own grave

Skeleton Bike by Eric Tryon
Ever want to roll over your own grave? Well, now you have the chance. I’ve never been to the Shadow Conspiracy’s headquarters but I imagine things like this around every corner there. More after the jump.

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Logo by Michael Evamy

Coming around this month for our Book of the Month series is Logo by Michael Evamy. It's quite possibly the most complete logo collection / reference book ever produced. It's as thick as a dictionary and chock full of every remarkable logo from the thinkable past. The cover's not necessarily thick and there's no fancy treatments on it, because it...

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When good logos die

Death of a logoIt’s always sad to see good things die. I wore black for a week after Johnny Cash died. I get sad when I see a crashed up classic car. This is the graphic equivalent of Johnny Cash dying from crashing a hemi ‘Cuda. United Airlines & Continental Airlines recently announced that they were going to merge. Read / See more after the jump

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Paper Cut exhibition

Papercut Exhibition
Handmade design work is the new rage. Everywhere you look there seems to be another amazing thing done by another new artist / designer. Papercutting is one of these new trends in design and the publisher Gestalten is promoting their new book, Papercraft, with an exhibition in the Netherlands this week. More after the jump

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We Recommend – Logo by Michael Evamy

Book of the Month time again. This time around, it's an amazing number by Michael Evamy, simply called Logo. It's as thick as a dictionary and has just about every good logo you can imagine. Check out our mini review here....

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So you need a typeface?

So You Need a Typeface
Pretty good work here by Julian Hansen. A crazy flow chart of how to find a typeface. Doing an infographic and you cried during Terminator? He’s got you covered. Don’t like the type on highways and you’re ok if it’s Swiss? Helvetica’s your answer. Pretty cool, check after the jump for details and a full view.

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Spikalicious

Got to thinking about commercials you don’t mind watching recently and one that sticks out in my mind many, many years after it came out is Spike Jonze Levi’s Tainted Love spot. Amazing. Got another Spike vid after the jump if you’re interested.

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The Chocolate Logo

We know we've neglected the Logo R&R section for too long here. Don't think there's not a slew of both great & wretched logos out there to comment on. Next up, we're going to bring it back home a bit - to an iconic piece of skateboarding today, the Chocolate logo by Evan Hecox. Done is his signature style, it's...

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ABCs of Branding.


Saw this the other day and thought I’d post it up on here. ABCs of branding is done by Jason Dean out of Orlando. The poster is embossed & foil stamped featuring, well, the abc’s of branding. Of interesting note is that there’s only 25 logos and yet the alphabet is 26 letters. Either way, great job. Check them out at The Best Part’s blog & shop. Or just check out the details after the jump.

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Whole lotta awesome at Northstar

Burton-Academy-Teaser
A while back we rolled up to Tahoe to meet with the guys at the Burton Snowboard Academy at Northstar about a couple projects. While we were there we got a full tour of the place and to say it’s amazing would be an understatement.

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Raygun Magazine

Raygun Magazine - David Carson, typography
Raygun Magazine came out in the mid 90s and was heralded by the design community as being revolutionary, rule breaking, fancy, wretched, amazing and just about everything in between. Perusing Flickr today I came across a set of the magazine’s covers, check them out after the jump.

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We Recommend – Upper Playground, 10 years of t’s

Awesome book this time around (again, if we do say so ourselves) for the book Upper Playground: Ten Years of T-Shirt Graphics. It's a pretty comprehensive of the last 10 years of t-shirt graphics by the SF based Upper Playground and a very good compilation at that. Click on the pic up above or here to check out our mini-review....

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Upper Playground – 10 Years of T-Shirt Graphics

Up for the book of the month this time around is Upper Playground: Ten Years of T-Shirt Graphics. The book shows, well, exactly what the title is - the last ten years of t-shirt graphics by SF's finest street culture shop & clothing line, Upper Playground. If you're a fan of the latest street art, t shirts or just cool...

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Where the Awesome Things Are…

Whoa
Medicom has teamed up with one of the most visually stunning movies released in recent years and one of the greatest kids books ever written, Where the Wild Things Are. More after the jump

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Seb knows

Seb Lester
Seen his work around for a little while now but today’s the first time that I went to his site and let’s just say that it’s impressive. Lots more after the jump.

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Ode to Carlsbad deaux

Carlsbad Raceway Motocross USGP
This post was just too big to have all at once. This segment is about the world famous Carlsbad Raceway, the home of one of the funnest motocross tracks ever and multiple USGP battles. Oh so much more after the jump

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Ode to the Carlsbad Skatepark

Carlsbad Skatepark
How do you explain the significance of Carlsbad Skatepark? How about Carlsbad Raceway? To have them both at essentially the same location is amazing, something like having the Tate Modern next to Fenway Park only better. Looking back, it was as close to Valhalla as I could get in my teenage years. Throw in some snowboarding (in reality, all I’m doing while riding snowboards is acting like I can skate good) and BMX (which if you think about it is an offshoot of motocross anyways) and you’d have every sport I ever cared about all in one spot. There’s a lot more fun (photos, videos) and a lot less dribble (me rambling) after the jump

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From Sea to Shining Sea

From Sea to Shining Sea
Came across these gems by Heads of State. Great collection of 8 screeprinted posters based on cities across the US, the collection is called From Sea to Shining Sea. Check them out at their site here or follow the jump for our overview / samples.

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on the road to Ummmm

Found this on Andy's Bend Press site, a 10 minute movie on Thomas Campbell preparing for his show in Denmark. I love Thomas' work. I talked to him about being included on the Ascape project as well but, alas, he was under contract with Paul Frank. Oh well, maybe next time. Anyways, check out the video over at Gravis by...

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an interview with Andy Jenkins


Came across this gem a couple days ago over on BMXSociety. I worked with Andy a couple years back on the Ascape project, he did a couple rugs for us and was super cool to work with. We have some similar interests in bmx, mx and of course skateboarding / art / design. It was cool having him in on that project and interesting to read about how he got where he is today in the interview. Check it out here (the interview link is after the intro paragraph). After the jump I’ve put up some highlights

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Welcome to Costco, I love you.


Idiocracy couldn’t have said it any better. In case you haven’t noticed, this blog is generally about design, skateboarding and snowboarding with a few random tidbits of nonsense thrown in. Well, this covers at least two of those subjects. I came across this in a recent email blast from Megalo Mart, Price Club, Costco – heli time in Alaska.

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A few posters for you and yours.


Popping up a few amazing posters I’ve run across the past few months. A little of this, a little of that. Think of it as a St Patricks Day present from us to you only without the nonsense that’s become synonymous with St Patty’s day. Check out more after the jump.

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Speaking of Eames…


Just a couple days after House Industries had their Eames Century Modern font Wright announced their Charles & Ray Eames auction taking place on April 8th. Click here to go straight to the auction site or just look after the jump for an overview.

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Ford. We make hybrids too.

Pretty good (although somewhat sad for the SD family related to this story) skit on SNL this past Saturday. While I doubt that Ford had anything to do with the skit, this is a great example of viral marketing. I Googled "ford, we make hybrids too" and it seemed like it's been posted all over in just a few...

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The way things looked back in the day


It’s always fun to look through the great work of the past. While many people I know dislike them for some reason, I’ve always been a fan of old posters. It’s nice to look at packaging from yesteryear as well, it’s like looking through the window to a time before focus groups and execs dabbling in everything they get the chance to.

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Eames x House Industries


This coming Thursday, the fine folks at House Industries are putting on an open house / opening reception for their new Eames Century Modern font collection at the Eames office in Santa Monica!

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We Recommend – New Skateboard Graphics

New Skateboard Graphics is the book of the month for March 2010. I know what you're thinking, another skate graphic book? Well, yes. To see why check out our mini-review here....

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Berlin, it’s not just for walls anymore


Found a couple pretty nice flickr sets the other day from the Berlin Buchstaben-Museum ( or letter museum for us English speakers). Being a lover of signs, old & random stuff, the next time (first time?) I’m in Berlin, I know where I’m going. (check after the jump for some highlights & links)

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New Skateboard Graphics

I know, I know - another skateboard graphic book? Well to put it frankly, yes. This book is amazing, by far the best I've seen in some time. What's nice about this one is it's filled with a TON of newer skate graphics. Yes, the old graphics are amazing to see (we're going to do a feature on Jim Phillips...

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Don’t forget about the Germans


Sure yesterday, we put up some good examples of American design on cars from the 70’s but don’t think for a second that the German’s were sleeping at that time. The early 70’s meant business at the Porsche factory, their cars were works of art and to top them off, they painted them amazingly well for the races. Here’s a great set from the Porsche museum of the branding on their racecars. (check after the jump to see out highlights)

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Cars used to be cool.


Seems like now the only thing that car companies make are remakes of older cool cars, cars with some Green story or just complete garbage. Enough of that though, here’s a cool set with some amazing examples of how cool the typography on old cars used to be (you can also see a condensed version after the jump)

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Elephants are like ice cream

I just can't say no. Check this out. Amazing German currency note from 1919. Or check out this a doozie of a 1921 Czech note. Or how about this random German note with a devil dude on it from 1921? I could go on all day, these are so awesome. I'll leave with this one, apparently from a town...

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Leaf me alone.

Been cruising around on Flickr looking at different type examples lately. Came across a pretty good set by a fella named Michael Spitz today. Click here to check out his work....

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Valhalla goes worldwide


Tonight Omatic’s own Louie Vito danced his way into onto the Olympic stage landing himself a solid 5th place. Check after the jump to see the story of how this relates to our blog…

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What’s working with Steve Jobs like?

This guy should know. Ken Segall worked with Steve Jobs while at Apple's agency, TBWAChiatDay. He's the guy who wrote the Think Different campaign and came up with the name "iMac" (which Jobs initially hated). Check out the interview here....

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Neon Asphalt


Road trips mean new adventures whether it be seeing new & cool things, eating new & cool foods or acquiring new & cool stories. One of my favorite parts about road trips, especially road trips through random area are the incredible roadside signage. This year’s SIA show was in Denver, so naturally that called for a road trip and all it’s glorious signs of yesterday.

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OR Spring 2010


We’ve been quite excited about this one and have had to keep the wraps on it for over a year. Outdoor Research is known worldwide for their amazing technical outdoor gear. We’re proud to have been part of their first graphic t-shirt line ever!

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We Recommend – Helvetica Forever

This month we feature a book on one, if not the, most popular typeface ever created. That's right, we're reviewing a book on Helvetica named Helvetica Forever : the story of a typeface. Check out our mini-review here....

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Don’t bring a gun to the tradeshow.


Nope, don’t try it, SIA doesn’t want them (this will make sense if you check the rest of the post, I promise). Just got back from the SIA show now in Denver. Lots changed, lots the same.

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Helvetica Forever

This time around we have a brief review on what may be the best typeface ever created, none other than...

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Conan got jacked


In case you’ve been living in a cave the past couple weeks and didn’t hear, a big hullabaloo went down in late night TV with Conan O’Brien coming out on the short end of the stick. Last night I caught his last show and it did not disappoint

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USA Network by Sean Serio

We start off this series on a good note, with an example we've liked since we first laid eyes on it. The latest iteration of the USA Networks logo, by Sean Serio for Peloton design, was a giant step forward for the network. Through the clever usage of positive & negative space, the visually pleasing logo boldly displays the brand's...

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Mini-movie Review!


You know, since we have a mile long to do list and 407 things planned for the upcoming year, we figured we’d start another section of the site (note the sarcasm dripping out your monitor). We watch movies like everyone else; some good, some bad so we figured, why not give our $.02 about them?

For our first in the installment, we have three films. Strange Brew, Hurt Locker and a blockbuster currently out in the theaters which we dubbed Crapatar

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Bringing heat that makes Al Gore cry


That’s what Portillo’s does. It’s hard to say what’s better, the absurdly delicious food or the amazing hand painted signs. Of course 99.9% of the people who frequent their establishments probably never even notice but being the design dorks that we are – you know we do.

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Book – er product – of the Month

This month around we decided to stray a bit on our new Book of the Month series. We're sure that all 12 readers are wondering why we'd stray from such a successful mini-series and, well, the simple answer is that this product should be required for any designer to have. Check out our mini-review here....

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Wacom Intuos Tablet

While we plan to continue our Book of the Monthseries, possibly even this month, I couldn't hold off on Wacom Tablets much longer. I was really, really late to the Wacom Game, I'd seen them used and even bought & tried one out a few years ago but now that I've given mine an honest chance I'm a complete 100%...

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Red Five standing by…


Rolling through a little store the other day that you may have heard of named Macy’s, came across a slew of the most awesome unwearable hoodies ever seen… although, I must say it’s pretty tempting to pick one up.

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We Recommend – Vans: Off the Wall

We're starting off December with guns blazing. Behind the scenes, there's a load of stuff going on which will all become evident soon. For now though, our book of the month series continues! This time around, it's Vans: Off the Wall. One of the cooler books that we've checked out in a while, it definitely hit home with the 80's...

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Vans “Off the Wall”

In case it isn't obvious, the group here at We Design & Conquer has a long history with action sports, all stemming from our love of skateboarding. While at the bookstore recently, we were able to dive into a book which gets pretty close to summing up what we're about. As a product of the 80's, the day you picked up...

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Roaring out of the holiday

We finally had a minute to mess around with the blog over our Gobblicious Thanksgiving holiday. In addition to doing heavy codework to customize our template, we now have a new section aptly titled "Book of the Month", we hope you like it. We have numerous plans and additional features coming up in the next couple weeks, so be sure...

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Twenty years of Danny Way

DWay1
I grew up not too far from Danny, he lived only a couple towns over. My group of friends I skated with had heard of a group in Vista who all skated super good. Looking at the list of people he grew up skating with, it’s no wonder that we heard of them 20 miles away (which is a pretty long distance in an 11 year old’s world). Little did I know that in a couple years, that group would revolutionize skateboarding as the world knew it.

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Give Peace a Chance

peaceTeaser

We just wrapped up a project for our newest client, Peace Iced Tea. The site dropped yesterday and the tea comes out in about 6 weeks. They have some pretty cool plans, including a huge Peace Tea Party with bands, artists and the like. Check it out Peace Iced Tea

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We Recommend – Los Logos 4

We've got a new feature on Design & Conquer called Book of the Month where we plan to feature a new book which we feel is worthwhile for designers to check out. Our first feature is of Los Logos 4 by Gestalten, check out our mini-review here....

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Los Logos 4

For our initial installment of our Book of the Month section, we are featuring Gestalten's Los Logos 4. Coming in at 508 pages, it's full of considerable amount of logos from various industries from recent years. This fourth book in the series is different than the initial offerings in the series which seemed to be pretty web / "tech" based....

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Halloween is upon us.

We here at Valhalla take Halloween very seriously. Well, at least as seriously as you can take the greatest holiday ever. To celebrate this, we tuned up our main site with a special Halloween feel for this week only. Click Here to check out the handywork! ...

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October. Mammoth. Snowboarding?

openingTeaser
We don’t know how they did it, but we’re pretty sure that Bear Mountain somehow remotely opened at Mammoth today. Every “head” that would normally be found on a February Saturday afternoon at Bear was up at Mammoth for it’s opening today, the mountain’s second earliest opening ever.

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Happy Leif Erikson day!

Happy Leif Erikson day! For those that somehow don't know, Leif Erikson was the first European explorer to find North America...

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Nixon Fall 09 Line Drop

nixonTeaser
Nixon dropped their Fall 09 line yesterday and, as usual, they’re on point with an amazing collection. Since day one, Nixon has been at the forefront of the design game and their new collection does not disappoint.

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Interbike 09

interbikeTeaser
We just got back from the ballhoo known as Interbike. Every year we make the trek out to the show to check out crazy bikes, meet with friends / clients and to take in some good times & food in Vegas.

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A month with Snow Leopard in the house

snowleopard
A month ago now Apple dropped Snow Leopard on everyone. A month in and we have to say it’s been the best $30 investment we’ve made in some time. If you’re on the fence with this one and have an Intel Mac, by all means do it. Starts, restarts, app launches, pretty much everything is much faster with Snow Leopard. The only thing we’ve found to be frustrating is the dropping of “Creator Codes”,

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La Brea’s got a whole lot of Awesome

wildthingsTeaserOver the weekend we had to make a delivery up to LA and while driving around the other City of Angels (everyone knows Escondido is the real one) we saw something which is just too good for words. Girl Skateboards took it upon themselves to do a bit of promotion for the upcoming movie of the year “Where the Wild Things Roam”.

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The ship has sailed…

pirateTeaserSad weekend over here at the Valhalla HQ. Last week, we made the decision that our beloved Pirate ship fooseball table maybe really wasn’t necessary to have at the office. We posted it up on Craigslist and by the end of the week amongst the comments and “how did you do that’s”, we had a buyer.

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Outdoor Research ’09 headwear line

orBeanieTeaser

It’s always nice to see your hard work go into production. A while back, we wrapped up a headwear line Outdoor Research and ever since, we’ve had to keep our yappers shut, even though we were thrilled with the work (quite easily the best headwear line we’ve done to date). Well, here’s our announcement, our OR headwear line has finally launched!

Click here to go to OR’s site and check out the whole lineup, most of our work is in the wool headwear section.

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Getting Extreme

xteaser

So, the Extreme Games have come and gone. Since they were right up the road and we enjoy ourselves some spectating of skateboarding, bmx, motocross and the like, we headed up to LA to check it out.

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Shadow’s 2009 BTS Line

A few days ago our friends at the Shadow Conspiracy dropped their new 2009 Back to School clothing line. We've worked with the group at Shadow for almost a decade now, before Shadow was even a plan, let alone the company in bmx. Click here to go to Shadow's site and check out the whole lineup....

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Los Logos 4

logosTeaser

Rolling through the bookstore today and came across a pleasant surprise. Picked up the new Los Logos 4 book (complete with fancy iridescent cover) and came across a couple logos that we did for our friends at HypeType Studio over in the UK a few years ago. Not a bad little Hello there while checking out a great book. Some good stuff in there, definitely worth checking out if not buying.

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E3 2009

cutTeaser

Working in youth culture definitely has it’s perks. One such perk is that we get to go to trade shows and see cool stuff before it’s released to the world. We went to E3 this year to check out newest in video games and to catch up with old friends / clients.

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