Since 2005 Kleber has converted to what you can call a “virtual” company — meaning we got rid of our office in London in favour of working remotely from our homes. Since we’re a small studio to begin with and have been working together for a long time it was a painless transition, and we’re in touch with each other every day via phone, IM and email.

As far as location is concerned… We’re currently spread out all over the UK with people in Sheffield, London (me) and the South-East — and have no problems whatsoever with being available for clients (we can easily meet them at their offices), and the luxury of working from home is second to none. Location these days is not important. With a proper internet connection and a phone you can work for anyone, anywhere at any time.

The theme of the CR issue was largely inspired by the excellent Studio Culture book from Unit Editions (Tony Brook+Adrian Shaughnessy). Its quite an interesting topic to discuss, partly because of the inherit voyeuristic tendency we have to have a peek into other people’s work place, but also to see how they actually work… and there seem to be largely 2 categories: the ultra-clean white Vitra/Vitsœ setup (Modernism by numbers?), or the Ikea/2nd hand/whatever works interior that kind of organically grows over the years.

Personally I’d love to one day have a wall covered in Vitsœ shelving — although Mrs M is an advocate for the democratic Billy book case. When reading about other studios and looking at photos of their work environment its always pretty obvious that the ones with all the high spec “design must-haves” impress you first time round, but on second thought they all look a bit soulless at times. And while I like some of that clinical minimalism, I personally prefer a bit of organized chaos. And Mrs M has a keen eye to combine Modern with Vintage or Ikea, to create an environment that looks alive. Even now, after more than 10 years of having worked at, and seen, different work space setups I still haven’t found my “perfect” work environment at home.
I’m pretty happy with how my work space has been for the past 3 years (constantly evolving), but there’s always that nagging “Hmm, how about a bigger desk? Should I get that extra shelving?”. But then I get rightly told of by Mrs M who has a more practical eye on things and keeps me in check while I try to convince her that maybe one Vitsœ unit in the office wouldn’t hurt ;).

First of all, there’s nothing wrong with the portfolio CMS. For most its an incredibly useful (and timesaving) tool to publish their work online in a structured and direct manner, foregoing unnecessary visual clutter for a focus on content.

But.

What started as something that grew out of a personal need (Daniel Eatock needing a system for his portfolio, and then releasing it to the world as Indexhibit) has become the goal in itself it seems. Your portfolio is only as good as the CMS you’re using. Me? Yes, I have accounts at Cargo and Krop — but I still have to use them. The reason why I don’t want to make the jump is because despite the qualities of both systems there would be more focus on the fact that its a Cargo or Krop portfolio instead of a Muller portfolio. See what I’m getting at?

When Indexhibit was launched, it felt like a real invisible tool that would allow you to publish your work: no fussy styling, no branding — just the work. With each subsequent system that gets launched the CMS branding becomes more prominent, taking focus away from the work. The success of Indexhibit sparked a trend of portfolio systems, some hosted (Cargo, Krop, Behance,…), others where you need to put in some extra work (Indexhibit, Core,…), with people racing to get private beta invites (yes, guilty as charged) to see what the fuss is about. While some systems make perfect sense —Krop is a job board, so why not integrate a portfolio, and Cargo grew out of a modular gallery system — while I get the feeling others are being created as a means in itself. Is it the new black?

Is it because designers are inherently curious about new technologies & services, or are we just being trend whores who want to be able to say “Oh yeah, I host my portfolio on the XXXX system” and hop from system to system — which kind of defeats the purpose of using them in the first place…

The project turned out to be an online art installation as part of the advertising campaign for Diesel’s new fragrance Only The Brave.
The concept consisted of virtual rooms where the invited designers interpreted the concept behind the fragrance — “Do you have what it takes?” — that is key to the product and the campaign. After working out a schedule I committed to the 2nd wave of the site, to be launched in June.

One thing that attracted me to the project was that we (the invited designers) were given complete artistic freedom. While we were free to incorporate campaign visuals I decided to stay clear of them feeling that using the brand imagery would be too easy — and given the artistic carte-blanche I saw this as an excuse to use Diesel as a platform to show off my work. Of course Diesel uses my work as a platform to speak to its (no doubt painfully hip) consumer base so I guess we’re somewhat even.

When I started on the project I had recently finished work on the Omega Code poster, and found myself wanting to explore that type of “space noise” graphics (for lack of a better description) further, and felt there could be an interesting contrast between the slick fragrance campaign and abstract, glitchy visuals. It was important however to avoid the all too common trap of designing for design’s sake and create images without meaning.

While doing image research (yes, looking at NASA imagery) I realized that the epitome of “having what it takes/are you brave enough” is being an astronaut: being shot in space strapped on top of a rocket into a vacuum, only wearing a space suit, knowing that even the smallest slip-up can be fatal. I felt that using the theme of space exploration as an interpretation of the fragrance concept was really interesting (and a bit left field), and it gave me the opportunity to continue exploring the “space noise” graphics without it being superficial.

Now that I had a fully realized idea, I focussed my attention on vintage NASA audio/video footage of Apollo missions, initially looking for interesting radio crackle and more generic soundscapes to create a nondescript audio track for my room. In the meantime I drafted in my brother Tim to collaborate on the project. I felt his abstract 3D images would fit perfectly with what I had in mind, so we started to run through some tests to find the right tone of image:

Early image tests

Important, to me at least, was to capture the lo-fi graininess of vintage video and the sense of wonder when seeing strange alien vistas from space — so typical of old NASA footage. It wasn’t until I ended up at Apollo 15 footage that everything clicked into place, when I heard the the quote of Astronaut David R. Scott, Commander of the Apollo 15 Lunar Mission:

“As I stand out here in the wonders of the unknown at Hadley, I sort of realize there is a fundamental truth to our nature. Man must explore.

And this is exploration at its greatest!”

That quote, (luckily not as well known as the famous Neil Armstrong line) synthesized perfectly what I was trying to articulate.

Check out this video on the Apollo 15 mission, scrub to 5.20 in to hear Scott utter his famous words:

After having found a proper audio transcript of the mission that I could edit it was pretty much plain sailing: Tim created a series of abstract space images which I edited together in after effects, adding HUD graphics (which, incidentally, are taken from Apollo mission checklist documents), glitches and the audio to create a 35 second video loop for our room on the Diesel site which we apply named Man Must Explore:

Check out the full room on the Only The Brave site, and you can check out hi-res image stills on Flickr.

• Hellboy — The Wild Hunt #6 (of 8) (Dark Horse Comics)
• B.P.R.D. 1947 #3 (Dark Horse Comics)
• Sir Edward Grey: Witchfinder #3 (of 5) (Dark Horse Comics)
• Fantastic Four #570 (Marvel Comics)
• Ultimate Armor Wars #1 (Marvel Comics)
• Ultimate Avengers #2 (Marvel Comics)
• Captain America Reborn #3 (of 5) (Marvel Comics)
• KICK-ASS #7 (Marvel/ICON)
• Giant-Size Wolverine #1 (Marvel Comics)
• Batman and Robin #3, 4 (DC Comics)
• Hellblazer #259 (DC/Vertigo Comics)
• No Hero #7 (Avatar Press)
• The Darkness/PITT #2 (Image Comics)
• Hotwire #4 (Radical Publishing)

I just got an email from my friends at Mekanik Strip, one of the coolest comic shops in Europe (where I had the pleasure of working and spending money at the same time!), that they are hosting the first solo European exhibit of underground artist extraordinaire Glenn Barr starting later this month!

So here is the cut & paste info bit. Feel free to spread this news far and wide —

Painter, illustrator Glenn Barr ( Detroit, US) is one of the most celebrated and succesful underground artists of the moment.
His paintings have appeared in galleries from Seattle, Melbourne and San Francisco to New York.
Glenn Barr’s paintings revolve around myths of the city. The dark side of city life, the laneways, clubs and secret interiors are the backdrop to his world.
Glenn Barr’s work is therefore mentioned being the visual equivalent of a David Lynch film.
 
Barr’s work has been featured in a variety of comics and graphic novels such as Mad, DC comics and Paradox press.
His contribution to animation include background styling for the Ren & Stimpy show, Bjork’s ‘ ” I miss you ” video and the new Woody Woodpecker show.
 
Barr’s paintings have been reproduced in art journals like Juxtapoz, Erotica and Film Threat magazine.
 
Glenn Barr will be exhibiting at mekanik gallery, Antwerp.
‘Haunted Paradise‘ is his first solo expo in Europe.
 
Opening night ‘ Haunted Paradise ‘, September  25th,  2009.
 
Haunted Paradise
art show, Glenn Barr
25 September – 30 October 2009
 
Galerie Mekanik
st. Jacobsmarkt 73
Antwerp, Belgium
+32 3 234 234 7
 
Info: Linda Torfs +32 (0)478 294 685