kevindiepart

[kevindiepart]

St. Vincent - Carriageworks, Sydney - 17/6/2018

I almost feel bad for only going to gigs for big artists. As if I’m not a real concert goer if I don’t support my local scene. Whatever, our next big hitter is St. Vincent!

I hold her as an important figure in expanding what I thought of the musician’s role is as an artist. I first discovered her music as a YouTube suggestion for something else, maybe a 4AD music video. 'Digital Witness - St. Vincent’. Interesting. The lady in the thumbnail had wild curly hair that shot up and outward as if lightning had struck it white with shades of lavender. Curious, I clicked on the link and have been obsessed ever since then.

Starting with her third album 'Strange Mercy’ in 2011, Annie Clark has created new aesthetics for her alter-ego, crafting new costumes, choreography, stage designs, music videos, and visual languages to enhance each album and turn the St. Vincent experience into an event with gravitas and mystery. Though she’s not the first and certainly takes inspiration from glam rockers and pioneers such as David Bowie and Nick Cave, she’s the first artist to make me think about how you can expand upon a single element and adapt it into many forms to provide a journey and elevate your art form. Adding importance and mystery is definitely something I’ve tried to instil into my design and artwork. The next step of the 'MASSEDUCTION' experience was to see her live.

I arrived in Sydney a day early to hang out with the friend I was going to see St. Vincent with. As tourists to the city, we walked in and out of the city all the way into the last night of Vivid. I met some of her friends and we had a wonderful time. It was so much fun that we didn’t really do anything to special to prepare for Sunday night. Lazing around at her grandma’s house, we watched Queer Eye season 2, a lot of Michael Jackson music videos and walked around the neighbourhood until it was time to go. Not the way I would have imagined the day going but it’s how it happened! I had stayed here the night before and it was an interesting experience being in another person’s home. Like Borat in the Jewish bed and breakfast or like the whole film Get Out. We decided to have dinner at home with her nan around 5:30 and made our way to the station around 6. It was odd hearing a grandma talk so vividly with her granddaughter. They would be super sarcastic towards each other and complain about topics in a conversational way super foreign to me. My culture doesn't really foster relationships with parents further from their inherited parental responsibilities and roles. There was little hierarchy to the three of us in that house. For example, my friend's nan didn't hesitate to roast me for a few mistakes I made throughout the weekend. Something that would have remained seated in judgement in an asian family maybe. Very interesting.

We rolled into Redfern station and proceeded took a 10 minute walk towards the Carriageworks. The biting cold made it feel like longer, slowing down our pace. Luckily as we pulled ourselves closer towards the venue it was a relief to find that it would be enclosed. A former trainworks station, the Carriageworks large industrial pillars and bare concrete flooring serendipitously made for an excellent pairing with new-age hipsters awaiting St.Vincent’s cutting pop art performance. Beers, beards, and brickworks.

We had about 45 minutes to pass until the short film that Annie Clark directed for 2017’s 'XXX’ -a horror anthology featuring female only directors- screened as a 'support act’. I bought a drink and chatted with my friend for what felt like 10 minutes until something started. It was the first time I had been able to chat through a wait at a concert. Usually things get dull enough that I have to remark on the background music, so this was great. Put me in a great mood to see St. Vincent.

The short film was titled 'The Birthday Party’ and centres on the moments before a young child’s birthday party in a rich near-future suburban neighbourhood. The main character is the child's mum who discovers that her husband has overdosed on his medication and alcohol and goes through some hijinks trying to remove his body. It was a funny way to watch a short film, standing with a huge crowd fixed to a screen. Seemed Orwellian. It’s shot well and has a great stage design reminiscent of the aesthetic for her latest album. Without stating it outright, the film clues in audiences to the type of society the short film is in from the hair styles, decor, and conversation topics. It’s probably the smartest part of the film. Unfortunately the movie fails to convince the audience of a genuine threat nor terrifying consequences. The mum’s attempts to hide the body are comical and if the husband’s body were to be uncovered, it would be mildly uncomfortable at best to watch the mum try to explain her motivations for moving his body all over the house.

Throughout the movie there’s a party planner that helps to keep the child happy and the party on schedule. She’s posed to be a suspicious character and at one points comes close to uncovering the big secret. I feel like more tension and intrigue could have been created by giving the party planner sinister motivations, revealing that she killed the husband and the wife then uncovers the reason why, maybe pitting her against the party planner. I don’t know. Anything could have been added. I wouldn't mind seeing more from St. Vincent, hopefully this experience will improve future projects! The average short film didn’t take away from the power of her actual performance though.

Monents after the short film ended, the lights went down and the left partition of the curtains pulled back. St. Vincent emerged into the spotlight with the iconic pink latex bodysuit, fluffy armbands, and a microphone clutched in both hands. She seduced the whole crowd with a soul-bearing rendition of 'Marry Me’ backed by string based orchestral redux of the original that stunned the crowd. A man with a black beanie pulled over his head rushed in from the left to pass St. Vincent her guitar as the sing ended. Throughout the set either he or women dressed up in black suits with holes cut out to expose their butts and taped up nipples would step out of the shadows with neon pink heels and hand St. Vincent her guitars. The dominatrix roadies were pretty cool!

After she performed two songs from the first album, the curtains pulled back further and St. Vincent took position in a second station and rocked through two songs from that album. I was super happy she played 'Actor Out of Work’, a thumping mental descent of a song that I was obsessed with when I first discovered her music. I was also ecstatic to hear ‘Birth in Reverse’ in person as I had tried to learn that song for ages on guitar and was finally able to see it done by the pro herself.

After wrapping up one album she moved onto another station until she had run a neat splice of her back catalogue, curtains closing to signal the end of the first part. On returning, St. Vincent changed into a flashy green tights with elastic green arm warmers and proceeded to play her new album in full and in order. From having listened to the album so many times, this last part felt like it went by so fast! It was nice knowing that some of the outliers from the new album would be played such as ‘Slow Disco’, ‘Smoking Section’, and ‘Happy Birthday, Johnny’. These slower pieces showed off her wonderful singing voice and provided nice breaks in the set.

‘It’s not the end’ cried out across the venue, an ironic line to finish the concert on but it was the right one, stripped back of her guitar and backed only by a slow beat and some strings, it was like a veiled message saying that there is always more to come, whether in the now of the concert, or in life. The moments you remember aren’t usually the concert but the in, around, before, and after. Despite waiting four years for this concert, down the line I may only remember the conversations of that weekend, the sights we saw, and the moments alone by myself in a stranger’s home.

After the show ended, my friend and I turned around to leave the venue and a young lady behind us looked at me and said ‘I was looking at you dancing throughout the set and was really impressed! You were really getting into it!’. Things like that are incredible.

Setlist

Marry Me

Now Now

Actor Out of Work

The Strangers

Cruel

Cheerleader

Strange Mercy

Digital Witness

Rattlesnake

Birth in Reverse

Intermission/Costume Change

Hang on Me

Pills

Masseduction

Sugarboy

Los Ageless

Happy Birthday, Johnny

Savior

New York

Fear the Future

Young Lover

Dancing With a Ghost

Slow Disco

Smoking Section

[kevindiepart]

A tribute to #toiletpapermagazine that I had stuck in my head for the longest time and finally now had the time to get out. Onto the next one. . . . #illustration #illustrator #art #adobe #lineart #vector #evilvultures #kevindiep #hands #gesture #drawing #vectoeillustration #instaart

[kevindiepart]

Finally! I can properly show everyone this uni assignment I've been working on. I used my last.fm listening data - that many of you may have seen - and visualised it! I'm really happy with it though I apologise for how 'emo' it is haha. I was grasping at straws to make analysis for this assignment. Please have a look! Link is in the bio!!! 👃 . . . #informationdesign #graphicdesign #canberradesign #unicanberra #music #data #lastfm #albums #stvincent #ballparkmusic #beck #lcdsoundsystem #magazine #publicationdesign

[kevindiepart]

Ready Player One Review

I did a review that was published on Curieux! Check it out!

http://www.curieux.com.au/featured/review-ready-player-one/

I think RPO is getting slammed more than it should be. Give this a read and see how you feel.

Thanks y’all

[kevindiepart]

Beck at The Royal Theatre Canberra - February 26 2018

(This review could be considered a companion piece to my experience at The Enmore Theatre featuring Ball Park Music, Ali Barter, and some rowdy patrons. That review focuses on the behaviour of a younger crowd and what I learned from that.) It had been seven years since Beck last dropped by Australia, a gap of time so long apparently that he thought to reach out even to his most remote fans in our hometown of Canberra. It’s an unprecedented move by an artist of his caliber. Canberra is usually reserved for artists who have retired from making music and are happy to just play it. I’d consider Beck to still be a super popular working artist. I mean he headlined Sydney City Limits! An offshoot of the very esteemed Austin City Limits in Texas, USA.

When he announced this sideshow I was quick to buy tickets and create my hecknbeck playlist to amp myself up for the following months. One issue that plagued my.mind through the wait was what attendance would be like. Beck is popular but like 90's popular. He's not popular with the Triple J Smith Street Band dawgs of this day and age. His fans from the 90s were now in their late 40s or 50s. That had me a bit worried. I’m not scared of old people, that would be pretty funny. Instead, my worry came from the first experience I had with an older crowd, Sleater-Kinney at the Sydney Opera House, 2015.

Sleater-Kinney is a punk indie rock riot grrrl force of nature formed in 1994. Born in the feminist rock scene of Olympia, Washington, their music heavily relies on the energy of the crowd to strengthen their performance. They speak of equality, mental health, womanhood, motherhood, and sometimes political matters. It’s hard to shout and protest passionately about these subjects this to an audience of sitting ducks. You don’t want to continue if they won’t respond the way you need them to. That was exactly the case in The Sydney Opera House.

      Whatever part we were in, (the main stage/hall? I’ve only been there once) required seating. Standing was prohibited and guards would come and sit you back down if you even tried. The teenagers from the 90s had grown up and we’re now responsible adults who desired to sit down and respect the rules of the Opera House. This means that the respectful fans didn’t move out of their seats until halfway through the show where Corin Tucker subtly called us out. I think Sleater-Kinney, a band of 24 years, would have played to every type of crowd, but unless the artist tells me it’s fine, I always feel bad for them. If you came down from the states to Australia, you’d expect the sold-out crowd to go mad. Nope. I can’t imagine that they don’t feel even the tiniest bit of disappointment. Despite buying a $7 Crown Lager as my first bottle of alcohol, it was a great night and a good gig. Beck to the future now.

If the stiff crowd didn’t worry me, then the attendance certainly did. It was spread out enough for everyone to feel self-conscious and stay still during Meg Mac’s set. She performed well, but you knew everyone there was just waiting for Beck. That was my justification for why they weren’t moving, sure, that sounds believable. Even then, there was this older woman next to me that was dumbfounding. Planted like a tree, she stood her ground and either crossed her arms during Beck or kept them in her pockets. If the song was up to her heaven high standards, she would occasionally join in with us plebs and clap at the end of a song. She was even like this through his most popular songs! The people you find at concerts are great.

Beck came on alone with an acoustic guitar in hand. He engaged the crowd in some small chit-chat and conversation. His comments on an exhausted old man that he passed on a particularly empty Lake Burley Griffin were a highlight of the show. Makes you wonder if you would have recognised a famous artist if they were just walking around the lake too. After this he played a little rendition of Prince’s ‘Raspberry Beret’ and ‘Debra’, sliding in lines referencing this wild ‘Monday night in Canberra’ throughout the song.

In Talking Heads style, he brought out the band one by one and they played through slower pieces from Morning Phase and Sea Change. They were pretty good though I wasn’t very familiar with those songs. After he finished he brought the concert into 'Level 3’ with a biting and harsh rendition of ‘Devil’s Haircut’. This set the mood for the rest of the set as he played hits ranging from ‘Mellow Gold’ up to his latest album ‘Colors’. It was spectacular to see songs of such a different time and culture played with a new energy in a foreign environment. Hearing Beck refer to us as he’s ‘Guero’s’ is pretty surreal. Can’t imagine what it was like for the older fans too. Maybe it reminded them of their younger days listening to Beck. Who knows if when I am of their age if I’ll still be dancing and prancing around with the same energy I have now. A lot can change from now until then. 6 years ago I distinctly remember thinking to myself on a ride back from school ‘Man, I hope I never stop listening to the Red Hot Chili Peppers. They’re so good, I’ll love them forever.’ I was really determined to not be lame in the future but I gave up/forgot somewhere along the way. I still listen to the Chili Peppers though, along with a boatload of new and different acts. I’m definitely not the same person I was back then, nor even three years ago. I can see big changes to myself from last year’s version of me too. I look forward to seeing how I enjoy music in the future. Hopefully with more money and better headphones.

They say your back also hurts a lot in your thirties. That’s probably that main issue.

Setlist:

Everybody's Got to Learn Sometime (The Korgis cover)

Raspberry Beret (Prince cover)

Debra (interlaced with dank Canberra references)

LEVEL 2:

Lost Cause

Say Goodbye

Heart Is a Drum

Blackbird Chain

LEVEL 3!:

Devils Haircut

Black Tambourine

The New Pollution

Think I'm in Love (interpolated with Donna Summer’s I Feel Love )

Qué Onda Güero

Mixed Bizness

Go It Alone

I'm So Free

Colors

Wow

Soul of a Man

Loser

Dreams

E-Pro

Encore:

Up All Night

Where It's At (Beck led the band into an intermission)

One Foot in the Grave

[kevindiepart]

UPDATE to the Ball Park Music review

Don’t be afraid of trying something new, whether you fail or succeed, you will have gained an interesting experience/friendship/moment that couldn’t have happened had you stayed in your comfort zone. That’s what I told myself while drumming up that Ball Park Music review. I’m a terrible writer and my friends in college would attest to that. Those same friends will attest that this was a pretty fun review though! At the end I thought that maybe it could be published on a blog/magazine. I seriously thought it was that special lol. Shot out a few emails and nobody picked it up for good reason lol. It made a few friends laugh though which is more than anything I could ask for. Just when I was about to move on, a message pulled me back in.

So a few weeks ago, I was invited to an impromptu dinner for a friend who had left university and was entering the workforce full-time! A bit of a weird occasion for a get-together, but he was accepted into a position in his field of study. I don’t think I need to say much to convey how much of an achievement this is, but if you have to know, a big celebration calls for big cellar-brations. To appropriately farewell my friend into adolescence, we bought 5 cases of Vodka Cruisers and Lime Cordial. Purchasing that amount at the age of 20 in a backed up Aldi queue is euphoric. We’ve never been ID’d so hard.

So the night is going well, I had cooked up some truly terrible steaks for my friends and everyone had cautiously waded their way through each piece. It was a great night. Usually, I wouldn’t check my phone in a social situation, but my phone was rock ln rollin’ quite a bit. I flip it over and to my surprise, it’s a bunch of Instagram messages.

Weird.

I open it up and they’re from a someone I don’t recognise. Could this have to do with my art? Maybe they want a commission or just want to say hi.

“Hey man. I’m one of the guys you mentioned in your blog post about ball park and I really don’t appreciate it. I think it’s quite a rude depiction of me”

Holy heck.

I take a look at their profile picture and sure enough, he was one of the two-man mosh dawgs I was standing next to in the crowd! I could never forget that face. Green stripy shirt, curly hair. His mate was wearing a Hawaiian shirt and baseball cap. What were the chances?

I didn’t want to disrespect my mates, but I had to deal with this now. If I could, I would talk to every one of the people I had complained about in my Ball Park Music review. They’re not evil people, they just like to have fun in a different way from me and I wanted to know why. If this was the type of conversation I wanted to have, I had to make sure the other person wanted to as well.

Who knows if he was serious or not. He had directly messaged me so I assumed he was genuinely offended. I apologised and acknowledged how he felt. Don’t deny people their feelings. At the same time, I would defend my position while opening up an opportunity for him to tell his side.

I was pretty nervous, I mean he was about 250km away but still, I don’t want to piss off another human being. He replied

 ‘Nah dw I’m just messing with you. I don’t really care that much. Tbh it’s funny that I found you.’

 I think a few years ago I would have approached this conversation with more anger and hostility. It’s easy to see how wrong another person might be and defend yourself. This way, we actually had a decent chat about the matter and he explained that two-man moshing is a thing he and his mate do depending on the gig. Ball Park Music and Ali Barter aren’t exactly bands I could mosh to but I saw his point. One thing I couldn’t ignore was the disregard for younger patrons around these two. There were parents, children and some girls that I felt bad for so I asked him about that. Now he said that they try to find bigger guys before the gig starts so that they can properly mosh, but I’m not sure if that was honestly practiced. Either way, it was wonderful to get a response. He even complimented the review and enjoyed the fact that I had complained about him. That doesn’t mean I’ll start complaining about people more though.

Happy, I closed my phone and came back to my mates. One of them was shoving a gross video in the face of the others. He had found it the day before and planned to display it as the second objective of this dinner.

You may think that this whole experience was meaningless and stupid, but it’s small things like these that I really enjoy. Do what you like and productive things will happen.

[kevindiepart]

ENDS 19/3!. Hey hope everyone's well! These shirts are only on sale for TWO MORE DAYS! Take a peek at the link in the bio. i hope you like them! Thanks everyone. . . . #shirts #street #fashion #cbrdesign

[kevindiepart]

Well here was what was going to be my entry for the Phoenix's new logo competition. Didn't figure out how to vectorize it in time! Still v happy with it. . . . #phoenix #drawing #photoshop #cbrdesign #art #bird #fantasy #thephoenixbar #lineart #digitalart #fire

[kevindiepart]

Hey everyone! Due to recent demand I will be taking ordere for Large Evil Vulture shirte for ONE WEEK. Woooo! At the end of that week shirts will be ordered and then shipped. I've also released a new shirt featuring our fav the quadratic formula. It'll make you look super sleek. Link in the bio. . . . #shirt #evilvultures #cbrdesign #streetwear #fashion #math #supreme (at Australian Capital Territory)

[kevindiepart]

Ball Park Music at Enmore Theatre - 9 March 2018

I was never the person to push to the front of a concert for the most 'complete' experience. While I do enjoy being close, I've finally learned what so many others before me already have, and that's to stay a good distance from young ones at the front.

My cousin and I entered the Enmore Theatre a part of the way through Hatchie's final song. She was the second support act for Ball Park Music. Following her was Ali Barter, and she was going to be on soon so we felt the need to get into through to the front. It was so roomy in the front that many of the patrons actually sat in circles to reserve their spots. That was definitely new to a lil‘ Canberran me. The carpeted floors of Enmore do allow it and we had heard that people lined up from 6pm to get in. Gotta rest those legs for the rest of the night!

We made our way to the front comfortably and were immediately exposed to a checklist of the worst behaviour you could find at a concert.

‘Aww yeah sorry mate, my friend is over there, I have to get to him' dawgs.

'Oh hey where are you girls from? How old are you so i can be creepy?' dawgs.

'Let's two-man mosh, I'll push you into those guys when the right song comes on' dawgs.

'I'm going to suck the soul from your face' couples.

The 'lets remove our underage wristbands and markings so we can get crunkcoco' dawgs.

'Oi i see a parting about 3 atoms wide, stank squad assume formation and move in' dawgs.

The 'let's sing that 'hey baby hoo haa i wanna know if you'll be my girl' song cause we're wild' dawgs.

'They're only the support who cares' dawgs.

That last one is especially important as my cousin and I were trying to jam out to Ali Barter, yet the conversations around us drowned her out. How’s that possible? It didn't help that The Enmore is quite wide and we were in a gap where the speakers didn't project too well. That probably affected our perception of Ali Barter as she played well, but to us the crowd and an uneven setlist let her down. (Research showed me that other reviewers praised Ali Barter so the crowd around me definitely had an effect.) Starting out with 'Please Stay' would be alright in a headlining show, in fact it was cool when I saw her last year in Canberra, but in a supporting slot it caused the crowd to tune out. At the same time, I was about to tune out my open palm into the backside of these two kids that wanted to mosh so bad because they needed a power trip. My cousin offered to scout out the back to see how it compared to the front and report back. I think she didn’t want to ruin my experience which was v generous, but we both had had enough of the front row antics and quickly tumble-turned backstroked away from the front.

We placed ourselves just in front of a railing in the centre-back of the floor. Luckily, and bless whoever designed it this way, the Enmore Theatre's floor slopes down the closer you get to the front until it's flat. In our position, we were elevated just above the head height of the crowd. We could see the whole stage and its beautiful arrangement. We were also well spaced and comfortable with the well-adjusted people around us. We were also about to experience the best concert I've seen by Ball Park Music.

Now I've given the tweens a bad rap in this piece. I was their age 3-5 years ago so it feels hypocritical of me to separate myself entirely from them. Due to how close we are in age though, I could see two things that positively contributed to the show. Energy and enthusiasm. It's hard to empathise with the dawgs who started making out with some underage girl at the front, or the two-man mosh boys, but I appreciate how they can make a party feel like a party. From the minute Ball Park Music stepped on stage, those miscreants gave them their all. It's always a bummer when you know an artist deserves more attention and the crowd is too busy with their hands in their pockets, so it was nice to see that on their 400th show the reception was phenomenal.

They played a good arrangement of hits from their catalogue, it didn't feel like a supporting tour for GOOD MOOD (2018) honestly. At one point they prefaced a song by teasing that they haven't played this particular song from Museum (2012) in a long time. I thought my lifelong dream since I first discovered BPM in 2014 was about to come true. They would finally play 'Bad Taste Blues Part Two' live. Nah big jk. Just 'Cost of Lifestyle'. That and the exclusion of Pariah make it not my favourite setlist from them. It was by far my favourite performance by them though.

Usually, an artist has to work up the crowd til they're finally moving and jumping 5 songs in or something? Ball Park had me going ham from the beginning. Especially during their song 'Hands Off My Body', a B-52s-esque banger. 'Happy Healthy Citizen of the Developed World Blues' closed out the night with confetti cannons and a reminder from lead singer Sam Cromack of the journey the band took to get here. This amazing song was so different from the rest of Happiness and Surrounding Suburbs (2011) poppy material and alluded to the grand ambition of Ball Park Music's sound and depth today. This was all the way back in 2011!

Here's to 400 more shows and a movie. Despite the hiccups, it was a beautiful show. After all, 'The Perfect Life Does Not Exist'.

EDITED for less vulgar language lol

[kevindiepart]

A little design idea I did a few weeks ago during class for @annaisaburch 's new album #quitthecurse . I love those words together so I wanted to make something that looks like it could be slapped on an album cover. I'll try to develop it in the future! Check out her album friends . . . #cbrdesign #art #design #graphicdesign #logodesign #annaburch #music #pen #pencil #albumart #indierock #typography

[kevindiepart]

Week 2: Personality Test yuck

Homework: Discuss your personality type on your blog answering the following questions: What personality type are you? Who else (famous people) share this personality type with you? Did the results of this test surprise you? Do you agree with your personality assessment (why/why not)? How do you think your personality would fit into the workplace - (you would work better in a small studio or a large global agency, you are a manager or a team member?).

Well I took the test and apparently I’m ISTP. Apparently, we’re very hands on people and love nothing more than getting our hands dirty and tearing something apart just to figure out how it works. Me according to the internet, sounds super accurate right? I’m surprised the survey gave me this but there are some parts that are true. The strengths and weaknesses here https://www.16personalities.com/istp-strengths-and-weaknesses were pretty spot on. Now that I look at the rest of that website... it’s all fairly relatable. Not in an astrology way though. That’s stank.

Clint Eastwood, Milla Jovovich, Olivia Wilde, Bear Grylls, and Tom Cruise are ISTP personality types. Somehow I can’t imagine how Clint Eastwood or Tom Cruise and I are similar at all. Who knows.

According to the site I would be better suited in a small team or a large team at a subordinate level rather than a managerial position. I’m pretty happy with that. I don’t like the pressure of being at the top.

[kevindiepart]

Been sitting on this one for a couple of months I think, but what better time to post it. Have a hoopin valentines boys and girls. . . #valentines #valentinesday #graphicdesign #graphics #illustration #illustrator #vector #rose #kissfromarose #onthegrey #seal #hand #purple #thorns #evilvultures

[kevindiepart]

9288 Week 1: Objects of Inspiration - St. Vincent’s Art Direction (2014)

So for one of my units at uni we’ve been asked to make a blog to log our weekly activities. I’ve previously used throwaway blogs but after being shown up by a very talented classmate, I’ve decided to use my personal blog too. It’s all art and design after all so why not.

For our first week we are tasked with finding an object that inspires us as a designer and prepare a 5 minute speech about such object. I’ll just be talking briefly about it here though.

I’ve chosen to talk about the album art for St. Vincent’s fourth album, self-titled ‘St. Vincent’ from 2014.

My design philosophy partially mirrors my journey with music. The first CD I bought was MIKA’s ‘Life in Cartoon Motion’ back in 2007. Remember MIKA? It was cheesy, catchy, high-pitched and poppy. A fun way to pass the time. At this time I would say I became invested in music as surface-level entertainment. It’s not until I started learning guitar in high school where my music library expanded into rock and funk. Running the same bars over and over again, trying to hit the right frets on the guitar, double checking tablature, and listening to the same section, fooling myself thinking I was smart enough to transpose it technically invested me. A true cultural and emotional investment with the art of it came with finding St.Vincent’s album.

I was stunned by the front cover. At that point, my music taste was pretty pedestrian, I didn’t know of many albums that excluded the title and artist from the cover art. The abstract symbols laid in front of an ethereal fashion forward sci-fi queen seated on her bubble-gum throne implored me to explore further. On a rack of albums, the cover art seemed streets ahead of everyone else. I couldn’t figure out why though. Through music videos, interviews, and live performance clips, I learned that ‘Annie Clark’ had created a whole new visual aesthetic to accompany her sonic music. This involved costumes, stage design, choreography, performance, fashion, and story. There was a real culture to the album, elevating it from sound to soul.

Mysticism and culture are what I aim to imbue in my design work and it’s what drives me creatively. Whether it’s through design or illustration, creating a story with a whole integrated brand campaign to support your project adds another layer of experience that lies above pure sensory stimulation. I tried adding a bit of this to an inktober piece I did a few months ago.

Combining these senses into a coherent journey is what people remember and value the most. Especially when it comes to art. The Australian music landscape lacks the mysticism and theatrical styling similar to Bowie or Kanye West. I will say Client Liaison are doing a fantastic job though.

Design is magical and rich, not just scientific.

[kevindiepart]

Art break to post my first photogenic food post. #cheesecake #realinstagramers

[kevindiepart]

I think i’ve lost the plot, i’m writing now. . . #amplitudemag

[kevindiepart]

Mfw I feel like practicing art but I realise that I should work on trying to not be unemployed in the future. Graphic Design vs Art 😢