Studio Notes

Hello, Super Cool People. Here's issue #25 of Studio Notes—quick bits delivered to you each Friday.

🎬

I feel like Apple is on a roll with the movies and shows they're putting out these days. So I'm more apt to give their new offerings a shot over other networks. Seth Rogen's The Studio looked like an interesting take on today's Hollywood with a deep cast. The first episode was great, largely due to Martin Scorsese's role as himself. But Episode 2 stands alone as a hilarious, one-take, short film. You could simply just dive into this on its own. Without giving anything away, it may be worth your time—especially if the series continues on that level. 

☕️

Stumbled on the work of Adrian Hanft, who employs crafty, lo-fi tech to digital photography in neat ways. Specifically, his camera made out of 23,248 coffee stirrers creates some insanely artistic results. Soft of like an analog mosaic filter.

🍷

I've just placed an order for a couple of pouches of Medly Wine. Their marketing and friendly branding worked on me: Organic, zero sugar, in pouches the equivalent of 4 bottles. I'll report on how they taste when they get here. Also grabbed their stemless, tumbler-esque glasses. Chunky glass and wine should be paired more often.

🎶

Shazam really still is incredible technology. I've become a little obsessed with Labi Siffre's, Cannock Chase which I Shazam'd recently but have no recollection of where I heard it first. Probably the end credits of a random show or movie. Anyhow, I wasn't familiar with Labi's ethereal folk from the 1970s. If you're a fan of reverb-y vocals a la Fleet Foxes or My Morning Jacket, you may love this song.

What are you working on?

Had a little outpatient surgery this week (I'm fine!) so it's been a low-productive week. I did manage to make this little badge for the back printing of a little sticker. It's the little things these days, folks.

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Hello, Magnificent Subscribers. Here's issue #24 of Studio Notes—quick bits delivered to you each Friday.

🍚

Here's this week's Rice Tip™: Elevate your plain, white rice by shaking some Everything Bagel Seasoning on it. This may be my new favorite food-related hack ever, and it just sort of happened. EBS (as those in-the-know call it) was sitting there on the counter next to a pot of steamed basmati rice. Garlic, onion, salt, pepper, poppy, sesame—all of these things taste great on rice. And yes, Japan has always known this in the form of their wonderful furikake topping. 

🎵

I don't know how Love's 1967 album, Forever Changes, slipped me by. Pretty special psychedelic rock with orchestral-ish arrangements. I'm kind of blown away by this one that I overlooked for so long. Music is such a never-ending well of inspiration. Oh, and their logo by Elektra Records art director, William S. Harvey, is pretty great as well.

🕹️

My love for Atari stems from forever wanting a 2600 when I was a kid—but never getting one. Friends' houses that had Atari 2600s always seemed magical, uber rich, and futuristic. I made up for it later and now have an original 2600 sitting on a shelf above my monitor as I type this. Anyhow, flash forward to today and Atari, the company, has been rebooted and they are pumping out some incredible hardware. Here's an example: A playable, Atari 2600 wristwatch. They're also remaking brand new 2600 and 7800 systems as well as other merch, games, etc. Whoever is spearheading this revival deserves massive kudos.

📸

Photographer Ian Ruhter made an impossibly simple camera out of 2 Coke cans and a piece of photographic enlarging paper, then took a 5-day exposure of a time-lapsed landscape. The resulting print is pretty spectacular for the equipment involved. 

What are you working on?

We started doing “WIP Wednesdays” in the Secret Type Club Slack (you should join us) and this week I shared a hexnut I created from the outer shape of the SimpleBits logo's cube. I'm probably not going to swap this as a new logo, but I do like how simple it is, and the tie-in with making, building, and assembling. We'll see what happens with it.

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Hello, Bon Vivants. Here's issue #23 of Studio Notes—quick bits delivered to you each Friday.

📖

I've never used one of these, nor do I even read books all that often, but the (horrendously-named) Bookie Rookie looks like a genuinely useful product for combating hand cramping while holding a book open. Especially a thick paperback.

🦉

Here's an example of a perfectly designed website. The domain, the logo, the clear navigation, the FAQ—it is what is says it is and nothing more. May I present to you, Owls in Towels. We need more websites like this in these Dark Times.

🩸

Creative Geekery 3D-printed a working replica of The Board Speaker from Severance. He documents the meticulous process of making it a perfect match to the prop used on the show including a mini MP3 player that plays sound bites and a camera to record reactions. He then brings the finished product into the real office building where Severance is filmed in New Jersey. This rabbit hole Inspired by this Thread by Jason Beaird.

🐦

I watched Episode 1 of CNN's Breaking The Bird series about the history of Twitter. It was fun to see those early days chronicled officially with current interviews along with old photos and video from 2005/6/7. Saw a lot of familiar faces in the SXSW footage from 2007. That era, for me, was damned exciting. I had been working remotely with Ev and Biz and Rabble and Noah and Jack on the design of Odeo, A reporter from the BBC reached out a few months ago and the only story I could think to add, personally, was when I stupidly turned down an offer from the team to help design "twttr" as they were just pivoting to the idea that would later become Twitter. But I was also an early user (something like #3000) and immediately was drawn to its simplicity and being able to stay up to date with all my web design friends around the globe. This documentary series is proving to be a sad reminder of what was once an incredible service that I owe a lot of career success to.

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Hello, Design Buddies. Here's issue #22 of Studio Notes—quick bits delivered to you each Friday.

🎨

A London studio was vandalized, so the owners made a free font out of the sloppy graffiti. This is how to do revenge type! (via Secret Type Club member, Chris Perrins)

⛰️

Katie McKinstry Stylos takes used climbing rope and upcycles it into cool, colorful, outdoorsy art. What a neat use of something that's so storied and well-traveled.

📸

Brock Davis makes some stunningly simple photo art pieces. Clever and smile-inducing. The kind of content we need right about now. I'm always amazed by talented folks with a large following that offer no other info on their profile! Give me a URL to discover more :)

🎧

When my kids were babies and toddlers, I played a lot of ukulele. It was light, easily accessible, and I could noodle while they were crawling around or on my lap. I used to make up little tunes on it, and last year I was playing one of those little tunes and my son Jack (now 19) said, "Did you write that? Can you send me a recording of it?". For Christmas, he gave me a song he produced that has my little uke sample in it (he makes beats and produces underground hip hop tracks). Today, he released an EP (with the uke sample on track 4). I am a proud dad. And don't sleep on the ukulele as an easy way to tinker with music around the house.

What are you working on?

I mentioned a new sticker vendor we landed on a while back and finally have these new decals in the shop. They're decals (and not stickers) because they're higher-quality and silkscreen printed with a split backing! Important stuff, folks. You can buy them individually, or grab the new Decal + Mystery Pack where you'll get all 4 decals plus some extra mystery merch that I'll throw in for free. Decals in 2025. Earth-shaking things are happening.

Have a restful weekend!

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