Supply and Demand

Shephard Fairey author of OBEY and the ever-famous Obama "Hope" poster has a show opening this friday at the Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati. I feel like nothing with substance ever comes to the city, so I'm more than excited to see this Grafitti artist, turned clothing designer, turned contemporary artist exhibiting right here in the Queen city. The exhibition, Supply and Demand, will host 250 pieces as a retrospective covering Fairey's 20 years of work. Not to mention 4 murals that will go up throughout the city. Fairey's exhibit will be opening this Friday, the 19th of February and be up until August 2010. Get there or get lost.

Era Apparel Drop Today

So February is a lot of things to a lot of people. Black history month, another work holiday to look forward to, a birthday, my birthday. But today, was the drop of Era Apparel, a tee line, marketing guru Tiki Guerrant and myself have worked on, and off, for a year or so now. With support from friends and family, our line launched in the newly opened OTR Fresh, which houses other popular lines such as aTYP, Sucka4love, and Babylon Cartel to name few. OTR Fresh (Original Thought Required), is a street wear boutique located in Cincinnati's historic Over the Rhine district. If you're in the area, I'd recommend you check it out, and pick up a few things. Not to mention copping an Era tee.

A Design Year Salary Survey

For all of us designers we know design as a competitive sport. And even more competitive is the salary. It depends on your field, technical skill, location, and savvy shoe selection to reach your so called worth. And Coroflot has been nice enough to put together their annual salary survey to further explain what goes into determining the price paid for creative talent. I found it to be very helpful as well as comforting. They also highlight some new trends taking place in the market. By the way if you're a designer and don't check Coroflot to browse the portfolio's for inspiration and job openings for insight, you're nuts. So if you soon find yourself fighting for a raise or negotiating a salary. Take note to some of these tips, brush up on your techs, and go in there with some stats!

Rock Out the Year's End

If you're looking for some good tunes to mix it up to this New Years Eve. Maybe check out Pitchfork's Top 100 Tracks and Top 50 Albums of 2009. There are some pretty cool underground hits, as well as the radio cuts we all loved this year (cue Gucci Mane Wasted). Earlier in the year a friend of mine bypassed buying Jay-Z's Blueprint 3 to get Raekwon's Only built for Cuban Linx album, and funny thing it's listed here as number 5 on Pitchfork's list. Maybe he was onto something, personally I think they're both smoking dope. Either way, check the list, it'll give you some listening or purchase options to rock out a year and ring in a new!

Photography Kick!

Ever see something and say to yourself... Dang it! I wish I thought of that! Well I thought that about Phillip Toledano's conceptual fashion photography. Just genius. Simple, yet creative. And who doesn't love a balloon? Not me! I love balloons.

Flickr Find : Gabriela Camerotti

Bravo! to Miss Camerotti. She somehow manages to capture an eery beauty. Absolutely love it!

Chamillion-Chameleon

Chamillionaire is a rapper I hate. Some people love him, they call him a legend. Liu Bolin is a Chamillionaire I love! Think chameleon, like the animal. Not Chamillion, like an improper/ridiculous amount of money. (What is a "chamillion" anyway? someone? Do tell) Anyway, Liu Bolin has a way of blending into his surroundings. Chamillionaire has a way of clearing a room. But let's address the real artist. The former, not the latter. Bolin is a 37 year old Beijing-based artist who covers himself from head to toe to blend into his backdrop. Whether it be a landscape, a graffiti wall or a construction site; Bolin has turned himself into the "Invisible Man". Now if we could only get Chamillionaire to really disappear...

(look closely, he's in there!)