A few days ago ShellsuitZombie (along with Paris-based Triangle Mag and italian blog FrizziFrizzi) was invited out by Vice Magazine to a beautiful city on the outskirts of Venice, Bassano, to visit the HQ of 55DSL, a streetwear company founded by the son of Renzo Rosso, the guy at the head of Diesel.
Andrea Rosso, unwilling to accept a job in his fathers company, chose to take his own path producing a line of clothing inspired by surf skate and snow and with emphasis on collaboration with exciting artists, designers and photographers. The company is now 16 years old and has stores in 22 countries around the world. Not bad eh.
Upon arrival we were immediately treated to traditional italian food (meatballs and lasagne ftw) before getting our hands on the SS2012 55DSL collection. A collection of their collaborations including Will Bryant and Gavin Watson continue the long line of artists and creatives 55DSL have worked with and supported during their time – not only a refreshing change to the nameless tees of rival brands but also a nod to the keen eye of Andrea, who (along with his design team) select each artist personally. After pocketing some clobber we had a chat about the brand before heading off to Bassano to stand on the bridge and sip a delicious local drink called Mezze mezze*.
After that we had a long and delicious dinner before a grappa to send us to bed. My hotel-mate, a lovely blogger from Triangle Mag in Paris, then stayed up until 4am writing articles for her ‘day job’. Not me, it had been a long day.
You can keep your pop-up calvados and chutney tasting bar, constructed entirely from reclaimed tamagochis, I’m going here:
Currently addicted to British Pathé’s Youtube channel and website. In the early 1900s, the company was one of the first to make short news and lifestyle video bulletins to be played in cinemas around the country – at a time when cinema attendance was at it’s highest ever. Now their free online archive provides us with a time-warp to a bygone era where everything was brightly coloured and slightly camp (and provides them with a tidy income through licensing). The 90,000 videos on the site are quite overwhelming but there are some absolute peaches in there if you care to dig.
Howdy, so we’ve been keeping a slight radio silence over the last week or two, but don’t think we’ve been resting on our laurels, oh no. In fact we went … up north. I know. Like, further than Watford even. In a mad few days with D&AD we visited Newcastle and Leeds, holding portfolio crits, workshops and the odd lecture (like above yeah?).
We met some cracking students from unis spanning the breadth and length of the North (and bits of Scotland), even learning what an interactive media course gets up to (there’s some mind-boggling work coming out of Northumbria this year) and witnessing a guy spit his gum on another person’s iPad (mid Angry Birds), pick it up, pop it back in his gob and wander off down the train. Waste not want not.
We’ll follow this post with a couple of the students we met whose work shone, but rest assured the state of design education in the North is very much alive and kicking (and it’s WELL CHEAP!).
Everyone’s talking about China. It is fascinating to see how their culture is evolving. The video above is about the growing skate culture in Shanghai. There’s some nice skate fooootage and a decent soundtrack, but it really gets interesting when you find out about the skaters’ struggle to overcome pressures from home and traditional values so that they can express themselves and pursue their passion.
The second film is the one that they show at Tate Modern to accompany Ai Weiwei’s Sunflower Seeds (highly recommended – there til May). The decaying, impoverished town and traditional methods used to mould and paint the porcelain seeds show a very different side to China compared with the futuristic cityscape and rebellion of the skaters. Also, the recent demolition of Weiwei’s studio shows that things aren’t all free and easy in Shanghai.
KK Outlet‘s commemorative plate set – available later this month.
Before we get into the meat of 2011′s posts I thought I’d share just a few of the bits and bobs floating about on the internet that we have particularly enjoyed over the festive period, just as a way to break us into the new year and get through January with a giggle or two. So here’s a round-up of some of the stuff we’ve spotted. Many of you may have seen some or all of these before but we figure all of them are worth repeat viewing.
Monster, from Kanye West’s brilliant new album ‘My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy‘, performed by the cast of Sesame Street.
‘Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse…
We’ve made it our new years resolution to bring you even more events, print and web stuff in 2011, including issue 2 of our magazine, tour dates around the UK and another appearance at D&AD’s New Blood. It’s gonna be busy…
So without further ado, please enjoy this cracking christmas special from Clean Bandit (including an enviable sprout hat) and have a jolly old time over the festive period.
Last week, after a memorable trip up north, we held our London VS event. The industry team made a resurgence, however the overall victory still went to the Grads, winning 109-102 with standout performances especially in the drawing competitions. We managed to once again give away lots of prizes for such bizarre reasons as pegging, drawing vegetable-based superheroes, dance-offs, getting Stephen Seagal to endorse Aldi by doing in-store butchery and playing an R-rated game of Richard and Judy’s Midday Money. Cracking music from Dave Rudnick, flowing beers, foam shapes and yet more hand-drawn willies allowed everyone to get acquainted fully. Super.
Yes, that’s blood. At our Liverpool VS event, Stockport student Ashley attached 35 clothes pegs to his face in order to win a copy of Vice magazine’s new book (reviewed below). We didn’t suggest he put them up his nose, and even a basic knowledge of challenges of this kind would have allowed him to attach them to folds of skin, but Ashley was having none of it.
We were very happy to thrust one of our two GIVEAWAY COPIES of this brilliant book into his bloody mitt, however we have one further unsoiled copy to give away at our London event. So without further ado, here’s the challenge. If a man, woman or child (not child, it’s over 18s) can match or better this total at our London VS on the 7th of December he or she will win the other copy. Blood optional, humiliation essential.
It’s been a while since I did a proper REVIEW of something, so when a review copy of Vice Magazine‘s latest tome plopped onto my doormat it was with great gusto that I ripped it open. After admiring its sleek black and gold hardback cover and 352 uncoated pages it was in the bag and off to work. This was my first mistake.
Anyone aware of Vice as a magazine, website and online TV channel will know of their much-copied but ultra-refreshing editorial stance. No fear. No subject too far, no ‘vice’ too sordid, and as I was reminded as I opened the book for the first time ON THE BUS OPPOSITE A SMALL CHILD no detail left to the imagination. We had enjoyed the vice photo-guide to milking ones own prostate and an article on which sex is the more proficient fellator before I noticed his tiny innocent eyes peeking at the filth within. Yep, not one for the family bookshelf.
Back in the comfort and relative safety of my own house I was free to more fully explore the contents of the book. Since its media empire emerged from a small Montreal-based fanzine in the late nineties, Vice has kept a reputation for brilliant photojournalism and reportage from all corners of the globe, an achievement it flaunts proudly with articles on everything from the proponents of the northern (and horrendous) ‘Donk’ musical genre to the current collapse of Dubai’s economy and mistreatment of its construction workers. Summaries of VBS documentaries on Liberia, North Korea and the now award-winning documentary about a heavy metal band from Baghdad are interspersed with pieces on Hyponogogia (waking nightmares) and Chemical Psychedelics. A fair few of the articles I had read before but I devoured them all the same, their fury and humour fresher for being in a new format.
If you are a fan of Vice already, this is everything you would expect it to be, a collection of the most timeless, brave and often controversial articles and features from their huge collection. Interviews with Lemmy, David Lynch and Spike Jonze are interspersed with photojournalism from across the world and extracts from the infamous vice guides under the heading ‘(Don’t) Try This at Home’ – It’s a fantastic pick-up-and-read book, housing the same great content as the magazines but in a much more presentable format.
The World According to Vice retails at £20, which depending on who you are is well expensive or pretty reasonable for a ‘thing’ to be. Personally for a book of this size and quality it’s a no-brainer, if only for some cracking dinner party anecdotes (and if you’re the type of person that goes to that kind of dinner party you can definitely afford £20). Go buy it you bastards.
We at ShellsuitZombie don’t usually dabble in the seedy world of politics but a recent opportunity allowed one of our number to design a print and online publication for three of the most read political blogs in the country, Left Foot Forward (in the red corner), ConservativeHome (blue) and Lib Dem Voice (yeller). The result was LITMUS, a collaborative project co-ordinated by the Rebel Alliance, a brilliantly named (and brilliantly brilliant) team aiming to unite fans with the organisations, brands and in this case questions that matter to them.
Eighteen big hitters from across the political spectrum answered six of the toughest questions facing the UK today and the debate was opened through the three blogs as well as everyone’s favourite micro-blogging platform. Print editions are going out to all attendees at the political conferences happening this month but us normos can download the free pdf version from the LITMUS website right here.
Impress your mates, quote Chuka Umunna MP at Oceana next weekend. Dares ya.
…and it’s a shocker. I mean, the event was mega, a gruelling, intense and ultimately overwhelmingly satisfying 5 days of competitions, rickshaws, beer, chat, heat, football, films, magazine launches, curry and so much else. But this video, is, well, the haggard music splice at the end has to be heard to be believed.
Of course we could post-rationalise the decisions made when editing this piece (‘we decided to keep it fast and loose, just get it out there’ doesn’t really hold up a month later) but instead have decided to rejoice in its forthcomings, nay wrap them around ourselves like a comforting reminder that humans at their very core are fallible, no video is perfect, and we’re all insignificant blobs of matter on a dying planet etc.
Still, it’s under two minutes, it crams a lot in, it has a soundtrack that was released in the heady days of January 1995 (true that, just two months before the PS1) and arguably doesn’t bore (the longest scene is about 3 seconds).
This post comes from the heart. If you are at all interested in print, independent magazines or free bloody speech then you need to subscribe to this service; it has, quite frankly, changed my life.*
The concept of Stack is to promote independent press by sending subscribers one (or quite often several) independent rags a month. This can range from Eye (RRP £17!) to Little White Lies, Bad Idea, VNA, Anorak, the list is endless. If you’ve heard of these then you’ll know what a good deal this is, if you haven’t then you, child, are the most in need of it.
Strangely though, for me at least, it’s the other ‘free’ magazines you get with the featured title that make it all worthwhile. One example is Manzine, an outspoken reaction to mens magazines written by some of their editors. Reading-on-the-bus-kudos aside, it has helped to reinforce my confidence in the power of a print mag, however home-made – No-one else will own my copy of Manzine, I’ve spilt coffee on it and dog-eared the corners, it’s truly been a journey. I still pick it up months later and it’s as ball-splittingly hilarious as it was the day I got it.
I can’t recommend Stack enough, it’s a bundle of joy landing on your doormat every month, a constant in a world of wars, politics, doom, gloom and digital media. Plus they delivered issue one of our magazine last month, getting them a gold star in my book.
Jonny
*well maybe not changed my life but it’s definitely been the best £40 I’ve spent this year
The day has finally arrived when we can announce our print mag – 64 pages of B5 glory wrapped in an Eboy original limited-edition-for-this-magazine-only illustration which also extends onto a B3 poster (included for free, naturally) all for £2.50. It’s taken tiiime to get to this stage and we’re über-excited to bring this beast to life.
The launch party is being held at our stand at the D&AD New Blood fair at the Truman Brewery on the 26th of this month (Saturday innit) – get there for 5.30 to ensure you get some of the booze. At 7 we will then trundle of for a curry and a serious pub sesh.
If you’re keen, check our facebook event here – If you can’t make it do not fear, there will be plenty left to pick up a copy at your leisure from our shop or from various other outlets. If you sign up to Stack by the end of the month you even get it for free!
Some of the topics covered:
Cake, ITV’s Gladiators, paid placements, Eboy, Glug, Moustaches, Haikus, “Industry-ready?”, Adrian Shaughnessy on lobsters in shoes, rickshaws, nudity, FFFFUUUU, Are D&AD any good at pool?, creative tics, idea vs execution, mums on Facebook and much much more. We’re so proud of it, we put our name on it.
