P/B Preparations

Next week we will be working on the big shoot for the full Public Bureau Inaugural Series, which will be available to order later this month. While I was sorting out the files from the previous shoot, I found this snap which was not used in the pre-campaign. I like smiles!

annakoumoushi Fall/Winter 2011-2012

This past summer I started working with Anna Koumoushi again, for her Fall/Winter campaign & her brand website. After a great couple of months and an endless series of emails always starting with something in the context of "I was thinking..." or "What if we did this.." and some of the most constructive meetings I've ever had, we came to completing the campaign and launching the annakoumoushi website.

Anna's work derives from raw emotions and simple ideas, resulting in a solid, unadulterated, uncompromised and genuine result. I guess, that's why I clicked with Anna and am able to work so well with her, we share that common conceptual and visual path, I mentioned a while back. The full project lives here.

Check out the annakoumoushi website, and while you're at it, take a peek at her blog too.

Jessica 6 - Prisoner of Love Video

Jessica 6 were a big part of my Summer soundtrack, mainly "White Horse" and "See the Light". The whole album was a big, awesome, pleasant surprise, and Nomi Ruiz always makes an impression, what can I say? I kinda still want to kick myself for missing their gig in Athens last month. (damn you, deadlines)

"Prisoner of Love" is one of the best tracks of the album featuring Antony Hegarty on the vocals, and they just released the video to it. Directed by Marco Ovando and styled by (the, apparently, omnipresent) Nicola Formichetti. I really like the "superimposition of the Nomis".

Happy Halloween, The McQueen Way!

I miss Halloween. No, actually I miss the seasonal drinks and bites at Starbucks, and the pumpkin cheesecake at the Cheesecake Factory (back when I ate practically everything). Anyway, we don't have either of the aforementioned here. So, I'm just going to post this awesome short by Babette Pauthiere featuring the Alexander McQueen Fall/Winter scarf collection. It's the skull revisited! I like that they keep the skull concept on!

(via)

City Of Children

This past couple of years Greek cinema has had an unexpected boom. I say unexpected, because with everything else going "south" in Greece it's a miracle the art of cinema -or anything remotely related to art, for that matter- has (sort of) flourished. Last year, Yorgos Lanthimos's  "Dogtooth" strolled around the world, making an impression at important movie festivals and Athena Rachel Tsangari's "Attenberg" has had a fair share of exposure (and awards) and this year, Lanthimos's "Alps" is doing it again. 

"City of Children" (trailer at the end of the post) is an independent film by Yorgos Gkikapeppas which explores how modern "metropolitan" couples perceive and act upon the idea of a pregnancy. The film tells the stories of four couples in Athens who come across "childbearing" and react to it in defferent ways and goes even further to "share" how men and women behave differently on the matter. The film will be shown at the 52nd Thessaloniki International Film Festival, this November. I just hope I get a chance to see it before next year's Cyprus Film Festival. 

From what I see, the cast of "City of Children" consists of both established actors and newcomers. Again, unlike all the other sectors in "the motherland", it's nice to see that young people are welcomed and given the opportunity to shine. (If only they did the same with politics…)

M83 - Midnight City

How, why, haven't I been obsessing over M83 until today? I came across M83's (a.k.a. Anthony Gonzalez) latest single "Midnight City" last night (this morning, actually, at 5AM) and I was blown away. I mean, SYNTH POP! 2011 SYNTH POP?  His sound is awesome! Really, awesome in the neihgborhood of Alex Moulton, Midnight Juggernauts, Daft Punk (by the way, I am yet to post on the definition of awesomeness which is the Tron Legacy soundtrack, but I will). How can I have just bumped on all this awesomeness while M83 has been around for ten years?

The Midnight City video is super-über cool and utterly reminiscent of the good 80s! (I don't get why people hate the 80s so much, when they clearly set the foundation to so many of the awesome things we have today?) 

Marc Jacobs Collection Resort 2012 Preview

Pretty unusual, but sort of a "saw it coming" concept; considering the route Marc Jacobs chooses to take when promoting his new creations.

Remember Victoria Beckham's legs hanging out of a Marc Jacobs shopping bag photographed by Juergen Teller? Or Dakota Fanning posing for MJ (a couple of times actually)? Or Marc Jacobs himself posing naked for Bang? 

However, this is cool.

Time-Lapse Thoughts

I have been obsessing over time-lapse videos lately. I find that they capture the magic of stillness and introduce that into motion. I don't know if that even makes sense, but there's this clarity and quality which cannot be found in actual realtime-shot videos.

I bumped across this collection of magical videos of places in Southwest America, where I've never been to -and I am dying to go- created by photographer Dustin Farrell of Crew West Inc. and my obsession blew even bigger. Now I need to look into this time-lapse thing a bit deeper. 

Time-lapsing seems to be a hot trend right now. Italian superstar Giorgia had the video to her latest single "E' l'amore che conta" partially shot using time-lapse, in Venice. Part time-lapse, part ambitious editing, the video, far from being comparable to Farrell's work, is not that bad. A tad klutzy at moments but overall a good video for a great song. (I'm totally overlooking the styling though.) 

Thank You.

I am a designer. My main tool is what I have in my head (and my heart for that matter). 

However, I probably would have not been able to execute anything the way that I do and maybe what I actually do would not have been as seamlessly connected to what I initially have in my head if it wasn't for Steve Jobs.

To be a visionary is one (magically marvelous) thing. But to allow millions of people to materialize their own visions and make the world a better place via your own is magical, beyond comprehension.   

Thank you, Steve Jobs.

Think Different Narrated by Steve Jobs.

Clutter

I've been wanting to post a pile of stuff since the 19th, when I had announced Public Bureau. However, another cluttered pile of stuff and work has been chasing me around. Meetings, deadlines and new projects sort of kept me from posting on here... Things should start getting back to normal in a bit.