Brand New Conference

The Brand New Conference occurred in San Francisco way back in September, I’m just getting around to posting about it. The Conference was organized by UnderConsideration, the same people who bought us the web’s foremost identity coverage and up-and-coming branding design blog, Brand New. The conference is a gathering of west coast brand and identity design aficionados and a direct spin-off of Brand New.

Consisting of eight speakers, it’s intention to open the floodgates to all things branding and design related offering numerous perspectives from design firms to larger agencies. The speakers encompass a broad design spectrum, including Christopher Simmons of MINE™, Paddy Harrington of legendary Bruce Mau Design, and Jonathan Notaro of famed motion firm Brand New School, just to name a few.

Webcasts of each lecture is now online for viewing from Vimeo or for a small cost to download. The speakers are a great bunch, their lectures providing a nuanced view into their thinking, as well as various case studies. All inspiring material to get the creative juices flowing.  You can watch the opening remarks below.

Luca Dipierro

“I never thought I identified with the victims, I identified with the monsters, because I thought they were the saddest characters in the whole story.”

This endearing short documentary/portrait produced by Black Harbor, featuring artist Luca Dipierro caught my attention. The piece delves into Luca’s ruminations, on just about everything from his creative process to campy 60s Italian horror films. Lucas work is a wonderfully quirky bizarre amalgam of collage and illustration with an air of mischievous black humor and an obvious latin folk art inspiration.

I love how passionate he is, especially in watching his mannerisms at play. The interview is contrasted with his colorful art and tiny studio.

Delicatessen

From a high-pitched shirll emanating from two eyes gazing out, to the loud chop of a knife thus begins the titles to Delicatessen, a 1991 French black comedy film, directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro. Not unlike Kyle Cooper’s Se7en title’s, the titles are most known for their clever use of typography as real in camera elements used in a pan over a collection of what only can be described as post-apocalyptic trash. The sequence has an intentional sickly yellow stained tint, due in part to the chemical process used to develop the films stock. Appropriate given the context of the film.

The titles would go on to inspire many imitators and title designers, including myself. Art of the Title Sequence has a great little write up on Delicatessen with an insightful opinion piece by Imaginary Forces (and personal hero of mine) Creative Director Karin Fong.