There are so many apparent influences in this two minute twenty-three second soundscape of a song by Toro Y Moi that I’m not sure where to even begin. But this is the type of song that lurks in the shadows of an imaginary musical landscape until it decides to leap out of the bushes, grab hold of you by the ears with both claws, and embed itself into your temples bit by bit, slowly overtaking and replacing your head with its own. Your body and new head are now free to dance around the campfire, waving flaming marshmallows in the air like a medieval torch.

What the hell did I just write?

Toro Y Moi “Blessa” from Blessa

Take one part Of Montreal, one part David Byrne and one part underground dance club (circa 1983), wrap them all up in a Hypercolor t-shirt, blend until smooth and garnish with Passion Pit and a Porl Thompson guitar solo (optional).

Memory Tapes “Bicycle” from Seek Magic

Aakash Nihalani uses a similar line-art aesthetic to create simple 3D boxes out of multi-colored tape. Doesn’t sound like much when you break it down, but look at the video below. It’s amazing to me how such a simple concept can be so dramatic and thought-provoking.

Be sure to check out idsgn for photos and additional info.

Today’s video features the much-debated and discussed City of Melbourne identity redesign. I won’t bore you with all the details (read up on Brand New’s take on the brand refresh here) but instead I’d like to show you the motion graphics version of the logo.

I find this video incredibly interesting. Rarely do you see animation so closely tied to a logo. Yes, commercials often animate corporate logos in some sort of swooshy, poppy, silly humanistic manner (think dancing 7-Up dot). But in the case of the City of Melbourne logo, the animation feels like it was developed hand in hand with the logo itself, and not as an afterthought. I almost get a sense that the logo is a graphic representation of the excitement expressed in the animation, which for me gives the logo much more inherent energy than if it had existed on its own in a motionless 2D world.

I started today by checking my morning blogs (like all of you undoubtedly do with this blog, right?) and low and behold… my favorite blog, ISO50.com, posted an assortment of audio goodies for my aural enjoyment. Not only is there apparently a new Kings of Convenience album out (which I couldn’t seem to track down, but I’ll give it 15 more minutes), but there’s also a new release by Atlas Sound featuring Noah Lennox (Panda Bear, Animal Collective)… and wow. Just when I thought Passion Pit had a firm lock on the song of the summer, “Walkabout” comes along and kicks down the door. I downloaded the song a mere 20 minutes ago, and have already listened to it 5 times.

I love the internet.

Atlas Sound “Walkabout” featuring Noah Lennox

That’s really all I have to say on the subject. Look at the photos. They’re perty.

(More photos after the jump.)

Like many skinnyCorp descendants, the shirt designs are provided by a community of graphic artists and designers. Unlike many online T-shirt companies, RIPT only sells one particular design at a time. Each day a new shirt is available “for one day, and one day only”.

At the end of each day the archived shirts “rest in peace (i.e. RIP)” in the Site’s design graveyard where they are no longer available for purchase. There is even a ticking countdown on the site to let you know (to the second) how much time is left before the current shirt is taken down.

I learned of RIPT, from a colleague who knows the designers behind this Wordpress-driven web store. Congratulations to the RIPT design team; the site is well done, and is highlighted by the creative backgrounds used to display the daily shirt. There are also links back to the portfolio sites of each artist. I found some inspirational collections this way (I especially dug the Guinness campaign stuff from Joshua Harvey).

The design aside, I’m left wondering if I actually enjoy RIPT’s model for selling shirts. I found out about the site 2 days after their launch. This was a bit of a bummer because the inaugural day’s shirt is still (by far) my favorite design in their collection.

This leaves me both bitter and intrigued. I keep going back to RIPT to see if one day a shirt will pop up that I enjoy more than that 1st one. I also return to see if they will do any specials where older shirts will be on sale for a limited time.

Their inventive model definitely has my attention. With such frequent updates I feel compelled to check back every few days to see if the current shirt is hot. But I also peek at the shirts that have been available since my last visit. Even though I cannot purchase them I want to know if I’ve missed another design I may have purchased (like the one from that 1st day).

The problem with all this is that it creates tension and indecision for me to actually buy something. I’m bitter I can’t buy previous work, and I’m skeptical of buying current work. What if I buy and tomorrow’s shirt is way hotter? I imagine the RIPT crew would say “buy them both”, but as a consumer I say, “I need to know what my options are before I buy anything”. It is a down economy after all and one can’t be buying T-shirts every day.

But I’m just one man, and this was just my reaction. As I said, I do find myself visiting RIPT regularly, and maybe one day I will pull the trigger on a particular design. In the long run the ultimate success of the business will be the only way to answer the title; “Has RIPT got it right?”

Without further ado, I give you the FlyCasual Follow Friday list (in no particular order, of course); some celebrity, some music, some design, some people we just stumbled upon that have a lot of good things to say. Enjoy.

Tankboy @tankboy
Kate Zimmer @krzimmer
Our Man in Chicago @ourmaninchicago
Ethan Suplee @EthanSuplee
John Mayer @johncmayer
Mr. Trick @mr_trick
AJ @amyjfisher
I Love Typography @ilovetypography
Jeffrey Zeldman @zeldman

And don’t forget us!
FlyCasual @FlyCasual
FlyCasual Records @FlyCasualMusic
Helicopters @helicoptersband

Check all these people out at your leisure. I could give you reasons as to why I find them interesting, but the beauty of Twitter is that you can make that assessment yourself. Happy #followfriday everyone in Twitterland!

If you’re at all like us, you love going out and checking out new restaurants, having cocktails with friends (usually 1-4 too many), and exploring all that the city (Chicago in our case) has to offer. Personally, I’m not a big fan of “the scene” and tend to be immediately put off by overt trends and those who follow them too closely. Where am I going with this, you ask?

Some restaurants and lounges, whether trendy or not, really know how to set the mood via music and decor. There’s nothing inherently groundbreaking about a minimalist sushi restaurant playing downtempo house while you sip Saketinis, but damn if it ain’t enjoyable. Enter Evan Marc.

Listening to Evan Marc’s Emotional Ecology is akin to dining al fresco at the aforementioned sushi lounge on a balmy summer night. The album is sexy, warm, thought-provoking and inspiring, chocked full of beats just heavy enough to give you the urge to dance but reserved enough to relegate said dancing to your Bertoia side chair. Turn it on, turn it up to 7, grab a cocktail and enjoy.

Evan Marc “Centigrade” from Emotional Ecology

AisleOne: Helvetiriffic!
Baggu: I love simple “why didn’t I think of that” concepts.
ReForm School: Makes me feel like a kid again.
Swear Words: Brilliantly executed horizontal navigation.

That’s all I’m going to post in hopes that you all take a few moments out of your day to visit and absorb these sites. It’s getting progressively more difficult to sift through the bazillions of horrible sites out there, so whenever we find sites that are doing things right it’s important to pay proper attention.