The Brilliance!

HTTP://WWW.THEBRILLIANCE.COM

We’re really internet and we’re really back. A website about things Benjamin , Chuck , Virgil , and various friends & guests think are interesting. Little-to-no specific focus, a bit odd, speling errors, and incredibly culturally relevant.

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I Chunk Up The Deuce!

It’s been a warm minute since I did an ignorant post about some ‘new joint’ I’m liking. I love this southern stuff…just doesn’t get old to me. Simple beats, screwed hooks, and talking about wood steering wheels, slabs, ‘dripping’ paint, screens falling, diamond slugged grills, popped neon trunks (hater hurter), 5th wheels, 84s, drinking barre, etc… Something about the whole scene in Houston is refreshing to me. Like, doesn’t seem as intense, or maybe serious, as all the other coasts…its just bragging, fun, party music…pure entertainment to me. And the lack of violent-type (no plexing!) stuff…to a certain degree. **Anyway team, check this new track with Paul Wall, Keke, Pimp C and Bun…I just had two cheese dogs and a side of fries. Wifi at the hot dog spot on Ionia. *From Chuck: I saw Bun B at O’Hare airport a few weeks ago. He bought about $24 worth of magazines and I saw him take his shoes off in the security line and walk in his socks. Wow.

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Durat®!

Man, I almost feel like I should be making more sneaker and t-shirt posts…or maybe not. I just bought some new Vans if that helps. So I’ve been researching some designers/products for a new bathroom I might be designing for a new condo I might be buying. Might. Anyway…I’m trying to go really, really minimal you know? Polished concrete floors, lots of hard edges, frosted glass, white, white, white…real open floor plan and all that. So, you read Dwell magazine or whatever and they have these shower basins and bath tubs that are beautiful…but like $15k…yikes. Just not trying to spend that kind of money you know? So I’ve been researching this company in Finland called Durat® that does all this polyester-based custom formed stuff. Real fresh stuff…that rectangle tub they have is nuts though. Absolutely beautiful. Check it out… I honestly have no idea how much the stuff costs yet, but I’m sure it’ll be disappointingly expensive. Anyway…random post, right?

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NoPattern and NP&CO!

Updated, updated, and updated. My man Chuck comes thru with heavy updates…Nike, Less Than Jake, Men’s Health, Columbia College…and more. Plus a new print up at NP&CO. for sale. I always give my little thoughts or whatever on where Chuck is at…as I got to see his work from when we drew stuff in Microsoft Paint when he was like 11 up until now. By the way, the stuff he did in paint is hilarious man, trust me. So this new update…first thing, both with his new site design as well as the new print for sale…different, right? I’m into it man. I love progression, you know? And all his client work is getting better with each iteration as well. The whole ‘outer glow champ’ thing actually has merit to it…cause they get better, more organic, and more…professional each time. Just my thoughts. But yeah, go get that print…another big sized one. Also, check the new logo setups on both sites…! ***Bite his work ethic, not his style.

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David Gensler video interview!

Dave is one of the reasons I’m doing what I’m doing today. He has supported me from the beginning, supported The Brilliance from the beginning, and has always been one of my favorite people to work with and chat with about design/ideas/life/rainbows/ponies/etc…
Anyways, he just did this new interview with Piers Fawkes on PSFK, which by the way is an incredible resource and news site…The video interview is interesting - Dave covers a lot of ground including what brands are hot and why, his inspirations, what’s up with street culture and mash culture and design, and more…Definitely worth checking out. It’s kind of funny to me when that dude in the background at one point has to up and leave in the middle of it…just an awkward break and Dave’s looking like…hmm…alright…Ha. Just funny to me! Yup! Thanks to Manny for the tip…

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Joshua Davis & BMW!

I love this collaboration. I almost don’t want to type collaboration…such an over-used cliché word right now. But Joshua Davis and the new BMW Z4 is a fantastic look. The gist of the project is that Mr. Davis was commissioned to create unique, one-off prints inspired by the beautiful lines that make up BMW’s new Z4. I love how BMW embraces the real art culture, it’s very apparent and so genuine. And I personally like the Joshua Davis brand…a good example of being a ‘business, man’ not a ‘businessman’...you know? Not to mention how genuinely nice the guy is…got to spend some time with dude at Semi-Perm 05 this past year….good guy. So yeah…check the link below for the whole ‘making of’ this project. Very inspiring. The prints are for sale as well…get familiar.

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NYC & The Maritime Hotel

I was in NYC last weekend (not this past weekend, but last weekend.) I got out of there JUST in time too. I changed my flight from Sunday afternoon to Saturday evening and got the last flight out of LaGuardia to Chicago before all the cancellations and the storm hit and all that super fun stuff. Anyways, I’m going to make a separate post about why exactly I was in NYC for 3 days…so this is just to give some shine to the Maritime Hotel. I was put up in the Maritime by the organization that brought me out to NYC, so it wasn’t my own choice to stay there. However, I’m happy to say that I’m glad they put me there and I enjoyed it quite a bit. The bathroom was beautiful…huge shower, decent size room for a boutique hotel, free wireless, big giant circle windows, and very helpful and nice staff. Also, I had breakfast there on my last day and it was really, really good…nice atmosphere in the whole place. I’m sure you’d like to hear a review of the bar but too bad, I’m not 21 yet. But I heard the bar is good and apparently Matsuri is incredible if you like sushi, which I don’t know that I do. Also, apprently the 2nd floor of the hotel is haunted, specifically room 208. I was in room 207. Don’t take my word for it though, stay on the 2nd floor and hear the screaming ghost children and virgin Mary crying for yourself! Kidding! Zing! But yeah, nice place in Chelsea, good experience. AAAA+++ WOULD STAY AGAIN.

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Judging the Art Director’s Club Awards

This was the reason I was in NYC and at the Maritime last weekend. I was invited by Mr. Brian Collins from Ogilvy & Mather, who might I add is a really great dude - very intelligent and an honor to meet. I was invited to be a graphic design judge. Basically there were about 25 of us who had to judge roughly 12,000 pieces of submitted work in 2 days. It was a lot of work but a lot of fun. It was a pleasure to meet the people I judged alongside…Yuko Shimzu, Dan Olson from Duffy & Partners, Elliot Earls from Cranbrook, Rob Giampietro, Charles Hall, Harmine Louwe, Noreen Morioka, Craig Mod…just to name a few. I must say it’s quite a feeling to be around people of this caliber…judging alongside a professor from Yale!? I met Paul Davis which was real cool…the whole thing was great, really. There was some incredible work, some good work, some OK work, some bad work, and some really absolutely terrible work we judged…Anyways, thanks to the Art Director’s Club for organizing it and making it go smoothly…For a full list of the judges go here.

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That new Range Rover Sport commercial!

I’m a big Land Rover fan. Kind of…always something wrong with them at any given time. Honestly though, there is nothing even close to a Land Rover But anyway, the new commercial shot in the ‘underworld’ of Tokyo’s typhoon protection system is pretty unreal…I have always been blown away at the construction and sheer size of these ‘G-cans’ as they are called…seriously just amazing in how they look. Like they said, 100% built for function but as with many things in the Japanese culture form and function seem to blend into one amazing final product. The vehicle itself is actually pretty amazing as well. I was actually sitting in one the other day…and the interior is way better than the big Range Rover. But just the overall design is so sharp…so aggressive but still elegant. Check the commercial at the link below…I love it when companies make their commercials viewable on their sites. By the way, I haven’t left my condo all day…uhh, I never do that.

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UnderTheRadar.com

Just another one of these sites I check…kind of along the whole venture capital thing I am all about watching. This site is basically a blog that highlights emerging or not-even-emerging-yet technologies…you would have found MySpace here…or even Google before they would have made any waves. It’s really interesting to see trends emerge…see what people think they can make money doing…see their weird ideas and dreams. It’s funny, cause I used to shrug off most dot com stuff…like ‘never gonna work’ you know? But after Rubert bought MySpace for Powerball figures…I mean, makes you take a second, or maybe even a third look at every little web company trying to do their thing. I’ve said it before: ‘the old internet is back’ in more ways than one. Good site though…ch-ch-ch-check it out.

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It’s 66% blimp and 100% flying, new, and really big!

So I get this link email from Chuck…why did I read this one out of the 100+ emails he sends me every hour? I don’t know…I just had a good feeling. Jokes. Honestly, this is a really interesting concept. Quick rundown, a 2/3 helium filled solid structure flying machine that takes off like a helicopter, runs on electric powered by ‘green’ fuel-cells, travels at a top-speed of 174mph, and can transport…get this…a whole years worth of product for say, a Walmart store. So it’s not built yet, and the company who is trying to do make it happen is privately funded…but he has apparently already gained the interest of the cruise ship industry. Real quick…the whole ‘sizzle’ on this is that its supposed to be a luxury cruise ship in the air…very similar to the flying pirate ship in that one level in Super Mario 3, just with less cannons and bullets with eyes and mouths. But honestly, my whole interest in this thing…is that it could pickup product at a central distribution center in India, China, etc…and then deliver it directly to another US based distribution center in like 1/4th the time it takes today…and do it with little to no pollution. Seriously…that’s bananas. Tell them you heard about it on the brilliance.