It seems Los Angeles has finally decided to warm up to us and the heat is slowly but surely attacking our foggy lovable city. I was trying to find something to post here that would welcome the heat wave back in LA after months of rain and freezing cold nights. Although this commercial is obviously targeting the concept of using natural gas in “winter”, I feel like if I could describe the heat in LA right now, would be a wool covered house.

The commercial is made by Lovo Films, a company that operates in Europe. They are known for making great commercials for companies like Belgacom, Coca-Cola, Telenet, Yamaha, TDK, Mio, McDonald’s, Gordon Beer, Center Parcs, Renault and Seat. They also have a “making of video” of this awesome commercial.

Now get ready to welcome the heat of Los Angeles with open arms~! HA!

NAWLZ is an online interactive comic book by Australian artist Stu Campbell (Sutu). What I liked about this project is that it combines the concept of new media art and storytelling. He uses text, illustration, music, animation and interactive juxtaposed imagery and animation to unfold the story. It’s quite an interactive comic book and in a way requires the reader to be attentive as in order to move forward in the story you need to move around the page and find the next tab. It creates an environment that in itself becomes part of a new genre in stroytelling when we are seeing more often the crossover between art, technology and interactivity.

Zachary Zezima is an illustrator from New York that graduated from Parsons School of Design. His illustrations are unnervingly disoriented and chaotic yet are seemingly able to carry out emotions. The work consists mostly of black and white with touches of colors to accentuate certain parts of the illustration. The characters in his work float in the chaotic backgrounds and play with the elements added in the illustration, making them quite dynamic and interesting to look at.

Emergence, 2008

The sculptures of Sayaka Kajita Ganz are gorgeous. Made out of plastic utensils to hangers, these sculptures are done in such a way that they capture the movement of the animals in action. My favorite piece would have to be the sculptures with the running horses, “Emergence”. Her work is so dynamic and depicts such an agility out of something as unconventional as kitchen utensils. Sayaka was born in Japan and currently lives and works in Indiana.

HUH. ONE is a black and white zine released by HUH Magazine of an edition of one hundred. I have to say the photography featured in this zine is really awesome. Photographers include Chad Moore, Dana Goldstein, Gavin Watson, Jerry Hsu, Jonnie Craig, Kathy Lo, Lele Saveri, Patrick Griffin, Pawel Jaszczuk, Peter Sutherland, Sean Vegezzi, Bea Fremderman, Paul Herbst, Seth Fluker, Patrick Tsai and Young Kyu Yoo. Head over to their website to get a limited copy.

Dana Oldfather is an artist that currently works in Cleveland, Ohio. Her abstract paintings have this beautifully organic nature that it almost feels as if she painted from a bio-lab sample of a plant. Composed of oddly shapes, splashes and blobs of paint, her color scheme is very earthly and neutral and this helps set the tone in the painting.

She states about her work, “Each work is an attempt to elegantly express the embodiment of paradox; a physical manifestation of conflicting desires communicated in an abstract arrangement of forms.” She will be showing her work at William Rupnik Gallery in Cleveland, April 23 – May 9, titled We Are Mountains.

When looking at the photographs of Sarah Palmer you can’t help but notice the playfulness with light and colors. I find her body of work from the series, “The Riddle of Lumen”, quite interesting, and although clearly documenting an urban landscape, I also find it quite mystical. As if unfolding an urban exploration of a city, or finding a hidden gem in plain view. At least when I look at her work, it almost seems to portray and unidentifiable sentimentalism of the unknown urban setting depicted. It plays quite well with the colors and spacial composition in the photographs.

Jed Heuer, a Graphic Designer, typographer and illustrator from New York sent us a really awesome portfolio in the form of a newspaper. This newspaper contains his most recent studio design work. I find his designs very intuitive and his typographic work very dynamic. Check out his website for more details on his studio projects.