Illustration by Allison Filice
“If you attempted to control every aspect of your creative career, it would look very different than if you allowed some unknowns to guide you along your path… I put together a mix of songs that help transport me into the cosmic flow. Have a listen and hopefully you’ll find yourself relaxing into a wonderful current of your own. I promise you won’t float off into the abyss.”
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“What we should focus on is understanding who we truly are, what our unique message is, and creating our beacon that we transmit out into the world so that other people can find us. Our beacons are our illustrations, our blogs, our paintings, our photographs, our sketches, our videos.”
Read MoreEarlier this week, we featured WNW Member Michael Carney and his design work with The Black Keys and a range of other artists both classic and contemporary. Given his work in the music industry, we figured we'd hit him up for a list of albums we should go check out immediately. Below, we present some songs from those albums, in no particular order. There are some Black Keys tunes off of their LP Brothers and EP Chulahoma, two of the many albums whose covers showcase Carney's craft. There's also some Captain Beefheart that's more washed in blues than acid, some avant-garde Eno, as well as an offering of The Cramps, Serge Gainsbourg, and everything in between.
Read MoreOriginal Artwork by #4743 Brian Gossett
WNW Member #4743 Brian Gossett is a Designer + Drawer + Director + Dad based in Austin. An ADC Young Gun who has worked with top clients like Nike, Apple, and W+K, Brian also once ran a successful music mixblog. So it only made sense for Brian to take our WNW Mixtape series for a spin while we featured him and his work: "I love sharing music and art with everyone; it’s what makes our age of information so great!"
The city of Austin influences much of Brian's work and creative style. It also drives this mixtape, titled ATX Vibes, so hit the "Play" button before you read our interview below and bask in his eclectic work. Click here to listen to "ATX Vibes" on Spotify.
I wanted to create a mix that captured the thing that makes Austin so great, the mix of old and new. A lot of people in Austin are pushing back from the progression the city is heading in. While while I do think it’s important to maintain the authenticity of Austin and what makes it great, I do think the direction the city is going is awesome. The mix itself is an eclectic mix of of the old and new, all with a timeless quality. Artists from the 50s and 60s that sound as relevant today as ever as well as current artists who are tapping into a sound that evokes nostalgia. I wanted the mix to feel southern yet progressive. Good vibes and energetic. I also decided to end the mix with a couple songs based around the word river. Austin’s heart is the Colorado River, or as we call it, Lady Bird Lake. I love Leon Bridges "River" so much it’s practically on every mix I make these days.
I wouldn’t necessarily say I am an illustrator—and honestly labels are starting to become a bit hard to nail down for me. When people ask me what I do it’s hard to put a singular label on it. I’m more a maker of things. A tinkerer. Or reluctantly, yet the most accurate, a commercial artist. When I think of illustrators, I think of someone who is honed in on one singular style. While I feel more that there is a voice, or a taste behind the images I make or the stories I try to tell. My background began in a loose exploration at fine art, drawing, painting, realism to abstraction. I discovered graphic design while attending the University of Houston. I spent some time doing print design, then web design, and then parlayed that experience to moving to Los Angeles. Eventually I found my love for the moving image within the motion graphics industry. I love the motion graphics and animation industry as it allows me to be more illustrative. I began with a more generalist mentality and approach to client briefs but over the last 7 or 8 years I’ve begun to take on projects that I feel appropriate to my taste and voice as a commercial artist. I love solving creative problems while also honing my craft and continuing to develop my style.
Currently I am mixing my love of mid-century illustration with the influence of my city, Austin. I am bringing in a lot of Southwestern themes into my personal work and putting them into a graphic context. I have been trying to build a style around a graphic and illustrative mix that is a bit rough around the edges but also calculated in geometry. I also love printmaking such as silk-screening, gocco, woodblock, linocut, and bringing that simplicity or reduction of color and texture into my personal work. My commercial client work is a bit broader as I do find flexibility to offer my clients a wider range of creative solutions. Sometimes my clients want me to bring more of my personal work style into a project but I do love tackling new challenges and exploring different image making techniques to tell their story.
The blogging scene blew up in 2006/2007 and I jumped into it around that time. My first blog was sort of a catch all for things I thought were cool, be it products, art, design, whatever. I also occasionally posted a mix I made up onto the blog. I have always loved compiling compilations for as long as I can remember. I used to put mix tapes together on a dual cassette boom box I had, where I had to literally let the track play off one cassette or cd as the tape live recorded it. It’s crazy how far the technology has come when I think of it. But like a lot of dudes, I made mix tapes for girls I was dating. I also made mix tapes for friends as I was sort of the tastemaker or our group. Getting back to the blog, I noticed a lot of the people who were visiting my blog were responding to the mixes so I dropped the general blog and built a new site in Cargo to focus on the mixes. It took off immediately and I was getting a lot of press from all over the net. I loved making thematic or conceptual mixes as well as seasonal or holiday related mixes. For example, I loved this book called Take Ivy that was originally published in the 60s. These Japanese dudes came to the US and soaked up all of the Ivy League school style and published a book documenting the style of clothing in that specific context and called it “Ivy Style.” I was also really getting into Vampire Weekend at the time which I felt encapsulated the vibe of the book so I built a series of mixes around the idea and piggy backed on the "Take Ivy” name. Word got out and eventually the mixes were posted on the official Yale and Harvard school blogs. There were other great series and concepts that I still hold dear that conjure up memories or movies in my mind. I like to sort of make soundtracks to my life as music is a great memory signifier for me.
I would say hands down David Holmes’ scores for the Ocean's Eleven films. He not only created a timeless score to the films but acted as the music supervisor sourcing songs he loved that seem to perfectly capture the vibe of the films. I was so into them that they inspired a series I had on my blog called The Heist Mixes. I built fake heist movies in my mind and sourced a lot of music that captured this retro cool vibe and then found exotic settings to place them in. I used a lot of my own photography for the covers of the mixes too with a template of clean white typography over them. The mixes became very popular and got a lot of circulation around the internet. A couple years later I met David Holmes at a screening of Vertigo at Cinespia in the Hollywood Cemetery. He was spinning before and after the film and I got all of my Ocean’s films autographed. I think I was the only one there who knew who he was but he was super cool and appreciated my love for his scores and told him how influential they were for me. My taste in music owes a lot to David Holmes.
I am all over the place, from Prince to Willie Nelson to A Tribe Called Quest to Johnny Cash to Shuggie Otis to Kendrick Lamar to Stereolab to The Rolling Stones and everything in between. I love to try it all out and put things either together stylistically musically or find something amazing about taking different genres of music and making a cohesive mix work together through a concept. While my personal work has a very southern vibe to it, I am not all that big into country music, at least modern. I am more into the classic legends of country. I love Willie, Hank Sr., Cash, but also love Townes Van Zandt, Beck, Kurt Vile, or Ween who bring blues and country into their sound but don’t let it dictate them stylistically. I also love soul and hip hop and honestly can get really heavy into 90s R&B and listen to TLC for an entire day!
Wow, not sure where to begin. I wouldn’t say there is a singular album cover but I do love the work of Reid Miles who defined the look of Jazz with all of his Blue Note record sleeves. He was a master of type and image and composition. Still a huge influence on my work today.
I am honestly in this bubble at my home studio and being a father of two little boys keeps me occupied to the point that I don’t really get out to enjoy the creative scene, which I am sure is thriving. I am excited that my buddy Justin Cone, who runs Motionographer, moved back to Texas. He and I hang out quite a bit and he has a son who is the age of my older boy. The cool thing about Austin is that everyone seems to be making stuff, whether its music, art, design, illustration, craft beer, coffee, pottery, crafts—really everyone is. It’s nice going to Radio, my favorite brew and brew, and striking up a conversation with someone and eventually finding out they are in this amazing band or have a line of jewelry.
I love doing commercial work for the quick turnaround. Recently I finished up a series of short informative films for Makani with Giant Ant that explains the technology of their energy kites which is a Google-funded program. I also just helped Oddfellows out with some really short 6 second spots for Twitter that details some of the reach of video content on Twitter and how it helps brands build business.
I first find as much time to spend with my wife and two boys, River and Sage. When I am not doing that I am typically making personal art for my new Instagram account which you can follow @brianmichaelgossett (shameless plug). I wanted to challenge myself to make more images for myself and to help hone my craft and personal style. If I am not doing that I am making mixes on Spotify or listening to records. I also enjoy working in our garden, going for hikes, exploring Austin, and indulging in guilty pleasures such as watching football or playing some old Nintendo games.
Oh boy, well I should mention a goal of mine this year is to put together a strong 5 minute set to try out at open mic comedy venues here in town. Ok, here it goes.
I hope I die at the age of 86, so people can say “he was 86’d.”
When I see an old couple biking together I think, “they must be on their way to shoot a Cialis ad.”
Why aren’t “California Pizza Kitchen” restaurants just called “Pizza Kitchens” in California?
The worst sound you can hear in a public bathroom is the iPhone shutter sound effect.
Ok, that’s four!
I dig Will Bryant’s work, who also just moved back to Austin by the way! I love Jay Quercia’s work, obsessed really. Jimmy Simpson is also doing fantastic stuff.
I want to say thanks for bringing me on to share the mix. I love sharing music and art with everyone; it’s what makes our age of information so great!
If you're a fan of Brian's musical soundscapes, check out another one of his recent mixtapes. The music is outshined only by his description of it: "It's called 'The Sexual Behavior of Young People.' With Spring and the birds and the bees on the way I figured it was a topical mix. It’s a really fun mix of swoopy strings, downtempo, sex jams. Imagine it as a soundtrack to a soft core film from the 70s and with the mix pressed on crackly vinyl. It has a Euro vibe to it as well which makes it all the more exotic and erotic. I tend to make fake soundtracks to movies that don’t exist to really conjure up images in my mind. This one would star Jennifer Lawrence as the engenue and she’d have a love affair with a young married man in France when she visits on holiday played by Gaspard Ulliel. It’d take place in the year 1974 and they’d drive along the French Riviera in his 356 Spyder smoking cigarettes and making love in lavender fields."
Illustration by WNW Member #1612 Jing Wei
Here's a mixtape that's almost as much fun to say aloud as it is to listen to. Featuring perhaps one of the most overused yet still somehow under-appreciated instruments, Synth You've Been Gone finds WNW Member #5187 Nick Ceglia weeding through a dark world of bad synthesizer sounds and resurfacing with 14 gems. The party's capped off with "Sound and Vision" by the late David Bowie, who may be late but will always remain fashionable.
We also caught up with Nick to see what life is like as a full-timer on the creative team at Chipotle. Direct all "burrito buck" questions to him; we can't help you.
You can open the mixtape in Spotify here.
I’m a photographer turned graphic designer turned copywriter, and I now write about burritos for a living. Been a curvy road to where I’m at, but I’m happy to have a background in a few areas.
It’s great—super fun to write for. We have a small creative team with very talented designers, and the company as a whole really values creativity and good design. And yes, plenty of tasty discounts. See me for some burrito bucks.
The first cover I discovered was a French-English dictionary. I originally bought it for the jacket design and I didn’t find the design underneath it for a while. I think that was the most unexpected because they’re both great covers. It got me psyched and I started thinking about how many others I missed.
Quite a bit. My playlist is a good synth-themed mix of what I’m into. There’s some indie stuff, Talking Heads, Devo, and I got to fit in a Paul McCartney jam that’s pretty bizarre. Also looking forward to the impending Wolf Parade reunion.
I’m currently working on what our packaging will be after our Cultivating Thought series comes to a close, which is pretty exciting.
I think it’s good to try and not get bummed on small projects. Especially when you work in-house, you don’t always get sexy projects and a lot of it is working on the little aspects that make the brand what it is. If you can find a way to make a bathroom sign or some receipt tape funny, it can be pretty rewarding.
This edition of WNW Mixtape is curated by WNW Member #3189 Nitzan Hermon, a New York-based designer who has some really exciting projects rooted in music, like this. And this. He's also a former DJ. We asked Nitzan about the mixtape he curated for us: "This is all music I feel passionately about, and continuously play." His mixtape features EDM, Hip-Hop, and Folk, all under the radar, over our heads, and so in the zone. Take the first song "Adventures in Success": it's performed by Will Powers, better known as celebrity photographer and selfie-stick inventor Lynn Goldsmith employing a pitch-shifter. As Nitzan puts it, "Everything Will Happen."
You can open the mixtape in Spotify here.
Originally from Israel, I have lived in London most of my 20s before moving to New York. Traditionally I have worked in–house for media and technology companies, but started my own practice almost 2 years ago. Since then I have the good fortune of being part of New INC, the New Museum incubator -- where I focus on self-initiated work and client projects.
Thank you very much. That’s a tough list to put together, as it often changes. Here are some records I had out when answering this.
95%, I am useless without it.
Informed and thorough -- definitely research driven.
I'm writing about designing for AI, and working with a start up in Bushwick on their product, UX and brand.
Work hard, read a lot and never stop researching.
Darling Chuck will be DJ'ing our 4th Annual WNW Holiday Party on Thursday night in Brooklyn. For those of you attending, have a great time! For the rest of you unlucky souls, Darling Chuck was generous enough to contribute some "Bae Vibez" so you can pretend you're there. You can open the Spotify playlist here.
Illustration by Vero Escalante
We hope you all had a great holiday weekend. We're serving a mixtape for you to feast on while you eat leftovers for the next two weeks. These tracks are sent from creatives' studio speakers to your ears. They're tracks that WNW creatives love to put on to add fuel to their creativity. Big thanks to WNW Member Vero Escalante for filling up Side B.
You can open the Spotify playlist here.
Illustration by Mike Hirshon
As autumn gets underway in the Northern Hemisphere, WNW HQ has put together a mixtape of songs that our members are currently playing on repeat to fuel their creativity. Give this a spin, wherever you are; it may just give you some inspiration, or at least give your ears a good buzz. This week's edition pairs nicely with some hard cider and warm apple pie.
You can open the Spotify playlist here.
Image by WNW Member #8233 POOL Studio
WNW members often generate their most stunning work by getting into a creative rhythm, at the most random hours of the day. Naturally, many of them accomplish this through music. WNW HQ has put together a mixtape built by a group of WNW members who each picked a song that fuels their creativity. Give this a spin, wherever you are; this week's edition is an eclectic mix of rap and R&B, with some guitar masterwork thrown in for kicks.
You can download the Spotify playlist here.
Image by WNW Member #2782 Shane Griffin
WNW members often generate their most stunning work by getting into a creative rhythm, at the most random hours of the day. Naturally, many of them accomplish this through music. WNW HQ has put together a mixtape built by a group of WNW members who each picked a song that fuels their creativity. Give this a spin, wherever you are; it just might help you finish off the week strong, with a cymbal crash, trumpet solo, or even a groovy falsetto. It's all here.
When we asked WNW Member #3110 Michael Wong to compile a mixtape of artists he's photographed, he made us nostalgic for the 90s. "I figured a mixtape to listen to while driving would be good with ten songs by ten artists that I photographed. When I was graduating college, the music business was in full swing in the 90s. I started shooting musicians and it was a dream to shoot an album cover for Aretha, a magazine cover with Oasis, and Blondie in New York. It was a really awesome fun time here when music ruled the clubs and venues.
A week before shooting the Beastie Boys, my turntable didn't stop playing their vinyl. I remember answering the phone and it was Mike D talking to me about shooting some pictures. I was in NYC doing exactly what I loved, shooting musicians that shaped my music taste."
Michael is an established New York-based photographer/DP/motion guy, who specializes in sports, music, and lifestyle. He's been at it for 22 years. Photographing early extreme sports has lead to work with clients like ESPN, Nike, and Foot Locker.
Ty Segall
We asked photographer and WNW Member #4557 Ebru Yildiz to make an original mixtape featuring some of the musicians she's had the pleasure of photographing. "I feel incredibly lucky that I got to photograph so many of my favorite musicians. Over the years I realized I have two constant feelings during my shoots with musicians: complete awe for these people who can create sounds that can make me feel things, and an immediate confusion that they are actually real people who check their Instagram, eat, laugh and what not. In my head they are these magical beings free of earthly bothers.
When I start working on a portrait, almost always the first thing I do is dedicate some time to listening to the band's music, in most cases over and over too, just to understand, and observe how it makes me feel. That is where I find my inspiration: the overall feel of their music and their lyrics. When planning, I always leave room to play for the day of the shoot. When I meet them in person, their personality becomes a huge part of how the whole shoot shapes up."
Sleater-Kinney
Shilpa Ray
A Place to Bury Strangers
Thee Oh Sees
Ebru Yildiz was born and raised in Turkey and moved to New York in 1998. While she was pursuing her Masters degree in Communications Design at Pratt Institute, her passion for music led her to seek it out everywhere - large clubs, small bars, back rooms, house parties, and the multitude of DIY venues in Brooklyn. Soon she found herself documenting the thriving New York Music scene. Only a year after she started photographing, she was invited to be part of a group exhibit at CB's Gallery called "Back To Bowery" along with acclaimed music photographers such as Godlis, Roberta Bayley, Mick Rock and Billy Name. Since then she has exhibited several times in New York and her photographs have appeared in print and online publications such as Pitchfork, NPR, Rolling Stone, The New York Times, Spin, NME, New York Magazine, Brooklyn Vegan, 'Sup Magazine, XLR8R, Village Voice, Time Out NY, and Huffington Post, etc. She was selected as one of "The 50 Greatest Music Photographers Right Now" by Complex Magazine in 2012. She also won the Independent Music Awards' Vox Populi Award in Concert Photography in 2009. Ebru currently lives and works in Brooklyn.
Ebru Yildiz (Photo by Mitchell King)