Colin Harman

An artist I’ve come to enjoy recently is Saturday Index. The actual method of how I stumbled across them leaves me at the moment, but I apologize for not sharing them sooner. A melancholy and nature inspired EP from Saturday Index reflects the cooler imagery of early morning skies above tearful trees. Partly Cloudy follows a mellow wavelength capable of inducing deep thought and reasoning. Artist Jedidiah Becker from Denver, Colorado, mirrors the natural sky with crystalline melodies whose fronts progress and converge with one another.

The most exquisite part of this musical glory is the fact that it is not only excellent, but is freely available for download from the artist here. It makes my heart so happy that there are still artists out there who make music for the sake of making music and not just because “there is money to be made if we meet the right people, play the right gigs, and spend an hour in the morning doing our hair so it looks like we just rolled out of bed.”

In addition to the four tracks offered by Saturday Index are three reinterpreted title tracks by Sarin Sunday, Paramnesic, and Milieu.

I’ve included for you a couple samples below, but be sure to get the free EP from the download if you like what you hear.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Saturday Index – Partly Cloudy

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Saturday Index – Satin Window

There’s a much debated story of how Helvetica truly came to be. Regardless of it’s back story, it’s hard to deny how much of an impact it has had on our designed world. Helvetica was created by Max Meidinger in Münchenstein, Switzerland in 1957. You can find the lengthy (mostly true) story here. For those of you who are truly interested in the history and impact of Helvetica, there is even a documentary film about it, which in my opinion, is excellent. To give my regards to the famed typeface, I decided to make a poster for my office that told the story of Helvetica all contained within the Swiss Cross.

From a distance the poster just looks like it is faintly printed, but upon closer inspection the story is clearly legible, albeit quite small. It was a fun to work at getting the type size and leading just the proper size to create the cross, yet not manipulate the story to make it fit.

Complaining is silly. Either act or forget.
– Stefan Sagmeister.

Stefan Sagmeister is my foremost design hero. His functional, eye-catching, controversial approach to design and typography is epic. Born in Austria and a graduate of University of Applied Arts Vienna and The Pratt Institute (which I would love to attend someday), he came to the U.S. in 1993 and later established himself with his design firm Sagmeister Inc. He has created album artwork for a plethora of artists you’ve heard of (such as: Lou Reed, OK Go, The Rolling Stones, David Byrne, Aerosmith, Pat Metheny, and many more) in ways that pushed the envelope of utilized the utmost in creativity in everything from the typography to the printing.

In this video he talks about his need for a sabbatical from his design work and how it has been immensly beneficial for his desire to continue designing, pushing his creativity, and allowing him time to work on personal projects. I can’t imagine the things I could accomplish in “a year just to create and be”. I aspire to have his mind and eye for creativity and design, and to be surrounded by people who not only desire to have the same thing, but to follow through and see them to fruition.

In this second video, he talks about the learnings of his first sabbatical and the projects he came up with and created. He assembled a book with these creations and the stories behind them called “Things I’ve Learned in My Life So Far” which you can purchase here.

Any of you reading this who know me know very well that I love music. The sad part is that I can’t really play music very well, if at all. I can dabble on a keyboard, pretend to play guitar (with the 5 chords I know) or give my best regards to beat boxing. However, I love hunting around for new electronic bands and artists to be the soundtrack to my life and work environment. On that note, I’ve really been digging Ben Benjamin recently. A lot. A whole lot.

Ben Benjamin, whose real name is Ben Mullins, is the solo work of his other musical endeavor “PostPrior Project”. He is currently recording under the label of Ghostly International with the likes of other stellar artists like Tycho, Kiln, Mobius Band, and a plethora of others that you should also fall in love with.

When it comes to Ben Benjamin, I love the simple but intricate parts of his music. So much of “produced music” now-a-days is a few loop tracks layered with a beat underneath it with someone who’s got “a buddy in the biz” using the Smule’s T-Pain app to mask their sorry excuse for vocals and calling themselves an artist. Boring, easy, over it.

I appreciate that the more you listen to Ben’s music the more detail you’re able to pick out of the layers of instrumentation he has in each track. Below you’ll find my favorite track off his album “The Many Moods of Ben Benjamin Vol. 1″, and I am sure you too will appreciate the simple to intricate build that takes place over the 2:48 length of the track. Enjoy and check him out for yourself on iTunes, Amazon, or here.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.