Pages To The People

Retro Is Crazy (concepts part 2)

2008-10-31T00:16:00.000-07:00

i had been told that retro are actually vintage and something old, not about to the style that we used to understand but the real story and the meaning behind it.

old jazz are playing, i believe that the music was produced even before my existent. the alcohols remain the same, it is not like some cheap bar here, instead, it looks classy for me. no stripper, no annoying music, just some dim lights and few professionals sitting inside; the well known burp cafe.

boss smiles wider today, he handed me my reward with an extra letter, it seem different today. sitting in a corner with this tiny cup of whiskey, i am reading the paper. i never realize that this retro paper has cause me to have 5 more cups, a 10 year old paper.

i believe that you are with great skills now, and definitely you killed. not surprising because of your genetic and inheritance, your parents are great assassins. you might be surprise because we ain't got blood relation, i was told to take care of you because i owe them. they are not irresponsible but things had been complicated. if you're to find out who your parents is, ask from the cafe's boss and he will tell you what to do. sorry, but i really treat you as my own.

boss smiles again, more expressional this time. onto my realization, i found it was very ironic. he say that "hand them the flowers during rain, that one who sells skins, and the other one who are still beautiful in her age."

the truth is entertaining, if life ain't just a joke, then why are we laughing.
things that happened in the old days, retro enough, crazy enough.

the clown, and the prostitute?

kenny wang

Keep One Eye Open At Night

2008-10-19T09:40:00.000-07:00

So we’ve been away, and we wondered how many still stop on by as part of a routine retro update. Things did go blah for a while, as they inevitably do, when you have the pressure mounting up. After pouring in much absurd thoughts, we firmly knuckle down to the final design and had even completed the silk screening progressing. We will start off with the very original early sketches on the concepts as a continuous from the previous post by Tiny.

The original early sketch of mine.

The negative black and white spacing was both produced as an experimental set. We were quite appalled after being pointed out that the line refining was a slaughter for dinner. Moreover, the whole composition to lead the storyline was remained unseen.

The original plan was to overlay the wallpaper piece with this 1970’s repetitive lady background to enhance the powerful society. Instead of a captivating piece to come by, the result was cluttered and unoriginal. Same goes with the early planned overlay background vintage wallpaper.

Therefore, we started constructing a completely different composition design inspired by poker card like the image above and we focused the contrast reflection on the main character- the clown and the prostitute looking ahead a dark side of the 80’s street. I constructed this piece with a building and smoking hand overlooking the background to enhance the focus on our storyline.

Unfortunately for me, I invented an old prostitute sad to say. And while we were trying to replace the face, Zhi Kang from the Illus dept tried to help me fix it by tracing another face and haha it turned out to be the prostitute of the year cause

Jeng jeng jeng, She looked like an Ah Gua (Thai Transsexual) Hahaha. Disqualified, obviously.

Okay moving on.
We started on the hunt for the right prostitute and did a handful of bare back ones.

Tiny managed to replace it with a sensational one, check out the vintage dress! Not to forget a decade amount of time spent on experimenting the streets and building with the many used of Threshold, plus the arrangement of compositions.

Like these two.

And this came up. However, Li Wen prefers the clown to be moved and so we moved.

In-the-progress work. We took upon streets and building structure references among these 2 references and edited most of the effects with much blending and combination. Later on, as we grew more fondly into the topic, ideas began to blossom in many forms.

Kenny suggested the use of raindrops to function as a third point perspective whereas I imply on the very much retroish flowers on the wall and fully intend to experience it with colors from the 70’s and 80’s.

The final piece.

As readers have probably figured out by now, our concepts settings are based on the 1980’s street where a clown hunts for human skins to create tatoos, meanwhile sharing an intimacy with the prostitute across the street who suffered from insomia. We will be posting up the rationale alongside with the final silk screen piece. Meanwhile here's to the story and a little tadbit of concepts all adding up.

I knew my dad profession when i was 10, it is when i start to learn the philosophy. it's not that hard after all, because i grown up in such a place. i don't even know i have a mom, i never thought of anything about my existence. dad left me some tools, and the only word he told me was to 'find your life' when he slipped away. i got a friend, she left me when we were 16, she don't have a dad, that's why we were friend. we did a mistake that night, she fell and cried. i don't know how to respond, but i had a strange feeling, that was sad like grief of losing someone. this was a common thing happened in our lives, some went and never come back. my eyes was wet that night, i barely know the water fell on my cheek was rain or tear. i knew my life after that , so i carried on. we kill to survive, we trade money by lives. what other treasured, is what we hunt. i killed and i felt nothing, cause the nly thing i treasured had already left and told me the life.

today is another ordinary night, walking toward the Burp cafe to gain my reward.

down the street, the trader wore like a clown smoking a cigar and sell the precious. the skins from those that might have the same job like us, he kills those who kills. to own the skins was a glory, but for him it's just some business for more money,moreover an act to be an attention seeker, because he was lonely. norah was walking down the street, seems like she is suffer from a sleepless night. she sells her soul as the channel for them, letting her body being torture sweetly. she was the clown's favorite, i saw them when i was young. i still remember her beautiful face, the day when my dad left. i heard her compliment, they say she killed more than i did. -Kenny
_________________

Clowns are performers. They are stereotypically characterized by their disguise. Colored wigs, stylistic makeup, outlandish costumes and large footwear. Always hiding their face under a mask of illusion, trying to amuses other by ridiculous behavior. Hiding their thoughts of loneliness, hoping to be acknowledged. Every time someone met a clown, after a moment, like a curse of forgetfulness, people tend to forget about them. Like the stars in the night, always shine brightly at night, but forgotten during the day. Night are for dreaming, not for a world without light. The town at night is a place of illusion yet it is the reality. As the clown fades into the dusk and darkness, the night had stolen the shadows from the tower of dream. -Tiny

_________________

Thats for now. Toodles.-Zheng Joo

Sunday Morning, Rain is Falling.

2008-10-04T18:36:00.001-07:00

Sketches

Concept:

Clowns are performers. They are stereotypically characterized by their disguise. Colored wigs, stylistic makeup, outlandish costumes and large footwear. Always hiding their face under a mask of illusion, trying to amuses other by ridiculous behavior. Hiding their thoughts of loneliness, hoping to be acknowledged. Every time someone met a clown, after a moment, like a curse of forgetfulness, people tend to forget about them. Like the stars in the night, always shine brightly at night, but forgotten during the day. Night are for dreaming, not for a world without light. The town at night is a place of illusion yet it is the reality. As the clown fades into the dusk and darkness, the night had stolen the shadows from the tower of dream. Radios always have everything, playing music loudly and lively which always a dream of the clown. Clown crackled like a radio, so lost in airwaves, without a word he is always sounded so lost, hoping to find the right key to get back on track. -Tiny

Blurish Memory

2008-10-04T17:28:00.000-07:00

Retro graphics and style

Back to the retro future. Build with modernism designs.

Photos of nobody.

by Tiny

11.52 p.m.

2008-10-04T08:41:00.000-07:00

Sketches of the design.
1, the arrangement, the street, clown, prostitute, burp, and human skin tattoo :)

2, tattoo design. it will be nice if in colors.

3, some of the graphic elements that i am blending in. the Beatles, and Bob Dylan! XD

the finalize or the almost finalize want are coming soon..

kenny wang

Imagination That Sound Reasonable (Concepts)

2008-10-04T01:31:00.000-07:00

i knew my dad profession when i was 10, it is when i start to learn the philosophy. it's not that hard after all, because i grown up in such a place. i don't even know i have a mom, i never thought of anything about my existence. dad left me some tools, and the only word he told me was to 'find your life' when he slipped away. i got a friend, she left me when we were 16, she don't have a dad, that's why we were friend. we did a mistake that night, she fell and cried. i don't know how to respond, but i had a strange feeling, that was sad like grief of losing someone. this was a common thing happened in our lives, some went and never come back. my eyes was wet that night, i barely know the water fell on my cheek was rain or tear. i knew my life after that , so i carried on. we kill to survive, we trade money by lives. what other treasured, is what we hunt. i killed and i felt nothing, cause the only thing i treasured had already left and told me the life.

today is another ordinary night, walking toward the Burp cafe to gain my reward.

down the street, the trader wore like a clown smoking a cigar and sell the precious. the skins from those that might have the same job like us, he kills those who kills. to own the skins was a glory, but for him it's just some business for more money, moreover an act to be an attention seeker, because he was lonely.

norah was walking down the street, seems like she is suffer from a sleepless night. she sells her soul as the channel for them, letting her body being torture sweetly. she was the clown's favorite, i saw them when i was young. i still remember her beautiful face, the day when my dad left. i heard her compliment, they say she killed more than i did.

kenny wang

Remembrance Of Innocent

2008-10-03T09:06:00.000-07:00

Remember when coke only cost RM0.80

and dad used to fetch me with this.

this was every boys dream.

And i was 7 back then.

this were the memories :

GAME OVER.

Mom : boy ah, faster go and do your homework, stop playing already! - kenny wang

Visual Food

2008-10-02T12:46:00.000-07:00

This were the retro inspired piece of art by Matte Stephens named Large NYC Print. Here we see the common usage of retro styling to produce a flat tone of image and perspective with fluorescent color and lines.

Photography of the real view back in the 70's does great help too because our concepts are based on a street.

We also did a full research on one of the casual way of retro styling back in the 70's, that is the usage of vintage wall paper. It is to enhance the emotion, feelings and texture of nostalgia and decorative at the same time.

Whereas our concepts goes well with the way these wallpapers are composed. That is putting them behind the graphics and iconic elements.

Sparkasse by Matthew Rose. 'Sparkasse' means "savings bank" in German. Based on a collage first exhibited in Berlin at Galerie Rossella Junck, Sparkasse opens up a narrative of proposal and sexuality, possibility and Saturnalian deceit. A generous take-off on Picasso's 1907 Demoiselles d'Avignon, here the prostitutes are ourselves, and the offering is flowers and flowing milk (arriving and departing) under a strange, other-world sky. Sparkasse is part of a 20-piece collage suite from A Kick In The Kunst.

Mittwoch by Matthew Rose. Mittwoch, 2007, is German for 'Wednesday,' (literally middle of the week) and artist Matthew Rose's puppet-master/puppet collage. Part of the A Kick in the Kunst series first exhibited in Berlin at Galerie Rossella Junck, Mittwoch plays with both silhouette and shadow, each exhibiting a presence but Mittwoch is oddly absent an actual protagonist. The artist says this is something of a self-portrait, and he is somewhere in the gap of here and there. It is the modern retro.

The original 60's concert poster.

This is a 70s sex-ed record by Stanley Z. Daniels, M.D. It features a husband and wife discussing their sexual problems at a doctor’s office.

The orginal 1960's poetry poster. Designed by Lucia Pearce, the posters were printed by Looart Press of Colorado Springs in the 1960s. Pearce was an artist involved in the protest movement in America who also worked for a time for Eames. The posters incorporate words and poetry by influential figures on the counterculture such as Lord Buckley and Khalil Gibran into Pearce’s flower power designs.

The above two are Twiggy and Michael Caine, part of a range that also includes Pete Townshend and The Krays, the retro illustrations done by Hisknibs.

Keith Haring wall decals 80's style retro street-art.Keith Haring was an artist influenced by the street art/graffiti of the 70s and 80s, making the jump into the world of 'serious' artist before his death in 1990, aged just 31. His eye-catching artwork certainly lives on, instantly recognisable and still relevant and influential almost 20 years on.

The abstract piece by Matte Stephens again. the usage of colors suggested vintage style.

Retro Stickers!

Some of the fantastic retro graphics in the 1950's to 1970's. Here we can see how the usage of lines, color mood and photography begins into a more mod style.However, the retro elements are still cleverly shown.

All have co-ordinated sleeves too - stylish retro designs that are the work of San Francisco-based illustrator Michael Gillette. Original James Bond novels illustration in hardback

Gemma Jones (as you may already know) is a Melbourne based artist whose work usually involves retro and mod girls, taken from 1960s magazines and record covers. The original paintings currently on sale via her Etsy shop, where she goes by the pseudonym Paintergirl, are taken from her 2007 exhibition at the Distracted Gallery in Australia. Each of the five paintings features black silhouettes of women against grey and white patterned backgrounds. Another common retro style elements to be featured in. One of our appointed ideas too!

Graphic stylish retro piece. Would like to ask readers to enhance your views more on the color contrast.

The very infamous quote back then with the strong regconized background of pale blue. The retro symbol!

Christoper David Ryan’s sketches remind us of a style that belongs in the 70s — very organic and whimsical. I thought the color toning blended well though.

This is a retro bluestop ink experiment by Pilipo. Perhaps the beautiful structure line ain't convincing enough for the geometry firm and well shape elements of retro, yet it is just the style that brings out a strong essence of the 60's retro design. Lovely.

Retro in collage form.

Kindertrauma! is about the movies, books, and toys that scared you when you were a kid. It’s also about kids in scary movies, both as heroes and villains. And everything else that’s traumatic to a tyke! here i would like to ask readers to focus more on the clown style that are really a popular material for spooky way back during the 60's and 70's.

And last but not least. the highlight of the post: the Clown Prince of the Crime and his very much styli Mucho Macho Mustache, as claimed by the people back then! Hahaha. Cesar Romero was the highlight of the crime scene way back in the 60's where people then would claimed that the Jack's version of the joker was called the PARTYMAN JOKER and Heath Ledger's version as EMO JOKER and state that this must be some kind of joke when they were named as the best joker instead of Cesar's just because The Joker supposingly owned a freaking mustache. So the 60's retro clown wins hand down! So yay!

Although i am still pretty much a hardcore Ledger fan! -Zheng Joo

The Story Behind

2008-10-02T07:22:00.000-07:00

The retro design serves like a creative candy into our eyes and is short terms for retrospective. Colorful pop art and 1950's sitcom references were incorporates alongside with the humor in design that forms Retro. Retro designs are often reminiscent of the big movie sets of classic black and white films. Retro designs truly are timeless masterpieces as it reflects the idealism of age, a sense of strong survival in terms of their sleek and stylish. Moreover, Retro Designs came out of a desire to leave the highly ornamented Victorian style behind and to replace it with an uncluttered look. Yet in today’s general views of art, pretty much everything has been done at least once or twice, from the styles, art direction, color usage and even retro fonts and the only thing left for us to do is to pick up a piece from the past and further improvise it in order to produce what I called a modern interpretation for Retro. And in this ever-changing world, retro designs have already proven its strength, where changes are made to express the current world’s desire.

The current interest of retro that concentrate specifically between the 1960’s and 1980’s design turned out to be the most influential movement to the twentieth century either the design, music revolution or advertising and products and this is because retro has been a part of searching for meaning. Retro in theory is a hard to defined concepts for its vagueness. And since there isn’t any specific proven timeline and origins of the history, most of us started to presume that retro actually refers to any timeline that features a renewal. Therefore, it is absurdly important to have a clear head onwards the modern retro and the retro design as they stood for a very difference audience and perspective. And most retro creation are actually modern retro, where Neil Bingham a curator at the Royal Institute of British Architects in London, together with Andrew Weaving, an interior designer who has also written features on ‘retro’ style for Elle decoration and Metropolitan, once quoted,
‘Modern Retro delights in combining authentic pieces with renditions of the works of classic twentieth century masters and items by today’s best designers.’

The following definition, by art critic Guy Julier, places the term ‘retro’ in the 1960s, when popular culture was developing:
‘Retro is a term used frequently to describe the popular re-edition from the early 1960’s of Victoriana, arts and crafts, art noveau and contemporary style designs.’

Julier’s definition contrasts with Oliver Bennett’s definition, which although covering a thirty year period, locates the beginning of ‘retro’.in the 1920s:

‘Retro is an indeterminate style which can veer from the 20s to the 50s in one stylistic leap.’

The present preference or trend in design that revolves around Retro elements from the 1950s to 1970s was particularly noticeable at the end of the 20th century. This phenomenon, known as ‘fin de siecle’ features a nostalgic desire for styles from the century which is drawing to a close:

‘In the fine arts, architecture and crafts, forms such as neo-gothic, neo-renaissance and neo baroque flourished and were often combined to form a hybrid stylistic mishmash.’

According to Meyer’s Encyclopedia this copying of old forms was:

‘The expression of an attitude to style that sought its own nature in historical borrowings.’

The preference to rely on designs from the past could both be due to the fear of the unknown in the century to come, and the strong pull of nostalgia in not wanting change and this indirectly produce the modern retro that occurred at the end of the 19th century. Judith Brauner, marketing executiveof Vitra, has seen this desire for continuity developing within consumers who buy ‘retro’ products.

‘We have noticed that the greater the uncertainty about current design, the more people shift towards the tried and tested, because it stands for security.’

The 1960s was an optimistic decade of social change famously known as the decade of sex, drugs and rock’n’ roll:

‘The suburban dream of the fifties was renounced in favor of a utopian vision of alternative lifestyle, and the young continued to agitate for a better world.

Whereas as the space age strike around 1957, the dream of a man setting foot on earth exposed the world design to a higher level of explosiveness.

“Why does the ‘retro’ phenomenon locate most of its original designs and styles in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s? Research shows that it was because the 1950s was an interesting decade when the post-war generation had the freedom to reassert its identity. By the end of this decade the modern movement, or modernism, was being rejected in favor of post modernism, enabling post-modernism to establish itself in the 1960s. The general aesthetics of modernism, which entailed the use of steel frames with concrete and glass infillings in architecture, and tubular steel and plywood in furniture, along with the use of abstraction and suppression of ornament and colour and the exposure of structure, were being forgotten with the increasing momentum towards post-modernism. In general post-modernism had a more sensuous approach to design. Its fresh approach embraced bulbous and organic shapes, and fluorescent and gaudy colours and included a more exciting and fun approach to design. This kind of design was the exact antithesis of modernism. In the 1950s young people began demonstrating against the Bomb as well as experiencing, in relative terms, newfound prosperity in the suburban dream. The rich explosion of popular culture and the momentum of the market place, which began in the late 1950s and continued into the 1960s, gave form to collective moods and needs and translated those needs into consumers’ materialistic ambitions.” -John Treby, University of Herdfordshire.

That is for a better understanding of so called Retro Design.-Zheng Joo

Sticking Back The Pieces

2008-10-01T08:00:00.000-07:00

Everything start with one's imagination, even before the creation of the world. Imagination came before the invention, this is how the world being created :)

Brain, needless to say, you know what it is and how it function. Obviously this is where your imagination came from, everybody is given the same; equally one brain :p However, the brains that everybody had is similar but not the same. The thing that differentiate us from one and other is our thinking; imagination. This is when the word 'unique' being introduced.

Human ourselves has tried to be smart over the mankind, start to categorized things that they think what it were. The more classification they get, the more confused they are, yet, they are still digging and questioning something that never meant to be answered. For example, 'why your parent love you?'. Different kind of answers may come out, as they said everybody have their own perspectives or way of thinking. After all, your parent can love you without any reasons because they just have to, and they need to :)

Mind maps that we use in brainstorming, are just some simple formula for you to 'develop' your mind, and to 'push' yourself further or deeper into your thinking. We're breaking the chain of classification and categorization through our mind maps, producing something that is not normal or 'out of the box' by using our imaginations. Once you did it, they will say you're 'creative', but the funny part is this, who did the classification and categorization, who are the one who judge that things which are normal or creative; your history, education, or instinct?

Retro - clown - burp - prostitute - street - human skin tattoo - insomnia - secret society.

This is what we have after the so-call brain storming or mind mapping. The challenge is to link everything together into a understandable story by using our imaginations. Now, remember how imagine came in the first place, and how it functioned? well, we are all human being ;p

kenny wang