this is ben clement. i'm not really sure how i stumbled upon him, but i think i'm in love with the website as much as the photographs.
photog rapher ''' / creativ e director ' ' i;/// jj editor
cool.
happy friday
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where art and cake collide
images by dunja opalko x wallpaper magazine
i haven't been baking much, even though it's summer time. very much unlike me, but i've been so busy with projects and fun stuff that i think it's okay.
the other day i stumbled upon danish designer kia utzon-frank and her london-based company kufstudios. naturally, there was kufcakes. each cake is in fact edible. kia prints marble texture onto fondant or marzipan before most meticulously folding it over cake. in turn, a beautiful stone effect is created, which freakin' insane.
the cake itself is equally as stunning, with folds and layers of sponge cake thin enough to create a fine gradient. "taste is as important as the look, and the cakes should be conversation starters and trigger our curiosity and interaction with each other," their website says. kia uses natural food coloring and fruit juices to dye the cakes.
i think the thing that utzon-frank said that really spoke to me the most was this: "cake is just another material. if something catches my interest it doesn't matter what it's made of. i think there's a huge freedom in not knowing much about the material i'm throwing myself at, as i then don't know the 'rules' and therefore am more open to experiment."
food = experimentation = art
i wish i could do that.
enjoy your weekend,
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because it was great
i made a video a week ago about my grandparents' neighborhood.
i went to jazz camp for a week.
i met really cool people.
i discovered new music.
i took a break.
i spent time with my family.
i'm good. i'm home. let's go.
i miss them.
happy monday
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i've been watching stuff
1/ on work – ryan o'connor
simple. eccentric. awesome. funny. i love it. i love helvetica.
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2/ upstate – jorge cuevas jr
15 seconds of joy and beauty.
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3/ onward internet – sander van dijk
the internet is cool. right.
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4/ pulse - traceloops x shigeto
a favorite song + a favorite artist. the perfect video.
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it seems like it's been forever since i last wrote here. it has, actually. i've been busy with my summer job and trying to be creative in other aspects of my life. i'm more confident now. i'm more confident in my life and actions as a creative. it almost feels like i know what i want to do and grow to be in the future. it's crazy. i'm turning 17 in 2 months and even though i always say i don't know what i want to be, i do know what i want to be. i am who i want to be. i think for me, that's really powerful.
good evening.
⌇.
h0me
i made a little thing because i haven't made one in a little.
happy wednesday
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what's going on
what's goin' on guys? i've come here to say that we have T-minus 2 days left until the end of the school year. do you know how good that feels? that feels pretty great.
i've been taking some weird photos lately. like cool weird? alex says that they're cool weird. that means that they really are cool weird. that's good. i love flash now. to kinda celebrate these photographs, i made some weird collages.
- got a new shirt from my dear friend that says "matriarchy now!" i love it. you can buy one (and look at all of her cool projects) here.
- i painted my nails like i always do when i choose to do them once in a millennium
- a cool water-chemical stain that i found today waiting for the bus
- my kefir yogurt ice cream with rainbow sprinkles that i had for dinner last night
- a brownie cake with very sad decorating by me (for my friend's chinese teacher)
and because it's been awhile, here are some links that i've found from the last 12 days.
1/ all of the pretty colors
2/ this awesome wallpaper (yes, real paper that goes on walls)
3/ buy all of the patches!!
4/ OK.
5/ what are you talking about?
happy hump day, everyone
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color switch
john zabawa, cereal mag, liam stevens, manjit thapp, reidar pritzel, natalie tan, kanghee kim, flavie roux, sigmar polke, erik madigan heck, natalie tan
every couple of months, i make a new folder of images. i would sort of describe it as a mood board folder: there are images from pretty much everything that i visit. blog posts, illustrators' portfolios, tumblr, cargo, etc. i link this folder to my screen saver, so every time i leave my computer i come back to these images floating and folding on my screen. it's like a moving inspiration board... sorta.
colors are nice. i've been drawn to more pale colors recently. i like the way they complement more vivid colors. composition is nice too. i've always been drawn to simple shapes.
the pictures and illustrations complement each other. they work together to create a new thing and are great pieces of art because of that. i think that all good art is like that. it can be associated to other pieces and other artists regardless of style or medium.
i like art like that.
happy friday
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blanca
fresh pasta with carbonara
garbanzo soup with raspberry salt
apple with shaved macadamia
glass shrimp with kohlrabi
sweet potato chips with buttermilk
agnolotti with lapsang souchong tea
sunchoke and cardamom cake with cacao
fresh stracciatella with asparagus
dear mom,
thank you for everything.
enjoy your mothers and sundays everyone.
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my office
where i sleep and throw my clothes and sometimes watch a movie
i killed my plants
where i make stuff
where i keep the messy stuff
where R2D2 lives
where the only pictures i have with my friends are
where i keep a picture of them
where projects die and are born
where clips that don't actually work are #aesthetic
where i keep artwork from first grade
there's just a random donut on my desk
people always ask me what my workspace is like.
it's my room.
it's my creative space #PEACHYS
i live here, i work here, i sleep here. it's my space. there's a lot of art and design magazines and stuff. my mom printed out some of my own photographs so i could, you know, get some inspiration from myself or something. i look back on my 2006 self (aka that painting from the first grade) for sources of creativity. real casual.
my room is a balance of myself. there's a lot of graphic prints and minimalist stuff, but there's also an R2D2 on my pillow, a tardis on my desk, and pictures of planets in my closet. i'm very discreet with my inner nerd, but there are hints of it everywhere.
there are usually more plants in my space. i killed most of them. what a shame.
there are cracks on my wall. some are new, some are old. our building is shifting and the wall closest to my bed looks like it's about to fall apart. it adds character. yeah.
i have a whole turntable space on my credenza. the flash didn't really reflect well on it, so i deleted all the pictures. it's there though.
i think comfort fuels my creativity + motivation + productivity.
this is common comfort...
too much?
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let's be creative
an image by tim schutsky + other unknown sources
i look at a lot of stuff on the internet. i like looking at art (in all of its forms) a lot.
i'm constantly inspired. i've recently found a few "things" that i've really, really enjoyed + i've been motivated by. here:
1/ from sketch to screen
the other day i stumbled upon yours truly, a unit dedicated to telling the stories of artists (and more specifically, musicians). i found this piece they did on chaz bundick, an artist / producer / creative. i just loved everything about this.
image by bea policarpio
2/ the crossroads of should and must
i've loved elle for awhile now. i talked about the difference between "should" and "must", but i'm pretty sure you'd much prefer her explanation over mine. she just gets it.
3/ ok gO!
you all know that okgo is my favorite band. this is also my favorite concert opening. i get chills every time i watch it (also like post-concert sadness). it just makes me want to make something awesome.
images by yours truly
4/ wet
don't wanna be your girl. creative processes + art + music + everything that happens in-between. this is the story of wet (the band, if you didn't know).
4/ our solar system
a group of friends recreated the solar system in real proportion because they wanted to. i just found this whole things insane/cool/beautiful/wonderful/thought-provoking. there's a new perspective that i had formed.
night
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okay so
i kind of don't know what to say.
i've been resting my body a lot. i've been eating well. i'm learning in school. i'm trying to take photos every day. i'm reading. i'm waking up at six o'clock every morning, except on the weekends. i walk home every day at around five. i read the news sometimes. i write sometimes. i'm listening to new music every day. i do my homework. i like to look for new shoes even though i don't need them. i smile. i go out with my friends. i brush my teeth twice a day. i play piano every monday and get out of school 15 minutes early on fridays. i try to walk more because it's nice out.
i'm doing well.
i feel like i don't keep up with writing here enough. i know, i know, i'm sorry. but i'm going to change that within the next couple of weeks. i have stuff in store to share, but i'm not exactly quite sure what it's going to be yet. #coolcontentcomingsoon. promise. i'm hoping to get some videos out pretty soon... i just haven't gotten around to it because you know, school and projects and all that fun stuff. but i promise that cool things are underway.
so i turn this question to you all: what kind of content would you like? more recipes (which would be in summertime)? more film stuff? graphics? art? life stuff? writing? do tell. (seriously, i'd really like to know).
i'll leave you with "cool things that i've found in the last 22 days" things. haven't done one of these in awhile.
1/ floating record? could you imagine this in your bedroom? yes? yes.
2/ my favorite little video (i found last week). it's not really about pizza
3/ this pair of very minimalist earrings that i adore
4/ a really intriguing short film on "fangirls"
6/ i forgot about this piece + have been listening it for the past week
7/ my favorite human being doing my favorite human things
have a lovely saturday, everyone.
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i'm so happy
i'm home. the past few days of spring break have been the most relaxed. there was a moment when i actually thought that it was summertime.
i'm happy. i'm so happy, and being so is one of the most askdfklj feelings. it's hard to explain, but i'm sure you've felt this way before. when i'm happy, i get creative. i've made so many little things (including a 'california' video!!!) in the past week alone.
i even made a little playlist about it. cool.
enjoy your spring everyone. i'll hear from you soon. promise.
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on film
still from 2001: a space odyssey. my favorite film.
i've spent a lot of time watching films in the past few days. short films, long films, films of my own, i've been watching them. we're on this weird road-trip-not-road-trip trip in california right now, so i've queued a list of little films for the rides.
i love film (i'm talking about motion pictures here, but i love actual film also). i love the ability to tell a story without words. i hope by now you know that i like to understand things visually, so it shouldn't be surprising when i say that i love movies.
i wanted to share some of my favorite films that i've found and that i'm currently watching during our car rides. some of them are weird, some inspiring, some cool, some beautiful, but all incredible. they are all worth watching, promise.
i love film.
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1/ the sound of film . robert marshall
the sounds that often are missed when we replace film with digital media.
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2/ michael cina – a century of artifice . VSCO
a short film on the life of one of my favorite graphic designers.
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3/ august in paris . sage
an eccentric music video with lots of legs and no faces.
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4/ can you read my lips? . little moving pictures
i come back to this video a lot– it explores the difficulty of lip-reading in a world of hearing.
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5/ opening titles to semi-permanent design conferences . marx
a really beautiful opening title to a conference (?). cool. here are the behind the scenes.
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6/ greenland . tim kellner
tim + travel films = awesomeness.
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7/ the uses of envy . lara lee
bold, graphic animations with a bold narrative.
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8/ casey neistat, words of wisdom . jack harries
casey neistat's words of wisdom. what's better than that?
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have a great thursday, everyone.
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found arists: gabriela "hansolo"
what's happened in the past 23 days
(images by me + awesome video on windows/light/shadows that i adore)
i'd forgotten to write here. i'd forgotten i have this space.
i've been so busy with school and the given exhaustion that comes with it that i'd forgotten to write + share. i wanted to let you know that i am well. i feel good. i am happy amidst the chaos that is exams and tests. i don't know how it came to be this way because i certainly wasn't like this last year.
i still care. i'm just more carefree. i've been thinking about it a lot: how happy i am now because i've cut this limit that has restrained me for so long. this tense, hard-on-myself mindset that kind of just itches at the back of your head. i don't know how i did it– how i learned to disregard it, but i don't think i've ever been so sunny during such a "stressful" time.
other than that, life is good. i've been reevaluating my perspective on things as a whole, which is good i guess. i don't really know how to explain. i'm growing up? i feel like i've grown up already, but maybe this is just my last bit of maturity kicking in.
casey neistat retweeted me. that was cool.
we saw troye sivan last tuesday. less cool but still A+
it's okay.
tgif
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hideaways
1/ room 304 at the michelburger hotel in berlin
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it's like a modern, live-in cubicle. which is incredible .
love: neutrals, wood + concrete details, "secret" doors, geometry
2/ azukashi house in japan
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(some) antiques x modern details- swoon. although i don't know what that bird's doing there
love: plants (+), wood details, house-silhouettes, open
3/ watt rooftop apartment in belgium
.
okay this is what i've always wanted my bedroom to look like: bed, dresser, mirror, PLANTS.
love: PLANTS PLANTS PLANTS, focus on plants, green from plants, completely open space, that antique ladder, exposed light fixtures
4/ 5th floor apartment in copenhagen
.
okay and this is what i want my house to look like: minimal, simple palettes, midtone oranges, blues, and greens.
love: natural light, leather detail, exposed books, plants, open
5/ artist's studio in amsterdam
.
this was built in a renovated tower and is pretty much the epitome of what a hideout/hideaway is.
love: bareness, tall ceilings, neutrals, spiral staircase. so minimalist.
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ever since i was a kid, i've had this obsession with "hideaways" or secret passageways in houses or between rooms. i still have that obsession, but i've matured it a bit.
in 2006, we took a vacation to amsterdam, berlin, and paris, and i remember that the most memorable part of our 2 week-long trip was this / this (we stayed there two different times). my favorite part of our entire trip was our hotel room(s). yep. that's also the only part that i remember and reminisce about now: the interior design. i cannot describe to you how much i loved those rooms. i was/am fascinated by small, modern spaces (i have a folder of pictures dedicated to the them).
i'm pretty sure that everyone shares this fascination with eclectic, homey, minimalist, cozy, visually-appealing spaces, or at least i hope they do.
"i wish i could retreat to one of these small safe cozy havens and never come out. like a hermit crab. bye." - alex
happy wednesday
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#blizzard2016
1. 30+ inches of snow in the city
2. i went out at 9pm on friday to explore
3. i took pictures + made a video
4. i froze both my cameras + almost cried
5. a guy danced for my video
6. we didn't have a snow day today, and i'm incredibly upset
7. i've been away from home for 7 days and on 2 trips in the past week
8. it's now the final stretch until spring break
happy monday
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found artists: tyler spangler
this is tyler spangler.
some of tyler's work caught my eye whilst scrolling through tumblr (as one does) and i thought i would share it with you all. i was definitely drawn towards the really vivid color palettes he uses. a lot of his work includes cut-outs and collages + it reminds me of a more modern, matisse-like style of art.
i think what i love most about tyler's work is its simplicity– the ability to create a minimalist, simple work of art while still being eclectic, i guess. it's hard to explain, but, i think you get my gist. it's sophisticated, but not... there's definitely a lot of stuff going on in his graphics, but not to much that it's too ornate. there's a perfect balance, and i love it. i love it. i love it.
also, his gifs are a plus. gifs are always a plus.
have a great rest of your week everyone!
(there is a new video coming out soon)
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2015 + a video
photograph by austin schmid
i hope you all have had a wonderful holiday. i celebrated mine with a trip to the west village (shot in the video above). there's been a lot of resting, reviving, creating, and laughing in the rael household. it feels great.
as 2015 nears its close, i decided to share a few of my favorite things:
1. favorite songs that i've listened to this year
2. favorite photographs taken this year
3. favorite youtuber that i found this year
4. favorite video that i found this year
5. favorite music video that i found this year
6. favorite blog of the year
7. favorite tumblr post of the year
8. favorite shop of this year
9. favorite source of inspiration of the year
10. (one of many) favorite photographers of the year
you can listen to the playlist of my favorite-songs-that-i've-listened-to-this-year below.
that's all i wanted to share this week.
have a wonderful day everyone.
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