Posts Filed Under: art

Die Antwoord is blowing up. First Boing Boing, then Vice Magazine, now The New Yorker?!

If you don’t know about Die Antwoord, your inner zef is in need of some serious refreshing. Waddy Jones (a.k.a Ninja) and Yo-landi Vi$$er (the pixie crack-baby with the space mullet pictured below) can take care of that in a heart beat-boy.

Oh, and they just landed in LA. Enter the Ninja!

We worked with the amazing artist, Jason Chan, to create this design for our friends at Kotaku.

Diving into the deep end of moe anthropomorphism, Kotaku-tan is comprised solely of references familiar to longtime Kotaku readers.

We’re really happy with the way she turned out, thanks in part to a ridiculous 13-screen printing process we used for the shirts. Kotaku-tan is available now in black, asphalt, and natural organic.

Soaked from the rain, and ears still ringing — awesome night! Got to see Nosaj Thing for the first time. Wow. Last time I heard sounds like that, Mike and I were at Womb in Shibuya.

Nosaj followed a great set by Jogger (who have an equally great shirt designed by kozyndan), and the evening was capped off by the always impressive Daedelus (who still has my copy of the Oblivion strategy guide).

kozyndan also illustrated the Magical Properties Tour poster. Way too cool.

I’m in a bit of a gaming funk at the moment.  The only games I really want to play aren’t out yet.    And ironically, they are all the third installments of successful franchises: Forza 3, Diablo III, and now God of War III.  Check out these new GoW III screen shots from Gamescom in Germany:

They ooze perfect art direction.

So completely bad ass.  I am also realizing I’m a sucker for winged human form.  First it’s Morrigan and Lilth from Darkstalkers, then comes Kaelyn the Dove from Mask of the Betrayer, then Aion goes and hands out a set of wings to anyone over level 10, and now Kratos sprouts some epic feathered appendages of his own.

I’m so easily manipulated.  Here, take my money.  Tell me Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story is a third installment as well, and let’s you fly, and I’ll plunk down cash for a pre-order for that right now too.  Just kidding.  You go have fun giving Bowser a rectal exam.  I’ll be playing GoW III, ripping Icarus a new one.

We have seen some blatant rip-offs in our time (like when Sony Bravia pilfered directly from our friends Kozy-n-Dan), but this is right up there.  It appears Nine West and New Balance have teamed up to shamelessly steal from one of our favorite Japanese artists, Takashi Murakami.  Not only do they pluck his signature eyeball, there’s a sub-par animation explaining the birth of their new mascot, NWBI.

But it gets better, Nine West and New Balance even go so far as to create a video of the “designers” thinking up the concept, and then name the shoe the same name as one of Murakami’s most famous characters, Kiki!

Oh, the shame.  But Murakami is still untouchable.  There is nothing that could water down his art.  Seeing this piece up close at the MOCA was a sight I won’t soon forget.

Wow, just now finally able to catch my breath.  Things have been a whirlwind as of late.

We last left you with an invite to the MOCA to celebrate the release of SF4 (on Capcom’s dime, of course).  Holy shit, dude… we didn’t think ALL of you would show up.  It was a madhouse!  It got so bad our friend/guest artist Steve Barron, who worked his ass off for three days on our Akuma-themed cabinet, was denied entry.  Fire-marshals with axes were calling the shots.  By 8:30 PM, if you were outside, you were toast.  At least you were in good company.  G4 couldn’t even get back in.

Then we headed to the annual fashion trade show in Vegas, MAGIC.  Las Vegas is funny.  It’s the city you are most excited going to, and the most excited to leave.  At least we got to hang with Greg and Ease from Mishka, and Simone from Tokidoki.  We also got to see one hell of a burlesque show at Forty Deuce (on Ben Sherman’s dime, of course).

Back in LA, I ran into Greg and Ease in front of Johnny Cupcakes (with Johnny himself) on Melrose.  They extended an invite to their little going away party before they fled back to NYC.  Luckily they left behind their personal DJ, Gina Turner.  Not only did she rock the house that evening, she protected it brilliantly from an onslaught of underage ravers.  By dropping the beat and turning on the lights, she snapped them out of their K-holes and shipped them right out the door.