The Zaum of Mr Brown has moved

Hi everyone, it's been difficult keeping up to date with my blogs, day job and life generally, so I've streamlined my blog to my personal site. I'll be updating regularly with very similar content and some extra stuff thrown in for good measure. This site won't get any further updates so feel free to check out the new blog here, thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy the new blog as much... feel free to leave comments. Thanks, Mr Brown.

Thievery Corporation - Versions Artwork by Matthew Curry

Matthew Curry is a GRAMMY Nominated® designer, illustrator and painter that resides and works from his studio in the Washington DC area and is the principal of the design studio, Imagefed.

Thievery Corporation's Versions Cover Artwork was designed in a joint collaboration by Curry & friend and fellow designer, Neal Ashby. The packaging has been featured in the 47th Design Annual of Communication Arts and was recently nominated for a GRAMMY for Best Recording Package.

You can check out more of Matthew Curry & Imagefed's work here.

Spiritualized - Let it Come Down Ltd Edition Sleeve Design

I've recently featured Spiritualized limited album covers for Ladies & Gentlemen and the latest album A&E whilst neglecting Let It Come Down, well, I got one in the post this week so decided to do a feature.

Farrow had seen the work of sculptor Don Brown who's work is focused on his wife Yoko. During the same period, Pierce (Spiritualized) had been reading some psychology about the workings of the brain and I got interest­ed in the idea that when you see an image of a face that is concave, your brain is so used to seeing eyes and noses that stick out that it finds it impossible to read.

Brown then created a portrait of Yoko that could be indented into the limited edition plastic case. Although Farrow didn't create the image, he has said producing this case was much more rewarding and enjoyable than Ladies & Gentlemen.



(I'll be adding more photos of this soon)

Concept and design: Farrow/Spaceman.
Sculpture: Yoko by Don Brown, courtesy of Sadie Coles HQ London

Favourite Movie Posters - Part I

I've recently been posting more movie posters on here so I wanted to feature my favourites over the last few years, which will no doubt over time date way back to the early 1900's. Each post will include 10 posters starting with these below. I've not seen all of the movies listed and the film itself is no reflection on the poster design. Enjoy. Please feel free to comment on any you may like or dislike.

Coen Brothers pays homage to Saul Bass

I've been a massive Coen Brothers fan since their debut movie Blood Simple. New posters of their up and coming movie First After Reading have recently been released and what can I say, wow! It clearly pays homage to the legendary works of Saul Bass who's posters included the likes of Hitchcock's Vertigo, Otto Preminger's The Man With The Golden Arm & Anatomy of Murder and Billy Wilder's Love in the Afternoon to name a few, all of which I've featured below for you to enjoy.

Burn After Reading will hit theaters on September 12th 2008.



If you haven't seen the trailer yet, check it out here.



I've included the mentioned posters which may have inspired Burn After Reading's poster design below, starting with one of the best classics of all time, Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo.



This is one of my favourite movie posters, Otto Preminger's Anatomy of Murder.



Otto Preminger's The Man With The Golden Arm.



Billy Wilder's Love in the Afternoon



Another recent movie poster which has been influenced by Saul's unique style was the poster for Before the Devil Know's you're Dead

The little floor is mine

I've been tagged by Miss White to do the Six Quirks Meme(The title of this post is the strange English translation of the German title).

The rules are:
1. Link the person(s) who tagged you.
2. Mention the rules in your blog.
3. Tell about 6 unspectacular quirks of yours.
4. Tag 6 following bloggers by linking them.
5. Leave a comment on each of the tagged blogger's blogs letting them know they've been tagged.

• If I eat any form of chocolate, it has to be from frozen, I can't stand warm chocolate and not even refrigerated is cold enough! I also can't eat chocolate bars normally, I have to bite around different parts of them like removing the chocolate first, or eating certain layers in order.

• I have a 'slight' case of OCD, I can't bare having dirty fingers, grease or spillages on my skin. If I eat a packet of crisps i have to split the packet from end to end so I don't get the grease on my hands, and I can't eat fast food without using a napkin to protect my hands. If I ever indulge into a fast food restaurant I leave feeling rather violated and require a good wash & scrub to remove the grease and smells.

• I enjoy an unhealthy yet significant amount of seclusion to the world. I love spending times with my friends yet isolating myself away for days really relaxes me, de-stresses me and brings out my creativity... (I'm starting to sound a little crazy)

• I love to hate things. It could be anything from people to tv commercials & programmes, songs or entertainment venues. I find it's like witnessing a car crash, I can't get enough and rather than distancing myself from things I don't like I enjoy complaining about how much I cant stand them. (I'm not sure that's healthy)

• I pluck my facial hair with my fingers. It's more of a subconscious habit.

• I can never buy 1 or 2 items which could form a set of something. For example, if a band released an album I liked, I would have to buy all of their albums. Or if a novelist wrote a book, I have to have their entire collection, or if i bought shower gel and can't decide on a scent, I buy them all.

I think after trying to think of these quirks, I have realised I am completely but happily insane.

I'm tagging these people: (ok, so it's not 6 people as the rules says)

London Shots
Katize
Made In Mundo

Spiritualized - Songs in A & E Album Art

This week, I managed to pick up a special edition copy of Spiritualized's - Songs in A & E. I featured Ladies & Gentlemen previously on the blog, which was designed by Mark Farrow who has again teamed up with Spiritualized's Jason Pierce to create the new album sleeve.

The main designer of the project Gary Stillwell's inspiration for the new album cover comes from Jason Pierce's near to death lengthy spell in hospital with pneumonia. Songs in A&E comprises of a 32 page booklet consisting of photos of Pierce on various drips and lots of needles.

Farrow and the main designer on the project, Gary Stillwell, were struck by the beauty of these functional objects. “The idea was to elevate them and draw attention to them,” says Farrow. “They are incredible things … on a completely la-la level I love the fact that [in the photographs] they look like pinned insects, they take on a beauty when you see them presented in that way...”

Please comment, how do you think it compares to the previous sleeve designs of Ladies & Gentlemen and Let it Come Down?

MUTO by Blu - Redefining Street Art

MUTO a wall-painted animation by BLU from blu on Vimeo.

First of all, sorry for not posting for ages, I've been ridiculously busy but found something well worth posting about.

MUTO is an ambiguous animation painted on public walls in Buenos Aires and Baden, and was created by Blu.

Banksy "One Nation Under CCTV"

Banksy has struck again in perhaps his most ironic piece of work yet. Seen painted on the side of a post office, his slogan "One Nation Under CCTV" was conducted behind a large fence with CCTV (surveillance camera) coverage. The job required the construction of three stories of scaffolding to complete the job and represents one of Banksy's boldest attempts and the irony is brought on by the fact this was all happening under the "eye in the sky" surveillance cameras.

How this was painted on a post office we will never know, but with the increased publicity and large sums his works command, maybe somebody willingly turned the blind eye?

Shepard Fairey does George Orwell

Since recently discovering the works of Obey's Shepard Fairey, I was extremely excited to see he has now been commissioned by Penguin Booksto design two new book covers for George Orwell classics, Animal Farm and 1984. They will be available from 3 July.