First, tomorrow (June 9th at 1pm), the sweet ladies of Maison d’Etoile are throwing a 3 year anniversary party and fundraiser to help raise some funds to make improvements to their building — which they need to do to bring it up to commercial code with the city. It’s going to be very expensive, so they need all of the help they can get! If you can’t make it to the party, you can still donate via their website. Every little bit counts!

Maison d’Etoile is home to Charm School Vintage, Coco Coquette, and Salon d’Etoile (bonus: we designed all three of their websites!) and also have art openings and events regularly (our fall film series last year was hosted in their backyard). Their businesses and their space is an Austin institution so let’s step up as a city and help these beautiful women out!

Then, on Monday (June 10th at 7pm), come out to Cheer Up Charlie’s to support the hyper talented and incredibly sweet Aaron Flynn who was involved in a hit-and-run accident. Now he’s facing insane medical bills after being in the hospital with a medically induced coma because of his injuries. He’s recovered and is out of the hospital now, but as so many of us know with no insurance, yeah. Not good.

So come dance, hug Aaron (not too hard, he’s probably still sore) and help out!

Also, if anyone knows anything about the accident, read here, let the authorities know, you know the drill.

The post Benefiting Beautiful Babes appeared first on Recspec.

We’re incredibly honored (and nervous) to be included in the upcoming PROTOS Digital Art & Prototyping Festival, presented by AMODA (Austin Museum of Digital Art). It’s their first full-fledged festival, happening from May 23rd through the 26th, at the Long Center Rollins Theatre. It’s four days packed to the brim with presenters and performers, covering everything from gaming development to visual design to video projections and live dance. And, best of all, the day presentations are all free! You can come see me (Laurel) shake from nerves and sputter through my 15 minute talk and subsequent panel discussion (on Sunday) for no cost. It’s going to be a blast!

We are also doing projections on Friday and Saturday for R. Lee Dockery + Smokey Emery, Reaganometry, and Twine (Ghostly).

Details for the nights we’re included in are below (details for the whole festival can be found here)!

Look at all of those seats!

Big, beautiful screen for projections.

FRIDAY, May 24

Rafael Anton Irisarri / “The Sight Below” (Ghostly / Seattle) + Tana Sprague aka Lissom (Liminal Space / San Francisco) — Live A/V
Twine (Ghostly / Austin) — Live + Laurel Barickman (Recspec) — Live A/V
Twigs & Yarn (Flau / Austin, Japan) — Live
Lee Dockery + Smokey Emery (Holodeck / Austin) — Live + Laurel Barickman (Recspec) — Live A/V

SATURDAY, May 25

“RGBA” (A’lante Flamenco & VJ 4th Wall / Austin) – Live A/V + Interactive Dance
Wheez-ie (Well Rounded, Embassy / Houston) + Annapurna Kumar (LA, DC) — Live A/V
Reaganometry (iNSECT / Austin) + Laurel Barickman (Recspec) — Live A/V
Fared Shafinury (Austin, SF)

SUNDAY, May 26 (click to see full schedule for the day)

5:45 — ‘Looking Back to Look Forward: Using vintage imagery for modern video and design’ (Laurel Barickman)
Discussion about the use of vintage, antiquated, or old imagery and video in graphic design and video production in a way that is contemporary and forward-thinking, with respect and reverence for the past. Why sourcing material from the past can be beneficial, useful, inspiring and influential to modern video and design, and the available resources to do so.
6:30 — PANEL — Annapurna Kumar, Laurel Barickman, Matt Mauldin, Rafael Anton Irisarri, Tana Sprague

Hope to see you Austin folks there this weekend! Wish me luck!

The post PROTOS appeared first on Recspec.

23 years ago today the first episode of Twin Peaks aired on ABC. We love these original TV Guide advertisements for the show, they are so perfectly Lynch and its always so interesting to see how something as esoteric and bizarre as Twin Peaks is “promoted” or “marketed”. More below.

Best line? “P.S. – She’s still dead.”

More from our Twin Peaks obsessed selves:

• A Very Twin Peaks Christmas
• Black Lodge 2600
• Fire Walk With Me Event / Photos
• Fire Walk With Me Costume Inspiration

The post Happy Twin Peaks Day! appeared first on Recspec.

We also thought we’d take this opportunity to say how much we absolutely loved his latest album, Until The Quiet Comes, it felt like a bit of a return to form after the more conceptual but still incredible Cosmogramma, and its a welcome, gorgeous return. Check out a video from the album (starring Elijah Wood — weird?) below.

The post Fly Lo, We Love You appeared first on Recspec.

We love Stones Throw’s response to the Cease and Desist from Marlboro for the first Jon Wayne cassette they put out. Apparently Marlboro owns the trademark for the “pyramid shape” seen on their packs, as evidenced below:

Go figure. Anyways, here’s Mr. Wayne’s new release. This will surly cease the copyright complaints:

Brilliant. All images from Stones Throw. Get the cassettes here.

The post Stones Throw Slays ‘Em appeared first on Recspec.

Well, after 5 years of living and working in Austin, this is the first year that we’ve actually got badges and will be attending SXSW! We’ll be jaunting all over town during the Interactive and Film portion of the festival, and then we’ll be working non-stop in our food trailer, Johnnye’s, for the week of Music. Its going to be a busy one!

Tomorrow night (Saturday, March 9th) we’ll be working our special kind of projection magic for the fine folks at SXSW Eco & Geostellar for their launch party at The Blackheart. Ryan Padgett of Duale has been kind enough to lend us some 6 foot tall triangle crystals to project on for the evening, so its definitely going to be a site to behold. More info about the event here. If you’re in the Rainey Street area, be sure to stop by and say Hi! Its going to be really rad. Trust us.

Also of note, we just made some quick and simple business cards to pass out during the fest — we’ve been using the same cards for years now, so it was time for an update, but we weren’t quite ready to get rid of our beloved skull and crossbones yet. Keeping the information simple on the card is nice so that if you want someone to just check out your site, you can give them the card as is, but there’s plenty of room for a phone number and e-mail on the back if more info is necessary.

For those of you that are in town for the music portion, you’ll definitely not want to miss the Exploded Drawing party at MOHA on Wednesday, March 13th. That is where our food trailer is going to be set up, and is definitely going to be the best party of the week. You heard it here first. Extra special bonus: their poster was designed by our favorite Austin designer and good friend, Glory Gold & Glitter. Unmatchable skills. Always making us want to step up our game. To get the details for the party, RSVP here.

Above is an awesome special SXSW Exploded Drawing compilation for your listening pleasure. Great ready! It’s going to be quite a week. See you on the streets, or on the other side.

The post Recspec x SXSW appeared first on Recspec.

Men are climbing to the moon but they don’t
seem interested in the beating human heart

Two video posts in a row! Our music video for Reaganometry‘s amazing 8-minute Endangered Love Suite is now finished. When Butch Webster of Insect Records approached us about creating this video, the only cues he gave were the colors red and blue, water, and a woman’s face. Listening to the song over and over and thinking about endangered love, we kept thinking of beautiful Marilyn, so gorgeous, so misunderstood, so smart, and wrapped up in all kinds of endangered love, while being so endangered herself.

If you’ve never read her letter to her psychiatrist about her stay in a psychiatric hospital, you should, as its a beautiful and intense look into an incredible woman who was so, so fragile. The first time I read it, I cried, her pain and confusion so apparent and real with every sentence. Read it here.

As I started to write this letter about four
quiet tears had fallen. I don’t know quite why.

We tried to show everything from that vulnerability and pain in this video, to her beauty and charm, and even the moments where it all falls apart and you can see that she is lightyears away, be it from the drugs, or depression, or sleep exhaustion, or what have you. Endangered, indeed. Because of her own beauty, and the world loving her and cursing her all at the same time.

This video was created as a lead up to the release of the new Reaganometry and Butcher Bear record, coming out on Insect Records in April. We also designed the vinyl release, which you can see in our portfolio here. We’ll post about it more when its available for purchase.

Thanks for watching and we hope you’ve enjoyed our latest video projects as much as we enjoyed making them. We’re trying to work on more videos in 2013 and it seems that so far we’re off to a good start. Expect more. Much, much more.

The post Endangered Love Suite appeared first on Recspec.

Oh internet. So full of time wasting distractions, overwhelming social media obligations, and pictures of really really cute cats (we’re obsessed with Snoopy Babe at the moment). But the internet can also be so helpful at times – with some sites we come across truly being mind-blowing in their usefulness and simplicity, making us think: “thank goodness that someone took the time and care to make such a wonderful and useful tool that I get to use for free.”

Here are some helpful internets that we’ve been using lately that we wanted to share with you all. Some of this might be old news – or even things we’ve been using for a while, but it doesn’t hurt to revisit some of the most useful sites on the web. We’ll try to share more semi-regularly, or whenever something new pops up that we just can’t imagine internet-life without.

Wordmark.it

We had come across Wordmark.it ages ago, but recently stumbled back on it while organizing some bookmarks. SO USEFUL. What it does is loads whatever sample text you type in, in all of the fonts you have installed on your computer. Being able to see what you have readily available, immediately, side by side, is so helpful when trying to find the perfect type for a project. You can change the font size, view as white on black or black on white, and even select certain fonts to filter and narrow down what you see on your screen. So smart, so simple, so helpful.

PlaceIt by Breezi

This is something I only recently found – but its great for designers wanting to see or show a quick mock-up of a design on a mobile device or tablet. You just drag your image into your selected option and viola. So simple and quick, and great quality images as well.

Feedly

Feedly isn’t just for designers – but it is designed beautifully. My RSS feed has never looked so good! It integrates seamlessly with Google Reader, so you just link the two and anything you add or remove in Feedly reflects in Google Reader as well. It’s so slick and well built that I’ll never going back to Google Reader again.

Thank you to the creators of these wonderful web tools! Making my internet life easier, one site at time.

The post The Helpful Internets: Wordmark.it, PlaceIt, Feedly appeared first on Recspec.

Of course, that was in December, and its now February, but we took our time because we wanted to add some texture and visual interest to the video since we shot it on the fly on our phone and by then end of the video, there’s mostly just shots of peoples backs. Light leaks, and a vintage video of resonance effecting sand help build the video up, and now we have a display of light and color fitting for the rising of Red Ox.

Expect much more from Red Ox in the coming year, and follow their movements on Facebook, here. And if you live in Austin, you can see them February 22nd at Club 1808.

Also of note, Recspec is now on Youtube and we’ve created a channel where we will be posting more video projects, so subscribe over here.

The post Red Ox Rises appeared first on Recspec.

There are few things more pleasing in my line of work than getting to create designs for some of my favorite musicians (see: Fennesz), so when I was approached by Henna of Church of The Friendly Ghost (who I have worked with many times in the past, most specifically for NMASS), about creating a poster for the upcoming Matmos show at The North Door, I could barely contain my glee.

A band like Matmos is a particularly intimidating beast to design for — so I just went for full-on crazy glitchy weirdness sampling digital and analog scribblings, just like their music. Make sure you don’t miss their show with Horse Lords on February 28th. Its going to be incredible. Buy tickets here.

The post Matmos Calling appeared first on Recspec.