I’ve long been a fan of the clothing produced by the duo of Sam Shipley and Jeff Halmos, better known in the fashion world as Shipley & Halmos. I have a black cardigan that I’ve owned for a couple of years now that is hands down the best cardigan I’ve ever owned. There’s something about the cuff of the sleeves that fit perfect, some bit of elastic that makes it so that the ends never get stretched out. It’s a perfect detail that makes it a perfect cardigan.

Browsing around The Selby I noticed he paid the guys a visit and shot their space, so I thought I’d share it here. Having a space that inspires you is always important, and well, if I had a space like they did I would turn out amazing things every few minutes. It’s cool that everything in their space is mostly completely white, but is accentuated with punches of color. There’s a really great, lived in feeling to the space which makes the space feel so natural and wonderful. Hopefully something about their space will inspire something in your own.

Bobby

It’s possible that some of you don’t realize that I live in Los Angeles. I think I speak about it a lot, and I even started a blog to celebrate it, but it still may not be clear. It’s an interesting city to live in, and even more interesting to write about. I’ve been here for 6 years now, my anniversary is a week after my birthday, so it’s easy to remember.

There’s a vibe to the city which I’ve had a hard time putting my finger on, though I think that Geoff Manaugh may have hit the nail on the head. Geoff wrote a post back in 2007 called Greater Los Angeles which has been making the rounds with my friends over the week, and it certainly struck a chord with me. As I read it I was laughing with glee because of how true it is. Here’s my favorite part:

The whole thing is ridiculous. It’s the most ridiculous city in the world – but everyone who lives there knows that. No one thinks that L.A. “works,” or that it’s well-designed, or that it’s perfectly functional, or even that it makes sense to have put it there in the first place; they just think it’s interesting. And they have fun there.
And the huge irony is that Southern California is where you can actually do what you want to do; you can just relax and be ridiculous. In L.A. you don’t have to be embarrassed by yourself. You’re not driven into a state of endless, vaguely militarized self-justification by your xenophobic neighbors.

Los Angeles isn’t for everyone, it’s certainly the place for me though. Take 3 minutes to read his post, you can see the full thing by clicking here.

Bobby

I’ve been recently intrigued with Scott Schuman, who most of you know as The Sartorialist. I’ve been a fan of him for years, though I can’t say I check his blog out regularly. Every now and then I visit again to see the world the way he sees it.

Recently there have been two articles that have been released, one of which was quite controversial, and one of the reasons I’m writing this piece in the first place. It was published over on The Talks on September 28, 2011, though I’ve read the actual interview was conducted over 18 months ago, more on that in a bit. In the piece, Mr. Schuman gives a rather frank interview about his thoughts on younger bloggers, which Tavi is sort of set in the crosshairs, as well as how much he makes on his site. It was rather candid, a lot of people saw him has a giant asshole. Personally, I saw it as a breath of fresh air… more on that in a bit as well.

The second article was published a week ago on The Business of Fashion, in which Mr. Schuman back pedals a bit on his harsh criticism of Tavi and Bryanboy, saying how he’s gotten to know them a lot more in the last year and a half and how hard working they both are. That statement is exactly what I feel is the crux of what Mr. Schuman is saying, that hard work is the key to success.

Which brings me to my point, which is that not all blogs (and bloggers) are created equally. You can tell from his interview in The Talks that he was extremely discouraged and upset with the big fashion magazines for not treating him seriously, despite his hard work.

So are the times when a blog couldn’t make any money over?

Yes, the blog itself is really making money. My audience is so much larger than everybody else’s that advertisers, well at least American Apparel told me that I am not in their internet budget. My order is so big and they have to pay so much that I am actually in their magazine budget. That comes from having a good size audience.

Also the price of an ad on your page for a whole year is still fairly cheap compared to, let’s say, a double page in a big fashion magazine.

Oh yeah definitely. But I think the thing that has worked really well, and this is potentially a new day in media, is that what they are buying into is not just the image but also the amount of integrity. The thing that I am very proud of is, even though they bought ads for an entire year, I have no relationship with my advertisers; I have no contact with them.

I see the other big line he’s drawing is that he treats his work very seriously, and in return he wants to be respected. I can understand this from my own point of view. There are blogs that put in half the effort that I do and get double the pageviews. There’s also the fact that really, any one can do what Mr. Schuman does, but they may not bust their ass day in and day out like he does, nor do the intend to turn their blog into full-time, life sustaining business, it’s merely fun.

I also found two other interesting points:

1) His inspiration to start the site was through Grace Bonney who runs Design*Sponge. I was equally inspired by Grace and her determination, but I never knew Mr. Schuman was as well.

2) He’s been running his blog for over six years now. How many bloggers can you name that have been running a blog for over six years? Who post every day, who work tirelessly to create something amazing? I don’t think I could do it.

I’ve found in my own experiences that people tend to call honest people assholes because they don’t like their ability to be so candid. I for one find it inspiring, and am usually just as honest in my day-to-day life, just ask Kyle or my co-workers. It doesn’t mean you can be insensitive or rude, it’s simply a way to set aside pretension and get shit done. As someone who works a full-time job during the day and a blog every other waking hour, I applaud Mr. Schuman for his success and his determination to do what he wants to do on his own terms. If only more people had the gumption to be so straightforward.

Bobby

Introduction
I’ve lived in Los Angeles now for a little over 6 years, it’s the place I now call home. I’ve never experienced a place like Los Angeles before, it feels like a bi-polar city in many ways. There’s the perception a lot of people have which is that of Hollywood, filled with glitz, glamour, and bullshit. Then there’s the other side, which is where I feel I live, and the place I love. It’s filled with people who don’t drive cars, who make art with their bare hands, who make amazing drinks, who want to change the way the city runs. The creative collective. Unfortunately, I’ve never really found a media outlet – print, web or otherwise – that’s really showcased my Los Angeles, the way I see it, the way I live. That said, I’m happy and proud to announce the launch of our new cultural offshoot site, Los Angeles, I’m Yours.

Kyle and I figure that if we couldn’t find a site to show us the best places to go in Los Angeles, then we’d build one that fits us. The Fox Is Black, originally Kitsune Noir, was started to share what I enjoyed and ideas which I thought were inspiring. I stuck to my guns, I didn’t worry about what people thought and things turned out pretty well, which is what we’re doing with Los Angeles, I’m Yours. You won’t find any articles about skeezy nightclub openings (unless it’s a witty op-ed) or some real estate post about some $7 million dollar house. It’s going to stay true to us, to what we love, and what excites us.

So what is Los Angeles, I’m Yours?
Los Angeles, I’m Yours is going to be run by my partner Kyle Fitzpatrick, whom many of you know from his many articles here on The Fox Is Black. The site will be really similar to The Fox Is Black, focusing on art, design, culture and food. These are the things that Kyle and I are obsessed with, so that’s what we’re going to share. Kyle has already created a ton of content to read, so you’re already going to get a sense of what the site is all about.

One of the features I’m most excited about are our featured interviews, which is going to feature the most creative people in Los Angeles. We’re interviewing and photographing their lives, giving you an inside look at their workspaces or the places they love to be. We’ve already completed over a dozen interviews/photo, so we’ve got plenty of interesting content for the weeks to come. I’ll be cross pollinating content from LAIY here to TFIB when appropriate, I’m sure if you read TFIB that you’re going to want to know about these.

Site Design and Development
I thought I’d share a little bit of the behind the scenes design action as well, I’m sure some of you might find it interesting. I can tell you that what you see in the screenshot above is pretty close to what I had originally envisioned, at least structurally. I knew I wanted the site to be 3 columns, with one main feature column, a smaller column for more bite-size pieces of news, and then a third even-smaller column for potential advertising and other things we might want to promote. This allows a pretty large range of editorial freedom, from long form to brief ideas.

Stylistically, I didn’t want the site to have much style, I wanted the focus to be primarily on the content. To do that crafted we came up with the idea of changing the Los Angeles part of the logo and the rollover for site links based upon the time of the day. I came up with 24 colors, one for ever hour, which changes throughout the day. I think it gives the site a sense of time as well as a subtle use of color. We have a few more ideas that we want to try, but there’s plenty of time for play. The last thing I wanted to mention is that the whole thing is built on a fluid grid, so no matter the size of your browser, there’s an optimal viewing experience. The site stretches to nearly 1400px, so even the mega 2560×1440 monitors out there should feel like they’re getting a great experience.

I have to give a huge thank you to my brilliant front-end developer, Sawyer Hollenshead. I’ve been working with Sawyer now for a few months, he helped me build the Gucci Tumblr I designed, and I couldn’t think of anyone else to work with on LAIY. No matter what I threw at him, he always knew a way to do it. He was patient with me and my craziness, he was smart and inventive, and I don’t know how I would have done any of this without him. Help me thank Sawyer by hiring him for your next web project, you won’t be disappointed.

Conclusion
This honestly feels like I’m having another child. The Fox Is Black is my first child, and Los Angeles, I’m Yours is the newborn we’re prepping for great things. Kyle is already doing such an incredible job with posting amazing things, and we have so much lined up that even if you don’t live in Los Angeles, there’s still something for you. Great stories and ideas are great no matter where they’re located, right? Ultimately though, we get to share more of our passions with you, and that’s a feeling that’s universal. I hope you enjoy the site as much as we’ve enjoyed putting it together, and thanks to all of you awesome readers for keeping us busy. It’s worth noting that I’ll be updating The Fox Is Black in the coming months as well, using a lot of the things I’ve learned to make TFIB an even better experience.

Bobby

I’ve really tried to get into Tumblr, the micro-blogging platform, but with the blog, Twitter and Facebook it’s not very realistic. That’s ok, there’s lots of great Tumblrs out there to enjoy, some of which are my favorite to check for visual inspiration. So I thought I’d share some of the Tumblrs that I really enjoy, sites which feature some really out there ideas, things that make me think of the future and design that feels experimental.

Non-Clickable Item
I’m not sure who the origin or author of Non-Clickable Item, but this is where I go for unique photography and interesting design ideas. Like many Tumblrs, it’s range of posts is what makes it special. The presentation is clean and feels well-thought out, and the posts overall tend to be pretty much black and white but with spots of color every now and then.

Tech Spec
Tech Spec is interesting to me because it’s similar to JJJJound, as it features menswear, interesting photos and guns. But after that the similarities end and that’s where Tech Spec excels. The author loads up the posts a batch at a time, always color coordinating them, 15 images at a time. Currently on the front page the images flow from a royal blue to a grey/turquoise blue. It’s worth your time to pour through the back log of images.

Jonathan Jacques Belletete
This one is pretty new to me, but Jonathan Jacques Belletête is an art director at Eidos/Square Enix and has recently worked on Deus Ex: Human Revolution, which on a related now, I’ve been playing all weekend. His blog is a combination of art, video games and the occasional breasts (just warning you). It’s interesting to see what influences him and then being able to see how that translates into the art design of the games he works on.

Brave Cadet
This is the first of the crop of Tumblrs I found that helped me find a lot of what you see on this list. Brave Cadet is run by Matt Marrocco, an industrial designer who loves to post futuristic ideas and concepts, with lots of space stuff and hi-tech stuff. The mix is great and always inspiring.

NVSBLTY
Last but not least is NVSBLTY, the artsiest of the bunch, featuring a lot of great typography and interesting photography. NVSBLTY gives me a lot of great ideas when I want to try and make something more outside the box, providing me with inspiration that I don’t see a lot of other places.

I hope you enjoy my list of Tumblrs. I might do this again in a few months if things change, and I’m sure I’ll find more as time goes by. If you have any others that you think are worth a damn (please don’t self-promote, haha…) then leave them in the comments. And if they’re anything like the ones above, definitely be sure to comment.

Bobby

Leaders are not what many people think–people with huge crowds following them. Leaders are people who go their own way without caring, or even looking to see whether anyone is following them. “Leadership qualities” are not the qualities that enable people to attract followers, but those that enable them to do without them. The include, at the very least, courage, endurance, patience, humor, flexibility, resourcefulness, determination, a keen sense of reality, and the ability to keep a cool and clear head even when things are going badly. This is the opposite of the “charisma” that we hear so much about.

I found the quote above over on Caterina Fake’s blog, which was taken from a book about homeschooling by John Holt. In her post she writes about who and what inspires her, and how varied the forms are. I found the quote quite interesting because I feel like it defines not only how I see myself, but also how I see the people I look up to.

Oftentimes I have people write and ask me for tips on blogging or being a designer, and I think what John says in the paragraph above is a perfect way to guide your thoughts. After writing this blog for four years, I know that what people appreciate most is my unique voice and my honesty. I know that I’m not the best writer out there, but that doesn’t matter because my passion and enthusiasm counts for so much more. Having a strong opinion and being honest is the other thing I find to be a key to the sites success. A lot of blogs these days just repost content and there’s no voice behind the content, but what’s the point of that?

The people I look up to the most have a unique point of view that’s unlike any out there. When I get up in the morning I read three blogs: Daring Fireball, Kottke and You Might Find Yourself. A blog about Apple & technology and two blogs about generally interesting ideas. Their unique voices set them apart from the rest, the lives they’ve lived have led them have the opinions that they express.

You can apply the principles from Holt’s statement to a lot of leaders, which is why I have Steve Jobs up there, but they’re qualities that I wish more people had. Hopefully this gives you a little food for thought and perhaps even makes you think a little differently about your goals.

Bobby

Andy J. Miller never seems to stop working. Honestly. Since April he’s been working on a really nice project set in the land of NOD; a dream-like world filled with many weird and wonderful creatures. Every weekday he introduces a new one, which as he puts it, will “slip, putter, or swagger out of the darkness”. With more then 80 NOD inhabitants already on display, NOD already seems to be a busy place.

Miller say’s that he’s got all kinds of ideas for where this project could go, but for now it seems pretty great as it is. It’s particularly exciting to see the variety of ideas that Andy has and the amount of fun he seems to have creating these characters. The plan is to run the project for a year and finish with a total of 260 characters (I’m not sure if they’re called NODletes or NODites or NODs, so we’ll stick with characters!).

You can view the ongoing work on the Day-After-Day blog, and if you use tumblr make sure to subscribe to the page and discover more about the NOD universe everyday.

Philip

Over the past couple of months I’ve been really distracted by a growing number of blogs that have become overrun with press releases or sponsored content. The reason this bothers me is that I feel like this sort of behavior goes generally unnoticed by most readers. There’s really no particular genre of blogs that are more at fault than others either, the gamut ranges from design to illustration to fashion to architecture. I don’t plan on pointing the finger at anyone in particular, though I’m sure many people will feel I’m attacking them. I blame this epidemic on two things: Lazy bloggers and press releases.

As someone with a decent sized audience, I can say I get a lot of press releases in my inbox every morning. Do I post about these press releases every now and then? Of course I do, because every now and then something interesting pops up, but most of the time it’s some young artist from (insert city here) who’s looking to get a break. But there’s this plethora of lazy bloggers out there who take these press releases that pour into their inbox, cut and paste everything verbatim, then try to masquerade them as real content. What’s worse is when someone is shilling for a thing or place, trying to make it seem like they happened to show up at the right place and time, when they’ve been handed a chunk of change to write about.

To this I ask, what’s the fucking point? Why would anyone with a popular blog waste their time, day in, day out, posting about the same damn press release that every other blog in their field received as well? Do you enjoy what you do or do you view what you do as a way to pay the bills?

Maybe I’m naive, maybe I’m too optimistic, but I try to think of good blogs as something akin to the New York Times, a constant source of new ideas and information. Would the NY Times take a bunch of pre-chewed content and baby mother barf it into the mouths of their readers? Never, because they have integrity. Maybe this is me on my high horse, but I personally hold myself to a higher standard, and I don’t even do that much. Since starting this site over four years ago I have written by a particular forumla: One paragraph describing the topic, a second paragraph describing why I think it’s worth a damn. That’s it. It’s not rocket science, but it’s me trying. In fact, in my four years, I’ve written nearly 3,200 posts about topics that I think people should look at and trying to explain why you should give a damn.

I guess what I’m trying to say is, stop pretending to be a writer and BE a writer. Stop filling the internet with more recycled crap and start posting something of worth. There are so many people out there who want to read an interesting story, or come across something inspiring to make their day or share with their co-workers over lunch. So why are you wasting our time?

Like I said at the beginning, I’m not trying to be negative with this post, so I’m going to point out the people who should be recognized for making blogging something awesome. My mornings usually consists of Kottke, Daring Fireball, You Might Find Yourself and Design*Sponge. I also love Aquarium Drunkard, Brand New, Subtraction, Yewknee, But Does It Float, designworklife, It’s Nice That and today and tomorrow. I would consider all of these to be fantastic, shining examples of what blogs should be. Please do me a favor and bookmark these blogs, tell your friends about them and visit them often. Support the people who are actually trying to create amazing things and not the dumps of press releases.

Bobby

“Good artists copy, great artists steal.”

The age old saying by Pablo Picasso which has been quoted a countless number of times, but to many still ring true. Just as Austin Kleon who recently created a simple list of 10 things he wishes he would have heard when he was in college. I think the advice that he’s giving though is applicable to anyone no matter education or age. You might be familiar with Austin’s work, Alex posted about his blackout poems almost exactly one year ago today.

Austin comes up with some really good points which I feel describes my own personal path pretty well. I mean, I didn’t even go to college, but it would have been amazing if someone had sat me down and told me half of this stuff. One big part that I agree with is soaking in information, the idea of learning constantly. You never know where your inspiration may come from, and that’s a part of the fun. Osmosis is a powerful part of creativity.

His other point that I really love is “do good work and put it where people can see it.” For me personally, that’s all this site is, a public display of the things I’m passionate about. But it could be anything, an illustration blog or a Tumblr filled with beat poetry, it doesn’t matter.

If there was a secret formula for getting an audience, or gaining a following, I would give it to you. But there’s only one not-so-secret formula that I know: “Do good work and put it where people can see it.”

It’s a two step process.

Step one, “do good work,” is incredibly hard. There are no shortcuts. Make stuff every day. Fail. Get better.

Step two, “put it where people can see it,” was really hard up until about 10 years ago. Now, it’s very simple: “put your stuff on the internet.”

I tell people this, and then they ask me, “What’s the secret of the internet?”

I couldn’t have said it better myself. Be sure to visit Austin’s website for the full list if anything above grabbed your attention. Like I said before, these are nuggets of gold that should be helpful to anyone.

Bobby

I have always had a fascination with how colour works in film: how it effects the viewer’s emotional reactions, the symbolic meaning behind the use of certain coloured filters and the overall visual impact. It’s not something that receives a lot of critical attention; however, it has become the unconscious focus of Moviebarcode. Condensing the action of entire films into an abstract bar code, the images on Moviebarcode cleverly reveal the chromatic design of diverse cinematic gems. From the dark woodsy tones of The Social Network (2010) to the synthetic greens of The Matrix (1999), the site showcases each film’s unique palette.

Perfect for film students or those interested in chromatic design, it is amazing how addictive going through the archives of Moviebarcode can be. And, if you’re a bit of a nerd like me, you can try and guess from which film each bar code comes. Unfortunately, I don’t think I got one right.

The bar codes featured above are from Jaws (1975), Hero (2002), Requiem for a Dream (2000) and In the Mood for Love (2000).

Thank you to Andrew Lowe for the tip.

Danica