daydream issue 2⸻13.03.24
⸻daydream is an influence-logging publication for creative spirit refuelling ♻️
🔑 currently finalizing my sophomore album; here are 19 pieces of work that fuelled my creative spirit=
⸻① dayris felix, cute oil paintings
we’re starting off this issue with these beautiful & cute paintings done by dayris felix, an artist based in cali that i found on instagram. these paintings kept getting recommended to me & i had to follow along & dive into her work; both for her delicate use of pastel, muted colors & soft shading & the cute comedy of the situations dayris paints these animals in. she sells prints over on etsy so i encourage anyone to check that out.
⸻② rafaël rozendaal, websites
this is definitely a personal pick because i have been following rafaël rozendaal — a dutch-brazilian digital artist — ever since i was in middle school. i am not sure how i stumbled upon his websites & work but they have been one of my major inspirations to me. so much that i think i wrote a research essay about him in high school.
rafaël’s work is mainly reliant on interactivity, whether it is the various exhibitions he has been a part of — bookmarking the movement he started with the BYOB, an invitation for people to start their own exhibitions with their digital art using projectors — or his iconic websites that have gotten him to the recognition he has. a lot of these exhibition pieces & websites allow user interaction to play around & manipulate the art to convey something which is always fun & memorable.
his websites were a staple in his career because it communicated his ideas of using the internet as a canvas the most effectively. instead of having a physical exhibition with paintings hanged up around the area that only a limited amount of people can go to, rafaël was a pioneer in using this global network as the exhibition space for anyone to experience his art free of charge. the name of an art piece is the location of the piece, the domain that you access the website with. his other later avenues he has been going down like nft collections are, well, a bit saddening but i understand why rafaël would go down this route; it does align with his views on art & a bag is always awaiting him in that space. if you really think about it, website domains are kind of like nfts in concept, except they are a lot more useful & practical in everyday life these days. rafaël would sell his websites to other people who are willing to buy his pieces & treating them like original interactive paintings so, i guess he also pioneered the nft movement too. are paintings physical nfts? i don’t even know anymore.
regardless, rafaël rozendaal has been a key inspiration in my art journey; being my main motivator to learn web design ever since i was young & appreciating the formations of simple colors & shapes that can be used to communicate wide ranges of messages effectively. i think you can tell that from my album cover arts if you follow my music.
⸻③ silk moth
i want to be a silk moth, they are ridiculously cool & adorable at the same time. i want to start getting less scared of bugs because i subconsciously run away from any tiny creature i come across; both for my & its safety. i have a couple silverfish in my kitchen & i think i am becoming friends with them. they are sometimes hard to get along with though, wish me luck.
⸻④ faye toogood, furniture
everyone knows the roly-poly chair. you know the roly-poly chair right?
yea that one.
it is an iconic piece in the furniture & product design sphere & there is a lot more from where that came from. faye toogood’s furniture work is thought-intriguing & aesthetically-pleasing; walking finely on the line between craft & nature, human manipulation & mother nature’s facilitation.
many of her pieces mimic the texture & look of common workshop materials you would find in any product design space for initial modelling like wire, clay, foam & cardboard but the pieces are certainly made of other stronger materials to withhold the weight & force of a person while using said pieces like cement & metal. this choice is humbling & a cute appreciation to the process designers go through when creating products & furniture. there are some models i or my friends make that i would just scale up and keep in my house because of its rooted beauty & i think faye did that with great success.
⸻⑤ kenichi minami, japanese typography
typography has always been a fascination to me & these graphics definitely fuel that. again, i found kenichi in my instagram inspiration account & these graphics immediately pulled me in because of the interesting forms constructed with these characters. the use of color is always thought provoking because of its simplicity; it gets you to self-reflect and understand ‘what were these colors chosen & what feelings do the evoke in me?’ the one on the left immediately gave me some sort of warning because i later realized it is the same colors as a street sign. it is incredible how many ways kenichi can twist the symbols around into different striking structures.
⸻⑥ a. g. cook, pc music & visuals
i don’t really know where to start on this because of the broad impact pc music has, i think it would take me the rest of the issue to explain everything.
pc music is an art collective founded by a. g. cook; a collective that has involved remarkable & influential people in the bubblegum-hyperpop scene, creating some incredible work over the years. the collective started in 2013 & ended last year at its decade anniversary, releasing a 100 minute mix to celebrate its legacy.
pc music has influenced several areas of music & collaborated with phenomenal artists including SOPHIE, 100 gecs, petal supply, dorian electra, kero kero bonito & charli xcx.
the founder of pc music, a. g. cook, is also well-known for their close collaboration with charli xcx — being an executive producer for her work for as long as her third album Number 1 Angel back in 2017, as well as Pop 2, Charli & How I’m Feeling Now; my favorite albums released by her. they are also responsible for being the creative director for most of charli’s visuals, working with timothy luke who has also made a lot of visuals for pc music.
i was a pretty late fan of pc music, only getting introduced to their catalogue a couple years ago. despite that, their work invokes unique passion in me to create. the way they proudly wear digital art in their work by their sound, website extensions & publications is very admirable. a. g. cook is one of my biggest influences in my work. excited for their new album ‘britpop’ coming out on my birthday.
⸻⑦ joel haver, the hero’s journey aka my life aka the caleb johnston story (i’m caleb)
joel haver is incredible. i have been following his work for the past couple of years, getting introduced to him through is popular animation sketches. looking past those sketches opened up a world of work that i was not ready to dive into.
joel haver has been making weekly short films & sketches on youtube since 2018 & i have not found one that is bad. he has incredible talent in script-writing & video execution which isn’t surprising given the fact it seems like he has been doing this all his life.
recently at the end of last year, joel decided to stop making weekly short films, but instead release monthly feature-length films. yes, 80 minute plus movies fully created by him every month. this guy is insane.
‘the hero’s journey aka my life aka the caleb johnston story (i’m caleb)’ is the first feature-length that was made throughout january of this year. it features a recurring character in the joel universe, caleb, played by joel — a young man who ran away from his mother’s house as a teenager & lived alone in his mother’s old car that he stole. i do not want to spoil a lot of the movie, but the lengths that joel goes to get into caleb’s character & the story structure; this movie definitely imprinted something in me. this is a must-watch & i am sure joel is going to make some more incredible films this year. Anyone Else But Me, the movie made throughout february was released 11 days ago; i have not got to it yet but i probably will after i finish writing this.
⸻⑧ google japan, gboard caps
⸻⑨ recursion is, 3D operating system
this is just cool. recursion somehow added a third dimension for command prompt & created a sort of sandbox code interpreter which is impressive. just watching them showcase the project & doing the multitude of things that are possible in the space is inspiring.
i have been intrigued in the advancements people make with 3D integration & the potential it might have since the release of the apple vision pro. don’t get me wrong, i don’t think it’s a good product right now. but the potential of apple’s coinage ‘spatial computing’ could be crazy. i’m surprised less people are impressed with the potential capabilites of this technology; it is near sci-fi level. i think more people are focusing on the ‘bad product’ as if the first iphone was phenomenal. i’m excited but also kind of frightened to where this innovation of augmented reality will take us because there are too many paths to go down.
⸻⑩ anne hermine, recycled fashion
anne hermine is a designer from vienna who makes sustainable accessories from waste like plastic bags & coffee packaging. she opened up the shop in 2014 & is still functional. i have no idea how i stumbled upon this but i’m happy i did. these crafty bags & packs look fascinating, showing the context of whatever packaging is used to create the bags which is really cool. check her stuff out.
⸻⑪ teodor javanaud emdén, skalgubbar
this website is a lifesaver to anyone creating graphics in which people are wanted to enact a scenario. skalgubbar is a project done by teodor javanaud emdén where they digitally cut out people doing things and hosting it up for download on a website. this man is responsible for endless successful presentation boards & campaign graphics with no monetary gain. god bless.
⸻⑫ akino kondoh, 2000–2009 illustrations
the reason i know about akino kondoh is the drawing on the left; it was used as the cover art for joji’s unreleased song on soundcloud ‘unsaved info’. akino kondoh is a japanese manga artist who illustrates webcomics & works in new york since 2008. diving into her work in the 00s, she draws & paints beautiful illustrations of women in ethereal environments. i’m sure each drawing means something or is conveying some sort of message, but i just love the art quality & aesthetic of the illustrations; the vibe is a bridge between rough sketches & intricate oil paintings. i love the colours used when they are; black is mainly used in her illustrations & that contrasts well with the bright & creamy colouring used. the white-green skin & mouth-length straight black hair on most of the women illustrated in these pieces have become iconic symbols in my eyes.
she is still active & well on instagram which i enjoy checking on from time to time.
⸻⑬ isamu noguchi, sculptures
isamu noguchi is regarded as one of the most important 20th century sculpturers. i have not dived into the entirety of his career but looking through his catalogue of work through the noguchi museum, established by isamu in 1985 to hold exhibitions & educational programs, his sculptures are very thought-provoking & meticulously made. the forms & textures constructed with various types of materials give an important monolith-sort of vibe. the confusing simplicity of a lot of the work gives you space to interpret the constructed form with the title being a lodestar of thought. they are just very pretty to look at.
⸻⑭ underscores, wallsocket any% production speedrun breakdown livestream trilogy
everyone who knows me knows that underscores is one of my favourite artists. wallsocket is the most recent underscores album that was released last year & i immediately fell in love with it. one of the reasons why i adore this album & underscores’ music in general is the production, snappy & roughly clean. underscores grew up listening & making edm & dubstep in the beginning of her music career which i can relate to a lot as it is a similar upbringing i have had. the technical chops underscores learned from participating in that scene definitely influenced her production process and that is apparent in her livestreams of her breaking down the production of all tracks of wallsocket. the aspect that shocked me the most while watching are the amount of layering that these tracks have while still maintaining a sharp & clean mix. dissecting the production pointed things out in the songs that i never noticed which felt like finding a basement in your house that you didn’t know you had.. but like in a good way. watching these livestreams definitely fuel me to get back into production.
⸻⑮ flutterbat, link shortener
i was bored one day and wanted to search for website domains i can buy. i remembered my childhood cartoon crush fluttershy (i was a heavy mlp kid) & the one episode where she turned into a badass bat. flutterbat. typed it in as a domain and i found this website. i do not know who made this, but i have eternal love for them. one of the best websites on the internet.
⸻⑯ emily jing sum chan, ascentis font
emily is an indonesian-chinese typeface designer based in brooklyn. i have heard about her and this font through elliotisacoolguy, a design-comedy youtuber that i watch often. when i saw this font, i was immediately captivated. emily does have other fonts that are pretty cool, but the forms & swoops that this font showcases are right up my alley. the serifs are beautifully cut and sometimes curved & resemble tails of a fish. the strokes thicken & thin out like it was written with an angled wide market & although this isnt something new, this aquatic font puts a fresh twist on the technique. it is simultaneously smooth, elegant & round but also sharp, goth & bold; a beautifully harmonious balance. i might make a daydream special just about fonts like elliot because as uneducated as i am in the typography field, i know what types of fonts i enjoy. gdime.
⸻⑰ yun kuo, digital-windland
this website is so cool. i don’t know what i’m doing when i’m on it, but it is a clean experimental project. digital-windland is a canvas to ‘create D-W-plants’ which are perspective-warps of repeated photos of landscapes & plants with its vertices created by your cursor. the graphics that come out of the process are weird but fascinating. the most impressive thing to me is how this was made. no way on earth can i figure out how to create something like this. i love creating websites & i barely know how to code but i understand the ins & outs of html & a bit of java. when things go into the third dimension, i have absolutely no knowledge what is going on. reminds me of this website.
like how the fuck do you make this? i need to figure this out.
digital-windland was created by a graphic & web designer named yun kuo. looking through her instagram profile, you can find many pieces & posters that are beautifully designed with odd forms, evoking that same strange art style as a D-W-plant created on the digital-windland. the contemporary feel of digital art in her work is very pleasant to look at.
⸻⑱ alexandria masse, textile art
alexandria masse is one of the most talented people i have found on instagram. her textile & crochet work is incredible — do you see that 10 foot spider on the left? it was made in 2 months? actually insane. how do you make that.
her animal-themed balaclavas are also incredible to see; they range from tigers like the one on the right made for thundercat to bunnies & dragons. she also makes crochet headphone accessories & dresses that are beautifully constructed in color & form; color that she hand-dyes. she hand-dyes the yarn. is there something she does not do.
it really is insane how she can bend yarn to her will & create gorgeous pieces of art. more people need to know about alexandria’s work, definitely check her out.
⸻⑲ exilelord, soulless 5
a 17-minute song made for the ending of an iconic clone hero series, exilelord cooked up a track that is infectiously good. the melodies & sequencing is beautiful throughout the entire thing which is an amazing feat. all 17 minutes have been stuck in my head for the past couple of months.
✧ thank u4 daydreaming⸻hope u found something you enjoy.
