A Case Of Bass. Vintage Suitcases and Train Cases Turned Into One of A Kind Speakers.

In March of this year, the Cimino-Hurt brothers decided to launch A Case Of Bass, combining two greats: vintage electronics and vintage luggage, to make super sweet boomboxes. While not the first to do this (I blogged about a similar company named BoomCases years ago), these are significantly more affordable.


above: The Cimino-Hurt brothers combine 'tude and talent

The Portland-based company, A Case of Bass, creates portable sound systems hand-built to ensure quality and craftsmanship. Each "Case of Bass" is created after scouring the world for the finest unique vintage suitcases (train cases, brief cases and make-up cases, too) and then pairing them with a selection of speakers that guarantee the best combination of sound and aesthetic.

The Burlap Banger:

The Champ:

The Starflight:

Bunny:

Nicky29:


The cases incorporate - to your specifications - the types of accessories that will make your case unique to you. These include input types, amplifier sizes, power supplies and batteries, and finally any personal detailing you might desire.

Cecille:

Sam:

Marcelle:


In partnership with local Portland businesses, artists, and craftsmen they create these one of a kind portable parties.

Up-cycled and Sustainable
Sustainability, for those at A Case of Bass, means taking materials and designs, into which great amounts of energy have already been committed, and re-purposing them to extend that investment. It’s not recycling, where objects are stripped into the basic materials and then smelted back into something else. It’s up-cycling, where things are given new life and expected to be passed on or designed to be completely usable for something else without the need of deteriorating initial energy investment.

Staxx:

Candy:

Scooter:


Because the brothers want to give universal access, they do things like sell their products at an affordable price and make an eighth inch input standard on all of the cases. They use some new electronics, but only when they can’t find a reliable substitute from their rescued electronics. When providing things that have great environmental and economic impact implicit in their construction, like batteries, they strive for low impact, long life, and of course, rechargeable systems. At present they offer lithium ion rechargeable packs that are lightweight, high capacity, and high efficiency.

Midas:

Ruby the Riveter:


Finally, to demonstrate the overall sustainability of each case, they give a percent by mass of up-cycled material for each case. This is a process and they don’t profess to have all the answers but are working to continuously improve the quality of each case as an environmentally and socially responsible piece of electronics.

A Case of Bass
Online store
Local Portland retailers:
Hellion Gallery
Tender Loving Empire
Hollywood Babylon

Southern Comfort's New Spot, Beach, Brings Us A New Hero and Unlikely Sex Symbol.

The strategy 'be yourself' or "be comfortable with who you are" is nothing new - especially for liquor. But when visually communicated with the synthesis of brilliant casting, great music, impeccable direction by Tim Godsall and perfect pacing, such as "Beach", a new spot for Southern Comfort by Weiden & Kennedy, New York, it feels breakthrough.

"Beach," featuring the song "Hit or Miss" by Odetta:


Featuring the song "Hit or Miss" by Odetta, the 90 second spot (which airs on tv as a 60:), turns an unlikely sex symbol into one. The mustachioed, sun-kissed, stout, speedo-clad, middle-aged man saunters with such swagger and confidence to the lyrics 'I gotta be me... ain't nobody just like this, I gotta be me, Baby, hit or miss" that he appeals to women and men alike.





Move over "Most Interesting Man In The World"... I think I have a new hero.



Southern Comfort. Whatever's Comfortable.

Full Credits:
Agency: Wieden + Kennedy New York
Client: Southern Comfort
ECD: Scott Vitrone
ECD: Ian Reichenthal
CD: Ian Reichenthal
CD: Scott Vitrone
CW: Nick Kaplan
AD: Jeff Dryer
Head of Content Production: Lora Schulson
Producer: Alison Hill
Head of Brand Strategy: Stuart Smith
Digital Strategist: Marshall Ball
Brand Strategist: Ben Alter
Director of Business Affairs: Sara Jagielski
Production Company: Biscuit Filmworks
Director: Tim Godsall
EP: Holly Vega
Managing Director: Shawn Lacy
Line Producer: Rick Jarjoura
Director of Photography: Edu Grau
Editorial Company: Mackenzie Cutler
Editor: Gavin Cutler
Post Producer: Sasha Hirschfeld
Editorial Assistant: Ryan Steele
VFX Company: Suspect
VFX Executive Creative Director: Tim Crean
VFX Supervisor: John Geehreng
VFX Flame Artist: John Geehreng
VFX CG Artists: Cedrick Gousse
Producer: Tsiliana Jolson
Telecine Company: CO3
Colorist: Tim Masick
Mix Company: Heard City
Mixer: Phil Loeb
Sound Designer: Phil Loeb
Sound Designer: Sam Shaffer
EP: Gloria Pitagorsky
Music Supervision Company: Good Ear Music Supervision
Music Supervisor: Andrew Charles Kahn
Song: Hit or Miss
Artist: Odetta

Highland Park 50 Year Old Whisky Limited Edition Bottle Wins 2012 Design Award.

Recently, the stunning, and extraordinarily expensive (just over $15,000) , limited edition bottle designed for Highland Park’s oldest ever island single malt whisky – Highland Park 50 year old, won the award for Best Design at the World Whiskies Award 2012. What's inside the stunning bottle was also named Best Single Malt Scotch 41 Years and Over (Multiple Casks), at the 2012 Whisky Bible Awards.

Inflatable Pods Pop Up For Commercial and Residential Use: AirClad

With the growing popularity of 'Pop Up' events like fashion shows, art exhibits. concerts, demos, promotional marketing, food fairs and the like, the idea of creating temporary and portable but sturdy inflatable structures that can be furnished, lit and branded is a smart one.




AirClad is the next generation of semi permanent and permanent architectural buildings developed by Inflate, a company that designs and manufactures award-winning, architecturally stimulating stock structures that have been designed specifically to suit the portable and temporary events market.

A dome shaped AirClad structure used for Harper's Bazaar Melbourne Fashion Show

A commercial 12m x 12m AirClad pod with roof terrace to house the Puma Social Club in Spain:


above: rendering for the AirClad structure shown below at Dwell on Design


The AirClad system is, in its simplest form, a structural skeleton with air inflated panels cladding it. The skeleton forms and monoqoque structure support the inflated cladding. The inflated panels offer insulated and structural properties to the finished building and especially allow for a new architectural aesthetic to be achieved. AirClad is a sealed pressure regulated system using very little energy to keep the whole structure in working order.




The AirClad system harnesses a combination of production and performance solutions from the sailing, events industry, contemporary engineering and architecture. The basic system utilises basic engineered ply wood joists, that carry an inflated membrane.




This membrane attaches to the frame via an aluminium extrusion with is fixed to the ply wood and allows the fabric membrane to slide into. The plywood joists have engineered spacers that once the cladding panels are inflated, are compressed with the whole structure being held together and cross braced by the inflatable panels. This basic building system makes for a water tight shelter. This shelter can be upgraded to have doors, or has the ability to be attached to traditional buildings.



The inflated panels can be clear or opaque, to offer solar insulation / heat retentions or just offer a great view. Everything is designed so that the whole structure can be left in place permanently or taken down and moved when finished with. The fabrics used offer a range of warranties from 5–60 years and the all the wood and aluminium elements would comfortably fall within these guidelines as well.

The Black House


The Black House sits on a 4m by 3m foot print, and reaches a max hight of 4m. The outer skin of the building is black to reflect the barn and the inner white allowing the lighting to have maximum reflection at night. The inner beams which we normally have left exposed as natural ply finish are in the case sprayed black also with a PU coating. This coating gives the beams an intriguing rubbery tactile feel to them.




Each end of the Black house is finished off with the AirClad signature float glass flush faces in graphite tint. The whole design just sits on the ground with no need for foundations and has an integral flooring system. In this design we have use an eco recoiled wood and plastic flooring as you may well find in any normal garden. This again keeps with the theme to use ready made materials which are local builder friendly.




The Black House can be installed in a day with a day to dress and fit out the interior. Whilst this project was for an exhibition the end use would see it ideally being used as a garden room, pool house, home office, play room, or best of all in good ole british style as a place to make home made wine and test it with your mates on a long summers evening. The Black Houses are made to order from £16,000.


The Suffolk Pod





The AirClad extension is built in the ground where there was an underground pond discovered when the main barn was being built. For this reason the AirClad is in fact at ground level from outside and required a lot more pre preparation to the site before they could erect the AirClad. In fact this project required 80% to 20% in terms of site to AirClad. This would not normally be the case if they were not needing to tank the pod and build in underground water pumps for high rain fall dispersal. This project cost £25,000 to complete.




All the structures are waterproof and can withstand heavy rain, snow and wind. The air pressure within the structure repels the water away at the seams and allows it to run to the ground.



With AirClad you can integrate many other applications such as lighting, sound, A.C., storage and as you do, the product takes on an even greater sense of space and your personality. You can tailor this to your own personality.



AirClad is not limited to commercial and residential venues and they have designs ongoing for hotels, airport terminals, even a caravan park. More recently they've have been looking at humanitarian applications for disaster areas and war zones.


To learn more about their commercial structures, go here.

Nick Crosbie, Director
info@inflate.co.uk

Dryer Lint Handroll Anyone? Sushi Sculptures Made With Actual Lint.

detail, close-up:

above: Snow On the Leaves, 8" x 10", dryer lint, plastic tray and pulp paper with leaves

Artist Slater Barron works in several different mediums and has created everything from large scale installations to small sculptures. But what caught my eye were her actual size sculptures of sushi handcrafted from real dryer lint.


above: Dryer lint sculpted to emulate sushi in a plastic tray by Slater Barron

Perhaps it's because the thought of sushi ordinarily makes my mouth water and it's so unexpected to encounter a Bento box full of maki and handrolls knowing they would give you cotton-mouth.

Family Dinner (14″ x 14″ x 7″):



Sushi Party Tray (14″ x 14″):


Summer Fan (8″ x 10″):


Full Circle (8″ x 10″):


Sushi Lovers’ Lunch (16″ x 12″):

detail:


Lunch With Madam Butterfly (14″ x 17″):


7 Piece Sushi Bento Box:


10 Piece Sushi Bento box:


Slater Barron received her M.F.A. at the California State University, Long Beach and her bachelor's degree at the University of California, Irvine, She had the privilege of studying with art notables John Paul Jones and William Wegman. Now, she is inspired by my surroundings and those I hold dear as well as many social causes she feels strongly about.

Slater Barron