We really like Jens Sjobergh’s artwork. He is from Sweden (currently living in Los Angeles), and definitely represents with pieces like this (entitled ‘Jens Swede Love’). Jens’ luminescent illustrations appear to be from the cosmos, somehow mixing reality — with the heavens — with 21 year old emotion. Jens is a member of crew 10 at Sweden’s top interactive school Hyper Island, and works for Exopolis in L.A. Although Jens lacks classical art education, he has done a great job of learning by doing–in the streets, and in front of a computer monitor.

If you read this blog a lot, you probably know that we are big fans of great t-shirts. I would wear a t-shirt every day if left to my own devices–I like to think of them as comfortable little canvases on which to display, well, anything really. I still have some great t’s from the 80’s, and when I get bored while visiting my parents, I have been known to rifle through my Dad’s collection. Today, Lisa Kidner and Sam Knee took me on a trip down nostalgia road with their Vintage T-Shirts book. The two authors focus on quite possibly the best two t-shirt decades — the 70’s and 80’s — and revisit over 500 classic t-shirts. Genres include those awesome 80’s skateboarding and surfing t’s, the iron-on fad, pop culture t’s, and of course the authors give us a healthy dose of band shirts. This book would make a perfect gift for that t-shirt collector or fashion/pop culture junkie in your life. There is also a great collector’s directory at the end of the book that is a great resource in and of itself.

Easily one of the most recognizable symbols in the world, the Nike Swoosh was originally designed by Carolyn Davidson, a graphic design student that Phil Knight offered to pay a couple of bucks an hour and see if she could come up with anything interesting for his then small company (Nike was previously called Blue Ribbon Sports, Inc.) According to Davidson, Knight asked for a design that suggested movement– originally disliking the swoosh she submitted, Knight had deadlines to meet and ended up using it saying “I don’t love it, but it will grow on me.” As the story goes, Davidson, the young designer, was paid $35 for the Swoosh design. Luckily, in ‘83 they honored her talent with a diamond ring and an envelope containing Nike stock. How much remains a mystery but we, and we’d think all designers, only hope that she’s living off those dividends in style today. Check out the full story on Nikebiz, very interesting.

Our friend Lindsay McKay has done quite well in the fashion world in the past few years–as soon as she graduated from college in 2002, she headed to Milan where she got a Master’s Degree in Fashion Marketing and Communications from the heralded design school, Instituto Europeo di Design, and then worked for Mark Burnett (reality show guru) to dress people like Brooke Burke and Dave Navarro for the show Rock Star: INXS. Lindsay decided to go ‘freelance’ last August, and opened up TK Men–a Chicago based men’s boutique that is the ‘bachelor pad’ of all men’s stores. While browsing collections from designers like Bacco Bucci, Barking Irons, Efci, J. Lindenberg, King Baby, and RVCA, you can also play pool on a vintage 1960’s Brunswick Gold Crown table, challenge your buddies to a game of ‘Madden’ on the wireless X-box set up, drink PBR out of TK Men’s kegerator, or watch the football game on the 55″ plasma. With all of these amenities, TK Men becomes the fashion-inclined man’s one stop place to shop in Chicago.

Beck’s always a little bit ahead of the curve when it comes to his music videos– one thing is for sure, he’s not afraid to take a risk or two and stray from the norm. This music video for Cellphones Dead was directed by none other than über-talented (yes I just said Uber) Michel Gondry (Dave Chappelle’s Block Party, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, etc.) Not only is it a favorite track of ours off his new record The Information, but the video made our day. Robots, gotham-like black and white lighting, old-style filming and signature Beck singing. No telling how long this link will work, but it’s a high-resolution downloadable version of the video– our lips are sealed. Enjoy!