Brian Paul Nelson – Branding / Design / Illustration">Brian Paul Nelson

My 18 year old mini dachshund appropriately named Puppy passed away earlier this week and it has been one of the most difficult things I have ever gone through. Besides work, I have been pretty quite on the blog and personal design side of things because being at home I still see him everywhere and it has been pretty tough. He was a brother and a best friend all wrapped in one who taught me more about life, love and happiness than anyone besides my Mom. I’ll never forget all the good times. Memories.

I miss you Puppy. Brothers for life.

Experimental Jetset is a studio definitely worth checking out if you don’t know about them already. Based in Amsterdam, it was founded in 1997 by Marieke Stolk, Danny van den Dungen and Erwin Brinkers after graduating from the Gerrit Rietveld Academy. Their website is a day-wrecker for sure because there is so much work to look through and is difficult to stop once you get started. What’s great is that the archive of their work dates back to the beginning which brings a nice mix to their portfolio and allows you to follow their progress through the years. You may recognize them from the work they created for the wonderful Helvetica documentary back in 2007 — which, if you haven’t seen, you need to get on that. Above are some of my favorite works by them. Another great feature about their website is how in-depth they go into each project and explain the entire process and outcome of most of their work. Always an inspiring trio.

experimentaljetset.nl/

The 40′s and 50′s have always been a nostalgic era to me and whenever I see movies or photos like the ones above from that time period I get really intrigued about what it would of been like to of grown up back then. Whenever I think about this era, the images in my head always have the vintage, grainy and saturated feel that these photos most likely naturally produced. What’s amazing is that photography back then wasn’t doctored in Photoshop or any other programs—obviously because they didn’t exist. Now a days, many photographers (including myself sometimes) try to achieve the look and feel of what you see above. These photos are from the beautiful and inspiring Flickr set Pre–1962 America in Color.

My heart goes out to Haiti and all who have been deeply affected by this week’s tragedy. You all are in my heart and prayers.

Help is never too late — text ‘Haiti’ to 90999 to send a $10 donation through the Red Cross or by calling 1-800-REDCROSS.

Over the years I have acquired a huge taste and appreciation for modern architecture and one of my favorite architects from the field would definitely have to be Arthur Erickson. His website was recently updated with more of his beautiful work which features his wide use of different mediums in ways that really compliment the natural surroundings in which he built. His use of form really envelopes the landscape which makes it seem that the earth was created around his work rather than vice versa. I’ve always loved the photographs of his work because they really capture the essence of each design. Hopefully one day, if I can afford it, I will live in something like what you see above. View more work at Erickson’s website.

Via grainedit.

Well…I fell in love over the holiday season…I mean I knew we were meant to be together, but I didn’t expect for our relationship to develop so quickly. It’s only been a couple of weeks and I feel like I’ve known her forever. Oh sorry, how rude of me, let me introduce you to my new synthesizer, mKay. She is beautiful and makes me really happy.

I was very thankful to of received the microKORG synth/vocoder for Christmas and I have been playing it nonstop ever since. The amount and range of timbres that this baby can pump out is endless and truly remarkable. It boasts a dual-oscillator DSP synthesis engine, exclusive DWGS waveforms, plus 4 different filter modes, and a range of modulation effects that allow you to create practically any sound you want or that end up discovering. On top of that it also has a vocoder which allows you to capture and freeze the formants of your voice which you can then play across the keyboard, or shift through different formant frequencies. mKay is truly a synth after my own heart.

Music has always been another passion of mine and I have been playing guitar for many years, but mainly just for fun. Now that I’m finished with school, I have a little bit more free time to devote to creating and finally recording music, especially electronic/down-tempo/ambient. The microKORG also serves as a MIDI controller so I can hook it up to my Mac and use it with any recording setup. Im still learning all the quirks to the synth and the Reason/Record recording software I’m using to also produce other cool sounds and beats so it will be quite awhile before any solid music is released, but I’m just ecstatic to begin recording my own music now and continuing a long and healthy relationship with my synth.

Happy New Year! Thank you to everyone for the love and support this past year — 2009 was an amazing year and wouldn’t of been the same without any one of you. Here’s to a happy and healthy 2010. Be sure to stay tuned, there are many things in store for this year and you can catch it all right here at iheartatlas.com — help spread the word! Thanks again <3.