As one of the few Oklahoma design studios that doesn’t restrict themselves to the nothing-but-advertising attitude, Live4This has contributed some really solid work to the local scene and has been recognized nationally for their talents. These surprisingly young creatives describe themselves as “artists, art directors, advertisers, designers, photographers, and programmers”, and their website is full of work that shows they aren’t exaggerating their skills.

Who is Live4This?
Live4This is the collaborative between Darshan Phillips & Aaron Whisner.

How did you get started and what goals were originally present?
We started the studio because the two of us had enough freelance and contract work to do it. We have been friends for a long time and had studied art and design together.

As a multidisciplinary studio, how do you balance the differences between art and design, and what differences do you see there?
In art, we create without trying to appeal to any audience but ourselves. In design, we are trying to appeal to the intended audience. The rules of composition are the same in both art and design.

How do you find inspiration in Tulsa, Oklahoma?
Books, online, movies, and nature.

What are your thoughts on the art/design community of Tulsa and Oklahoma in general?
We are huge advocates of the Oklahoma art/design community. There is so much talent in our state regardless of our geographical location and it is growing. When we first started, we had a lot of people tell us that Oklahoma would never have a cool design community. Instead of fleeing to some state that did, we wanted to work on growing one. It is a huge frustration when someone we know, with talent, moves out of Oklahoma. Hopefully Oklahoma will continue to retain talent and grow its design and art community.

Any favorite projects so far?
Our last art show, Progress as Promised.

We saw you in Print Magazine a while back, what other awards have you won?
Best of Show / Ride Snowboard International Art Competition, 2005
2nd / Salomon Snowboard International Design Competition, 2005
Multiple Awards / Art Directors Club, 2007 & 2008
Best of Show / ADDYs 41, Best of Show, 2008
Multiple ADCT Graphex Awards, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008

We have also been featured in:
ART 365 THE FILM
Art Directors Club, 2007 & 2008
CMYK Magazine, 2004
Corridorbuzz.com, 2008
FecalFace.com, 2008
Kern Newsletter, 2007 & 2008
New American Paintings, No. 78, 2008
Oklahoma Magazine, 2007 & 2008
OklaTravelNet, 2008
Print Magazine, RDA, 2007 & 2008
Tulsa People, 2008
Tulsa World, 2007, 2008 & 2009
Urban Tulsa, 2006, 2007, 2008 & 2009
Up Late with Ben Sumner, 2008
Steamboat Pilot, 2006 & 2007
WheatToast.org, 2008

What are your goals for the future?
We would love to have a show featured in the New York Times. We are also working towards having shows world-wide.

Anybody in Oklahoma you would like to work with but haven’t had a chance to?
We would love to be commissioned by one of the big oil companies to produce a body of work.

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Todd Jackson (from Evangelicals and my favorite blog ever) just made my day with a copy of Brother Gruesome’s new cassette tape, released on LA label Slanty Shanty Records. Todd and Levi have recorded five awesome songs with a little help from local heartthrob, Penny Hill, who is also releasing a tape on the same label in March. You can pick up the tape at Guestroom Records.

Room for Rent

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I know Justen from back in the day when he was a vis comm graduate student at OU and I was a sophomore. During critiques, I think we all trusted his advice more than our regular professors because of his keen eye for design as well as his awesome Brooklyn accent. We were all blown away and inspired whenever he showed us any of his work. What a class act.

Where are you from?
I was born and raised in New York City (mainly Queens) and came to
Oklahoma for college.

What do you do?
I teach graphic design at Oklahoma State University where I’ve
developed a program focusing on motion and interactive design. My
design work encompasses motion graphics (video, typographic animation,
etc.), printed work (including posters, logos, custom typography,
etc.), interactive work and illustration. I have also enjoyed making
sample based music for many years.

Who or what do you use for inspiration?
My son, Hudson and wife, Holly. My grandparents, Anna and Arrigo
Ghedini (both artists) were huge inspirations for me. A laundry list
of assorted inspirations would include; Hipgnosis, R. Crumb, Ralph
Bakshi, Jack Kirby, Ghost, Saul Bass, Tehching Hsieh, Ivan Chermayeff,
Herb Lubalin, Weegee, Futura, Francis Bacon and old lady Pray. In
general, I am motivated by a sense of life being very short.

What artists do you respect right now?
I respect all the artists and designers I know. I’ve actually found
myself having a deep respect for scientists like Vilayanur S.
Ramachandran. Maybe it’s interesting because it’s outside art theory.

What are you sick of?
Joylessness disguised as professionalism.

What music are you listening to recently?
Bodega System, J Dilla, Thelonious Monk and the Odd Couple theme song.

What is your first creative memory?
I remember inventing the Star of David being a huge breakthrough for
me (I was playing around with triangles and thought I had invented a
new star).

What is your favorite food/drank spot in Norman?
The shag carpet room at Opie’s.

Anything else?
Shout out to the Renyer, Ghedini and Dirickson families. Thanks for
checking out my work.
http://www.behance.net/JustenRenyer

Preliminary type design and character study for upcoming motion design inspired by Justen’s home borough of Queens (NYC).

CD cover concept. Image and layout created in 2004, type designed in 2009.

Self-initiated project. Lunar phases. Birds.

Promotional video for Oklahomans For Reproductive Justice.

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Chicago boys Geronimo! dropped us a message to let us know about their upcoming show at the Soundpony on Monday. Not sure how they know who we are, but we figured we would pass the word along. And if you don’t already know, the Soundpony is a bar in Tulsa with a bicycle theme. That’s right, bicycles. Best. Bar. Ever.

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Oklahoma just got a little bit cooler with the creation of Warpaint Clothing, thanks to Travis Pickett and Derek Knowlton (of parts&labor and The Pretty Black Chains, respectively). If we made our own line of shirts, it would look pretty much like this – except they’ve already made ‘em, and they are awesome. Check out their facebook or myspace pages for more photos and information or pick up a shirt or two at parts&labor. There have also been some rumors of a possible Warpaint table at the first ever Apache House Show. Get excited.

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The Non has been causing quite a stir lately with all the hype for their new album Tadaima. I’m really diggin’ the new album art and the general direction these guys are going. Their mathy instrumentals are a welcomed sound in the local scene. Plus, it’s always nice to see something good come out of Edmond. You can download their debut album Paper City for free on their website for a limited time, and don’t forget to check out their two night album release party this weekend.

Where are you from?
Wil – I’m from Edmond, Oklahoma.
Tom – Oklahoma City, born and raised.

What do you do?
Wil – I’m a student at Oklahoma Christian but spend my time daydreaming about music.
Tom – Lots of music things and lots of airplane things. I love playing in the band and working on everything that entails, I love everything about it. I listen to huge amounts of music all the time, always finding new tunes from the past and present. I really can’t get away from it and would never want to. A life entails more then music, though. I’m a student at the University of Oklahoma and spend a good amount of my weeks flying airplanes out of Norman as a professional pilot major.

Who or what do you use for inspiration?
Wil – I guess I read a lot of literature, which always makes me question all of my convictions on everything. I think being unsettled as a person keeps me moving, and as long as I don’t get stuck in my thoughts, I think I’ll always be able to find inspiration.
Tom – Every day I wake up is one for inspiration—everything influences us, musically or otherwise. From the coffee in the morning to texture of your mattress at night, it can make you think or feel a certain way and that can have an impact on whatever it is you do. My biggest sources of inspiration are my mood and thoughts at any given moment. They can make you play a certain way and think about the music you’re making from completely different angles within a matter of minutes. It’s amazing. Of course I have to mention music as an inspiration; something is constantly spinning wherever I am and I am hugely impacted as a musician by what I listen to and think is cool.

What artists do you respect right now?
Wil – In Norman/Oklahoma City, I am obviously a huge fan of Evangelicals and Sethy McCarroll, both in Gentle Ghost and as a visual artist. I will always love Kunek/Other Lives/whatever the band featuring Jesse Tabish and his talented band mates.
Tom – My big time all stars are John Frusciante, Weather Report, Modest Mouse, Jethro Tull, Yes, The Mars Volta, Led Zeppelin, Bela Fleck & the Flecktones, and Charles Mingus, among others.

What are you sick of?
Wil – Christmas music. It’s enough to drive me out of Starbucks for a month, which is actually a good thing anyway. So that too, I’m sick of Starbucks and all the money I wish I never spent there.
Tom – Petty problems being abundantly voiced by those feeling the need to do so.

What music are you listening to recently?
Wil – I feel fairly unoriginal for loving Animal Collective’s “Fall Be Kind” but it really is pretty amazing. I fell asleep to it a few days ago and I swear I had visions of a tight-rope walker (Bleed), flashing neon shapes (On a Highway), and strange pyramid tunnels (I Think I Can). Really great. Also, I am obsessed with Kaki King’s “…Until We Felt Red.” She’s brilliant. Her chord progressions are impossible and she’s able to make guitar sounds that are unique in a musical world of constant reference to other bands.
Tom – I just got bought two Midlake records the other day and that’s what I’m binging on at the moment. They’re an astonishing band from Denton, if anyone doesn’t know who they are. I had never heard them before but now I know what I was missing. The top five CDs sitting in the stack in front of me are by The Sugarcubes, The Clash, Dan Deacon, Return to Forever, and Tortoise.

What is your first creative memory?
Wil – I’ve been drawing since forever. In elementary school, I used to draw these extremely elaborate drawings of Star Wars-esque soldiers or medieval knights and whatnot. For class in second grade, my friends and I drew this super-bloody mural of a medieval-era siege, complete with people cutting off heads and getting boiling liquid poured on them. I’ve always wondered what my teachers thought of stuff like that, it was pretty morbid. But awesome.
Tom – The farthest back I can recall is a family road-trip where, for some reason, I had a really old child’s keyboard, the kind where you can hit only one key at once. I figured out how to play that thing on the drive and had a great time. This would have been in the mid-nineties.

What is your favorite food/drank spot in Norman?
Wil – It’s really hard for me not to pick anything other than The Library. It’s great when it’s warm enough to sit outside there, and the Sunday $5 pizza is just about impossible to beat. The atmosphere’s a little irreverent and you always overhear some way-out-there conversations by what seem to be brain-fried physics professors or something and that’s always great for a little while.
Tom – Lot’s to choose from! If I had to pick, I would say I either The Greek House or Midway.

Anything else?
Wil – Thanks!
Tom – Check out our new website and our new album, Tadaima!

Video by Nathan Poppe.

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We have some big new projects that we are really excited about, and we are focusing our attention there for the next couple weeks. Don’t worry, we will be back, and better than ever. Happy New Year.

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The Flaming Lips – Embryonic

Traindodge – I Am Forever

And a preview of how awesome 2010 is going to be…

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