FrancescoMugnai.com » Inspiration

Mmm…40 delicious chocolate packaging designs

Francesco Mugnai — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 21:01:28 +0000

The “Dark Side” of inspiration: 30 uber-cool images of Darth Vader

Francesco Mugnai — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 22:07:53 +0000

The Art of Post-Rock and Shoe-gaze

Lukes Beard — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 07:27:28 +0000

For years I have been enjoying and constantly inspired by great post-rock and ambient music. But it’s not just the music that inspires me, often the artwork attached to these pieces of music can be far removed from the topic or theme of the record yet pulled together by the music and make sense with out you even realising it.

“Shoegazing (also known as shoegaze) is a subgenre of alternative rock that emerged from the United Kingdom in the late 1980s. The musicians in these bands stood relatively still during live performances, in a detached, introspective, non-confrontational state, hence the idea that they were gazing at their shoes.” – Wikipedia

In our day to day lives we become detached from taking a moment to breath. So please take a moment to stop what your doing and take a look at the examples of great artwork and music below.

Explosions In The Sky

Jónsi & Alex

Jesu

This Will Destroy You

Giants

Mogwai

Mono

Russian Circles

Heretic And Lovers

Sigur Rós

Codes In The Clouds

Crippled Black Phoenix

20 beautiful examples of music posters

Francesco Mugnai — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 10:13:07 +0000

Inspiration: 25 beautiful vodka bottle and package designs

Francesco Mugnai — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 13:54:16 +0000

The World Best Designers: Spain

Nikola Lazarevic — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 19:50:30 +0000

Diego Latorre

Serial Cut

Stereoplastika

Jordi Hauman

Adrian Van Delzel

Medusa Team

Marta Cerdà Alimbau

Bendita Gloria

Joel Lozano

Luis Vicente Hernandez

Lucia Soto

Dedoce

Sito De Partida

Sketchen

Carlos Hermoso

Marcelino Llano

Vudumedia

Piensa En Pixels

Gloobs

Lataka

The Wild and Tender Photography of Rodolphe Simeon

PabloLara — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 07:20:36 +0000

Rodolphe Simeon is a french photographer living in Canada. And this is not the only thing mixing cultures in his life: he speaks French, English and German.

The first time I saw his pictures was in the brazilian magazine Zupi,which I recommend to read or at least to visit its site. They defined his work as bizarre, agressive and violent. And that is true. Just take a look at the series of Street or the M-People and you have to agree with them: scissors, blood, abnormalities, sexuality and violence. A dangerous and attractive mix.

How did he begin with photography?

“In Oct 2005, I saw the documentary movie “War Photographer” about James Nachtwey. I was so in shock after it, that I immediately decided to go to the store to buy my first camera.”

He says he is influenced by classical paintings from Renaissance to the 19th century, with artist like Da Vinci, Jacques-Louis David, Wermer, Rembrandt, and Carabaggio.
About their favorites photographers he said:

“Almost all of my favorite photographers are photojournalists— James Nachtwey, Sebastiao Salgado, Larry Burrows, Bruce Davidson, Leonard Freed…” And he adores Olivero Toscani and David LaChapelle.

The process of taking pictures is about randomness and to pull people to show their instincts off.

“I will go for a walk on the streets with no major plans nor goals”; “I have to say that some of my photos were taken in really short meetings”; “I let my intuition decide which way is the best”; “I try to catch the soul of people”; “During a photo shoot, I see things in people”; “I prefer to not think too much in order to let my intuition and feelings lead the process.”; “My role is to push models in different directions and to see how they react”.

About the technical process of photography, he said:

“I use Lightroom to transform RAW files to PSD. I don’t do any processing with Lightroom (not even the White balance). I do the entire post-processing in Photoshop.” Take mental notes for your next work.

About the differences between the street and the staged photography he states:

“The basics to my street photography are: 1) you do not decide on the context, and 2) you are constantly making quick decisions to produce powerful photos. My studio work starts by improvised movements or feelings.”; “ In the street or in studio, I try to take emotional pictures.”

The series M-People is clearly about violence. M-People means “Makeup-People”. He said about M-People:

“It’s a series about identity.”; “I use a lot of violence in my photography in order to maintain the identity of people.”; “People really love to mimic violence and murder.” “In today’s world, I see humanity completely lost.”; “For example, through Myspace, Facebook, Flickr, etc… people invent an identity for themselves everyday.”

He is very popular in Flickr.com, but he thinks is not the way to became an artist:

“A lot of people make that mistake; they think that being popular on the web will help them become successful with their art. From my point of view, it doesn’t work that way.”

About the topic of manipulated images he thinks that

“The photographer is constantly censoring his or her own work, and filtering reality to achieve a vision”. Ergo (in english, then), there is no real difference between an untouched picture and a manipulated one.

And finally I am gonna leave you a gift for your soul. He told a story about a thing I understand as a key in art: Be yourself no matter what you are.

“I once photographed a man whose face was seriously deformed. When I asked him if I could take his picture, he agreed immediately. As I went from looking at him directly, to looking at him through my camera, I was overwhelmed by his absolute self-confidence. He was completely himself, completely honest and sincere. At this moment, I felt that he changed something inside me profoundly. In a way, he showed me how you can exist by just being yourself.”

Visit Rodolphe Simeon site: http://www.m-peoplephotography.com