Art Director | San Francisco
It’s been a while since I’ve posted one of my monthly playlists here. It’s been a goal of mine to create a new playlist once a month and curate it with new music that I’ve found through blogs, recommendations, emails, other playlists…oldies and newbies. Here’s my concoction for January, and here’s to another year full of monthly music playlists!
Can’t believe September is coming to a close. Excited to share some of the tunes I gathered this month. Much shorter than usual, but jam-packed with some favorites. Have a listen 🙂
If you’re interested in getting a little eye candy to your inbox each day, complete with a suggested article, product, and tune…I highly recommend signing up for Stella Spoils. Along with the gorgeous photos promoting numerous different photographers and artists, I’ve found a little visual inspiration each day through their newsletter. See for yourself and sign up.
I made a resolution this year to make a new playlist every month, consisting of songs recommended by friends, blogs, and Spotify’s personally curated playlists. Whether old or new, each playlist reflects on what I was thinking or feeling, jamming out to, and often what shows or festivals I was planning to attend or had recently attended. Check out my August playlist here, feel free to go back into my account to see the past 9 months.
This week I attended the second day of studio tours for SF Design Week. Other than the free food, booze, and awesome people, some highlights were:
Future City Labs
Hidden in the labyrinth of an old canning factory in the Dog Patch area of San Francisco, this workshop and studio had incredibly intricate and impressive installation art pieces displayed all over, along with photos of their actual application in the real world. From neon to plastic to wood, the experimentation that takes place at this agency incapsulated all the visitors who attended.
Propelland
An agency subleasing the space with Future City Labs, this small company became a think tank extension for all its clients, coming up with solutions for companies such as Audi and Powerade. Speaking with their product designer about his experience there in recent years sounded very similar to my own experience at a small agency.
DesignMap
Located in between the Mission and Dog Patch, this contemporary agency immediately impressed me with its gorgeous architecture and industrial charm, with exposed ceilings and walls, raw brick, glass, and glossed cement floors. With a fleet of over 40 designers, I was able to have a glimpse into what working a large digital product agency might be like, full of mentorship and resources that small agencies might not have access to.
The Aesthetic Union
Just down the street from DesignMap, I ended the night at the renowned letterpress shop where the likes of hand-lettering guru Erik Marinovich come to create masterpieces. Teeming with different printing machines, stenciling (probably not using the right terminology here for some of the cool techniques that I learned about and observed during the demonstrations) I was feeling like a little kid in a candy shop oo-ing and aw-ing over everything.
Looking forward to posting more fun things that inspire me and my work.
Here’s a pic of me geeking out making an OG Erik Marinovich handlettered stencil. Fun fact: He went to Cal Poly SLO and graduated from the Graphic Design program too!
Danielle Hadley