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031

Nick Murphy writer

28 July 2010

designtransport

Wheelie Good*

Emer is a BMX clothing brand that I remember from the 90s. I would occasionally see an Emer-clad Phil Dolan in his world-beating days or maybe spot the infamous Igo brothers sporting Emer during their reign of carnage. Turns out Level contributor—and man behind Emer—Johann Chan is firing up some new Emer products again.

There are a couple of nice t-shirts and, more interestingly, a prototype for a new bike, the very agile and tight-looking Emer Swift: “The Swift is designed with modern BMX geometry so it retains the same riding position as a modern BMX, but runs high-set gearing and big skinny wheels for greater speed,” says Johann. “It’s still nimble enough to ride as a BMX, and it’s also quick.” The Swift boasts a very tight back end for a cruiser, making it more manual-friendly than other cruisers. The striking graphics were designed by top type designer Seb Lester [see Goodstuff 009], who also has a background in BMX. (This is proven in his profile on the Emer site, which includes an excellent picture of him performing a backwards rubber ride.)

Johann breaks it down for us: “It’s a cruiser for people who want to beat fixies to the pub.”

shorts

LATEST: 15 July 2010

reviews

LATEST: 23 July 2010

reviews

LATEST: 19 April 2010

glimpses

LATEST: 27 July 2009

style

Ooh, fashion

Excuse my nostalgia, but if there’s one thing I miss about art directing the ol’ timey print versions of Level magazine, it’s designing the travel and style pages. They were the least document-style pages, the ones that I could really bear my white (space) teeth and do whatever the hell blew my skirt up. (You’ll understand that’s a metaphor.) It helped that I had amazing photographs to work with.

When Italian photographer Erica Fava submitted her shots last week, I wished I could lay them out for stochastically-screened, 420×265mm print. Instead, I get to present them to you as a simple online slideshow. Thanks, Erica.

Chris Noble, 15 July 2010

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exhibit

Get Spoked

If you’re in the Portland, Oregon area right about now you’d be amiss to miss the month-long ‘Totally Spoked’ bicycle-related-art show at Portland’s Upper Playground / Fifty 24 PDX Gallery.

Curated by Jeremy Kove of Munson Industries, the show includes works by Mike Giant, Marco Zamora, Will Barras (who I’m sure was in the print Level at some point), Tommii Lim and various others who will break my word-count limit including late-show Evan Hecox and our very own Andy Jenkins.

Chris Noble, 06 June 2010

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art

Not My Type

“Not My Type: An Out of Character Experiment” is a typographical exploration of 26 letters (and a few sneaky characters) by 35 talented illustrators, designers and artists, all displayed in one giant alphabet.

The work is going to be stylistically diverse, with artists ranging from Jon Burgerman, I Love Dust, Sam Pierpoint, Lewes Harriot, Dan Westwood and members of The Outcrowd. (I’ll be bringing a big wooden ‘O’.) The exhibition will be showing initially in the Created In Birmingham store, opening May 6th; all prints will be available to buy from both the store or through the Facebook group where they’ll be shown for the first time to coincide with the opening night.

Lee Basford, 20 April 2010

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