Recently I’ve been busy prepping my portfolio book and beginning to organize my vacation in August, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t been designing and creating. I recently designed a new logo, which unfortunately wasn’t used for Intelligent Weatherization, an Indiana Skills Verification Program aimed at maintaining a homes weathering process. However, the program ended up choosing a more conservative direction. The color choices were chosen to reflect the fight on different weather seasons within your home.

Also, I was updating my hard drives and noticed the early stages of The Freaky Afronaut’s latest album I designed. The cover originally started as a poster I had designed with TFA in mind.

I have attached Calvin Harris titled You Use To Hold Me off his debut album. It’s insanely full of energy and fresh. Enjoy a listen!

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Since this week is the week I presented The XX on my blog,
have you ever seen this video before?

It defines how much creativity can be put into a music video in such a simple and yet so powerful way. By far the best music video out to date. Watch the video closely, as at first it may appear to be repeating, but every cut is a new story that adds to the transition of the couples breaking apart beginning with the couple in the front and ending with the couple in the back. The choreography and mood of this video is near perfection. Enjoy!

1. Lily Allen
2. The xx

Last week I covered my number one favorite, Lily Allen for her independence and courage in life and as a woman. This week I want to give a shout out to the runner up, The XX. They create something magical and if you are unfamiliar with them, get familiar. They create more than music, but an experience of emotion and movement with simple acoustic beats and a soothing collaboration of some of the best voices.

They recently covered my lost love, Aaliyah’s Hot Like Fire. Typically once great artists pass, I don’t agree with touching their work in form of respect and honor, but the XX was up for the challenge and didn’t copy the song, but paid tribute to her through a new style and a touch to a great loss. I prefer listening to this tune with ear buds and the eyes shut to clear that mind. A great drug for the ears, trust me!

This is the second album cover I’ve designed for The Freaky Afronaut. Intergalactic Discocaine is an upbeat album of urban house mixes. I wanted to create an environment that was urban and abstract. I imagined a club scene as if the viewer was looking through a warehouse window. More detailed versions of the album cover can be seen via my Flickr page at http://www.flickr.com/photos/bquigley/. Enjoy!

I have attached a Tiesto remix of Tegan & Sara‘s Feel It In My Bones as I approach my Friday. It has helped me get through the week. Enjoy a listen!

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I cannot name one song that I am not fond of out of Lily Allen‘s two albums. She sings from the heart and relates to current events more than any other musical artist I know. If there was one artist I would love to meet it would be this woman. She is amazingly in sync with my creative and personal life and is largely responsible for my creative punch. I think Lily tries to run from any style hole that most artists dive into, but if she were to have one it really is the “fu#$! you it’s my life” style. I adore her.

This song/mvideo was just released and is her latest studio work. It’s a duet with Professor Green (rapping isn’t really my thing btw) and unfortunately she has made no plans yet for another album.

I remember loving her hit “Do You Know” in 1996 back when I was still kissing girls and terribly clueless what I wanted to be when I grew up. My latest obsession came from her 2008 album Robyn with hits like “Cobrastyle” and “Bum Like You”. This year she is releasing an amazing THREE albums and has already begun to deliver eargasms around the world. Here is her latest, “Dancing On My Own”.