Apartment Applied Visual Arts / Brand identity and user experience design

Camagu Video Shoot - Driemanskap

A few weeks ago we watched the video for Rocaflow by our friends Ill Skillz. The quality of the cinematography, art direction and editing blew us away so we tracked down the people responsible, Greenhouse Productions. After an initial meeting we decided that we had to work with them on the video for Driemanskap’s first single, Camagu.

Camagu is about the importance of respecting your traditions, your culture and your elders, even if you are a young, urban hip hop head. Driemanskap wanted to shoot in a rural setting and the Director, Garth, happened to know a perfect location on a farm in Khayelitsha.

The shoot started at sunrise and went on until midnight. Despite the long hours, everyone gave 100% and judging by the footage we have seen so far, this video is going to set incredibly high standards for us and the rest of the SA hip hop industry to follow.

A massive thank you to everyone at Greenhouse Productions (Garth, Niklas, Christian, Karl, Tami, Bert and Adrian). Also, huge thanks to Sivu and Kanyi for styling, the dancers, the extras (Dre, Bizzah, Siya, Kanyi, Lulama) and everyone else who came through to support - we really couldn’t do this without you!

Check out some behind the scenes photos of the shoot courtesy of Anne-Sophie Leens…

Garth directing (click for larger image).

The shed scene (click for larger image).

El Nino at sunrise (click for larger image).

Driemanskap bringing energy like only they can (click for larger image).

Redondo in the bushes (click for larger image).

Siya and Sivu work on Dla (click for larger image).

Redondo in the frame (click for larger image).

Dancers at sunset (click for larger image).

The final shot of the day (click for larger image).

Check out the full set of photos (62) on Flickr

That’s how we rrrrrrrrrrrroll!!

Damian Stephens / Music video, Photography & Pioneer Unit

1 July 2009

AAVA and PU on FunX

Listen to MP3 Audio of Pioneer Unit and Apartment’s interview on Dutch national radio FunX (Amsterdam, NL). We were interviewed for the African Hip Hop Show hosted by J4, GMB and DJ 360, thanks so much for having us!

(Photo by Mustafa Maluka, click to view large)

(Click to view large)

(Photo by Mustafa Maluka, click to view large)

More photos on Dplanet’s Flickr and read more on Pioneer Unit

Anne-Sophie Leens / Love & Pioneer Unit

6 June 2009

Apartment Deskshot on ‘between 10 and 5’

Between 10 and 5, a South African creative showcase website, asked us to submit a desk shot of Apartment. We took the photo when Ben Sharpa was in Cape Town, writing and recording verses for an upcoming collab with Chris ‘Daddy’ Dave (amen to the God of Drums!).

Check out where we work here

Thank you to Between 10 and 5 :)

Anne-Sophie Leens / Respect

4 June 2009

‘Dream’ tattoo

I’ve been working on a new tattoo design for myself. It is meant to go on my upper left arm and wrap around. It is based on wallpaper patterns and 1900 decorative print work from Germany. The symmetry is not exact, birds on the left are in a different positions than the ones on the right, same for some of the flowers.

I’m probably going to work on a simplified version, with larger elements and less details so here is the ‘before’ version, and some of the earlier versions. (Click to enlarge).

Version 1 - Early stage, laying out the wallpaper ‘theme’

Version 2 - Adding all the elements I really like
Note the angry samourai face in the middle :)

Version 3 - Cutting down and refining the details

Next step: simplification! The project continues….

Anne-Sophie Leens / Illustration & Love

2 June 2009

Apartment / Latest

Since coming back from Amsterdam, Damian has been busy designing amazing interfaces for a website, gadget (widget) and application for a financial company.

I shot 2 new music videos for Ben Sharpa:
The first music video, Calling It Quits is out July 31st. Expect the design of the album cover coming to life. It will be followed by Check The Evidence, a grimey and dark video, out early September. Both tracks are off his album B. Sharpa. Check out Ben Sharpa on last.fm.

We’re also starting pre-production for Driemanskap‘s upcoming music video Camagu from their new albbum Igqabhukil’ Inyongo. For this video, we’re joining force with Garth, an amazing cinematographer. Check out Driemanskap on last.fm.

Watch Snakes and Fakes, Driemanskap’s latest music video:

We shot a PR portrait for Hardy McQueen, Hit Entertainment, who is Pioneer Unit’s artist manager and booking agent.

We also shot a PR portrait for DJ Raiko, the official Pioneer Unit DJ!

Lastly, we’re travelling to Réunion Island, to document Ben Sharpa and Raiko‘s week long stay and performances at the yearly music festival Bato Fou. Ben Sharpa will be performing the 19th of June with DJ Raiko / Bato Fou on MySpace

Follow our travels on Dopplr :)

Anne-Sophie Leens / Music video, Photography, Pioneer Unit, User experience & Visual design

2 June 2009

Roswitha Van Rijn, Shoe Designer

I came across Roswitha’s atelier whilst strolling the streets of Amsterdam. She’s a haute couture shoe designer, who cares about sustainability. She loves travelling too. (Read more about Roswitha here](http://www.roswithavanrijn.nl/).

Check out below a few of her shoes, boots and anklets, it’s like stepping into a dream box full of weird and wonderfully amazing designs. I’m definitely saving up for next time I visit Amsterdam!

Roswitha van Rijn - Shoe designer

More
Roswitha’s website
Wolfboots

Anne-Sophie Leens / Love & Respect

1 June 2009 | 2 comments

We’re on Masterpiece 2.0 timelapse :)

We visited Baschz working on his project Masterpiece 2.0 in Rotterdam on Day 10 of the project.
Check out the timelapse video where we appear! :)

More timelapse and feature appearances here

And finally, what’s Masterpiece 2.0?
Masterpiece 2.0 is a social media art project by Baschz and Selfcontrolfreak. It’s the first ever canvas being made with a Web 2.0 approach.

The canvas interacts with its visitors who can affect the proces and final outcome of this masterpiece.

Check it out on http://masterpiece20.com - 23 days to go!

Illustration & Respect

13 May 2009

Soweto at Queen’s Day 2009

We just got back from a round trip Cape Town - Johannesburg - Amsterdam - Johannesburg - Cape Town where we attended Back to the City, Queen’s Day, UX Cocktail Hours, African Storms, watched a Baschz at work and worked from our Amsterdam offices.

We started with Back to the City 2009 (Johannesburg - 27 April) where Driemanskap performed their new album material for the first time live. Ben Sharpa performed too, as well as an incredible line up.
Read Pioneer Unit’s review of the event here or have a look at the full set of images on Flickr.

That same evening we flew to Amsterdam, where we were attending our first Queen’s Day a few days later: a lot of people dress in orange and celebrate the Queen’s birthday in the streets and canals.

I’m really proud to say I rocked South African fashion with pride at Queen’s Day :)
I was lucky to meet Onelove from the clothing label GKQ (Ghetto Kings and Queens) and rocked an orange Soweto tee in Amsterdam!

Onelove has designs tees for ladies and gents, mail him to order: ghettokingsandqueens [at] webmail [dot] co [dot] za

Rock it with pride!

PS: More photos of the trip on their way :)

Anne-Sophie Leens / Love, Music & Pioneer Unit

11 May 2009

Masterpiece 2.0

http://www.baschz.com/masterpiece20/

Masterpiece 2.0, a social media art project by Baschz and Selfcontrolfreak.
It’s the first ever canvas being made with a Web 2.0 approach.

The canvas interacts with its visitors who can affect the proces and final outcome of this masterpiece.
Read the full press release here

More about Baschz
More about Selfcontrolfreak.

Anne-Sophie Leens / Respect

28 April 2009

In defense of eye candy

Stephen P. Anderson wrote In Defense of Eye Candy for A List Apart.

Superb article about the role of beauty in visual interface. Absolute must read!

Research proves attractive things work better. How we think cannot be separated from how we feel. The next time a boss, client, or co-worker scoffs at the notion that beauty is an important aspect of interface design, point their peepers here.

Spot on:
… So, how do we create trust in our application interfaces, aside from providing the basics, such as reliable information and uptime? By being attentive to visual design, for one thing. Attention to design details implies that the same care and attention has been spent on the other (less visible) parts of the product—which implies that this is a trustworthy product…

Read In Defense of Eye Candy

(Thanks Damian for the link)

Anne-Sophie Leens / User experience & Visual design

25 April 2009

Flickr Fav

My favourites photos from other Flickr members.
Full set here/

Anne-Sophie Leens / Love & Photography

21 April 2009

Super cool flyer

Apart from the fact that Ben Sharpa from Pioneer Unit will be performing at this awesome party, I LOVE this flyer design!! <3 <3 <3

So if you’re in Paris right now then check out Ben Sharpa at Glaz’Art for the F@#k You I’m Furious party. Pioneer Unit‘s partner in crime, Milanese, is also going to be dropping science so you know it’s gonna get ugly. Check it out!

If I was in Paris right now, I’d so be there tonight! :)

For more Pioneer Unit gigs, check out http://www.pioneerunit.com/gigs/

Anne-Sophie Leens / Love & Pioneer Unit

17 April 2009

Driemanskap - Album artwork

We’re very proud to announce that we’ve just completed photography and artwork for Driemanskap first album “Igqabhukil’ Inyongo”. It is their first album, released on http://www.pioneerunit.com/.

We conceptualised, styled, shot, graded and design the album cover. One of the meanings of the album title is “the gallbladder bursting” or “it has begun”.

The album is currently in production and will be released nationwide 11 May 2009. Driemanskap will be performing 2 “unofficial” launch parties to celebrate their new album:
- 21 April at Distrix Café in Cape Town
- 27 April at Back to the City in Newtown, Johannesburg.

Be sure to be there to catch their brand new material!

Click any image to view large version or see the complete set on Flickr

Check out Driemanskap bio or their MySpace page or their music video for their promo track Snakes and Fakes

Anne-Sophie Leens / Photography, Pioneer Unit & Visual design

16 April 2009

Back from Jozi

I’m back from Johannesburg, after 2.5 months spent working with JH-01 on create a User Experience Design framework for Standard Bank. I (Apartment Studios) was responsible for creating User Interface design standards.

From the JH-01 blog:
Standard Bank UXD framework

Following on from our multi-channel visioning project for Standard Bank with Microsoft last year, jh-01 has been re-engaged to realise the user experience. The Bank wide roll-out of SAP is creating amazing multi-channel opportunities and a radically new user experience framework is required to encourage behaviour that will unlock the potential in practise. At present the roll out will cover most staff assisted channels (branch, call centre, mobile and back-office) and later will extend to remaining channels such as self-service.

Enterprise IA is one thing but enterprise UX is another. And of course the timelines are just short of insane. Nonetheless we’re loving the challenge and working incredibly closely with a client that’s brave enough to use the UX process as the basis for the front-end of the roll-out.

Highlights so far: conducting just short of 100 user interviews and observation sessions in one week with a team of 7 individuals as part of our research phase.

For those of you who don’t know Standard Bank they’re the oldest Bank in South Africa and one of the ‘big four’ in retail Banking. They have a strong international presence though not in the retail space. This project will impact 9 million customers (both personal and business) and over 10 000 staff members. What a rush!

The project was split into 2 phases for me: first an exploratory phase to enable me to familiarise myself with the project, the current systems, the current branding guidelines as well as the different types of users, journeys, and the UX strategy. Then the design phase, in conjunction with the IA and UD design team. Throughout both phases, user testings were conducted to test IA, wireframes and interface designs.

Indeed it was a rush, from the sheer size of the project to the JH-01 and Standard Bank team I worked with on this amazing project. What a perfect start to the year :)

Oh, and Joburg rocked :)

Anne-Sophie Leens / User experience & Visual design

16 April 2009

Welcome to Khaltsha - some stills

Some stills from the Welcome to Khaltsha music video for Rattex :)
Video viewable on YouTube

Anne-Sophie Leens / Music video, Photography & Pioneer Unit

16 April 2009

Welcome to Khaltsha

Apartment Studios just completed ‘Welcome to Khaltsha‘ music video for Rattex‘s album ‘Bread and Butter‘ on Pioneer Unit.

The video was entirely shot on location in Kayelitsha where we spent the day hanging out with Rattex at his favourite spots.

Check it out on a TV near you, or see you at Solly’s soon :)
That’s how we rrrrrroll!

Anne-Sophie Leens / Music video & Pioneer Unit

22 March 2009

Ben Sharpa Press Pack

Sending a Ben Sharpa press pack to the US. This is what it looks like :)
Click on photo to read notes in Flickr!

Anne-Sophie Leens / Music & Pioneer Unit

7 March 2009

Omnigraffle - Stencils

omnigraffle_wireframe_palette

If you’re wireframing and prototyping with Omnigraffle, you may like these stencils:
http://konigi.com/tools/omnigraffle-ux-template
http://developer.yahoo.com/ypatterns/wireframes/
http://www.userfocus.co.uk/resources/omnigraffle.html

My absolute fav Omnigraffle stencils:
http://urlgreyhot.com/personal/resources/omnigraffle_wireframe_palette

Enjoy!

Anne-Sophie Leens / User experience

5 March 2009

Rattex Featured in Haute Couture Photo Shoot

Our sister company and renowned Amsterdam-based fashion photographers, Petrovsky & Ramone (P&R;) came to Cape Town earlier this week to shoot a variety of commercial projects. While they were down here, they also took the opportunity to do an haute couture (that’s ‘high fashion’ to you and me) photo shoot in Khayelitsha which featured your boy Rah as well as other members of the Pi-Unit, including myself.

P&R; brought their team which included Venus (stylist), Simone (model) a make-up artist and an assistant - and a car-load of clothes. It was one of the hottest days we’ve had in Cape Town in a while, with temperatures reaching 36C. Despite the conditions Simone somehow managed not to pass out despite being heavily made-up, often wearing many layers of clothing and having ‘mud’ and newspaper stuck to her hair.

We helped P&R; find five locations to shoot. Everywhere we stopped, crowds of people gathered round to stare (and often laugh) in amazement. After seeing Simone one young boy asked, “Is it a girl?”, wondering whether she was real or a mannequin.

Venus (the stylist) said that she was inspired by the way women in Khayelitsha put their clothes together. She wanted to mirror that in a couture way with her styling of Simone. P&R; asked some of these ladies to appear in the photos, which they were happy to do despite being a little embarrassed by all the attention.

We all had a great day and the photographs look amazing. Check out some behind the scenes photos…

Check out the full set of photos (107) on Flickr

(Click to enlarge)

That’s how we rrrrrrrrrrrroll!!

Damian Stephens / Love, Photography & Pioneer Unit

5 March 2009 | 1 comment

Jade’s stuff

Found on Natalie’s Flickr page.
Loving this so much :)

Natalie says: “Jade asked me to take some photos of her work for her stand at the Design Indaba.”

Catch Jade’s work at The Design Indaba Expo from the 27 Feb to 1 March in Cape Town!

Anne-Sophie Leens / Love & Respect

25 February 2009

Hipe Portrait

Apartment portrait of new Pioneer Unit signing, Hipe.

Damian Stephens / Photography & Pioneer Unit

19 February 2009

#merightnow

Here’s the deal:
1. Sit down
2. TAKE A PICTURE OF YOURSELF RIGHT NOW. Don’t primp, just snap one!
3. Upload it
4. Tag 5 people to do the same
5. Hashtag it #merightnow on Twitter

I tag:
1. Dplanet — www.flickr.com/photos/dplanet @Dplanet
2. MyBrandedLife— www.mybrandedlife.com @MyBrandedLifeTM
3. MsPants — www.flickr.com/photos/taraethers/ @MsPants
4. LucasGo — www.twitter.com/LucasGo @LucasGo - See his photo here
5. Uno de Waal — www.twitter.com/unodewaal @Unodewaal - See his photo

In response to flickr.com/photos/maluka/3290314766/#preview

Alan’s photo

Screenshot of my “friends” photo page on Flickr a little later :)

Anne-Sophie Leens / Love & Photography

18 February 2009

Joao Orecchia

Last night, JH-01 and myself went out to celebrate Nausher’s birthday (he’s the new account director at JH-01). Jason took us to Espresso Jazz in Linden to watch his friend Joao Orecchia performing. The music was beautiful and whimsical, and I just didn’t want them to stop playing :)

Joao at The Assembly, Cape Town

I use a small space ship full of looping devices and effect pedals to create sounds with a variety of acoustic and electronic instruments including guitar, banjo, voice, bass, melodica, toy instruments, theremin, tape recorders, self recorded samples, and more. I combine layer upon layer of sound, constantly reprocessing and chopping up the sounds I’ve just recorded, building dense soundscapes, while pulling all the sounds together into an abstract song structure.

I mix improvisation with loosely precomposed material, finding joy in “accidents” and “mistakes”. The element of chance is an important component also in my composing process. I don’t always want to know what will come out. The process is important to me.

When the opportunity arrises I like to work completely improvised with only the sounds in the space as source material. Then I loop, distort, and chop up the sounds I record out of the space.

Beautiful.

http://www.joaoorecchia.com

Anne-Sophie Leens / Music

14 February 2009

Great design is serious (not solemn) / Flow

Watched 2 interesting TED talks this week:

Paula Scher: Great design is serious (not solemn)

Paula Scher looks back at a life in design (she’s done album covers, books, the Citibank logo …) and pinpoints the moment when she started really having fun. Look for gorgeous designs and images from her legendary career.

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi: Creativity, fulfillment and flow

Mihaly Czikszentmihalyi asks, “What makes a life worth living?” Noting that money cannot make us happy, he looks to those who find pleasure and lasting satisfaction in activities that bring about a state of “flow.”

User experience & Visual design

14 February 2009

El Nino / Portraits

El Nino, Driemanskap
10 January 2009

(Note: These are temp edits, final edits when I get my laptop back).

Anne-Sophie Leens / Photography & Pioneer Unit

6 February 2009 | 1 comment