Journal
Best of the Month - Vol. 12
The clocks have adjusted, the days are getting much longer and that means sunglasses season is here! Spring is always such an exciting time here at Tens, creeping ever closer to beach days and rooftop bars. Where are you planning to go this summer? DM us and let us know! We've been very busy this past month putting together everything for our new launch, we're so excited to share it with you. In the meantime, here are some nice things to look at, listen to and read about. Best of the Web Apple have submitted to unicode a set of new accessibility emojis including people in wheelchairs, service dogs, and prosthetic limbs. Smartphone lens accessory makers Moment have taken to Kickstarter to launch a brand new anamorphic cinema lens set up for your device! Check out the video and funding project here. Adweek took a look at the making of Spike Jonze's latest Apple ad, featuring performer FKA Twigs. If you thought it was CGI... it's not. Watch here. Biodegradable balloon installation artist / genius Geronimo inflated 7,000 balloons for a display during Melbourne Design week. Read more. Watch this incredible behind-the-scenes look at the painstaking animation process behind Wes Anderson's latest film, Isle of Dogs. Have you seen it yet? Tens Soundtrack Here are some of our office favourites, mostly new, some old. Who else should we be checking out? Visit our profile on Spotify to check out our previous months' soundtracks. Who to Follow Here are some of our favourite accounts to follow on Instagram. If you know anybody that we should be following, let us know! This month we've got @j.essink, @hanphn.photo, @roomporn, @javiercastan & @miniature_co. #TensMoments At Tens we put our community first, no matter what it is that we're up to. Here's where we share some of our favourite customer photos with Tens from the last month. We love seeing your tags with Tens, so be sure to tag us in them for your chance to be featured! Photos submitted (in order) by @_roxie_jones_, @aziz.firat, @olivvvvvvve, @daretostray, @hanphn & @carminati_andrea.~What things have you discovered this month? Are we missing anything? Message us on Facebook with suggestions!
Infrared Palm Springs by Kate Ballis
“I had a mirrorless Sony camera converted for infrared, bought a variety of coloured filters and the results completely changed the way I viewed the place, and beyond that, it provided me with a window into another world.” Where tropical palms and modernist architecture meet the martian-like desert, Palm Springs isn't already too far from an alien world. With a method of camera wizardry and a fantastic eye, Palm Springs is transformed into a brand new, exaggerated hyper-coloured light. An almost alien landscape devoid of normality. Mid-twentieth century automobiles are found sleeping by empty roads and bubbling red pools contain nothing but novelty floats. All adding to the sinister nature of this other-worldly set. The ‘greenery’ in the set really pops through this modified camera, as the infrared spectrum of light emanating from the plants normally sits out with the humanly visible spectrum. Kate told Wallpaper magazine that ‘Adventure has to be the best part of my job,’ she says. ‘I’m constantly planning the next destination to photograph and finding ways to capture that place’s story in a way that feels as unexplored as the location itself.’ We love Kate’s mindset of seeing things in a new perspective, that’s why we were so enchanted by this alien-like photoset. Cameras can be modified to shoot in infrared by removing the infrared blocker from the sensor assembly, but often this is permanent. If you want to give this a go yourself, there are many tutorials on YouTube. View the full set on Kate’s website here.
Best of the Month - Vol. 11
Despite tundra-like conditions hitting our small country this month, winter is technically over! With a new month comes a new roundup of our favourite stories, photos, accounts and music that we've been uncovering to keep us cosy as we prepare for a very exciting spring / summer launch. Enjoy! Best of the Web Ikea partners with Hasselblad in an effort to offer more “inspiring” prints for its frames. Are you sick of the black-and-white-but-the-taxis-are-yellow prints of Times Square too? Grandfather becomes Spain's oldest Erasmus student. He is 80 years old, has suffered a heart attack and quadruple bypass, but this month, Miguel Castillo will head off to start a new semester as an Erasmus student in Italy. This flooded river in Bonito, Brazil turns a somewhat ordinary jungle path into a crystal clear underwater world. “Svart” from Norwegian architecture firm 'Snøhetta' is the first Arctic building to be built according to an energy standard where more renewable energy is produced over its lifetime in total than would be required to build, sustain daily operations, and demolish the building. Here's the winner of the urban category in National Geographic's photography competition 2018. See all the winning images here. Tens Soundtrack Here are some of our office favourites, mostly new, some old. Who else should we be checking out? Visit our profile on Spotify to check out our previous months' soundtracks. Who to Follow Here are some of our favourite accounts to follow on Instagram. If you know anybody that we should be following, let us know! This month we've got @kateballis, @jamies_jungle, @accidentallywesanderson, @josselin & @peggyseyes. #TensMoments At Tens we put our community first, no matter what it is that we're up to. Here's where we share some of our favourite customer photos with Tens from the last month. We love seeing your tags with Tens, so be sure to tag us in them for your chance to be featured! Photos submitted (in order) by @middlevancleave, @alexander_kirk, @hanphn, @urbantraveller & @humansafari.~What things have you discovered this month? Are we missing anything? Message us on Facebook with suggestions!
Venice Beach, 1976
Load up some Donna Summer in a new tab and take a nostalgic trip back to a sun-drenched Venice Beach. '76 was the summer when outdoor roller skate rentals were introduced for the first time. What started out of an old mail truck from a parking lot soon became a global phenomenon - and it didn't need a viral video to get noticed. Thanks to a newly installed bike path, the rise of disco music and the invention of the polyurethane wheel, rollerskating on the street was now viable. This happened to be the same year Dogtown and Z-Boys staked their claim to fame. No smartphones, no notifications, no worries - just blazing heat, ill-fitting tees and the hum of the rolling wheels on warm asphalt. This was the beginning of the outdoor rollerskating revolution, and the rebirth of Venice, or "Venice Beach" as it became to be known. A couple of years down the line, Mayor Tom Bradley declared Venice, "The Rollerskating Capital of the World", making it the most popular California tourist destination second only to Disneyland. These original photographs are a representation of this vibrant decade, and offer a peek into the joy shared by those of who were lucky to be there. Photos by Mark
The Budapest Café
Filmmaker Wes Anderson’s distinctive visual style provided the inspiration for The Budapest Café in Chengdu, China. The design draws on Anderson’s meticulous, memorable and magical worlds to create an inviting destination with whimsical character and international appeal. Much like Anderson’s mythical Budapest Hotel, The Budapest Café is designed to offer an experience that detaches patrons from the hustle and bustle of everyday life. The interior incorporates symmetry, precision and nostalgic colour palettes; and the sentiment that infuses his films. He tends towards one-point perspectives and peering down from above; gives attention to the edges of a set as much as the middle; and frames stories with proscenium arches. Layers, elevations and design features encourage customers to explore the space. A mezzanine level provides a view from above; symmetrical arches frame recessed seating and shelving; and stairs and steps lead upstairs, lead nowhere, and are integrated into shelving, fireplaces and the long marble bar. The Budapest Café is designed to feel feminine, light and fun, despite its loftiness and exposed structure. A ball pool, neon signage and original Eero Aarnio Bubble chair inspire playfulness, and the bathrooms surprise with speckled pink terrazzo to complement and contrast with the nostalgic-green hues of the café. Designed & branded by Biasol Photography by James Morgan
Cinematic Cuba by Stijn Hoekstra
'The Jurassic Park for cars' When Fidel Castro came into power in 1959, he placed a ban on foreign vehicle imports, making it nearly impossible to buy a brand-new, foreign-made car. As you navigate the roads of Havana, you'll find a rolling museum of classic '50s American automobiles. Vibrant paint-jobs and those iconic space-age tail fins are seen at almost every turn - each booming reggaetón from aftermarket speaker systems. Dutch photograper & cinematographer Stijn Hoekstra spent 3 weeks in Cuba capturing its cinematic land & cityscapes, but what particularly caught our eye was his photoset on these beautiful classic cars. We at Tens maintain a love for all things retro, and this photoset is simply bathed in nostalgic warmth. American cars were previously considered something of a burden; gas guzzlers whose parts were impossible to replace thanks to the US economic embargo, which makes most commercial transactions with the island illegal, and has effectively limited ties between the US and communist-run Cuba for much of the last half-century. Some of the smoke-belching monsters had so many adapted Chinese and Russian parts inside that Cubans nicknamed them "Frankensteins." They were rusty beasts that almost no one thought about painting or fixing up. Few people could afford to do much else but keep them running. But as tourism to the island increased and the island's government loosened restrictions on travel and car ownership for Cubans, more and more mint-condition beauties emerged from their long state of abandonment. Cuban entrepreneurs realized there was money to be made in offering vintage car tours and fanned out across the island in search of old cars to repair and fill with paying customers. It's easy to fall in love these cars that possess a style and vision that automakers lost long ago. They act as a gleaming testament to Cuban ingenuity and perseverance rolling down Havana's potholed roads. Check out more of Stijn's work via Instagram here, and his Website here.
Best of the Month - Vol. 10
Is may be too late to say happy new year, and we know we're a bit late on this month's instalment - but we've been busy! The Tens team has just returned from beautiful Lithuania where we were shooting our 2018 campaign at a studio in the country's capital. All indoors of course, the -15ºC climate outside wasn't particularly suitable for a sunglasses shoot. Alas, we found some time amongst preparing for what's set to be our most ambitious campaign yet, to share some of our favourite STUFF over the past month. Find the usual music, stories & feeds below to get you through the week. Enjoy! Best of the Web Oscar-nominated stop-motion animator PES just released three new super-short films. They feature fishing, some still life fruit and this one below of a Nikon zoom lens being smashed through primes to just a cap. Check them out on his YouTube channel here. This Wes Anderson inspired cafe 'Budapest' has opened its doors in Changdu, China. It was imagined by Australian design studio Biasol. Photography tech company Kodak announced that they'll be releasing its own photographer-oriented blockchain cryptocurrency used for payments for licensing photographs. It's called KODAKCoin! Russian photographer Slava Semeniuta captured these abstracted street puddles in Sochi. The series of dramatically-colored photographs isolates neon shop window reflections in puddles and potholes and transforms the captured moments into otherworldly landscapes. Check out more of his work here. Whilst we're on other-worldly photography, Tom Blachford's 'Nihon Noir' series looks like it was taken straight out of Blade Runner. The 'Hangover Box' contains everything you need to survive the morning after the night before. Order yours here before regretting you didn't. Tens Soundtrack Here are some of our office favourites, both new and old. Who else should we be checking out? Visit our profile on Spotify to check out our previous months' soundtracks. Who to Follow - Female Edition Here are some of our favourite accounts to follow on Instagram, this month it's all women, because why not? If you know anybody that we should be following, especially the female creators then let us know! This month we've got @simotto, @ramenpolanski, @mi_kae, @thisisaliceskinner, @katemoross & @lalorilori. Best of the Community At Tens we put our community first, no matter what it is that we're up to. Here's where we share some of our favourite customer photos with Tens from the last month. We love seeing your tags with Tens, so be sure to tag us in them for your chance to be featured! Photos submitted (in order) by @trailofus, @thatshitsbuttery, @hanphn, @samsbowl, @ellisdonaldson, @lukesbeard & @louisanastrilytto.~What things have you discovered this month? Are we missing anything? Message us on Facebook with suggestions!
Our Top 100 Tracks of 2017
At Tens, our music tastes are admittedly a bit all over the place. Not one musical genre can be classed as our favourite, but we're open-minded to anything appropriate to get the creative juices flowing at HQ. Our Sonos selections tend to range from '90s dance classics, Ethiopian jazz - even the productivity-inducing soundtracks of the Sim City franchise. However, surprisingly not much of that has been released in 2017... Despite 2017 being one weird year, it redeemed itself by bringing with it some of the best music we've come across this decade. So, in no particular order whatsoever, here are 100 of our favourite tracks from 2017. We'd also like to give a special shout out to our friend mtbrd. He's provided the soundtrack to pretty much all of our video pieces in 2017, and his album Smoovies can be streamed via Spotify below. Follow us on Spotify for future monthly playlists in the new year. Shop Tens this Christmas - visit store.
Fairytale of New York - by Enzo Iriarte
I suppose that is the thing about New York. It is always a little more than you had hoped for. Each day there, is so definitely a new day. "Now we'll start over," it seems to say every morning, "and come on, let's hurry like anything." London is satisfied, Paris is resigned, but New York is always hopeful. Always it believes that something good is about to come off, and it must hurry to meet it. There is excitement ever running its streets. Each day, as you go out, you feel the little nervous quiver that is yours when you sit in the theatre just before the curtain rises. Other places may give you a sweet and soothing sense of level; but in New York there is always the feeling of "Something's going to happen." It isn't peace. But, you know, you do get used to peace, and so quickly. And you never get used to New York. Photos by Enzo Iriarte. Follow his visual journey on Instagram here. Words from "My Home Town", an essay from 1928 by American poet Dorothy Parker. ~ Shop with Tens this holiday season. Free gift wrapping and worldwide delivery in time for Christmas (order before 12pm 15th December) - visit store.
