ABSTRACTmall - News Desk

The Photography of Shaun MacLean

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 00:38:56 +0000

Recently the crew of ABSTRACTmall has been collaborating to update the gallery on its page. We have been looking for artistic work from a variety of different artists. One person whose photographs have found their way onto our site is Shaun Maclean of Vancouver, BC. He produced interesting photos, which incorporated the night settings of his home.

Where are you from? Born and raised in Vancouver, BC.

I saw that you had a lot of city and night photography, what can you say attracts you to that subject? Vancouver is a super inspirational place, constantly changing, and everything here is unique. A shutter and lens turn the night into whatever you want it to be.

You seem passionate about photography, what are your other creative outlets? I spend the better part of my life in a fine dining kitchen, there's such a huge creative potential with food.

How long you have been into taking photos? About 6 years. Picked up an old film slr in high school, spent as much time in the darkroom as I could, and moved into digital in the last few years, mostly due to lack of darkroom resources. Film is still where it's at... if you can afford it.

Check out more of Shaun's work in the aM gallery or at his personal collection.

Loveworn

Tue, 22 Apr 2008 22:55:32 +0000

New York artist and designer Mario Hugo has one of the most impressive and inspiring portfolios in the business. He mixes impressive typography work with a myriad of geometrical, animal and natural forms to create intricate yet balanced schemes.

My favorite of Mario's applications are his distressed dark colors placed on water stain canvases. Much of his work on these backdrops are reminiscent of the works of influential surrealist artist Rene Magritte. They both are technicians of realistic representations of human forms often experimenting with hyperbolic exaggerations of one or two anatomical elements or playing with attaching unrelated objects that bring new life and character to the subjects.

Hugo's for hire freelance skills have been courted by some of the world's most prestigious companies. His clients include Dolce&Gabanna, MTV, Uniqlo and Gas as Interface. Visit Mario Hugo's website to view more of his works.

Matt Yerman

Tue, 22 Apr 2008 19:23:23 +0000

San Jose designer Matt Yerman is a young, dedicated artist who has been pushing himself and his work to new levels every month. With that has come a deep and prestigious client base along with editorial exposure and magazine collaborations.

What's your name and where do you currently reside? Matt Yerman / San Jose, CA

How many years have you been designing? 5

Personally, from following your work, I know you work with digital art tools like Photoshop and Illustrator alot. Lately, freehand sketch work has been finding its way into your finished products. What percentage of time would you say you spend freehand drawing vs.creating on the comp during your typical work sessions? It all really depends on the project. I'd have to say that sketching is about 30% of my work. What really consumes time is the nitty-gritty vector work. Taking a sketch and turning it into a digital illustration can take up plenty of time.

You have gotten some great media coverage lately in magazines like Beautiful Decay and on a few blogs. What avenues do you believe has brought you to the attention of these editors? Has it been more from freelance client work or from personal pieces you have published on the internet? Both freelance and personal pieces are responsible for my coverage. I got my work into B/D through a designer friend I met on myspace. Myspace is a great social networking tool and it helped me meet and interact with designers before the creation of the Behance network.

You currently attend San Jose state, what are you studying there? Graphic design! I haven't quite decided on a minor yet though. Maybe photography?

How have you viewed your collegiate art education so far? Has it changed how you feel about working for school vs working for a client vs working on your personal projects? I started off college pretty bummed about all the prerequisite classes I had to take. But now that I am actually in design classes, its done nothing but help. I've learned how important conceptualism should be in your work. If your concept isn't strong, or doesn't make sense, then what you've put on the computer screen or t-shirt is visual masturbation. Have a message and relay that message strongly, so that everyone can understand.

I know from personal experience that grinding away at the computer on design work too frequently, burns me out. What influences, inspirations or motivational sources do you turn to when you feel this way? Sometimes I check out design and type blogs to see other design out there. But usually I just reach into the mini fridge and grab an energy drink. Its gotten to the point where I really don't have time to feel burnt out. Too much stuff to do all the time!

You got any shout outs? To all the Jiberish homies! You guys are awesome and have taken my design to a whole new level. Also to my awesome designer girlfriend who gives me tasty input all the time. And I guess I'll through one out to the family. My parents fork out tons of groceries to keep me well fed while I'm away from the house. Gotta eat right!

ABSTRACTmall Catches Up With Skiers in the Front Range

Tue, 15 Apr 2008 06:31:44 +0000

In the early morning of a typical December Boulder night I got a call from Josh Bishop to go shoot some handrails. Intermingled into the Sun Microsystems buildings were a slew of both snowboarders and skiers throwing down on a down-flat-down.

After just arriving the crew decided to move onto another jib that they had already set up in the area. Brothers Alex and Nick Martini drove their minivan followed by a train of cars to an urban wall drop. Of course Superior’s Finest showed up before we even left the cars. With the security alerted to what we were up to they had that car fallow us around before we gave up on the spot and decided to move on.

Across the highway we spotted a down-flat with an upper parking lot for tow-ins. Cam Riley, Nick Martini, Josh Bishop, and Alex Martini set up the jib while we were joined with a few other friends including Jeff Kiesel. The rail proved to be harder than it looked but after a few cold hours Cam killed it with a 270 out. Cam Riley is one of the better urban rail riders I’ve seen and he was the last one out still hiking the stairs to claim the rail. With some frostbitten toes and fingers we packed it in before sunlight and returned to Boulder.

Check out attached Breckenridge quick edit as well as the ABSTRACTmall videography team's 07/08 Reel of frozen suburban and mountainous debauchery in Colorado this past season.

Treasure Fingers Request

Fri, 04 Apr 2008 08:16:33 +0000

Here at abMall we enjoy music almost as much as our commenters and fans do and sometimes we struggle just as much as they do trying to figure out who exactly produced what song, when, and how and where to download it from!

Ever since we launched the Spotl!ght Project Trailer in 2007 we've had a steady stream of people wanting to know who made the song we used. Commenters in both the aM Cinema section of ABSTRACTmall and on YouTube independently confirmed the songs "catchiness" with their comments and feedback. The interest was so great in fact, that requests continued pouring in even after we had provided the song info several times!

Anti Anti Remix by Treasure Fingers

That's when we knew it was time to draw a little more attention to mister Ashley Jones aka Treasure Fingers. Hailing from Atlanta Georgia and touring in a town near you no doubt, Treasure Fingers has several great high profile remixes available for your listening pleasure at MySpace.com/TreasureFingers. He's even got it set up so you can download the Anti Anti Remix for free! So check it out...

aM Salutes Technology

Mon, 25 Feb 2008 07:01:14 +0000

As ABSTRACTmall stumbles down the path to technological enlightenment we're taking a moment to pause and give thanks for what's been accomplished in the last year and eleven months. Despite the occasional hiccup:

Customer Service Baby...

As the network has expanded, our commitment to fostering growth in independent art has remained strong and we continue to source undiscovered talent. On the geekier side of things, our tech team has managed to upgrade servers and launch several new aM widgets all without the use of local development servers - just some good old fashioned late night deployments (sorry for the downtime Europe).

For all of our hard work we've had great success with search engines and social networking sites, Google even upgraded our search result listing and now provides a handy link unit to each of our major sections!

Our global visitor use has sky rocketed as we've begun shipping international - thanks again to Piotr from Poland and Farquar from Scotland! and one of our sponsored projects, Happy Holidays, is now in post production due to the great efforts of Sassy Mohen.

Much Thanks to StumbleUpon, NewSchoolers, Freeskier Magazine, Jiberish, Blake Kimmel's Spotl!ght Project, and San Francisco based Thrillist for promoting our site over the past few months as shown in the graphic to the right.

Stay tuned as the ABSTRACTmall team prepares to launch several new additions to the site including more digital media including video and mp3 downloads and an independent Reality TV podcast series set in and around Los Angeles called On The Verge starring four aspiring female entertainment artists.

forwarding the creative agenda »

Obey Obama Poster

Fri, 22 Feb 2008 17:10:32 +0000

Influential urban artist, Shepard Fairey, creator of Obey has created a political poster for Barack Obama. Shepard has always been one to take opinionated and public stands on many political issues through his heavily travelled website, public speaking arrangements and to the greatest extent, his artwork.

He juxtaposes commentaries on modern social issues with a style that heavily resembles communist propaganda from the middle of last century. This poster though, has probably received as much, or more publicity and attention than any of his other social stances.

The 360 posters sold out in less than hour and since, the Obey team and Shepard have had to take legal action for people attempting to resell his prints on EBAY, even after they read a disclaimer explicitly stating that personal profiteering off the poster is prohibited.

The New York Times has profiled the poster and no doubt continued to add significance to what Shepard's poster project means. Some believe that his poster will increase Barack's appeal to young people, the demographic most influenced by Shepard's work. One woman on the NY times comment board expressed her dislike for the poster because it was, "Too reminiscent of the old Communist posters." She continues, "All that’s missing is a hammer and sickle or “Workers of the World, Unite!” Obama deserves something fresher than this."

aM Music and Matthew Stubstad

Sat, 26 Jan 2008 20:44:01 +0000

This past week aM's technical director has been working with producer director Sassy Mohen who recently completed her first feature length film Happy Holidays which is expected to go on sale through ABSTRACTmall in the coming months, timed with the first episode of On The Verge.

aM and SPIF Productions have partnered again for a reality show podcast about up and coming female actors/models/artists in and around LA. The project is set to launch in thirty days and has been labeled "On The Verge". Expect to see podcasts running through an aM Cinema-esqu interface right here on the aM Network of sites. The series will star Sassy Mohen, Mary Fae Smith, and others.

In similarly provocative news, ABSTRACTmall has made some new connections through Matthew Stubstad (up and coming director/producer) who just happens to be close friends with Sassy Mohen. These new connections include the bands This Holiday Life and Love Campaign. Matthew directed, shot, and produced the most recent music videos that both bands have released with the help of some editing by Alik Griffin, and both videos are becoming available through the aM Cinema section of ABSTRACTmall in the coming weeks, Dead at 21 by Love Campaign is posted below.

aM is seeking a partnership deal with both groups to feature their music on the aM Music Player as well as digital distribution and music video promotions. Learn more about This Holiday Life and Love Campaign on MySpace.

Check out Love Campaign's newest video "Dead at 21" directed, filmed, shot and produced by Matthew Stubstad, and visit the aM Cinema page for Dead at 21 to make comments and read an interview with Matt.

God Still Loves Us

Thu, 06 Dec 2007 06:39:14 +0000

Tagging campaigns have been going on since spray paint hit the inner cities. Everyone that has been to a city has seen tags floating around on sidewalks, buildings, and bridges. However, unlike most tagging campaigns, GOD STILL LOVES US is a tagging campaign offering a FREE mac book pro, Adobe CS3 design standard, and a Nikon D200 camera with a lens kit. Interested? We thought so too. In order to give you more details about the contest, here are selections from the contest rules/ regulations found on the the GSLU website.

1. Eligibility: God Still Loves Us (the “Contest”) is open only to legal residents of the fifty (50) United States and the District of Columbia who are at least eighteen (18)

years old at the time of entry and who did not purchase any equipment for purposes of entering the Contest. Employees of GSLU, Inc., Time Warner, Inc. ePrize, LLC, and any of their parent and affiliate companies as well as the immediate family (spouse, parents, siblings and children) and household members of each such employee are not eligible. The Contest is subject to all applicable federal, state, and local laws and regulations. Void where prohibited.

2. The Contest begins on November 16, 2007 at 12:00 a.m. Pacific Time ("PT") and ends on January 7, 2008 at 11:59 p.m. PT (the "Contest Period"). Sponsor’s computer is the official time-keeping device for the Contest.

5. How to Enter: During the Contest Period, visit www.godstilllovesus.org and follow the links and instructions to upload a photo of the God Still Loves Us logo on a physical object (the “Entry”). By completing the registration and submitting your Entry, you agree that your Entry conforms to the Photo Guidelines and Content Restrictions as defined below (collectively, the “Guidelines and Restrictions”) and that Sponsor, in its sole discretion, may remove your Entry and disqualify you from the Contest if it believes, in its sole discretion, that your Entry fails to conform to the Guidelines and Restrictions.

Happy Tagging,

- Josh
aM Intern

Grassroots Distribution

Sat, 24 Nov 2007 07:31:55 +0000

The SPOTL!GHT DVD is finally shipping. We know its going out a little late but we thought it was more important to get this thing teeming with bonus footage and unique menu navigation. Strategically placed foam boards anchored by duct taped A&W Rootbeer cans provide backdrop for the menus of SPOTL!GHT and selections take you on an interactive content browsing pathway down the street.

Digital sales of SPOTL!GHT have been a great success but bench tests of the new DVD on a Sony Bravia 48" plasma screen with surround sound home theatre complete with dual sub woofers and turbo lounge couches have rendered a new viewing experience incomparable to computer screen viewing. Cop this DVD for just $9.45 here for the opportunity to experience SPOTL!GHT in High Definition.

Spotlight Project Launch Status

Wed, 31 Oct 2007 23:40:35 +0000

Having been scheduled to launch on October 28th, the Jiberish and Level 1 sponsored Spotl!ght Project ran into a few hiccups on Sunday. Blake Kimmel, the principal film maker for the short, was facing a challenging stint of finals during the week leading up to the proposed launch. To make matters even worse, ABSTRACTmall was running out of bandwidth and this was going to be the first digital download for the site ever. Weighing in at over 100 Megabytes, the Spotl!ght Project created the nasty potential for server crashes and high fees for aM.

Thankfully, cofounder and project sponsor Court was able to get the system running smoothly, and by mid day on the 27th AQhost, the company that hosts ABSTRACTmall.com, was able to upgrade the hosting plan and alleviate concerns of a crash. Blake's final editing touches were the last piece of the puzzle and everything was looking good. Aside from a few crazy parties leading up to the weekend, and one on Saturday, Blake was on track to finish on time. Court had randomly flown out from Mountain View California to visit CU Boulder being a former CU student himself, and the two teamed up to get the kinks worked out of the video. Unfortunately, with all of the partying and finals, the film just wasn't quite done by mid day on the 28th. Blake actually stayed up all night on the 28th nailing down the titles and then uploading the film... it was a little bit late, but at least it was done.

In actuality, the film that Blake had uploaded was sponsorship footage for Josh Bishop, a semi-pro local skier starring in the Spotl!ght Project and room mate to Blake, and intern to ABSTRACTmall... The first thirteen lucky buyers got Josh's footage instead of the film, and were also made privy to his personal phone number at the end of the raw short... Court realized the mixup after double checking the system, but it was too late to do anything about it as Blake had just left for more classes and wouldn't be back for four hours. What's more, Blake's cell phone had broken a couple weeks earlier while he was skiing at Arapahoe Basin on opening day, and he couldn't be reached!

Busted Cell Phone

Mike Clarke, another one of Blake's roomies at Boulder, and a pro skier featured in the Spotl!ght Project and Level 1's Real Time, was fielding the chaos at NewSchoolers as confused customers realized the film was wrong and Court had taken down the product entry. The waiting game began.

Blake finally got home from his first class to realize that everyone was pissed at him. He locked in with the computer and tried to make things right and upload the correct film. Unfortunately, he accidentally uploaded the right film to the wrong web server, and then left for class again. Two hours, and a few more public apologies later, Blake was back from class. Court was punching the wall, Mike was laughing his ass off, and Josh was getting prank calls.

Finally, finally, finally the right film was uploaded to the right web server and the world got it's first look at what is arguably the first worldwide digitally distributed, independently produced ski film ever! The Spotl!ght Project, being sold for only $0.99 to anyone anywhere. the idea behind this film is to create interest and excitement for freestyle skiing and a few up and coming riders. With help from Jiberish and Level 1, ABSTRACTmall was able to pull out all of the stops and match the same kind of entertainment value that only itunes could previously offer. A fully featured high definition version of the film, inlcluding New Zealand throwback footage of Blake Kimmel and Dillon Morris and other extended footage features will ship on November 5th.

So far the digital version of the Spotl!ght Project has been a huge success and everyone who has bought it has either loved or hated it... but the one thing they all agree on is that it's worth a buck. Plain and simple. For those of you who have an extra couple of bucks to share, please check out our artist scholarship fund linked from the news desk. ABSTRACTmall is trying to raise $25K to create an annuity for art students that it will couple with an annual contest open to students worldwide.

Spotl!ght Project Well Received

Fri, 12 Oct 2007 10:54:50 +0000

Last Week Blake Kimmel uploaded a trailer for the spotlight project into the aM cinema section of ABSTRACTmall and almost instantly it was picked up by Freeskier Magazine who has just launched a brand new site boasting tons of Web 2.0 rich media goodness. The launch of this trailer sent our traffic up by 16X and has earned ABSTRACTmall international interest. We've got the French over at Skipass.com and the Japanese at Livedoor.

We're just as excited as you are to be catering to an international audience and since we just opened up our shipping options for Europe and will be offering the spotl!ght project in digital download format, it should be a great holiday season for everyone! The Spotlight Project launches on October 28th but you can pre-order an extended edition hard copy version today.

The News Desk is Back

Fri, 22 Jun 2007 07:41:04 +0000

The aM Crew has been working really hard these past few months launching the new ABSTRACTmall 2.0 design, incorporating Videos and an MP3 player. Check them out and let us know what you think!

Also, with regard to the audio player, let us know if a song is mislabeled or miss-linked because it's our goal to represent the artists being featured as fully as possible.

In other news, ABSTRACTmall is now 90%+ Browser

Agnostic, meaning whether you're flaunting the latest version of IE7, Safari, or the coveted FireFox aM will work just fine! We've been adding a few extra features for accessibility (for those of you with gigantic monitors) so you can expand the aM interface. Use Ctrl and the + button if you're on a PC or Apple and + if you're on a Mac.

Diversity of art, cultures, music, and browsers - Forwarding the Creative Agenda »

Art For Peace

Tue, 27 Feb 2007 12:21:04 +0000

This month, design and production finished on a limited series of garments for The Student Peace Alliance. Creative Director of ABSTRACTmall, Blake Kimmel, was contracted by the SPA, a student wing of the nationally prominent Peace Alliance, to design and deliver these threads.

The Peace Alliance is a nationally mobilized movement to establish a U.S. Department of Peace. This cabinet level entity, will sit parallel to bodies like The U.S. Department of the Interior and The U.S. Department of Homeland Security. It will offer positive, peaceful and constructive solutions to a government that has, lately, had a significant amount of negative policies to worldly problems. "I was excited when this fell into my lap because it is a great group of people working on an ambitious and wholesome cause," stated Blake when asked about the project. "I am confident in The Peace Alliance. There are alot of influential and dedicated people working to make this dream a reality." We are currently in communication with the Peace Alliance to schedule reprints and will be securing some to sell on ABSTRACTmall so all you hoodwinkz out there can boost political efficacy and become involved with a cause by getting in tune with grassroots movements in your nation...

Taking It Downnn

Fri, 16 Feb 2007 11:33:12 +0000

ABSTRACTmall contributors and all around homiez Matt Yerman and Ivan Sharko won their respective catagories in the 2007 Rossignol Createit contest yestereday. If you are unfamiliar, Rossignol skis now runs a contest that allows the general public to design the top sheet artwork for their Scratch series of twin tip skis.

Matt Yerman

Ivan Sharko

This year, there were 3 different pro model catagories. The public was allowed to vote on 20 designs that were initially selected by the company from hundreds of submissions. 20 went down to 6 and today Ivan and Matt came out victorious. Ivan Sharko, who recently did the aM photo gallery and Matt Yerman, currently working on next years Jiberish line, will not only be seeing the entire rossignol team shredding on their art, but also receive 1,500 euros in cash, a pair of the skis for themselves and flown to Whistler for the 2007 Ski and Snowboard festival for an awards ceremony where they will sip on henney and mingle with industry elites. ABSTRACTmall artist network keeping it game t!ght.

Introducing With Two N's

Wed, 07 Feb 2007 22:20:23 +0000

The With Two N's limited edition women's series from Los Angeles based artist Kathyrnn Mary has now become available on ABSTRACTmall. We have heard alot of griping from the female contingent about the lack of female clothing on aM. This should shut you girls up for a bit!

It doesn't take long to recognize the care and thought put into each one of these pieces. Kathrynn has done a great job here and here in the aM office we've actually sampled a couple of pieces (with the help of our girlfriends of course). The stitching really adds an element of quality and the fit is tightttt!

It's worth mentioning, that along with Jack Curry, Kathyrnn Mary has received limited sponsorship by Article.1 Clothing to test out new designs and further explore the fabric medium. This series is a great start and we're all excited to see more from her in the coming years with ABSTRACTmall.

aM Photo Gallery now LIVE

Tue, 30 Jan 2007 21:47:02 +0000

Hello everyone, I know you can appreciate art (that's why you're here at ABSTRACTmall) and I bet you like photos right? Well enjoy the new artwork section we've finally taken out of "coming soon" status and promoted to "effing awesome" so get over to the gallery > photographic section and check it out.

All photos are posted free of charge to their owners and aM is hosting them as a part of our "forwarding the creative agenda »" campaign. For artists by artists baby!

Also, keep an eye out for a new brand sometime in the next 1-2 months... lets say 1.37 months.

aM Face lift & Props

Wed, 18 Oct 2006 23:46:00 +0000

This update is dedicated to all our loyal followers from Finland to China, down to Australia, and all over the UK... Of course, we've got the US and our friends up North in Canada too. We appreciate your support and involvement in the cause and we're excited about all the new updates coming down the pipe to share with you guys. aM is about to explode! As for the "face lift" ABSTRACTmall and ABSTRACTcore have been due to have their comment system updated for a while now and that will be going live in the next week. We've also added some statistics tracking (as shown below) and a couple of new ways to view product images, because really... who doesn't like lots of pictures? This is all about the art, so more pictures (or sounds and videos) is always a good thing!

A New Chapter

Thu, 21 Sep 2006 10:34:47 +0000

You may have become increasingly frustrated when visiting the 'cinema' link under the abstract section of our site. Nothing bugs a websurfer more than a 'coming soon' page, especially when nothing actually comes soon. The initial plan for the cinema section was to have artistic edits from film producers streaming in at random whenever they are produced. But given there is no way WE will have time to make these films and given everyone else wants to sell their works in longer, more polished productions we are transforming the cinema section into a movie store where you can browse through a trailer based interface and jump right to the films that are being showcased.

We have not hammered out the new cinema interface yet but we have added the first movie to the site. Its a skiing and snowboard film by Kyle Decker. Check out the witness trailer from ofs media

aM Vacation

Thu, 17 Aug 2006 12:35:18 +0000

As you may have seen from our last entry... some of the staff headed to Canada. Check out pictures from the trip at Blake Kimmel's aCore page

ABSTRACTmall on Vacation

Thu, 27 Jul 2006 03:15:14 +0000

The aM staff will be on vacation starting tomorrow, Thursday, July 27th until Sunday, August 13th. Any orders placed for interACTiVE or Your Mannequin products will not ship until the 14th. Shipping on Mecro, Shibby & Colus and JunkApparel items will not be affected. Thank you.

Ad Campaign

Sat, 01 Jul 2006 17:20:29 +0000

We just launched an Ad campaign on the high school/college networking site Facebook. Check out the screenshot bellow to see our high tech banner!!1

Introducing Mecro Limted Edition Art

Tue, 20 Jun 2006 13:43:37 +0000

You may remember seeing Mecro in the visual playground section of our site at launch time. Well, we have now pushed our involvement with him one step further to offer Mecro canvases avaible exclusively through ABSTRACTmall. These canvases and panels are 100% original hand done works and each is unique as only 1 of each design is available. There are some extra shipping charges for each and these costs are listed next to the price of each piece. Go check out the canvases right meow!

aM Eurotour

Mon, 22 May 2006 09:46:09 +0000

While there wasn't much extra time for chatting in Europe here on the News Desk, I was able to snap a few pics of ABSTRACTmall clothing being worn around in France and Germany... even got a few order requests! In recent months [updated October 10th 2007] ABSTRACTmall has finally begun accepting orders from European countries which is awesome.

The Junk Apparel Expand Your Mind Shirt is being shown here near the Astronomical Clock tower in old town Prague. aM clothing saw action at the Louvre in France, several castles along the Rhine River in Germany, and at the Acropolis in Greece.

Any whirlwind trip to Europe is sure to be a Mind Expanding experience and we're sure to revisit sometime soon... If you live somewhere cool and want us to swing by just reach out and maybe we'll bring you a free shirt!

ABSTRACTcore Launch

Tue, 09 May 2006 16:36:16 +0000

Today marks the launch of ABSTRACTcore. A blogosphere for the minds behind aM.

Your Mannequin Website

Sat, 06 May 2006 16:37:18 +0000

ABSTRACTmall has no problem with companies that do all of their e-business through a MySpace account. We have one and we can't stay off of it. But if there is one thing that can instantly bring a company to the next level its a solid website. So when we heard about the release of yourmannequin.com we were excited. Then when we got there we were even more ecstatic. Horses dangling lightbulbs? Text based flash navigation? Desktops?? Oh yes, the squadron at Your Mannequin definetly locked this one down. There is only one problem though. NO LINKS TO aM!? Dont worry, that will be fixed soon enough. Until then get over there and do some exploring.

[update October 10th 2007] Your Mannequin Clothing was recently re-branded as Branville and has left ABSTRACTmall. Brandon Holley and ABSTRACTmall are still great friends and remain in touch, if you need to reach him we can help you, just reach out.

We have also been notified that Your Mannequin has started in house screen printing. Many of us here at aM know how exciting it can be to have your production facility just a few feet away from your creative think tank. We are certain that tons of new and progressive things will come out of their San Diego sweatshop.

ABSTRACTmall gets press in the Boulder Daily Camera

Wed, 03 May 2006 10:08:00 +0000

The Boulder community has reached out and taken interest in ABSTRACTmall. Today the Boulder Daily Camera Newspaper featured a story about aM in their business section.

Caption: Court Rye, 22, left, and Blake Kimmel, 19, are two University of Colorado students who launched a Web site called Abstractmall.com, which they hope will serve as an online community for clothing artists. The company already has teamed up with four clothing companies that will sell on the site.

Title: Creating an abstract community – CU duo launch apparel Web site – by Alicia Wallace, Camera Business Writer

Article: Blake Kimmel is an artist, but his work probably won’t be found in a typical gallery – that is, unless someone’s wearing it.

The 19-year-old graphic designer also is a proprietor who sells T-shirts that display his work.

“A lot of kids just want to make a statement through artistic clothing,” said Kimmel, who is a freshman at the University of Colorado.

To help get those statements out, Kimmel and fellow CU student Court Rye launched Abstractmall.com, an online apparel marketplace to showcase designers and abstract art.

The two first got to know each other through living in the residence halls. Kimmel kicked around the idea of creating an art and apparel Web site, but he needed some help on the technical side. That’s where Rye, Kimmel’s 22-year-old residential adviser and senior business marketing major, came in.

Rye, who interned for Hewlett-Packard Co. during high school, recently designed Web sites for some CU professors.

The two students started developing the site in February, building relationships with fellow artists over Web communities such as MySpace.com, and hammering out all of the legal and licensing issues.

On Friday, Abstractmall.com debuted with four partner companies: Boulder-based Shibby & Colus, Southern California outfits Your Mannequin and Junk Apparel, and Interactive Apparel, Kimmel’s company.

“It’s kind of a symbiotic relationship,” said Greg Colussy, a freshman business student at CU who co-founded Shibby & Colus. “We can market for them and they can market for us at the same time.”

Working with people who have similar ages helps a lot, Colussy said, noting that Kimmel and Rye are more “understanding of our designs.”

Plus, Colussy said, the partnership saves him and business partner and fellow freshman Dean Catlett the time of creating a Web site of their own.

Although Rye has plans to graduate and move to California, the two plan to continue running Abstractmall.com, expanding it to incorporate digital art, Web logging and eventually music.

The site is more than simply a means to sell goods, it’s a “living, breathing thing,” Rye said.

“A lot of the point of the product is just the community itself,” Rye said.

Mecro In The Notebook

Mon, 01 May 2006 19:39:31 +0000

ABSTRACTmall featured artist Mecro has layed down an impressive sketch on the notebook paper medium. Select Mecro products will become available through aM within the next month. If you haven't already seen Mecro's artist prolfile, visit it, in our Visual Playground section.

A New Outlet

Sun, 30 Apr 2006 16:57:29 +0000

Opening day came and went - the bubble burst and now we're all reveling in the glow that has been months of work for all sides. Everyone over at junkapparel is ecstatic over the release of ABSTRACTmall. Not only are we, a company, able to get around to more people, but we also have people listed beside us that share the same philosophies about art, life, and design, and to us, that's the most exciting thing - the collaboration of ideas and the pooling of a diverse collection of intellectual mindsets. But this is barely a glimpse of what is to come, and we've just gotten started.

Opening Day

Fri, 28 Apr 2006 16:40:37 +0000

It's the big day. Take a look around and tell us what you think...

Adhesive Developments

Fri, 14 Apr 2006 18:40:48 +0000

The first batch of ABSTRACTmall stickers has just arrived. They will complement any household item or transportation device quite nicely. Order from ABSTRACTmall and expect one in your package.

MySpace and Newsletter Capabilities

Fri, 07 Apr 2006 13:22:41 +0000

It has been at least a year since any of us have tried to whore out MySpace with splash page bombing, random friend additions and graphic overwhelment, and we all conclude that it is alot harder these days to get recognized via MS. We have also noted that the newest internet phenomena on the web today, is running an e-commerce company solely through a MySpace account and a CafePress page.

One thing that we are sure about though, is that MySpace is too big to ignore, so we made one ourselves!!! OMFG it is so tight and we have made so many awesome e-friends!! So if you would like to visit the aM MySpace, we strongly encourage you to electronically befriend us. Our address is MySpace.com/abstractmall.

We have also just established a Newsletter database with an easy sign up box on our home page. This mail list will update you of new arrivals to ABSTRACTmall and keep you in the loop so you can get to new products as soon as they hit the storefront. 21 days...

ABSTRACTmall Travel

Thu, 30 Mar 2006 13:14:17 +0000

ABSTRACTmall representatives were back in Southern California this week meeting with associates. Productive sessions with Junk Apparel owner Jack Curry have led to a fully filled Junk section that is ready for launch. With opening just over 28 days away, everyone here at aM is becoming anxious and excited to breath life into our creation.

Stay tuned to the News Desk for continuing developments during this last month of preparation.

It's for the Kids

Thu, 23 Mar 2006 13:18:19 +0000

ABSTRACTmall Creative Director Blake Kimmel has designed a shirt for his former track team and alma mater, Edison High School. Blake describes his work sessions on this shirt as being some of the most difficult since he began designing several years ago, "Nothing was really coming together and I was futzing around with so many ideas that wound up in dead ends; I was about to call if off, go with Times New Roman black and white text."

But, according to Blake, a 20-minute span of strategic paint splot placement and some healthy creative revitalization from the LRG line, and he was back on track.

"I am probably happier with this shirt than anything I have ever done. Pro-Bono graphic work makes me feel all tingly inside." ABSTRACTmall is pleased to support prep athletics and the continuing evolution of artistic expression amongst athletic communities.

Movable Type Comes to ABSTRACTmall

Thu, 09 Mar 2006 16:58:46 +0000

We have integrated MovableType content management technology into the press section of our site. Now the flow of information from ABSTRACTmall to you, the consumer, has been streamlined even more. Movable Type is a content management system created by our friends at six apart... It's a small company that started out as a husband and wife team who had birthdays just six days apart (how sweet...) so if you're into technical wizardry head on over to the Movable Type Six Apart website. They don't distribute stylish independent clothing like us and Blake and I aren't six days apart but they still hold it down over there.

ABSTRACTmall is two weeks in

Fri, 03 Mar 2006 14:05:50 +0000

ABSTRACTmall became a work in progress just two short weeks ago. Creators Court Rye and Blake Kimmel had been looking for a solution to help their friends (Junk Apparel, Your Mannequin, and interACTiVE) centralize and professionalize the way they sold clothing, apparel, accessories, and art! Court has background as a webmaster/techie and Blake has background as an artist/clothing designer. Expect great things from this mall... it represents the abstract artistic side of life and welcomes all who seek expression and originality. [update October 10th 2007] check out our original sketches and notes for aM below.