Immigrant Design

More Music

noreply@blogger.com (Trent) — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 15:25:00 +0000

I don't usually like posting ideas on here that probably won't see the light of day for months/years.

That being said, I am hoping to record some new songs at some point. I am so horrifically limited in so many ways (time, gear, ability), that it will be interesting to see where/if this thing goes.

Should I manage to gather enough songs together for an EP, I am 99% sure that it will be titled Cut Me Off This Hand That I May Sleep.

Fruit of the Spirit

noreply@blogger.com (Trent) — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 14:26:00 +0000

Freechurch Toronto is running a series of sermons on the Fruit of the Spirit.

As part of the series, members of the church performed nine songs in and around the St. Stephen-in-the-Fields building. These performances were recorded, and each week a new video is being featured at the Freechurch website.

This is a fun and exciting project, and there are many talented people involved. Many thanks go to Darryl Augustine, for doing all of the filming and editing, and to Kevin Makins for his assistance.

I will update the links below as each video is released:

Elissa Mielke - LOVE
Andrew Huang - JOY
Trent Hunter - PEACE
Chris Graham - PATIENCE
Ill Seer - KINDNESS
Their Shallow Valley - GOODNESS
Esther Bowser - FAITHFULNESS
Shad K - GENTLENESS
Deep Red Jewels - SELF-CONTROL

Music / Video

noreply@blogger.com (Trent) — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 15:21:00 +0000

On Wednesday I stopped by Saint Stephens in the Fields after work. Darryl Augustine is shooting a series of videos of different musicians playing in and around the building. The videos will accompany a series of sermons on the fruit of the Holy Spirit, and should be ready some time in the new year.

I was a little nervous about playing, but things went well. Darryl is very good at what he does, and the grace and peace of God helped too! Thanks also go to Kevin Makins, who is helping Darryl with the filming.

There are a lot of talented people working on the project, and I am looking forward to seeing the results. Check out some of Darryl's work here.

Bloorcourt Bus Stop

noreply@blogger.com (Trent) — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 14:56:00 +0000

Bloorcourt street banners should be going up on Bloor street sometime within the next week. In addition to my banner design, I also threw together a layout for a bus shelter ad announcing the street banners.

Thanks go to Ghazaleh Etezal, who is responsible for making this project happen.

Hopefully I will have some pictures soon!

AngusHunter.com

noreply@blogger.com (Trent) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 22:09:00 +0000

Over the weekend, I uploaded a new version of my dad's website. As is always the case, I didn't spend enough time on this.

But something is (often) better than nothing, and since his book is now finished and available for order online, it couldn't wait.

God Bless Africa

noreply@blogger.com (Trent) — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 17:58:00 +0000

Let's continue with the embarrassing and poorly recorded older material, shall we?

This song was written after I moved to Canada, and this recording is old (some of the lyrics and even small bits of melody have since evolved slightly).

The song is about moving from one country to another; by this time I had done this twice. Memories, attitudes and impressions all change and evolve with time. Culture is learned and unlearned, and responses to differences can be learned and unlearned too.

God Bless Africa

The Best We Can

noreply@blogger.com (Trent) — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 19:37:00 +0000

I was listening to some really old recordings of songs, half-songs, and rough sketches of half-songs. Despite the fact that they are all pretty embarrassing, I decided to post something here, if for no other reason than to add some 'new' material to this perpetually neglected site.

Moving to America at age 15 meant playing the part of the oblivious highschool new-kid-in-town. In retrospect, this was not all bad; I remember a strange lack of prejudice (it was impossible to explain the term redneck to us when we first arrived) and an empathy that came from being so culturally unaware. So despite the lonely sentiment, to me this song also has a certain hopefulness.

Also, No Match Man was a real nickname I earned (briefly), due to my typically south african fashion sense (see image above). And Killer really was a guy in my homeroom class.

The Best We Can

I'm at Bandcamp

noreply@blogger.com (Trent) — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 18:10:00 +0000

It's high time I made some new music, and stopped talking about the geography EP.
Something else that's long overdue is an alternative to hosting music on myspace. Since muxtape didn't really work out, I have signed up for a page over at Bandcamp. Check out the geography EP one more time...

Bloorcourt Banner

noreply@blogger.com (Trent) — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 14:03:00 +0000

I emailed in my submission for the Bloorcourt street banner contest this morning. I was a bit rushed in finishing it, and then discovered that the deadline has been extended for another month! (which means you still have time to enter...)

3x4x3x4

noreply@blogger.com (Trent) — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 15:09:00 +0000

I registered to take part in the Square Foot Show at the Awol Gallery this year. The piece that I was planning to enter did not work out as I had hoped, so last night I came up with a different idea. This one responds to the context of the show, using the 12x12 format requirement as a starting point. An iterative process produces 144 possible figures, arranged in a grid.

I am hoping to apply the image to a canvas.

House Show

noreply@blogger.com (Trent) — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 17:26:00 +0000

There is a concert this Friday at our friends' house, featuring music by various people, myself included. In the midst of a very busy weekend, I threw together a business card sized flyer.

Since the 'bands' involved are all mostly the same people, with revolving roles as one another's backup players, I decided to summarize things with a simple equation.

R-O-Y-G-B-I-V-G

noreply@blogger.com (Trent) — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 14:04:00 +0000

I made a series of paintings. Conceptually, the idea can be conveyed in a diagram (see above), but there is definitely a difference between the diagram and the actual work. Part of the tension in the works of Donald Judd is the inevitable gap between the ideal Platonic concept and the realized piece. A lot of minimal artists embraced industrial processes, in order to distance themselves from any personal expression, and in order to close the gap between the conceptual idea and the realized idea.

I am skeptical of the claim that personal expression can be eliminated in art, and I wonder of it can instead be embraced, but still within a minimal context.

Eventually I will take some real-life pictures!

New video idea!

noreply@blogger.com (Trent) — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 17:55:00 +0000

I have an idea for another video... but it will have to wait until Toronto street view is available on Google maps.

This one would be for platetectonic. Stay tuned to see if it ever actually gets made!

Rule of Thirds

noreply@blogger.com (Trent) — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 15:24:00 +0000

I recently bought a book on Minimal Art, which is of some interest to me. The Rule of Thirds is a concept that I might turn into an actual series of paintings.

The 48 different compositions are generated by connecting third points along the edges of a square, dividing it into a black and a white side. Every possible combination is represented.

The work is an initial response to conceptual art ideas, and the Rule of Thirds title suggests that the series is not completely devoid of subjective expression; the parameters are chosen with compositional principles in mind.

Colored Lights Video

noreply@blogger.com (Trent) — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 01:39:00 +0000

This is a video that I made for one of the songs off of the geography EP. It was shot on an hp photosmart 635 digital camera, in my kitchen.

The file is just over 10Mb.

Immigrant Publishing

noreply@blogger.com (Trent) — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 19:41:00 +0000

This is an idea that I had for a small home-made book design.

The resulting book would be the size of a business card, and could be printed on a single sheet of letter-sized paper. By following the template - cutting, folding, and pasting - a tiny 10 page book could be made.

TSV on the web

noreply@blogger.com (Trent) — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 21:07:00 +0000

Last night I threw together a super simple website idea for Their Shallow Valley. It is perhaps a bit minimal, which is a reflection of my own tastes (and limited time!) rather than those of the band. Since they need something sooner rather than later, I thought it would be best to run with the idea.

I am waiting to get some input back from them, and hope to have the site up and running as soon as possible. Stay tuned.

Country Ain't Dead Flyer

noreply@blogger.com (Trent) — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 20:02:00 +0000

It has been a while, so I will include this flyer, even though it was rushed and features a cowboy stolen straight out of an old National Geographic article on Mexico. Also, this isn't fully finalized, since there might be a third band added to the bill, and I might decide to add some colour too.

If you get a chance, come out to the show.

leah/trent split ep

noreply@blogger.com (Trent) — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 18:47:00 +0000

I previously posted five of my songs, as the geography EP.

These songs have been repackaged, along with five of Leah's songs. We had a limited run of 50 CDs made, which I picked up yesterday. They are $8 each (plus shipping, if applicable). Let me know if you are interested. I can also put together a digital only option, if you're not into CDs.

Here is one of my tracks: Platetectonic.

Guest Feature

noreply@blogger.com (Trent) — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 17:56:00 +0000

The above artwork is by Katherine Earl, and is for Leah's long in the works EP. We still have to figure out what sort of format the EP is going to take (physical vs digital), but whatever the final product, it is going to look good.

More Buttons

noreply@blogger.com (Trent) — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 18:13:00 +0000

I will be making some more Their Shallow Valley buttons later in the week (as well as a few Immigrant buttons).

Check out the band on their upcoming east-coast tour, or on August 30th at the Rivoli in Toronto, for their official CD release show.

Buttons

noreply@blogger.com (Trent) — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 19:17:00 +0000

Their Shallow Valley is playing their first show in months this Monday (June 30th) night. I threw out a last minute design for a button, in order to get a few made before then.

Come out to the show! It is at 10:30pm at the Cameron House. Leah will be playing bass and singing backup vocals.

geography

noreply@blogger.com (Trent) — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 18:06:00 +0000

I have packaged five of my songs into an EP of sorts. You might have heard some or all of these before, in some version or another.

These songs were offered as a limited time free download. They will soon be available again as part of a split EP, which will also feature 5 of Leah's songs:

1 platetectonic
2 sublimation
3 north
4 colored lights
5 radio

Here are the original liner notes.

08-01-05

noreply@blogger.com (Trent) — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 17:57:00 +0000

This one is from a little while ago. The bulk of the work went into the interface - thumbnails which can be dragged whilst rotating in a 'natural' way, and which will reorder to keep the active image on top.
Very little time went into the actual graphic design - as I recall it was getting late, and I wanted to get Reeve and Jessie's wedding pictures up that night.
At some point I would like to revisit the way in which the larger images load, so that they pop up within the flash frame.

Perfect Circle

noreply@blogger.com (Trent) — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 08:30:00 +0000

It's been a while.

I decided to record a version of Perfect Circle, from R.E.M.'s Murmur album. This is the result of my night's work. It is a single guitar track, vocals, and a sampled beat - recorded in various freeware audio applications and cobbled together with demo software. In retrospect, I think I could have mixed the beat in a tad louder, but here it stands...

Perfect Circle (R.E.M. cover)