HOLIDAY DONATION: MATTEL CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL UCLA

Help us spread the love this holiday season! From November 26 until December 24, a percentage of all whatisblik.com sales will go to the Mattel Children’s Hospital UCLA, which ranks among the world’s elite institutions for pediatric research, teaching and care. We are currently working with Mattel on a project for the hospital. We’ve been hired to art direct all aspects of the job as well as design, manufacture and install wall graphics at the Mattel Children’s Hospital UCLA Play project. We were so touched by the work Mattel Children’s Hospital UCLA does for children that we wanted to give back – with your help, of course!

More about our work with Mattel Children’s Hospital UCLA:

Housed within the I.M. Pei designed Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, Mattel Children’s Hospital UCLA was named with a generous gift from Mattel Children’s Foundation. The facility is beautifully designed with minimalist details and clean lines. The goal of the Hospital Play project is to infuse the space with…well, a sense of playfulness essential to development, learning, healing and growth. The project is starting with a pilot phase, focusing on the 5th floor and will expand next year. We are working with one of our collaborators, Patrick Hruby, to create a magical world for the kids complete with an enchanted forest, whimsical garden and an undersea adventure.

Update: Our installation happened in December. Here is a sneak peek with a few photos. More photos and a video to come!

January 2012 Update: Thanks to everyone who shopped with us from November 26 to December 24, a donation has been made to Mattel Children’s Hospital UCLA. We appreciate your holiday support!

Now, get shopping!


Lomography World Tour x Blik

Adobe Photoshop PDF

The Lomography “Diana World Tour” has been traveling all over the globe hosting the world-famous Detrich Collection, as well as custom clone and vignette exhibitions unique to each stop. After a long journey, the collection of over 100 vintage cameras is finally making a visit to the Lomography Gallery Store in Los Angeles starting on Thursday, October 14.

This stop of the tour includes a collection of Diana F+ cameras that have been customized by some of L.A.’s finest artists, illustrators, creative types, Lomographers and philanthropists. And Blik is one of them! All proceeds from the sale of the customized cameras will go to the participant’s charity of choice. Blik has chosen the Boy and Girl’s Club of Venice.

Below is Blik’s customized Diana F+ camera that’s up for bid. To see it in person, join us for opening night on October 14th to kick off the silent auction, plus there will be drinks, live music and free gifts. If you can’t make it, then stop by the gallery anytime by November 14 or place your bid online for this cool one-of-a-kind Blik wall graphic or on any of the tricked out Diana F+ cameras. On November 14th there will be a closing party to finalize any last minute bids for the clones.

For more information visit the Diana World Tour Los Angeles blog and check out all the customized cameras.

Tran Dahle Residence

UPDATE: The opening party rocked! Good crowd, great music and we had fun checking out all the Custom Clones included in the silent auction. Below are a couple of pics from the event. See more in Blik’s Flickr pool. The exhibit is on display until the closing night on November 14th so there’s still plenty of time to place your bid for a Custom Clone in store or online.

lomo_party_blog

lomo_party_blog1

BLIK CUSTOM: BOYS & GIRLS CLUB OF VENICE MURAL

bgcv_blog1

Our latest custom project takes us just down the street to our neighbors at the Boys & Girls Club of Venice.

Wanting to create a one-of-a-kind mural that spoke to the center’s kids and teens, the 45 ft x 9 ft graphic was designed to express the energy and excitement needed to communicate the positive influence of the BGCV within the Venice community. The use of bold color, silhouettes of kids, abstract elements as well as organic forms, takes shape to create a funky yet playful design that shouts both Venice Beach and the BGCV’s mission as a positive place for kids and teens. The design is intended to inspire, motivate, and amaze those who enter the club. The mural is located in the community center – during the school year the room is used for the Kids Café, karate, chess club and special events. In the summer, the space is utilized for everything under the sun.

As you can see from the photos, the completed mural serves as a bold statement that encourages kids to be diverse, energetic and artistic. Plus the kids love it! Thanks BGCV for letting us keep our creative juices flowing. We look forward to working with you again soon.

A BIG EARTH DAY THANK YOU

Thanks for buying Blik on Earth Day! For every package you purchased, we planted a tree. Because of you, we planted over 500 native pine, fir and cedar trees in the Plumas National Forest in the Sierra Nevada mountains of Northern California. The over 500 trees will help reduce 5,000 pounds of pollutants from the air every year. You guys rock! This certificate from the Arbor Day Foundation goes out to you.
newticrender_pdfcfm1

SAVE THE ROBOTS WITH 20% OFF AT BLIK

Giant Robot Magazine needs your help! All Giant Robot wall graphics are 20% at Blik for one week, April 29 through May 6. For every package of Giant Robot purchased, Blik will donate 100% of the proceeds to support our friends at Giant Robot.

For more than 15 years, Giant Robot Magazine has been documenting, promoting, and growing Asian and Asian American pop culture. In order to continue publishing, Giant Robot needs to raise $60,000. Buy a pack and help a robot out!

Giant Robot

PLANT A TREE WITH BLIK FOR EARTH DAY

To celebrate Earth Day, Blik will plant one tree for every Blik product sold on Thursday, April 22.* We’ll be working with the Arbor Day Foundation to plant the trees. Each dollar donated to the Arbor Day Foundation “Trees in Celebration” plants a tree in one of America’s national forests.

Help us reach our goal of giving away 500 trees to help reduce 5,000 pounds of pollutants from the air every year. In 20 years, the result will be 100,000 pounds of pollutants removed because of your participation in Blik’s Earth Day tree promotion!

So, start buying and we’ll start planting!

*From 12:00am to 11:59pm PST on April 22.

Earth Day

VIVA LA ART WITH BLIK

If you are a Blik fan in LA, join us on Saturday night at the Viva La Art! benefit party: Art, Drinks & Music Spring ‘10. The big draw of the night is the silent art auction featuring work from 30 artists including upcoming Blik artist, Sarah Joncas.

Blik is a partner in the event and has donated five sets of graphics from Hannah Stouffer, Saelee Oh, Joe Ledbetter and Jeremy Fish for the night’s raffle.

Viva La Art is a non-profit organizing and empowering the art/music community to promote education, activism and fundraising for socially responsible charities in Los Angeles. All proceeds from Saturday night benefit Homeboy Industries, a charity assisting at-risk youths in Los Angeles.

The party starts at 8pm at the Xbar @ the Hyatt Regency in Century City. Tickets are a $20 donation. For more details, visit http://www.vivalaart.org/

viva_flyer_blog4

GIVING BACK: ART FOR CIVIL RIGHTS

Manifest Equality Entrance SignManifest Equality Entrance Sign

As we’ve told you over the past few weeks, Blik was a proud sponsor of Manifest Equality which closed last Sunday in Hollywood. We had the pleasure of working with organizers Yosi Sergant and Apple Via to help transform the raw space into a sprawling, pop-up art gallery with more than 200 artists including street artists Robbie Conal, Swoon and Shepard Fairey, and illustrative painters Barry McGee, Gary Baseman and Elizabeth McGrath. Plus one of our favorites – the JUSTICE Mural by El Mac, Retna and Kofie. Watch the time lapse installation video.

The five-day show was a smashing success with 10,000 people trekking through the gallery to see art in addition to great musical lineups that included Fitz and The Tantrums, Sea Wolf, Ben Lee and Crystal Method.

While Manifest Equality has ended, the fight for full and equal rights still marches on. Visit Courage Campaign to find out more about repealing Proposition 8.

JUSTICE Mural by El Mac, Retna & KofieJUSTICE Mural by El Mac, Retna, Kofie

Heart-shaped string installation by Mike MurphyHeart-shaped string installation by Mike Murphy

Giant Teddy Bear by Tracy Lee StumGiant Teddy Bear by Tracy Lee Stum

Art Heals: Manifest Equality Opens

Manifest Equality Shop graphics

Manifest Equality Shop graphics

Equality Arrow

Equality Arrow

Spray-painted mural by Retna, El Mac and Rofie

Spray-painted mural by Retna, El Mac & Kofie

As Manifest Equality prepares for its VIP opening tonight, we are thrilled to present a sneak peek of the space. Blik proudly transformed the raw space into a massive pop-up art exhibition that goes live tonight with events continuing through Sunday.

We created the exterior banner for the giant sign outside; a quote “with certain unalienable rights, that among these are … liberty and the pursuit of happiness” that wraps around the interior of the space (pictured); interior and exterior graphics for the onsite shop; the logo/entrance wall that proclaims Manifest Equality’s mission statement and an exterior “Equality” arrow on Vine (pictured.)

“Being a part of Manifest Equality has been a tremendous experience for Blik,” said Scott Flora, co-founder of Blik. “The high caliber of artists involved have created an inspiring visual call to action that speak volumes about the fight for equal rights.”

The Manifest Equality gallery will be open to the public, March 3-7. Visit http://www.manifestequality.com/ for more details.

BLIK SUPPORTS MANIFEST EQUALITY

Today we trekked to Hollywood and toured the Manifest Equality gallery. Blik will be helping transform the raw space into a pop-up art gallery showcasing over 200 artists. We can’t wait to show you the finished space in a few weeks; below is a sneak peek of the before. Fun fact: the space was formerly used to house Oscar statues.

Lead by the Yosi Sergant of Taskforce, the gallery will gather an array of the nation’s most talented visual artists under one roof to celebrate and demand full and equal rights for all Americans. Taskforce’s mission is to give voice to the voiceless and to utilize art and creative thinking to engage the country for progressive action. We are proud to support Taskforce in their effort to engage a community of independent artists to make change in America.

The Manifest Equality gallery will be open to the publicMarch 3rd – March 7th, 2010. Check out http://www.manifestequality.com/ for more details.

manifestequality_blog

Wanna buy Blik?

Online or local stores, we've got you covered.

find me some blik