A few years ago ASWS was asked to provide design support for the Hawaii International Film Festival, we collaborated with the HIFF team to re-brand and strengthen their identity and collateral. A few years on, it’s great to see HIFF is stronger then ever with a growing attendance of younger viewers and volunteers. This year I got to take in a few movies and overdose on popcorn. Here’s a short list of my highlights from HIFF 30.

• Beth Gibbons (Portishead) voice in the credit track for the Tempest
• Bill Cunningham’s Photo Documentary
• Getting offered a stash of poke by the DP during ‘To Live & Ride in L.A.’. Thanks for the sweet sticker!
• Seeing even more friends names in credits this year
• Hearing the audience react to ‘How wasted are you?’ in ‘This Film is Broken’
• Getting over Star Wars
• Being the only guy to probably break a wine glass at HIFF this year
• Being mistaken for Taika Waititi (Director of Boy)

Good times. Big mahalo to Sarah, Andy, Sean and Chuck at HIFF for the passes.

Let the Japanese do it right.

The twins 30 years later

The twins from ‘The Shining’ thirty years later. Part of a show running in Europe, check out more of the Kubrick inspired artwork here.

Objectified is Gary Hustwit’s latest documentary about manufactured products and the motivations of those who design them. It premieres this March at SXSW, if you happen to find yourself in Austin. Hopefully it makes its way out to Honolulu shortly after, we had to wait a bit for Helvetica to venture West.

Mike Stewart’s Fire plays twice tonight at Dave & Buster’s, 6p and 8p. Ten bucks at the door. I’m pretty sure I saw some footage from this film a few years ago at Cinema Paradise, and it’s definitely not a typical surf movie, waaay more arty. The version they’re screening is 40 minutes, but the DVD contains over 3 hours of footage. Dave told me that last week he saw Mike drop in to a good-sized closeout at Pipe, scoop around the lip, slide into a 180 to face the whitewash, hit the breaks by digging his tail, dunk the bounce and pop up behind the wave. WTF?! He’s a dolphin-man! Come witness his freakishness tonight!

-via Herman and Dubb last night in the Foodland parking lot… keep the country creeepy gang.

If you’re feeling a little down maybe you need some motivational intervention.

If you’re a fan of Juvelen, Jamie Lidell, or that dude from Purple Rain, you’ll probably like Francis And The Lights… what’s even better, instead of going to iTunes or Amazon and spending money, just visit their blog and download the album for free.