New Girl Illustration #2
The client required a little je ne se qua? Some more... va va voom!
JANUARY,22,2012

 

New Girl Illustration
New drawings for Canadian hostel.
JANUARY,21,2012

A freind has asked me to help him with some promotional ideas he has for a hostel he is currently working at in Montreal, Canada. The lovely young lady here is loosely based on the actress, Audrey Tautou.

 

Oodles of Doodles
New drawings from the mole skin and tshirt character.
JANUARY,15,2012

Pending approval is my new baby-grow design. Whilst me wife and son sleep on the sofa I started playing with my red and blue pen using only these colours to experiment with some techniques in character development. A bit of fun really. In a perfect world I might get paid to draw funny characters like this all day. I would miss designing though. Pending approval from Threadless this design will be available for your voting pleasure within a week. The link below will take you to the design page.

 

Sylvan Chomet
Sylvain Chomet talks about animation!
JANUARY,14,2012

Sylvain Chomet talks about animation from Sam Taylor on Vimeo.

By far one of my favorite animators, simply because the core of the animation within his films as they are predominately hand drawn. If you like what you see here then check out his feature films The Triplets of Belleville or The Illusionist. They are in French but don't worry there is little or no speaking which is another reason you should watch and see how a story is told without the use of spoken language. To be honest you don't even notice.

 

Animations!
One stop animation.
JANUARY,14,2012

Admittedly not the only time I'm playing with my son's toys. However, this time a little more "constructively". I basically watched one too many Wallace & Gromit films over Christmas and thought I would give it a go myself.

 

Infographic Experiments
Experimenting with some visual techniques.
JANUARY,7,2012

A step in the right direction from my last attempt.

Infographics are in simplest terms graphical representations of information, data and knowledge. In my case, I have attempted to communicate a weekly training session I undertake (above) and the results of a BMI test I took in a Boots pharmacy last year (below). I wanted to create something graphically striking and interesting to look. What I didn't want was that styling to confuse the audience as some infographics can be hard to read and extract information. The graphical elements should be apart of how the viewer would understand and read data.

 

T-shirt Design
Please score my Threadless design, Yellow Monster, to help it get printed!: .
JANUARY,2,2012

 

 

Books from my library
Some books and magazines from my library which have been usful to me throught my career.
JANUARY,2,2012

1 Logology 2, The Wonderland of Logo Design / Victionary / Victionary 2011 / ISBN 978-988-17328-9-7 2 Problem Solved / Michael Johnson / Phaidon / ISBN-10: 0714841749
3 Stop Stealing Sheep / Erik Spiekermann & E.M. Ginger / Adobe Press / ISBN-10: 0201703394
4 The Walking Society Promotional Magazine / Camper Shoes
5 It's Not How Goog You Are... / Paul Arden / Phaidon / ISBN-10: 0714843377
6 Tres Logos / Robert Klanten / Gestalten Verlag / ISBN-13: 978-3899552676
7 Kid Acne / Kid Acne / Robert Horn Group
8 Soviet Posters / Maria Lafont / Prestel Pub / ISBN-10: 3791337521
9 No More Rules / Rick Poynor / Yale University Press / ISBN-10: 0300100345
10 The Art of Looking Sideways / Alan Fletcher / Phaidon / ISBN-10: 0714834491

 

Illustration Experiment
Brining to life an old monster character.
DECEMBER,31,2011

Just a bit a fun on new years eve. Happy new year everyone!

 

The Art of Looking Sideways
I haven't been so pleased about a present since hungry hippos in '88.
DECEMBER,28,2011

This year my brother very kindly bought me The Art of Looking Sideways by graphic design legend Alan Fletcher (27 September 1931 – 21 September 2006). In case you don't know (because I didn't), Alan was one of the founding members of Pentagram and has been hailed as the most highly regarded graphic designer of his generation.

Phaidon Press (August 20, 2001)

It reads like a Paul Arden book, only on a larger scale, offering a whimsical  well of quotations, curious facts, useless information, oddities, attractively presented between a hard back of 1000+ pages. It is designers dream. At least it is for those who get excited about nicely placed type and images. The abstract from Phaidon reads: The Art of Looking Sideways is a primer in visual intelligence, an exploration of the workings of the eye, the hand, the brain and the imagination. It is an inexhaustible mine of anecdotes, quotations, images, curious facts and useless information... Click here to find out more

 

The Mass of Me
My stats and ideal goals as according to Boots Chemist.
DECEMBER,22,2011

Last week I took a go on one of those BMI machines and thought I would attempt to illustrate the results within an info graphic. The overall look hasn't come out quite the way I had planned but I think it illustrates well the results and how ones BMI is calculated. I think perhaps I will re-address this at a later stage to and work on the narrative a little bit more.

 

Travel Posters
Graphic Design from the 1920s and 1930s in Travel Ephemera.
DECEMBER,19,2011

David Levine, the host of www.travelbrochuregraphics.com, has very kindly put his collection of 20s and 30s travel ephemera on line for the world to enjoy. The collection is a homage to the graphic styles of adversing in Europe and Asia during these times. My favorite are the pieces that mix photos and graphic elements together.

These images are very stylish and brave. I wonder if any designer today could get away with any of these ideas without the client getting panicky about what was going on. Cynical? Perhaps. But did these graphic artists/designers behind these works had clients controlling every aspect of the final piece? Perhaps there was more freedom and trust for creative types back then.

 

Santa!
For your downloading pleasure.
DECEMBER,15,2011

Just in time for Christmas! Yet to get a download on any of my pictures. Early days.

Click here to go to my profile page on istock

 

ETPF Have a website!
Finally I get to see me logo being used.
DECEMBER,11,2011

By the way I didn't design the site, but it's always great to see my work being used. I thus thought it would be a good idea to post a bit of info about this project.

Click here to visit their site

In 2010 I won a competition commissioned by the ETPF to produce an identity which would fit within the world of Estonian poker and could also communicate suitably with government institutions and international poker organisations.

It was my ambition with the logo to combine Estonia and poker in one corporate mark. After exploring concepts involving playing cards and poker chips and not reaching any great goals I began developing a logo using the diamond, spade, heart and club icons. They lent themselves perfectly to pattern formations so I modelled the design on national fabric tapestries based around the Rukkilill (Cornflower).

 

Santa on iStock!
Cashing in on Christmas.
DECEMBER,10,2011

Thought it might be a good idea to get a festive illustration up on iStockphoto. Might be a bit late for it, but you never know. It wont be ready yet. It took them five days to get back to me last time.

 

Finally!
For your downloading pleasure.
DECEMBER,10,2011

And so finally after many days of checking my inbox, istock have accepted some of my illlustrations. Couldn't imagine very much coming from this, but if I can make a couple of extra shillings then why not?

Click here to go to my profile page on istock

 

Tis the Season
Santa is coming to town.
DECEMBER,09,2011

A little .gif animation to show how I build up an illustration from sketch to finished render.

 

Finally getting on iStockphoto
Available for your downloading pleasure.
DECEMBER,05,2011

Finally got around to uploading some illustrations to iStockphoto. Slightly jumping the gun a little bit. They are still up for approval. It's just great seeing my work with that watermark on.

 

Hockney Joiners
At home with my son and wife.
DECEMBER,04,2011

Certainly no ambitions to be a photographer. Nor do I care for the constraints of the perfect composition. But I am a creative. So I like to be creative. Using joiners are a great way of bringing together a static scene but in motion. I like making these as they make for interesting compositions and you never know how the form will turn out. Ultimately its a nice way for me to document my family life.

 

Facebook - The Museum of Me
Video.
DECEMBER,03,2011

Love this video. Whether you like Facebook or not, the concept that it is your personal museum is undoubtedly a great way of looking at it.