wednesday, august 18th, 2010
Finally, after months of waiting, I can announce one of the coolest projects I've ever been a part of. Earlier this year I was commissioned by SapientNitroto design and animate a collection of 3D scenes based on my Urban Cartography series. The client was Drambuie, who was in the middle of a rebranding project and launching a rather ambitious promotional contest in Australia—entrants submit designs for their dream bar, and the winner gets to run it, for real, for nine nights.
Even someone like me, who's rather jaded and hostile towards most marketing gimmicks, has to admit how cool that is.
The sense of freeform architectural brainstorming is what got Sapient interested in my Urban Cartography series, so the style and concept was clear from the start. Check out the results here.
The coolest part is that Drambuie made me a part of the judging panel as well. Here's my stupid face as proof:
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wednesday, august 11th, 2010
A few months ago I was asked by Advanced Photoshop if I'd be interested in writing a tutorial on the creation of "bespoke typefaces" similar to my previous Elektrotrash project. After giving the idea some thought, I decided to do something similar but with a greater emphasis on 2D arrangement and compositing, instead of creating the entire character set a single 3D space.
The result is Baroquen, a music-themed handset that takes its lovably disjointed inspiration from the quirky, multi-layered world of baroque pop. As usual, I created a number of posters to explore the character set across a multitude of styles and layouts.
Lastly, if you're interested in the tutorial behind the typeface, check out the August 2010 issue of the magazine. It should be on newsstands now in the United States and might still be available here and there in Europe.
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thursday, july 1st, 2010
I've been dying to share this and it's finally time! One of my biggest projects ever, complete with before-and-after photography and shots of the finished product, all posted here.
This month's transportation-themed issue of the excellent Surface magazine (#83, July/August) features 11 pages of illustration and fashion photography brought to life by art director Chris Mozsary, photographer Daniel Bernauer and myself.
The concept was to merge a model shoot with disjointed freeways and parking structures, using my original Pavement Loop series as the basis for the style. In just under two weeks, after getting access to a high-res download of Daniel's awesome photography, I put together the scenes you see in the final pieces using entirely original assets custom-made for the project. It was a pretty huge crunch but both Chris and Daniel were awesome guys and made the process as easy as could be imagined.
Surface is a pretty slick magazine anyway, so pick up a copy at your local newsstand. I've already bought like 9 because I'm a huge dork but you'll probably only need one or two.
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wednesday, june 16th, 2010
After what feels like centuries of hyping my mysterious "time travel project", I finally bit down on the cyanide capsule and threw it all up: ALT/1977: WE ARE NOT TIME TRAVELERS is here.
This project is undoubtedly my most conceptually ambitious work to date. It comprises 14 full-sized, 18x24" prints that explore the awesomely absurd idea of time travelers who return to the late 1970's to release the technology of 2010 and dominate the world of consumer electronics. I re-imagined four modern products as if they existed over 30 years ago and tried to bring them to life through fake print ads, abstract glamour shots, and even a characteristically pretentious type treatment or two.
It's worth noting that I'm posting this after letting it sit in its current state for months due to my original desire to complete an equally ambitious companion motion piece and launch both at the same time. Unfortunately, everything on this site is done in my spare time—an increasingly rare commodity these days—and that's just not a conducive situation when you're trying to churn out an immaculately-detailed HD visual effects extravaganza. So rather than let the print side of the project collect dust for god-knows-how-much-longer, I'll be releasing them as two separate installments.
The retro thing has been a popular trend among my ilk for a while now, and as someone who's benefited greatly from riding that wave myself, I figured it was time to contribute something that ups the ante a little. I guess what I'm trying to say is, there's retro, and then there's time travel.
I really hope you enjoy this series.
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sunday, may 23rd, 2010
After a week of [sorta] hard work, I've finally completed MY DESK IS 8-BIT, the first piece of animation I've actually put online that wasn't for a client.
As the description on the project page says, the idea for the piece came to me when I tried envisioning a full-fledged video game in the form of stop motion animation, perhaps made with colored blocks like Legos or something. In the process of answering that question, I created a video game from scratch, wrote a good minute or two worth of retro-style chiptune music, designed a handful of sufficiently bleepy-bloopy sound effects and then dumped it all into a blender.
Whether the results are of any worth isn't for me to say, but it's pretty much exactly what I envisioned when the idea first hit me. I'm toying with some plans to continue exploring this technique on a larger scale, but we'll see how that pans out. I have plenty of print work to keep me occupied for a while.
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tuesday, march 16th, 2010
Broken by Design is finished, and it's gotta be the fastest collection of work I've done in recent memory: the initial idea came to me on Friday evening, I had nine out of 10 pieces done by Sunday, and I finished the 10th piece Monday night after work. What can I say? Sometimes this crap just writes itself!
I should also point out that this is the first substantially code-driven art I've done since my original Abstract Works: Winter 2008 series. Not all of the pieces are the product of algorithms, but a few of them are. I'll let you decide what's what.
Hope you guys dig it.
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saturday, march 13th, 2010
Here it is, kiddies, #3 in the series as it stands thus far. But instead of trying to summon even more pretentious, explanatory garbage, I thought I'd spend the rest of this post on the lyrics to the theme song from Perfect Strangers (emphasis and notes added):
Sometimes the world looks perfect; nothing to rearrange.
Sometimes you just... get a feeling, like you need some kind of change.
No matter what the odds are this time, nothing's gonna stand in my way.
This flame in my heart, and a long lost friend,
gives every dark street a light at the end!
(swelling crescendo of exhilarating strings)
Standing taaaaaall! on the wings of my dreams.
Rise and faaaaaall! on the wings of my dreams.
The rain and thunder,
the wind and haze,
I'm bound for better days.
aaaahhh-aaahhhhhh!
It's my life, and my dream, and nothing's gonna stop me now.
I can't imagine a more appropriate way to set the tone for a show that's primarily about a foriegn guy mispronouncing American expressions and brand names, can you?
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saturday, march 13th, 2010
I've got a horrible suspicion that this piece in particular is gonna change like 50 times before it's finished, but I'll take my chances and post it anyway. I like the idea of sharing this series as I work on it.
The concept behind Broken By Design is the combination of increasingly intricate vector imagery and very simple 3D geometry in such a way that neither medium is the primary focus. My goal is a look that feels simultaneously flat and nuanced, best exemplified by the deliberate fragmenting of these otherwise flowing and ornate patterns (hence the name). I've always felt that true artistry lies in neither creation nor destruction, but a thoughtful balance of the two.
Then again, I also think "Dancing Queen" by ABBA is the undisputed apex of mankind's musical achievement.
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