Wednesday 26 May 2010

Cup of Tea 0400

w00t w00t!

Just got back (Well, around an hour ago) from seeing Slow Club. Wow. I honestly forget how much I love live music until I get blown away by some amazing bands... My brawd once told me of a conversation he had with his wife (at the time girlfriend...) about the difference between a decent band and a great band. How a band she thought were good had played, and then the sound, performance and sheer presence of the great band had made her realize how good a live band can be.

It's so refreshing to see a wicked band in a small venue (Divas at Swansea Uni, abit of a dive but still...) and genuinely feel phonogramically (new word, read the comic dammit...) moved by the music. If you haven't heard them, check them out here! (pause the ghetto music further down the page obv...) Also their support, Summer Camp were epic, just bought their single Ghost Train off of itunes :) but if you're cheap, listen here!

Away from some Moshi Moshi love, some Cool for Cat's love. The newest flyer for Ellie's new night in Brixton at "The Rest is Noise". Hope you like it, if so drop a comment!




Sleepy time anyways, Night Night!

M x

Tuesday 25 May 2010

Cups of Tea 0397 - 0399

Ooooooh only one cup away from 400...

Done quite abit today, played Frisbee for abit on the beach with the boys (gawd I love this nice weather!), played some Red Dead (which is slowly becoming a favorite game...) and then spent the rest of my day (from 6 until now... a whole 6 hours :o) doing this stencil :D it's of a friend of mine (who I used to play a certain video game with that won't be mentioned...), she had a series of photos taken by John Andre Aasen (www.phokus.no they're Norwegian lol...) and I thought this one was such a nice portrait I had to combine two ideas I had to make this piece...

I wanted to do something for Gem and had a wierd, black and white vector (almost like a woodcut in my head) with a big pink flower in the hair, no idea why, just popped into my head. When I saw this image, the light and depth captured in it made me want to do a stencil of it! Thus, the flower and Eline were combined to produce this... I did one on a sheet of Plywood and 5 prints on some nice water colour paper... no idea what Imma do with them yet, possibly sell them quite cheaply to anyone who wants them... think my brawd will steal one of them -.-

Hope all parties involved with the original photograph, my lovely girlfriend who'll get the MDF version and you guys viewing this like it :)



M x

Sunday 23 May 2010

Cups of Tea 0394 - 0396

No blog tonight... Well that's not strictly true... I'll be posting it at around 7 in the morning, I've gotta get up for 5am.... oh no, i've said to much! See you in the morning all, until then watch this!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2FX9rviEhw

M x

Saturday 22 May 2010

Cups of Tea 0391 - 0393

So on Thursday, in an act of pure spontaneity on the behalf of me and my wonderful girlfriend, we took a look in The Dylan Thomas Center, Swansea. I've walked past it everyday for the last 2 years I've lived in Swansea and never been inside. I like Thomas' Poetry (one of the only poets I can really read and enjoy...) but I've had no interest of learning about him. The story's been drummed into my head about his past since Primary school. However, that being said,we threw caution to the wind and I'm glad I did!

They have a second hand bookstore inside and it was dirty cheap. I picked up a load of cheap Penguin / Pelican books from the 60s / 70s. Ever since I can remember, I've loved the penguin book design. I don't know why, I mean I've (to my knowledge at least) never owned a penguin that with the cover set in Gil Sans, that adhered to Romek Marber's grid system, but it's simplicity and the graphical styles of the front covers made me fall in love. For purely inexplicable reasons, I find myself judging books by their cover purely because they're Penguin or Pelican (I don't own any Puffin books... the designs are always too tame...).

I half wanted to set myself a challenge, to see if I could, somehow manage to search out all the Pelican books that were ever published (post 1969 specifically, when the wonderful Swiss Illustration style first donned the covers). But alas, (after a small amount of effort admittedly... ) not only can I not find a list of the published works, but I stumbled across an article stating there were "thousands" (yes, plural...) so I'm half heartily quitting while I'm ahead...



M x

Friday 21 May 2010

Cups of Tea 0386 - 0390



Subtle enough hint about what I'm going to talk about ;)?

Wowzers! I'm really enjoying it! The game is very fluid and quite possibly the most beautiful game on the 360! Played quite abit of the online mode and about 3 hours of the story... While I feel I've only just scratched the surface of the Campaign, the multiplayer already feels a little stale... Our Posse (Me, Aaron and Tom) took to the west and claimed some bounties. Great. Except there were 3 of them. The death matches are quite fun... but the "Dead Eye" is way to cheap... (Dead eye - power up which allows you to hold down the RS and take precision aim at you enemy, almost 100% instant one shot...) So far however, 8.5/10.


Next, Music Videos!

Two standing out (both shown to me by Gem <3 :)) atm as brilliant. It's helped by the fact that I love both the bands, but both really grab my attention as stylistically wonderful and their celebrity cameos certainly help :)



Vampire Weekend - Giving Up The Gun

Stylistic game of tennis which for me at least symbolizes life as a game of Tennis. The court is black and white, it's a constant battle in which you are the underdog against the pressures of celebrity status and masked corporate powers, until you realize you're your own worst enemy. Either that or its the trailer for PONG the movie ;) An all star cast of Joe Jonas (boo), Jake Gyllenhaal (woo!), Lil' Jon and RZA of the Wu-Tang Clan (meh) help to make it a truely exciting video. The song (well, tbh the whole of 'Contra') is ace too!



The Gorillaz - Stylo.

What a fucking amazing video! Pushing 3D animation with a mix of Gorillaz semi-politcal craziness, a killer track and some Bruce Willis. It's all gravy baby! Watch it and feel alive :D (They were also just on Jonathan Ross).

I've also taken the very strange step and bought both the videos off itunes... Weird yes, but they're such good videos they actually add to the experience of listening to the songs (for me at least...) Something to talk about in the dissertation? Has video killed static album art? I think so ;)

Tomorrow, Penguin Book Goodness!

M x

P.S. Check out Google's home page for some retro goodness!

Thursday 20 May 2010

Cups of Tea 0382 - 0385

Alas, I am alive!

It's been a rather Graphic Design free couple of days if I'm honest. Uni's winding down for the summer so I had abit of a break. That being said, I've done quite alot and have a few things to say!

(1.)

Saw the movie "Four Lions" at the Cinema yesterday, I must say it was epic. It's such a well made film. While it deals with a sensitive subject (terrorism) the strength of the writing and humor carry it into a wonderfully deep film experience. Despite the characters being portrayed as terrorists, you can't help but like them and really makes you question the Westernization of all Muslim's being "angry and anti-capitalist". Not to condone terrorism, but it does put a human face on it... the movie makes you laugh but more importantly makes you think.

Worth a watch if you can see it - 8/10



(2.)

Thanks to Jammer, saw this wonderful website that I've been playing on most of the day! It's a flash based Synth. It's defiantly good for a laugh :D

http://lab.andre-michelle.com/tonematrix

(3.)

New flyer I designed for Club Fandango's new night at The Silver Bullet, going to be creating another flyer for yet another Cool For Cats night (Ellie's a busy girl!) so that will grace here soon :D



Tomorrow's topic - Red Dead Redemption and the sudden spat of amazing music videos...

M x

Monday 17 May 2010

Cup of Tea 0381

Almost no tea, it's surely the sign of a bad day. Things just haven't seen to have gone right today but nevermind, its almost bedtime... GOD I LOVE SLEEPING!

Just a quick rant at something that got brought to my attention not an hour ago (via email... don't ask me why I got an email about them...). But MCR's (My Chemical Romance...) Rhythm guitarist Frank Iero, apparently fancies himself abit of a snapper and on the MCR store "for a limited time only" there's two prints of pictures he's taken at the studio where they're recording their new album.



Now stop me if I'm wrong (hell, i've been wrong most of the day), but I've seen 13 year olds piss out better images than this on DA... its not even like he's trying... LOOOW SHUTTER SPEED HIGH LIGHT OOOOOOH and A PICTURE OF MY DIARY, ZOMG! do not a good picture make. They're even charging $30 for a print of these pieces of crap.

I'm all for outsider art, but stick to what you're good Mr. Iero... making music that inspires 13 year old girls to take photos like this.

BAH SLEEP!

M x

Sunday 16 May 2010

Cups of Tea 0378 - 0380

Shoop Shoop!

Not alot done, just quick draft of a possible flyer for those wonderful chaps at Fierce Panda. Still not 100% on it. Expect Tweaks tomorrow!



Nos Dar Cariad!

M x

Saturday 15 May 2010

Cups of Tea 0375 - 0377

Again, not very designer-esq. today... guess working on the weekends just drains all joy from my soul... Just spent an hour or so playing Monster Hunter Tri (which was amazing), Watched a movie (that shall remain nameless because it's a little fucked up), wrote out 7 small ideas for Project Pitches for Uni work and watched a load of stuff on youtube yaaaaay!

Anyways, sorry to waste your time again, but here's something life affirming. Australian Father sees car coming towards him, turns into the car to protect his child. Good times.



M x

Friday 14 May 2010

Cups of Tea 0373 - 0374

Gosh, I don't feel at all designery all of a sudden. Guess it's the collosal amount of work I've put in over the past few weeks, so this is just blogging for blogging sake.

If you havn't seen it, I strongly suggest you check this out, new MIA music video... about time someone rounded them up I say ;)

M.I.A, Born Free from ROMAIN-GAVRAS on Vimeo.



M x

Thursday 13 May 2010

Tuesday 11 May 2010

Cups of Tea 0367 - 0369

I feel betrayed by the democratic system and most of all by the people my country. A vote is such a fickle thing when the media can easily sway the vast majority of people who read into it. Congratulations, you've voted for higher tax, no unbiased broadcasting, (though I guess you like Rupert Murdoch telling you what to do anyways? Decisions don't seem so difficult when they're next to a pair of tits...) no free national health service, no cap on university fees, less police, nurses, doctors firemen... A stop to dealings with the EU, trapping us in our own archaic structures.

I could go on.

Fundamentally what you've voted for is a lesser quality of life. In playing a part in this, you will have made the rich richer, and the poor poorer. And for what? What are the policies you felt so strongly about? How many of you brainless bovine read their manifesto? Oh you didn't? Then how did you form an opinion. Oh, the paper. The same paper written by Oxford graduates, dumbing the content down to the reading level of a six year old, just so there's nothing to confuse you. Because they'd hate to do that, I mean that would mean you wouldn't read it. Then how could they sway you in their favor?

The main reason I hear is always "my (insert relative) owns a small business". Wow, they get a small tax cut. If they owned a multi national they'd be saying millions, but they don't. They never will and you've damn well made sure of that. Because that's the silly thing about business, in order for it to work, you need to have customers. When every last penny we earn is going to go towards tax, who is going to shop with you? And that money you've saved? It's just going to be added on somewhere else.

Argh I'm to tired to go on. I just to go to sleep and turn into somebody who doesn't care for awhile. I had faith that this could have been a change. Next time i'm voting Plaid hahaha!

M x

Sunday 9 May 2010

Cups of Tea 0365 - 0366

Really not alot done today, woke up at about 3 this morning with stomach cramps, then had to come home from work after an hour because of the same pain, then just slept most of the day away... bad times!

Anyways, here's some sample spreads from the final part of the project, the picture book :o yaaay?!







Also the cover, which looks a little pixely because its a screen grab (i'm lazy, i'm also ill...) but it show's what i've done :o And I think that's it. Other than an evaluation, Colony is over (for now...). Kinda sad but meh... Glad to get back to some personal projects for awhile!

M x

Saturday 8 May 2010

Cups of Tea 0360 - 0364

Not alot drank today and alas, not alot of work done either... Purely due to the lack of photographs really... Left my usb cabel ala flat so couldn't get my own Swansea based photos off it, didn't receive my Manchester or Canada ones yet (God, I hope they come tomorrow) and Aaron's only just got back to Gloucester so I don't expect them from him yet... Gosh, I also need to design the front cover...

That's it. Done then. Only an evaluation and bibliography to write and 3 months of solid work will be over! Good times I guess, kinda sad in a way though...

Early night anyways, Chiddy bang and or work to do tomorrow!

Nos Dar Cariad!

M x

Friday 7 May 2010

Cups of Tea 0353 - 0359

An average amount of tea drank and a modest amount of work, but hey... I'm almost finished! Only that photo book left to pump out and when that's done, so am I! So that should work as a subtle little reminder to those who still have out standing stickers, if you want to be in the book (and trust me, it's going to be a cool little keepsake!) Then please get the pictures to me by Sunday. AT THE LATEST. It needs to be printed on Monday for my Monday Morning Deadline.

Anyways for today's work... The Site Map for the wonderful visuals I uploaded yesterday and the marketing plan for the year of colony. tbh it's kinda boring for you guys, but I quite like the piece of info graphics trailing down the right side so I thought I'd upload it ;)





As always, thoughts are very much appreciated! Noticed afew people have started following me to which is nice! Don't be afraid to comment the posts if you are, or if your not, just click the little button! It's alot more satisfying to know that someones read :D!

M x

Thursday 6 May 2010

Cups of Tea 0342 - 0352

Yes children, 10 cups of tea really does help a man to power through...

Coming to the end of Colony now... suffice to say it's defiantly the most extensive project i've ever done. The collosal 100 page sketchbook is testament to this... the worst thing of course is that I still feel I could have done more... which means I may have to carry on with it over summer and see where it takes me!

As some of you might know, the whole point of the marketing campaign was to eventually lead to the launch of colony.com, which would be a social networking site for beekeepers which would be abit of a mash up between facebook / a forum / foursquare / youtube and afew other sites... These are the few visuals I've prepared for it (I could probably slice it... but I'm not going to... need sleep!). So without further adue, I'd like to show you the homepage, the profile (and how the badges would be displayed) and the only part i'm really unhappy with atm, The Colony forum list (which those who pay close attention has similar stats to the interhood ;) )! GOGO COLONY!









Sleepy time... I'm so not getting up in the morning...

M x

Wednesday 5 May 2010

Cups of Tea 0339 - 0341

A rather un-inspiring day on the work front, though most of my sketchbook for this project is done! Six more pages... I recon I can get that if I get some sleep tonight I can finish it all by tomorrow :D Remember to vote kids, and anyone but the Tories...

Until then, two flyers I did for Fierce Panda / Kilimanjaro's new Range Life Night. Enjoy!





M x

Tuesday 4 May 2010

Cups of Tea 0336 - 0338

A very unproductive day in terms of work for uni... I did do two flyers for Fierce Panda's new club night, Range Life, but I'll show those tomorrow, for now I wanna treat you to some more Colony snaps :) This time, from Bristol and Fife...







Bristol, England. (The last two contain both a Banksy and a Boyley, boom boom...)



Fife, Scotland.

there's more of these to come :) Which'll be new to me as well, a few from the land of shamrocks and of a wonderful team that plays in Red... there's also a football team who plays in blue from the same place, but they're not so good... I'll upload the new flyers as well tomorrow, so make sure to have a gander and let me know what you think!

M x

Monday 3 May 2010

Cups of Tea 0330 - 0335

Not so much tea and not so much work... Here's the rest of the manual that I uploaded last night... hope you enjoy!







Coming Tomorrow, some pretty pictures of Bristol and Fife ;)


M x

Sunday 2 May 2010

Cups of Tea 0321 - 0329

Increasing by one cup of tea a day my creativity rumbles on like a tractor on a country lane, it's got no consideration for the other thoughts driving along the same country lanes of my cerebral cortex, humming a little Phil Collins playing on the in-ear radio, oblivious to the bapping of horns from irate memories and peeved obligations.

Where that metaphor came from, I don't know. But anyways, onto the work. For those involved in my Colony project, you'll have been aware of it's beekeeping routes, but what you might not have known and will completely clash with your possible expectations of what the posters etc. should have been, The Colony is intended to be a beekeeper's social networking website, similar to foursquare (which I didn't know of when I pitched the project...) but more of a mash up between the boy scouts and xbox live, Colony would reward its members, all of whom would be part of a small, local Colony as well as the over all Colony community (think of it like being a clan within the whole of xbox live...).

So here's the first batch of the badges as they would be in The Colony Companion (one of the many books to accompanies your journey into being a Colony beekeeper...) in easy to read spread format, first up... The Campaign, The Beekeeping and The Activities pages... thoughts please. Also none of them are spell checked yet, just wanted to get the content in... i'll correct it tomorrow after I go through it with a tooth comb!







M x

Saturday 1 May 2010

CUps of Tea 0313 - 0320

Yup, 7 cups of tea but little work accomplished, guess I shouldn't have pulled an all nighter last night... nevermind, I can do it again tomorrow :) Hopefully get my website and the rest of these badges knocked out.

I'll explain about these properly tomorrow, but for now here's a sneaky peak at what those who've helped with the campaign would earn if Colony became a real website...



M x