Cups of Tea 1311 - 1329

Doop doop doop! A week of non blog posts later, I have some something so show (yay, I hear you cry...)!

Its pretty much been a day project due to low productivity as of late (which I believe is directly correlating with my complete lack of exercise / lack of post-viva stress), so I decided to do some designs for the No To Violence Against Women campaign!

I pretty much started the research by looking for some examples of Stats that showed how big of an issue this was in the UK and I was quite astounded by how bad it really was :/ The original idea was to show these vectors in brusing on the skin backgrounds but it looked crappy, I instead opted to use the colours of the campaign, white and red in the illustrations instead...







Not to sure what I think of them, but meeeh. Some feedback would be nice...

Anyways, time to start designing my website... JOY!

M x

Cups of Tea 1308 - 1310

Busy, busy boy today! Just a quick blog update with something lol worthy because I been prepping Viva Stuff for most of the day and I've got to get up early for the Viva itself tomorrow :)



If that fails to make you laugh, you should question your existence...

M x

Cups of Tea 1299 - 1307

Shoop Shoop!

Been doing Sound Mason work all day and I got the whole thing done! Winnah, got all 6 basic's of it down. It's a little so-so tbh. While I'm getting better at web design, I'm not quite there... Think I'll set myself another project like this AFTER this one. Well, this brings the total upto 5 completed projects (7 if you include the first two and 10 if you include some of my branding work / my surface pattern pitch).







Just gotta start on projects new as of tomorrow and see where I get to for the Vivas :) Need to print this stuff and then crack onto whatever I'm doing next!

M x

Cups of Tea 1296 - 1298

Not alot of tea drunk today because it's been a day of stress and of immense tiredness! As a result, I've mostly been reading Dave Gorman's American Unchained before I take it back to the library on Tuesday (It's a decent book, no where near as good as 'Are you Dave Gorman?' mind...) so I thought i'd round it up with the cool crap that's been shown to me by various people over the course of the day!

These PIXEL OVEN MITTS will be a certain must have when I move into my own place.



Then there's this very sexy looking time management app (for mac) called Solo that I would currently be trying if I had snow leopard (fu apple!)





but last but not least (courtesy of Miles) the video that made me want to go to the University of Lincoln...



M x

Cups of Tea 1293 - 1295

A low tea to high creativity ratio you might say? Because I'm out of bloody milk! Dammit! I've drank the emergency can of Relentless, and now I'm into 70p cans of coke because I haven't got time to leave the house haha... I'm going out for a pint for Dai's 21st and then I must come back and start my Sound Mason site -sigh-... And THEN, tomorrow I need to start two other new projects. Oh... and my personal website. GOD DAMMIT!

Anyways, I'm glad to say I've not only speeding up my work rate, but I'm really enjoying designing again. The fast paced but detailed approach to design is alot better than the slow, steady but stewed approach I'd been bogged down in since the start of uni. I really should have got myself to this speed of working earlier in the year, I'd have a good 20 projects by now >.< -sigh- you live, you learn...

Here's the last 3 layouts, two on lambing (steady on the Welsh jokes) and one on bees (remember that phase...?) enjoy!







M x

Cups of Tea 1289 - 1292

Hello everyone! Quick update as it's bed time, hot damn!

Went to see Hall Pass tonight, which was pretty funny... more info on the tomorrow though! Just a quick update with two of ma new layouts... the whole project now has a deadline of 1pm, then it's onto The Sound Mason Website! This project would be done and dusted by now if I could find some decent high rez pictures of farm animals... -sigh-





Love me them Pigs and Alpacas... Until tomorrow chaps and chap-esses!

M x

Cups of Tea 1285 - 1288

As you can tell by the little tea, it has not been a productive day... I've spent the day after uni and spending some time with Gemma trying to unblock my head. The creative downpour that happened yesterday seems to have left my head a little tired today, after a nice relaxing bath, I got back into the swing of this but then realised the time... much to my annoyance, my giving up 'ubër-late-nights' for lent is kicking my tail when it comes to working... in an effort to get myself back into the spirit of a productive sleeping pattern, it's now bed time. YAY!

Anyways, as a result, I've only got one spread to show you... however, I aim to have the whole project finished tomorrow (it's only another 5 layouts and I've got the style-sheets in place now...) so I'll be streaming them to you while I finish the Sound Masons site. Oh Goody, as then it's time for new projects and for me to finally start work on teasigner.com! YUS!

Without further a due, the layout!



And now, for bed...

M x

Cups of Tea 1259 - 1284

There's been quite alot of tea these past few days, you can bet your hat on that guvnor!

As a result, there's also been quite a bit of work! The first of which I'd like to quickly show today... so a few of you may have caught wind that I was going to be redesigning a magazine known as 'Smallholder', something I've got no interest of attachments to emotionally so I could just concentrate on the brass tax, the bare bones of the design job at hand... The cover (even though I can only find a small copy) is pretty dire, so I've began by redesigning it!

The Original -



The Redesign -



I'll start rolling out the spreads tomorrow :)

M x

Cups of Tea 1255 - 1258

The quickest of quick blog dates for alas, I am le tired and am busy designing :o



Just found this via Swiss Miss / through research for a project I'm considering doing next... who knows if I will, just thought I'd share it :) You can read the full article here.

Anyways, now time to do some before bed reading, nighty night!

M x

Cups of Tea 1251 - 1254

Just a quick update after quite a non-productive day... uni early in the morning, then home to do some work... then hit a brick wall with it... I'm pleading to anyone who has Titling Gothic FB to send it my way...

Oh my gawd! I went to watch Rango after hitting said wall and I loved it... for those who like Westerns, I strongly advise you to check it out. While alot of online reviews I've read about it claim it 'has no heart', I beg to differ. It also has some luscious visuals, I mean the animals almost look realistic. I may have to take the nephew to see it on the weekend :)



On a design note, I love this... If I had a kick started account and it wasn't over pledged already, I'll chip in!



Anyways, off to bed... early to bed, early to rise, early to design!

M x

Cups of Tea 1246 - 1250

Just a quick blog update :) Been doing A LOT of work today... So much so I'm taking a new approach to creating a layout (yes, at the end of my degree...) and it's been so satisfying :o It's made me see a truly creative side to them that I'd kinda over looked!

Anyways, as promised... some of the stuff I've found over the past few days (hopefully there'll be more of my own stuff tomorrow) starting with a poster that now graces the wall of my room (that I probably shouldn't have... thus won't reveal the source of haha).



For those of you who are Port Talbot based, you've probably seen this already. Micheal Sheen is taking over the Easter 'passion' play in Port Talbot, with himself as Jesus. A good friend of mine (Matthew Aubrey, an exceptional actor and possibly the funniest person I've ever met) is also in the play so I can't wait to see it... Actually, play is probably the wrong word, it's kinda a live theater event more than a play. It's taking course over 3 days (Good Friday (22nd April) / Saturday (23rd April) / Easter Sunday (24th April) in various locations around Port Talbot... With apparently, Mr. Sheen getting crucified in the town center at the end!

But that's not the part that excites me. It's the poster! My God, no image of my home town has resonated with me more than this beautiful piece of Graphic Design. I delved a little deeper and it's done by Dave McKean! The same Dave McKean who's collaborated with Neil Gaiman many times on Sandman Covers, The art of Coraline and The Wolves in the Walls. Suffice to say, it's stunning. For those who don't want to go / can't due to location, apparently Dave McKean is also filming the experience and cutting it into a film! Aces :D

Other info can be foundhere and here. Imho, it's exciting...

Anyways, as that's not the Sheen that everyone's talking about, here's another song of the one who is on everybody's lips... even if it is for being crazy...



M x

Cups of Tea 1241 - 1245

It's been a most productive day! And while what I got up to will largely remain a secret for the next month or so, trust me you will eventually get to see it. Suffice to say, it bodes well for the future of Teasign in the most sexy of ways.

But back to what I promised you lovely ladies and gentlemen, the third in the series of posters, drum role please... ITS THE LUTE! Yes, ye olde plucky instrument that bards and merry maidens everywhere love to play at a rousing historical reenactment or game of D&D...



It's the first of the three I designed because it's most important... With Sl0w release's bassist Jamie being the protagonist of the whole ARG... I'm still more keen on the hurdy gurdy to be honest, but that's probably just because I like the name. Anyways, in trying to keep with my good mind = rested mind philosophy, I'm off to bed :) Hopefully some awesome stuff to show you tomorrow depending on my productivity rate, but we shall see... if not, I've been trawling the web and found some beautiful designs... one a little closer to home than some of you might realize ;)

Until tomorrow you lovely gents!

M x

Cups of Tea 1238 - 1240

Back from work with poster 2 of 3 in The Duchess series, OOOOOOH! I can tell your excited haha!

As you can tell with this one, I started to have a little fun with it. I searched the old google for something that would look good in terms of medieval musical instruments and came across one called a 'hurdy gurdy'... which to me was always a game where you Shepard sheep with a pink bear... Nobody play that one? Fine...

The instrument is again another fiddle typed instrument, that is played via that wierd crank at the bottom. It originated in the 9th century and the melodies are played on a keyboard that works the strings. Wierd aye?



Anyways, the 3rd on will be revealed tomorrow ;)

M x

Cups of Tea 1231 - 1237

ho-ho-ho! Sorry about the lack of an update last night ladies and gents, but I ended up going to sleep when I got in from work (a combo of dissertation stresses, the night out Friday and the early morning Saturday killed me a little haha)... so When I did get up and created the three music posters that I promised you that would be posted up this weekend, they were finished around 1:20am... so as it was a Saturday night and I guessed everyone would be tucked up in their pj's / out getting leathered... I'd update this morning :)

So here is the first of 3 very similar music posters as part of my mini-ARG / Transmedia marketing campaign... The basis of which is a fictional venue opens up in Swansea called 'The Duchess' and a specter of a 16th century duchess is murdering the bands... Why you ask? Well, you'll just have to wait and see... hopefully it'll be up in the week for those who want to play around with it :)

But as a 16th Century lady, the ghost's choice of illustration is of medieval musical instruments. While this started with horns / pipes, I moved onto the stringed instruments of the era, which just look very sexy... Due to her grizzly death in the story, I did play with the idea of medieval torture devices... until a google search showed me things I didn't want to see lol... So that plan was cut short...

The typography selection is also trying to reflect this transition into modern design but with old principals. The typeface used for the band names, which some of you may recognize is Kraut-Type-a-Fuck, made popular in the movie 'There Will Be Blood'. I LOVE it black letter style and the way it looks on a grained background, like it's been smudged through hasty printing. The smaller typeface with the venue / date / time is of course, Baskerville Old Face. She was trying to go as modern as she could with it, after all, The Duchess may be a confident artisan but she can't seem to let go of her old style... So while Baskerville was created over 100 years after her timely death, she's just really slowly getting into modern typeography...

The first poster contains the ancestor of the Violin, known as a 'Rebec'. It was quite difficult to get a picture of one head on, so this is a mash up of various parts of different ones at different angles. They are, much like the mandolins, pipes and brass of their time, very simply designed. Due to the intricate nature of the other two illustrations, the Rebec looked a little plain in comparison. So I searched for an image of an original bow and found a Norse one from 200 years earlier... It's amazing to see the time that man has made music!

So without further a due, I reveal the first of three posters for this marketing campaign. March 8th, the first unlucky souls to play The Duchess...



I'll post the 9th of March up when I get in from work, then the 10th tomorrow night. Hope you enjoy!

M x

Cups of Tea 1228 - 1230

Just a quick update because I'm off out tonight and I am trying to keep it to a daily update :) This is the music print that I did last night and to quote Gemma, 'This poster is Diamonds!' I think she may have got that from The Old Spice Guy but hey, all quotes are appreciated :o!

Based on City and Colour's amaaaaazing song 'Like Knives' which you can hear HEAR.



Hope you guys like it, if any of you ESPECIALLY like it, news of where you can buy it / help fund my design course's exhibition fund in the process, check the blog Monday :)

M x

Cups of Tea 1214 - 1227

Shoop da woop... Blogging daily starts again today! Yes sir, as I believe it is the only way for me to keep designing to a quality I enjoy... otherwise, I'm just banging my head against the wall with all the stuff going on at the moment...

A fairly unproductive day... though I have thought of some amazing ideas, which is always a good thing. I'm currently working on my music prints (Yes, I did say prints...) and also 3 posters for the marketing campaign mentioned in the last blog post... Hopefully I'll have the two music prints to show tomorrow, and the marketing campaign posters over the weekend :)

In non design related news... I kinda want a 3DS... Not enough to warrant the £229 it costs, but I do still want one all the same after experiencing it for the first time. Played it in both HMV and game and WOW, it's quite nice! The way it handles augmented reality was quite special...



I highly recommend checking it out if you've got time to kill near a HMV store, as at least the guy demoing it in Swansea was really cool and seemed passionate about it... where as in Game, they tried to high pressure us into pre-ordering it (which really doesn't work...).

Other than this youtube video, I'll leave you with one of the funniest things I've seen in awhile... Thanks Tim!



It makes me lol because Charlie Sheen has turned into Butthead when he speaks xD

M x

Cups of Tea 1213 - 1254

God Dammit! I meant to post this earlier, I didn't realize that I hadn't posted it... Started watching Easy A, so you now get a review of that as well haha, Aren't you lucky!

Anyways on with the blog!

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Sorry I haven't posted all week! I've been trying to get my Dissertation down... so it's finished, bound and now just needs signing and handing in! WINNAH! So this means I can get on with design work, which is joy! I've spent most of the day writing an outline 'design' (and I use that term loosely) of an ARG / Transmedia marketing campaign haha! It's been fun... wrote 3500 words and I now need to do the DESIGN for the Design... oh dear xD

Other than that, over the weekend I did two poster designs for the exhibition, I'm not over the moon with it if I'm honest, but I believe it's a strong idea that if I get the chance could be aces... the wonders of having Dissertation Stress!



and here's the website design... which I don't really think comes across minus the outlines I had in place... I might have to put them back in. For Tom, if you read this - It's designed for 960 grid ;)



Ho-ho-ho!

Anyways, I'd best go to bed... Having a nice cup of Tea but I do have Easy A here... hmm!

M x

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And yes, I did watch the movie haha! I enjoyed it if I'm being honest. As those who know me very well, I'm a sucker for '80s movies, and I love John Hughes beyond words. He and Wes Anderson are without a shadow of a doubt my favourite directors / story tellers... Both make films for dreamers and I probably like them to do my dreaming for me a little to much sometimes...

But anywho, it's very reminiscent of an 80's flick. It's a tale of a girl, raised by liberal parents, who doesn't really fit in with those around her. Olive (Emma Stone) who tells one little lie about sleeping with a boy and is over heard by the school's over achieving, overly Christian bitchy girl Marianne (played by Amanda Byrne of 'Amanda Show' Fame). In true high school fashion, the rumor spreads and Olive becomes known as the school slut. While she first tries to rectify the situation, Olive ends up embracing this role and experiences the trials and tribulations of life.

While I don't want to give to much away, suffice to say it's a movie about growing up, realizing who you are and growing from experience. The supporting cast is also excellent, Penn Badgley who i've never seen in anything (a quick IMDB says you'll know him from Gossip Girl) gave a great performance as the typical jock who goes for the geek girl in the old, Jake Harvey to Olive's Samantha Baker.

And then we get to my main problem with the film. Some of the better moments of the film, nods to movies spiritual predecessors, the breakfast club, sixteen candles and say anything, are not only explained to the audience in an almost pandering way, BUT THEY SHOW US CLIPS FROM THE MOVIES HALF WAY THROUGH! UGGGGH! They could have done it a little more subtitle, weaving them into the narrative with polite nods (like Paul did) as apposed to stopping the movie, erecting a whiteboard and walking the audience step by step through why Badgley is standing outside her window with a boom box.

I'm a fan of Stone because she manages to pull quirky / sarcastic off very well and if you're going to have an 80's lead, they've got to have attitude. The cast are likable and the plot is both funny and charming throughout. It's a great movie to watch if you're longing a new take on the teen drama. I recommend it!

x