Vector World Map

It might come in handy some day! I’ve been meaning to do one since my mate did the same thing for his own work in Bath. It’s vector-based so it can be changed in a number of ways e.g. the shapes/colours/sizes — see bottom image for example of alternative.

Black Dynamite

http://www.blackdynamitemovie.com/

Scotland map

I bought this old map of Scotland in London last time I was there. I’m always amazed by how much effort the draftsmen would put into work like this. Super cool type skillz. You can see Hamilton, if you look closely, just above ‘Lanerk’ in the second image — where my family are from!

LOUD

Japanese Book

I dug this little booklet/manuscript out that was given to me by my flatmate last year. All my flatmates in my last year at uni were from China and Japan and they were really generous with gifts after holidays! I love the calligraphy in it so I’ve put up a couple of images. It reminded me of when I would go to Chinese restaurants as a kid; if they had those little cocktail umbrellas I’d take them apart really carefully and unravel the tiny scroll of Chinese writing that would be inside.

Type design: E by gum

The lower half of the ‘e’ needed tweaking to avoid the stroke appearing too thin or too short — depending on which early version I’d choose. This latest attempt gives the lower half enough weight to look more balanced.

Type design: Part 01

I’ve been trying to devise a system of type design that might make use of the geometrical shapes in faces like Rockwell (below) but take into account the balance of lettering along the baseline. On close inspection it can be found that, for instance, the ‘p’ of a serif like Baskerville will extend very slightly higher than the ‘u’. It’s easy to neglect the finer details of legibility, like that, when working primarily with geometric shapes.

The first attempt was more rigid than I’d hoped for at first. The second is less rigid but still quite narrow. On a third attempt I refined the slab-serifs and widened the letter grid. The ‘e’ still needs some work and many more letters are yet to be drawn with this grid so my next post on the subject should show progress.

Berlin photos

Some other shots from when I went to Berlin. They should change its name to Tagged-like-crazy. Congrats to the lucky graff-artist who got his/her work on my blog! The fourth pic is of what used to be the river.

I went to the Jewish Museum which had an exhibition/installation as a response to the Jewish involvement in the war but most specifically the Holocaust.

Saw VI

Went to see Saw VI with my bro at the weekend and almost threw up my popcorn and coke combo within the first 10 mins as I watched an angry desperate woman take a cleaver to her outstretched limb…. Suffice to say she was no trained butcher so it took a good number of chops to finish the job.

I won’t bother giving a review of the riveting plot-line…it’s a gore movie after all. And guess what! It was left open ended. Never saw it coming.

A new film with Michael Caine comes out soon. It’s one of those normal-guy-turns-nasty-on-evil-baddies films…much like Taxi Driver or The Brave One. Looks worthy of a watch!

www Smashing Mag

I came across the website below while having a rummage around online. It’s great for tutorials and list-oriented articles on design. There’s a page about ‘great logos’ and their designers which is worth having a look at.

The Illustrator tutorials are okay but I got through them all in a couple of days and they can be quite repetitive. In fact, it’s probably worth pointing out that you should only take them as a means of learning techniques. A lot of them involve making something look shiny or 3D — I’d be weary of doing that for the sake of aesthetics. As it says on the site, doing something for aesthetic purpose (like the ghastly drop-shadow, for instance) are basically giving a design an expiry-date. So…I would learn the techniques and ignore the aesthetics…

http://www.smashingmagazine.com/

Devendra Banhart Album

I recently bought Devendra Banhart’s ‘Cripple Crow’ album and, listening to it, I started to hear the words ‘little boys I’d like to marry’…

Alarm bells began to ring until I read an interview with the guy online that said he’d written those lyrics to make sure Starbucks wouldn’t play his music and reduce him to coffee-shop ambience. Genius

Two Life Drawings

Here is a couple of drawings I did last year. They’re A1 size and I got a couple of digital prints made of them before I left Bath.

I was lucky enough to have a laid back tutor so I got the chance to just try new things. Accuracy shmaccuracy. It’s really worthwhile to try as many different things as possible before exploring one approach in more detail. In fact, I found that trying to draw accurately was probably the worst thing to do if you want to draw accurately. Learning how/why something looked the way it did was how I learned to draw more accurately and more creatively.

www designshop

Found this site that sells some nice stuff in the UK. Shall have to see what I can get for family Christmas pressies on there.

http://www.designshopuk.com/index.html

www Kid from Brooklyn

I have to point you to this guy…. My mate showed me this video a year or so ago and I didn’t stop laughin for hours!

The fawkin’ balllls!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18ClRW7nDxs

The big man’s always…happy to see ya

Words in Space shadows

Bristol zoo 09

shits ’n’ gigs

AugrEs of InOsNs

The poem by W.Blake in text-speak. I love the way text-speak can bring out the rhythm of poetry visually.

Some are born to sweet delight, some are born to endless night.

A truth that’s told with bad intent, beats all the lies you can invent.

Flower

Thank you ‘transform again’ function

Next addition to Mac laptops