Up There

UP THERE from Jon on Vimeo.

Amazing film about the dying art of advert painting in New York, beautifully shot film about an amazing discipline. Enjoy.

Time to get back on it.

So after a few months of absenteeism, I have finally got back on the blog, to fill you in on my antics would be slightly self serving, but as its my blog and that really is the point of these things I may as well do it anyway. I have been on summer after graduating CASD Graphic Communication, I attained a 2:1 which I'm pretty chuffed with and I have managed to get a job.

Thats pretty much it, my summer has been filled with the standard capers of a 22 year old who lives by the beach, in short I went to the beach a lot. I've pretty much spent 5 out of 7 days a week with my friends, juggled family issues around that and had all in all a pretty good time. This last month I have been doing a work placement at Tasty Marketing, a small marketing firm based in Poole, which has now turned into a job opportunity that I am looking forward to starting in mid November. As for between then and now, I am just about to start filming a new film as an extra which will be quite an exciting thing also.

So a new chapter in this blog and my life is just about to begin, I intend to post stuff about what's going on in my life, as well as stuff that I think is good in the design world also, as well as anything that vaguely interests me. So keep involved and keep checking (all you four followers out there).

For now, take it easy.

New Star Wars Addidas advert.

While watching the shocking England game this evening I was treated to a brilliant new advert by Adidas for the new Star Wars inspired Adidas clothing, while I'm not a fan of the products I am a big fan of the advert, it seems unlike Nike who use Wieden and Kennedy to make their ads, Adidas contacted Lucasfilm and produced it themselves in conjunction with George Lucas himself.

Anyway its pretty impressive and continues a run of really good adverts by Adidas. Enjoy.

Bubbles

Simply just a brilliant song and a nice if simple video to accompany it.

A Brief Introduction.

The purpose of this blog is to provide a place for me to share my thoughts on pretty much anything i find while trawling through the net, wasting time on the sofa or generally going through life while training to be a designer, sadly this level of "luxury" is quickly coming to and end and graduation is looming just round the corner, this has led me to the small matter of a lot of self reflection... the second more serious purpose of this blog.

Part of my 3rd year requirements is to complete a reflective journal, the first part as i have explained are my blog posts on pretty much whatever i fancy and the second are a number of self assessments and reflections. about my time at uni and as i have grown as a designer. So under the label of "Reflective Journal" all these self assessments, personal statements, and a PDF download of my portfolio will appear.

Florence is an arms dealer?

I quite like this, it doesn't really have a purpose, but then again neither does Amy Winehouse really so i guess it doesn't matter.

http://mutatebritain.bigcartel.com/product/dr-d-–-i-hear-duffys-selling-coke

enjoy.

Bad day to be a ginger

http://www.miauk.com/

This music video for MIA's new song "born free" literally shits all over Lady Gaga's "story" music videos, its got a cloverfield/hurt locker feel to it, but with a much weirder message.

It's very good if a little over graphic for a music video. Follow the link to see it.

The Big Idea

EXILE/FOREIGN/DEMOCRACY/FREEDOM/FUNDAMENTALISM

My last official project at Uni is finally upon me after this its just a few weeks of portfolio reviews, presenting this blog and putting together a grad show, and then i graduate and become technically unemployed.

The project is called the Big Idea, we are given 5 words and we are told to pick one, we are encouraged to pick quickly and impulsively, out of all the words freedom is my gut reaction and Freedom is what i will be focussing the project on. However part of me feels I am pandering to a cliche, the interesting thing is a lot of my previous work has focussed on these themes before in my work and a part of me feels that these "random" words were given to me because of what I already have in my portfolio, thus imprisoning me in a project that i do not want to be in, the irony of picking the word freedom, I am interested in how I will come out of this one, I don't normally post about my work, but I think I will keep the blog updated on this particular project.

Freeview HD advert

I was watching TV this evening and an advert came up for Freeview HD, the content was a bunch of kids playing football in a packed out stadium, it was just a beautifully crafted advert, I can't find it on the net but I will continue to look for it, watch this space.

Harry's New York Bar

The reason for blogging this bar is similar to the reasons for blogging the bookstore, it is in Paris, and was frequented by Hemmingway and Fitzgerald, however i get the feeling that they were visiting this establishment for very different reasons. This bar again was set up by an American hoping to profit from the American occupation of france in the WWI, he bought it with a friend who owned a bar in NYC, dismantled the NYC bar and shipped it to france to re build it there.

The owners hired a guy called Harry to run it, when the bar went out of business Harry bought the property put his name in the title and ran it himself, turning it into the parisian legend it is today, it purports to be the oldest cocktail bar in europe and created cockatails like the bloody mary and the monkey gland. There are pictures of writers and artists sat at the tables hanging on the walls, and gershwin composed and American in Paris on the piano in the cellar bar.

Again just the oppourtunity to be in a place that Fitzgerald and Hemmingway may have thought or even penned a draft of The Great Gatsby and The Old Man And The Sea* is really exciting and gets the creativity inside me all riled up. Plus the Long Island Ice Tea is fantastic if brutally alcoholic.

*if you haven't read these, do so. They're really good.

Shakespeare and Company Ltd Book Store, Paris

As I said, graphic design in Paris seems to be on the back burner, however there are some very cool places for the arty creative types (surprise surprise).

One of these places is the Shakespeare and Company bookstore on the bank of the seine just opposite Notre Damme, It was opened before the war and has had quite an interesting past, it published Ulysses by James Joyce, when the States and the UK banned it, it was closed by the Nazis when the then owner wouldn't sell Finnegans Wake by James Joyce to a Nazi soldier, it sold risque books like Lady Chattersley's Lover when it was banned in other countries and was a hotspot for travelling authors of the 'lost generation' like Hemmingway and Fitzgerald.

After its closure it was reopened by George Whitman, and american soldier who didn't want to go back to the USA, it followed on in the same tradition as the original shop, becoming a cultural point of reference for bohemians and authors alike, it offered a very open door policy to travelling authors offering them free accommodation in return for a few hours work in the shop. This tradition continues today with shop housing 70 beds for traveling authors and bohemians, in addition there is a piano which the owner encourage the customers to play, similarly the writing booth complete with typewriter and fresh ink ribbon is there for all the aspiring writers.

The shop is fantastic housing every book you could possibly wish for, 1st editions, re additions, classics, modern classics, fictional or reference, all aspects are covered, with velvet seats scattered around the upstairs for you to sit and read.

It is of personal interest for me as I am a big fan of American Literature especially Fitzgerald, so just to see the places he hung out, drew inspiration from and was a part off is quite an experience.

Paris

Hi, so i have just come back from Paris, I went with my lady, firstly it was pretty sweet, secondly there was barely any decent graphics there, terrible poster designs and no agencies in central paris to have a look at, the galleries were pretty good, but very traditional, no real exapmles of a graphic edge in any work, even in the Pompadou, however there was a real presence of some quality product design, Phillipe Starcks presence in Paris is clearly rubbing off.

Hope you like, I'll find the designer in a bit and post up his website, for now there is a link to Phillipe Starcks website because, in my opinion he is a fantastic designer.

http://www.starck.com/

enjoy.

Patrick Hruby

Patrick Hruby is an interesting Illustrator, illustration isn't exactly my thing, but type is, and he uses his obvious skill to create some really nice illustrative typefaces, check out the rest of his portfolio here...

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

Helvetica 50

This is some of Andy Young' graphic design for the Sheffield Leg of the Helvetica 50 exhibition, celebrating 50 years of Helvetica, not only is this a delicious piece of graphic design, it uses Helvetica, a type face I favor in my own work. If you like this then check out his other works here.

http://www.ayoungdesigner.co.uk/

enjoy.

Kick-Ass

Kick-Ass (2010) from holli on Vimeo.

Saw it a couple of nights ago, probably one of the best films i have seen, totally re imagines the comic book genre, perfect mix of comedy, irony and brutal violence, accomplished performances from all the actors including a truly brilliant performance from a back on form Nic Cage.

Matthew Vaughn as director improves his portfolio with this film, taking everything he learnt from lock stock, snatch, layer cake and stardust and tweaking it ever so slightly, as it was totally funded by his company and Brad Pitt, there were no studios to tell him to tone anything down and the result is a film that he wanted to make and we wanted to see. He is one of the only directors making films this way and it works for him perfectly. If you can see it, go see it.

I Met The Walrus. Vimeo.

This is a very cool animation i found a while back and forgot about until now, its relatively interesting if you value the opinions of a spaced out musician, but really what makes this so good is the animation and graphic, it's a classic case of if you don't ask you don't get. Enjoy.

Old Spice

Old Spice must have a very funny ad guy as their adverts are always funny, the Will Ferrell adverts were a classic example of this, well their back with a new set and they are even funnier, enjoy the link.

Did you know I'm riding this horse backwards...

http://www.youtube.com/user/oldspice

30 Seconds to Mars

I saw these guys last night at the CIA, the tickets were free as I work there, but I can honestly say if I had paid for them it would have been money well spent. While his voice isn't brilliant their performance and musicality is, the engage with the audience and the come across as wanting to be there and there for the crowd rather than their wages.

Their Graphics are pretty sweet, they ran a lot of motion graphics on screens while they were playing and while it was all kinda cliched red white and black it works well with the whole bands aesthetics, they may not be saving the world with their message or music, but no one ever does, what they are doing is putting on a really good show.

Fantastic piece of product design.

I watched the Phillipe Stark programme on BBC2 a while back and realised as well as my love for good graphics i am interested in all elements of design especially product design.

This new design for a wall plug may just be one of the best pieces of design i have seen. The full link is below, enjoy.

http://chiewfan.com/2010/01/21/electrical-plug-with-latest-design/

Hello

I'm sat at my computer in my empty student house, so I figured I'd re start my blog as I seem to be the only person in my class without a blog.

I would imagine it's going to be a mix of decent design I find, possibly some of my work and anything that takes my fancy, plus maybe some personal blogging, but I'm pretty bad at keeping a diary so I wouldn't have thought thought this is going to go any better.

thanks for looking, enjoy.