Lost Souls - Poppy Z Brite

Okay so, Lost Souls is pretty much my favourite book ever in the world. I love it so much. This si the cover on the book that I have, the one that Leigh is borrowing at the moment.
It's pretty bad quality a picture, but it was the best I could find. I would have scanned my own copy, but it's not in my posession at the moment.
During my Foundation course, we had to redesign the cover of a book of our choice, and I obviously chose this one. I had so much fun with it and really liked the outcome. I would show you a picture of the sketchbook that went with it, but it's back home in Grimsby, tucked under my desk. The thing was immense though, and weighed a ton.




This is the cover of the book that I designed for that project, and I really liked it. It was the result of lots of layering and blending and that's actually my eye, just tweaked a lot.

And then, on an adventure of surfing deviantART, I come across this. A Russian artist known only as fya-shellk as made her own copy of the book, complete with all her own beautiful illustrations.

I would pay good money to own oe of these, but unfortunately, it's one-of-a-kind, so I can't. Her work is completely beautiful though and it must feel so good to have such a unique copy of a favourite novel. I'm jealous, clearly, but I'm very impressed.

Here are a few examples of the double page spreads inside the book.

:[. Want.

-HJ x

Typography

During playing around with type for the latest brief, for which I am submitting to the Don't Panic poster competition. I'll have another blog post on this project at some point soon, but at the moment I' just focusing on type.

I never had a chance to work with typography before I came to LCAD, and honestly, I didn't know anything about it.

I was messing around with a Plato quote that I was using for the poster, just to see what kind of typefaces I could produce by playing around with brushes and lines.


The above two images were made using paint brushes in Illustrator. I really like how messy and scrappy they turned out, but they are still completely readable, unlike some of the results that I came out with.

This image below was clearly made using the dotted lines and scissor marks that we see on an image that needs cutting out. Because there were so many lines and corners in the actual type, it went a little crazy, but I think it looks good. It's still readable, thought interesting to look at.
The image below is my favourite. I accidently created it using one of those page divider deals on Illustrator, and it went crazy but I really like how it looks. I'm going to play around a lot more with type in future now that I realise just how I can make type far more interesting.


-HJ x

The Dark Crystal

Now, I don't know how many of you have seen The Dark Crystal, but it's very good. Very strange, but I enjoyed it a lot, and would recommend watching it. It's like, twisted Muppets, and it was done by the same guy. Though I'm not sure whether this or the muppets came first. Anyway.

It's kind of like Labyrinth, which was also done by Jim Henson, but Labyrinth freaked me out a lot as a kid. Also, I get Legend and Labyrinth mixed up quite a lot.

I found this book in my room, because the living room at home is being redecorated, so all of her books, and there are a lot, are being kept in my room. She has some awesome books, and got quite a few art books like this when she was younger, I love rifling through them.

This is the concept art book for The Dark Crystal, illustrated by Brian Froud. There are some truly beautiful illustrations in it. It was printed in 1982, so it's older than I am!



Some of the images are on tracing paper so they form more intricate designs with the images behind them. I think that it's a fantastic idea, really, laying images up like that, and both images look great alone as well as together. This Brian Froud character is a very talented man.




My feet in the last one, hah. Oops. Anyway, if you haven't seen this movie, I suggest you do, or try find the book somewhere to look at. Or just look up Brian Froud's work.

American election VOTE posters.

I found this treasure trove of voting posters for the US election. A design company called AIGA invited designers to take a part in their campaign of creating posters that would inspire and encourage people to vote. Because so many Americans just don't bother (not that it matters, most votes don't count. Only certain states' votes really count). There are hundreds of entries on the site, and I trawled through them all, picking out my favourites to post on here.

The above poster was created by Mary Meiners to highlight all of the excuses that people use as to why they didn't vote. It's very interesting to look at and aesthetically pleasing. All that jumbled up text just makes me want to lean in and work out what all of them say.


This poster was created by Zach Norman with the phrase 'Use your voice'.
Unfortunately, this one has been removed from the sight and so I can't tell you who the designer is. It's one of my favourites though.

This design was sent in by Scott Brucato with the phrase 'Thing about it'.

Emily Green designed this one to spread the message that 'we need a leader that understands all of our needs and that the environment is one of them.'

This has since been removed from the sight and I really can't remember who designed this, I love it though. Picking out the letters in a brighter colour to draw attention to them is a sure way to bring the eye in and grab attention.

This one was designed by Will Ecke, and I think that this is one of my favourites. It's very simple, and the way that the two animal representatives have been combined to create a heart is excellent and aesthetically pleasing.

The site where all of the other designs are is here.

-HJ x

Durex Balloon Animals

One of the best adverts I have ever seen, no joke. Don't click if you're under eighteen. Oh God

Packaging Design

So I've been lurking around lately, and really, I haven't gotten a lot of work done at home yet.Some, but not an extensive amount. I'm a little umotivated and spend my days watching Miami Ink. Plus, Santa brought me the flu for christmas and that kind of knocked me out. Anyway, here's some awesome packaging design that I've discovered during my surfing.

Andy Mangold redesigned the Monopoly packaging, and I think it looks so much better. It looks much classier and suits such a classic game, rather than the gaudy packaging that we often see the game in. You can see the details and the rest of the redesign here.
This packaging for baby converse was designed by Ronny Poon. Personally, I love the lace up detail on the box, and according to the designer, provides some form of child learning benefit. A quote from the designer is:

"A fun package for toddlers’ Converse shoes. It helps improve children’s motor skills by allowing the child to lace-up the box. When 5 boxes are collected they can be placed together to form the Converse star."

I can't see a toddler needing five pairs of Chucks, but fair enough. I thought it was aesthetically pleasing.This is possibly the best condom packaging I have ever seen in my life. This design was entered into the Sex & Sundhed packaging competition by Mads Jakob Poulsen and Robert Nagy. It's simple and humorous, and well, it gets the message across.

-HJ x

Oh I'm ready for it.

Come on, bring it Christmas. I'm ready for it.

Carl's Illustrator Poster...

Awww

Seriously, how nice is that? The illustrator version of the font he made for me. He gave it to me with my namebadge as a christmas present, and I gave him the one I made for him. Awww.

I told you I'd stick it up, Carl!

-HJ x

I JUST FOUND THIS PICTURE

That's me in about....ooh, 2006? Age 16. I would have said younger, but that's my film SLR so it was during AS levels. That's in Cyprus, and I was on a mountain and it was cold. Hence the hoodie. My dad took this when I, clearly, wasn't paying attention, haha.Look at that mad rad hair!

-HJ x

Mario Kart Song

I'm spreading the love, despite it not being Graphic Design related.

-HJ x

Technically not graphic design but...

I just made soap! This is my first attempt at it, and this side of it looks really good! (It's wrapped in clingfilm, by the way, it's not actually got white bits on it.) The other side, which was the top, looks kind of dodgy because I heated it up too much. Oh well, first attempt though! Not bad, if I do say so myself.

Mmm...honey and lemon scented.

-HJ x

Stuff that's just awesome.

Alrighty, so this is a collection of awesome stuff that I've found while surfing the web. I love to surf. The font below made of bones was created by Sara Morissey. I think it's so clever how bones in the body have turned on their sides and moved around to represent letterforms. I especially love the sideways skull that forms the D at the end of BLOOD. And the H formed from the ribcage at the end of FLESH.

The image below is actually a real advert for SEGA. I can't believe that it ever went to print, and appeared in real magazines. It's very clever, though dirty, I completely love it. Innuendos in adverts are amazing.

This is just about the best thing I've come across ever in my life. It's a handmade Adobe Photoshop CS4 screen, made up of boxes and paints and paintbrushes to represent the real thing. It must be absolutely huge when seen up close. This was created by an agency called Bates141 Jakarta

Again, I can't find the name of who created this, and it's not very graphic design, but who cares? It's my blog and I'll put what I want on it. This image, to me is just so beautiful. How the dress stills forms the right shape even though it is full of balloons and not full of human. Although, in reality, it must be made of something already rigid for it to make such a shape. I really love how the balloons can be seen through the thin fabric and are blurred and soft looking. Beautiful.

-HJ x

Interesting colourwheels

Whilst surfing the web, I've come across these interesting ways of representing a colour wheel. I especially like the leaves below. I could not find, for the life of me, who made it, but if they ever stumble across this blog, kudos to you. It looks great. I love red leaves.


Okay, the two colourwheels below were found on this website. I think they're really interesting and unusual ways to represent a colourwheel, but they're very aesthetically pleasing too.
-HJ x

Alphonse Mucha

I have recently discovered the work of Alphonse Mucha. He was famous last century, so I guess you could say I'm a little slow on the uptake, but anyways. I am a big fan of Art Nouveau, I'd say it was my favourite, if I had to pick, out of all the art movements. Bauhaus would be at the bottom of the list, let me tell you. I know, I know, that we wouldn't have so much of what we have today without it, and we would be behind the times or whatever. If you had to do an entire year of just Bauhaus with my waffy A-Level teacher, you would understand. Besides, I am not a fan on Modernism, not in the slightest.


Anyway, I'm going off on one, as they say. These three images are all by Alphonse Mucha, and I really do think that they are beautiful pieces of work. I love the colours used, pale and washed out, nothing that really leaps out and smacks you in the face. It just works as a piece, and is beautiful. I love how elegant the pieces are, with the curves and the flowing lines and the folds of draped fabric. They're elaborate, but not to the point where you think that too much is going on.

One of my favourite things about these Alphonse Mucha images, is the way that he does hair. It's not even that detailed in it's shading, and it doesn't look like realistic hair, but the curls and the way it flows often gives it a sense of direction. In the image below the lack of detail to the hair is most apparent. It's almost a solid colour, but closer inspection would reveal that it's more of a wash of colour, slight hues within it. I love how simple the hair and the clothing is in comparison to the detail given to the face and the rest of the body.

A slightly unrelated point, but I don't know how many of you have walked past a Clinton's Cards lately and seen the gorgeous 'Deco' prints and fullsize cardboard cutouts they have in there? Well, if you haven't, just know that they're beautiful. I was walking past today after buying Chipsticks from Poundland, and I saw this box of rolled up posters, and it said, 'Deco Posters 99p!' in rather large letters. They were full size posters too. Anyway, I got all excited and was routing through the box, thinking, they're cheap! I'll get two! And then I moved the posters enough, to noticing some little writing under the '99p!' that said 'when you spend £10 on Deco products'. Ugh. I got so excited, and then bam. Please, Clinton's Cards, make the font a little bigger so that no more people get let down like I did. I swear, you don't get owt for nowt these days.

This, frankly gorgeous, picture is by an artist called Stella Im Hultberg. A lot of her pictures are like this, made up of ink washes and stains, and are on tea stained paper, like the one above. I love that the image isn't on white paper, it really wouldn't have the same effect of it was. The colour of the background adds to the effect of the image, giving the whole thing a soft, almost hazy tone. It really does inspire me to try working on not just different coloured paper, but on top of washes and textures that I make myself. I'm going to use some of those that I made while doing mono printing, some of those turned out pretty sweet.

And this last point couldn't be further from the whole Art Nouveau thing, but still. I don't know how many of you have ever played this game. Pretty much, the game took a week to make, and is made entirely of white vector lines. You can put your own music into it, and the line rabbit has to jump over obstacles in time to the music. It's so simple, yet very entertaining. It's almost as simple a concept as Pong. Anyway, if you do badly, the rabbit, Vibri, will turn into a frog, and if you still do worse, she will turn into this kind of worm thing with a television for a head. If you do really well, she'll turn into a princess and dance across the obstacles. It's pretty cute. Anyway, I've recently got my PS1 routed out and hooked up in the flat, and I was thinking, damn I need to get this game again, so I go to ebay. And seriously, for a second hand game that consists of...sticks, really, £20 is the lowest I have found. It's such a low key game! I thought I would have been able to pick it up for about a fiver!

Another bummer is that I've lost my FFVII game :[ I have disc 2 of 4 and the rest has just gone kaput. I really need to get a new one.

- HJ x