Convenient Debacle

Thoughts of a Graphic Design student from Kitchener, Canada.

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Ya Gotta Watch Rick and Morty There is no other animation out there like the adventures you go on with Rick and Morty. This science fiction cartoon is not only hilarious it is extremely creative and imaginative. Rick, the scientist, and his grandson Morty travel the galaxy using a portal gun and a space ship that Rick made using stuff he found in Morty’s family garage. With the show’s third season slowly approaching you have time to catch up on the first two seasons. I don’t think I’ve ever loved a cartoon this much, I promise you will not be disappointed. 

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Another one of my birthdays just passed where I received a pretty awesome gift. With my family knowing my interest in typography they got me a book called Typography Sketch Books compiled by Steven Heller and Lita Talarico. I recommend this for people who are intrigued by process work, rough sketches and of course typography. It’s filled with inspiration from various designers that I enjoy having as a reference on my shelf. 

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When stuck in ps- try Phlearn!

The great thing about Photoshop is that you can pick up tips and tricks from just about any other photoshop user. Since there is a vast amount of features and tools that means there is more then one way to achieve one task and whomever you ask just might know the quickest and best way. This can also be the overwhelming and frustrating part about photoshop because of the infinite number of online tutorials that you have to search through, I myself have wasted away many hours watching horrible tutorials before I land on a good one. I’ve finally found a great resource that I always check with first when it comes to a photoshop need: Phlearn Photoshop and Photography Tutorials. The tutorials are led by Aaron Nace who is a great teacher. Aaron is very easy to follow along with and has an over all knack for teaching online tutorials. Many times a tutorial is so hard to watch because the tutor is speaking in a monotone voice as if they are about to fall asleep, but when you follow along Aaron’s tutorials you are alone intrigued by his enthusiasm for photoshop and photography. Phlearn is continually uploading new tutorials every week, I suggest subscribing to their channel because there are topics that you didn’t know that could help you. 

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Animated Procrastination 2

Here are some more wonderfully orchestrated animated videos for your enjoyment.

Ma’agalim:  Directed by Uri Lotan - in a forgotten old penny arcade, a wooden doll is stuck in place and time https://vimeo.com/162052542

The Maker In this Tim Burtonesque short  a strange creature races against time to make the most important and beautiful creation of his life https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDXOioU_OKM Tumbleweed Tango This is a very fun one, showing how two balloon animals survive in a cactus filled desert https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlwfd1ZaDJ4&nohtml5=False

Fresh Guacamole This short film by PES is oddly satisfying to watch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNJdJIwCF_Y

Fugu A funny one minute short with great detail https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oolJWcOhHCw

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Professional Wall Doodler While browsing the web I came across a very interesting artist, Charlotte Man. What is interesting about this British artist is that she draws on walls. Her intricate 1:1 scale drawings all done with black marker have caught the attention of design museums and fashion shows, not having to look for work since her creating her first fashion show back drop. You can see for yourself why her meticulously detailed work captures attention. 

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Hansel and Gretel Book Trailer

School assignment - to create a book trailer between 30-60 seconds.

This semester I created a book trailer for the Brothers Grimm’s Hansel and Gretel. It was my first time animating and using Adobe’s After Affects. The first part of the story is mostly of the brother and sister walking lost in the woods- before they find the candy house. To make walking in the woods more interesting I timed it to a song (Elastic Heart by Sia), which also helped to set the mood of the video.  I learned that animation can be a very finicky process but even so I still quite enjoyed it. I hope to be able to make some improvements to my current animation before it goes through it’s final evaluation.  

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Family Day Fun!

For family day I went to the Waterloo Regional Museum. For the holiday they had a lot of activities for kids and families, but it’s a great place to go with your family any time. It’s a beautiful museum with great architecture and an outdoor area open during the warmer seasons. In the building they kept the old railway track running through the museum’s floor which is a beautiful feature, along with the recycled wood walls and locally sourced limestone this museum is a iconic landmark for the Waterloo Region. 

What I enjoyed this time around were the birds of prey brought by Wild Ontario. These birds are rescued from people who captured them to keep them as pets, which is very illegal. Unfortunately, these birds can never be released back to the wild because they lack the skills to survive. They were very cute!

The birds include: Great Horned Owl, Eastern Screech Owl, Broad Winged Hawk and a Kestrel Falcon. 

There was an exhibit called “In the Dark’, which featured displays of nature’s night life and activities. We’re pretty sure was meant for kids.. but we participated anyway.

The rest of the museum holds the history and stories of Waterloo Region. They have a lot of old antiques on display, pictures and art. It is a nice collection that rounds up who the people of this Region are. The architects also cleverly built history right into the colourful panels of the walls outside, very cool. I suggest to go visit when you get the chance. 

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BEER LABEL: final

In my last post I left off saying that I was going to cross-hatch my final beer label design twice the size that it needs to be for the final. When I finished inking my design I scanned a copy to be able to colour it in using photoshop. After playing around with the colours for a while I was finally ready to print, choosing a tanned paper with a bit of texture that looks great with the greens of the design. 

Overall I am quite happy with the results, though I forgot to kern the space between the P and the A in PALE for the school’s deadline, I’ll be sure to change that for my portfolio. Oh the little things. 

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BEER LABEL: concepts and roughs

At the beginning of this semester I was assigned to design a label for a craft beer, one that we make up ourselves. That means coming up with the name, the brewery and of course, the design. The difficult part about this is that a craft beer label design can pretty much be anything! The possibilities are endless. 

I started the process by gathering inspiration from various examples at the LCBO and searching online. To get ideas down onto paper I seemed to pair a lot of animals with adjectives, like: the classy flamingo, one-eyed sparrow and lucky monkey. After meeting with my teacher I decided to go with Lazy Ape Ale.

I started to play around on illustrator and photoshop but I was not happy with the results. I moved back to pencil and paper and sketched out designs for the Lazy Ape over and over.  At this point I also got my hands on Artist Beer Visions to reference (https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/3rdrailpresents/artist-beer-visions), it’s a wonderful book.

Finally happy with the design I was able to start inking the final copy, at double size so that later I wouldn’t run into any quality issues. That is my process so far, I will post my final work later.

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Animated Procrastination

A way I spend a lot of time sitting at my computer is watching animated short films. I find myself saying ‘just one more...” maybe one too many times. What I appreciate about a lot of these short films is the attention to detail, it is mesmerizing. The creativity and talent out there is incredible and inspiring. This semester in one of my classes I will be creating my first animation, a book trailer for Hansel and Gretel. Who knows, maybe it will be my first of many.. Pixar here I come! 

Here is a list of 10 short films that I’ve enjoyed with their links, in no particular order: 

Zero: The story of poor little Zero https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOMbySJTKpg

The present: An inspirational story with a  very cute dog https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjqiU5FgsYc

Alarm: The detail! I love the detail in this one https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vN83DfmH9Tw Feast: Another one with a cute dog, this time by Disney https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7ARYCDna3E

Desire: An animation featuring a team of robots with fun sound effects https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bqIZqO_EUP0

Gumball Wars: A funny 2 minute one https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=doxq-gvNFx8

A Single Life: An interesting take on life in just over 2 minutes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzNV_LIQLqo

Selfillumination: A creative take on tap dancing https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YiKXdbW9MRg

Branded Dreams - The Future Of Advertising Just find this one really interesting and well done https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5h6ie-bRJc

Life is Beautiful Turning a man’s suicide into an interesting story https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fDoTmjHa1I

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Make Me Pulse

wishes you all the best for 2016

While browsing the internet one night I came across this website: In 2016 Make Me… The list includes work hard, think, dream big, strive, proud, imagine and finally pulse. To start off the new year this is a strong and motivating list, and it is done in a very fun and interactive way.  This website serves more then one purpose: while wishing the user the best for 2016 the site also works as an advertisement for Make Me Pulse, specialists in digital activation and cutting-edge technologies.  As a creative it is important to remember to have fun, because it can become very stressful, I’m sure we all have experienced a crushing deadline. With each project that you set yourself on it is a chance to show off your skills and talents, as this website does for Make Me Pulse. Designing and creating is a series of challenges that we continually over come, so remember to have fun with it! And also to work hard, think, dream big, strive, be proud and imagine. This is a very good list to keep in the back of your mind for 2016. 

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Mr. W - Epuron

For my first post I would like to share one of my favourite commercials, Mr. W. This commercial is almost a decade old but I still find the creativity behind this ad inspiring. In a clever way the creators, Paranoid and The Vikings, disguise wind as a gentle giant who tugs at your heart strings. You want to love him but you watch him act as a constant annoyance, like throwing sand in kids faces. With the somber piano music playing in the background it perfectly adds to the comedic effect. 

It is a successful commercial because it is entertaining and memorable. It is also successful because it has two different objectives; the German Ministry for the Environment wanted to improve the general public’s opinion of wind energy and Epuron was looking for investors. 

In the end there’s a charm to this commercial that would be hard to mimic. They have made a debacle convenient.