Shop fronts!

Ah now this was fun, another haul from the Batman live project, a wee bit of fun involving modifying the shop fronts of Forbidden planet in order to become a form of rather overt Guerilla marketing. The idea is that any villain featured in the show would have an appearance in the form of shop from in the coming months.

This also tied rather nicely into the online hunt. The idea was to entice people into finding out more by offering them rewards such as goodies and even tickets to the event. The website would have hidden details in a viewing gallery that featured these pictures. People would be able to search for clues that would lead to them accessing more of the site as well.

Naturally these shop fronts would also have hidden clues hidden in the form of QR codes allowing people to instantly access the website and other content/clues in the hunt for free stuff.

This sort of plan would have been marketed at the teen/older batman fans - using smart phones to tweet and  scan QR codes to work out what is going on. The Overhauled shop fronts where essentially designed for any aged batman fan, even the really young as the designs embrace the more silly camp nature of the series that I think is probably the best known part of the series. Ahh Adam West.

Thinking about it, wouldn't it have been awesome to have the "Riddler Planet" in neon? Oh come on you know that is seven flavours of awesome right there. 

37c

Huzzar, yet another project gets uploaded. 37c. Quite a fun one. Creating some form of advertising for Art galleries coming to hospitals.

Well I tried to avoid the doom and gloom feeling that hospitals seem to evoke. Because, lets be honest, if they do the best thing it's making you feel misreble. Perhaps that is just me but the scale of bad things vs good things on visiting on a hospital...bad out weighs good sadly.

So I went for something a little joyful and fun. Of course the 37 degrees joke is only going to make sense if you know human biology. Thankfully I do - the wonder temperate of the human body is 37 degrees celius. So it's more medical humour in there for you.

I went with the multiple variations of colour, I think it helps fit into the more bright and optimistic view we try to have with hospitals. Surprisingly I think this is one of the few usages of the colour red in a 'feel good' poster that I can say works and has context. And it's one of the few occasions where I will break my own personal rule of never using green and red together. But that works out fine since the green is made of two nicely contrasting shades that help lift the red off and stopping that freaky illusion you get when your brain tries to focus on a 'agressive' colour over a more 'passive'.

But oh wait, thats not all. I've got a mite more to show you kiddies. See that little smiley? Well the brilliant thing about an icon are ones that we've used so much they become somewhat generic until you make a change, we notice the altered ones more often because it's a sudden change from the norm. Probably the best example is the Watchmen 'smiley' that is used all over the place.

So here are a few variations -

In keeping with the concept of different artistic movements, I decided to try and keep the same idea with the face. Though doubtful there would ever be a horror exhibition it's a nice little example of how diverse the logo can be when the situation demands it.

Batman live - that old chest nut.

So I finally graduated, much larking around in robes by all. And suddenly I realised that I hadn't actually uploaded much in the way of my Batman work.
Well hindsight sucks, but looking back on that project I don't think I had as much fun as I really could have. Out of most of the artwork that I produced I get the feeling the main poster was something I am most proud of. It's by far not the best, and perhaps the wanted posters I have produce surpass it artistically, but I feel that this -

Probably hit nearly all the nails I was aiming for. Though that said, I am more than tempted to go back and perhaps make something new of it. As I write this I have the urge to go back and re-examine the more complex or perhaps unused designs that I didn't use, primarily due to time constraints, and also because during the production of this project, there was hardly any information released about the Live event. So perhaps knowing what the show is now could perhaps I could make something better? Who knows, that said though I loved working on this poster, the final moment of the artwork, just getting it all to work together. I wish I could have evoked a more comic book feel. Perhaps that will be something to investigate on a potential re-design. My recent work with the Valve posters have made me want to produce more poster themed artwork. 

For typography...you monster.

So here it comes - drum roll please.

A totally different take on the look and feel for the posters with this one. With TF2 it was the focus on the cast, hence the very stylised look borrowed from the Burn after reading poster. This one is something more akin to the games rather than directly lifting from Bass's own style. 

Portal (at last the first one) has a large section of the game set within the test chambers. The colours are bare with flecks of reds blues and tones of greys in there for good measure. But on the whole, typical looking lab colours. I decided to use this to my advantage in giving the poster it's own feel that relates to the games. Instead of smaller gritty details I really went all out with the idea of white minimal feel. 

If I listed all the variations of the portal placements as well, we would be here for a while. Suffice to say, there where a few, ranging from text going in the right side of the page and coming out the top downwards, some text being throw in at odd angles. But all the while maintaining the link between the two shapes.

Of course if there is one gripe I think people will pick up on is that it's Portal not Portals. Well yes this is true, but I consider these Posters more of a tribute rather than a means of selling a product. It's more fun than anything else. 

And there will be a special bonus for those who stick around, there is an alternate poster design for this kicking around - it uses far more Bass like elements but it was scrapped because it didn't feel as unique as it could have been, the it still lingers somewhere on my hard drive. So when all of these are done I might dig it out and show the world. 

Until then, it's off to Garry's Mod and Half Life. 

Burn after playing

So, remember that stuff I was on about? Well here comes the first one, in leu of my love for Valve, I have produced this.

I just woke up one day and decided to produce posters that where based around the Saul Bass style. Looking at the Burn after Reading poster I noticed it deals with a large cast list, much like the large list of characters in the game. I decided for a little fun, sadly the film and the game have nothing in common, but I would like to think that there are fans of both out there. (Which makes me think I actually need to see more Coen Brothers films)

So, for everyone's enjoyment here it it.

Entire team is babies!

Continuing to build an internet face.

So, as it goes things have been quiet, more of a week of filling out forms, more writing and more of the above. Not saying it isn't all fun. I continue the day when I can tell Nintendo how to make a game properly and fall at the feet of Valve for being one of the few game designers out there who know how to make a genuinely fun game.

Yes I've been in a bit of a gaming mood. Though it's justified on this blog since I think it totally counts as graphic design...

Shut up, it does.

So I think a promised a few bits and bobs didn't I? Well I did, and I think you get to see said bits and bobs.

The double L is intentional...just so you know.

So this is some basic concept work for a little branding I was tasked to do. A little odd with the whole double LL. But hey it was in the brief, who am I to judge? 

It's a cumbersome word to work with really. But I tried to avoid the more stodgy kinds of designs that cab be associated with this sort of work. A lot of my previous ideas started to fall into clip art areas. I though that was probably a good idea that you didn't see it. There is perhaps a lot of work still to go on it. Most likely tweaking, lots of that. It's a necessity in design these days. 

With this idea I tried to avoid using an overt logo and tried for a more simplistic feel. The idea of 'productions' allowed me to latch on to something like move production. (In reality this company deals with RP and what not). I felt that drawing subtle aesthetic comparisons to the styles of move company logos would help it just feel a little more alive and less corporate.  

However I'm still not getting my usual pazzaz from it. Still needs a little life. So hence the tweaking. Something about it to me feels a little flat. But hey I'm just waiting for feedback on it the now. Any thing that gets updated will be more or less portfolio material. 

However, that's not all I am working on. I do have something in the mix. (I get the feeling I've been saying that a lot recently). It's more of those personal projects, but I get the feeling this is VERY worth it, one of those nice little things that only come along once in a while. But it will be done very soon. I think you guys out there will like it.