Making my peace with Microsoft.

Microsoft, and all it entails, has for a while now been something of a faux-pas with many of the more culturally aware members of society.
Its offerings to the software market have become sparse, and woefully inadequate in recent years.. which in a strange way seems to be deceitful as Microsoft were the ones who sculpted the course of the modern computer technology industry all those years ago.

A revolution of computer interface has swept the industry over the past 5 years, championed by a man called Steve Jobs.
This era has brought about computers that will adjust their screens to suit whichever way you want to hold it. Phones that have no keypads yet are capable of doing anything you could ever want from a screen and - crucially - operating software that takes user interface to the next level.

Regardless of ones opinion towards Apple, it can not be denied that their user-interface has been sublime, seamless and beautiful at times, and this is the area in which Microsoft simply have fallen by the wayside.
Internet Explorer 8 is exactly the same as Internet Explorer 2 in that it does nothing more to engage with the users thought process or logic. They simply made the icons smoother.

Internet Explorer will still begin to build a descending wall of unwanted add-ons across you screen at free will and tirelessly seek out the most minute defects of your HTML or CSS coding.

Georgia posters

As promised the first few drafts of the 'prop posters' are nearly done.
Bearing in mind the brief for these posters was to intentionally work in an element of being 'slightly naff' in keeping with their purpose as the promotion of a fictional bankrupt amateur dramatics company.

The first couple are pictured here as 'The Virgin Suicides', 'Scream' and 'Goldfinger.'

I do not profess these to be of great typographic or visual stature.. but they were a lot of fun to do!
Looking forward to the performance next week.

Preempting a strike...

With four weeks to go until the end of University modules, the first of my exhibition pieces is  now finished one week early to account for union strikes planned by some of the tutors.

'Killed in Grief' is an experimental typographic piece based on the horrific events in Japan over the past few days, consisting of the words 'grief' and 'killed' in the modernist typeface 'Ogaki' over-layed with the famous painting 'The Great Wave of Kanagawa.'

The icon featured bottom-right is a mini-graphic highlighting the appeal by the British Red Cross to support those suffering with the earthquake and resulting tsunami.

My thoughts and prayers go out to them.

The Death of Georgia B

 

I recently joined up with the lovely people 'Last Fancies' to work on their aforementioned title, which is currently supported by Arts Council England and due to be performed on March 27th 2011.

For a fairly intensive period over the next three weeks I will be producing the graphical elements to the stages and props throughout the show for the audience to interactive with. Although this is not normally the sort of brief I usually work under, the unique feature of this show is that the audience will be moving throughout various venues throughout the city in a sort of 'real life Cluedo' style performance, where they have to piece together information strategically placed by the actors and workers an Last Fancies Studios - which means the graphical content will play a pivotal part in how the drama unfolds.
From listening to some of the directors and staff it sounds like a lot of intriguing design work will be produced, with a great deal of attention payed to detail, content and suggestion.

Their website can be found at www.lastfancies.co.uk and i'm sure I will be uploading more posts and photos from the show closer to the day.

On a footnote: I had always regarded fellow graphic designers to be amongst the most eccentric bunch of people you could ever wish to meet both at a university and in the workplace.
- I clearly have not spent a prolonged amount of time with those studying drama and acting!

Thoughts on a film..

Well it was probably inevitable.. after debating the demise of proper action films with a good friend the other day, and studying the work of one of the great modern illustrators Ashley Wood, I am compelled to give my tuppence worth on what could potentially be one of the greatest action sci-fi films ever made.
Metal Gear Solid.

Lets be completely honest. The all time 'great' action films of mankind have all come and gone - with the exceptions of 'Alien' and 'Predator': which came in a blaze of glory during the eighties and have slowly, painfully been milked to death ever since.

The main problem with these woeful re-incarnations, (aside from the sudden obsession with CGI and the need to water down scripts and gore - "WILL SOMEONE PLEASE THINK OF THE CHILDREN??!!") is that these films were relevant to a bygone era, long before Nixon showed the world that modern warfare could not be resolved with muscle-clad mercenaries with vest tops and rucksacks of ammunition.

With this in mind, the question I put to you is simple.
We are at a point in history where the exploits of one man (or small team of men such as the SAS or US Deltas) are capable of turning the tides of war both quicker and faster than any Blitz or Normandy invasions of times gone by.
Never before has public image and media exposure played such a vital part in the way the super-powers wage war with one-another also, hence the need, no, insistence on covert operations being carried out the the National interest on a daily basis without Joe-public ever knowing whats happening.

Why, why, WHY does Hollywood insist on re-resurrecting by-gone franchises when it comes to making a high-budget action film?

"You going to kill me Snake?"
"Not now.. im to tired. Maybe later."


With Russian-American relations at an all time amicable public level, the events of the Iraq war highlighting the need for a new generation of military weaponry to adapt to the modern battlefield, and the impending depletion of the Earths fossil fuel resources.. the plot for Metal Gear Solid is already set perfectly, and needs no more explanation than can be fitted into the opening scene of 'Sons of Liberty' (where Snake abseils onto a Russian cargo boat of Hudson Bridge to gather intel on the ships cargo.)

I love David Hayter. I really do. But im sorry, a movie with the potential to re-launch the action genre into the 21st Century should also produce the next great pioneering action superstar.

The next Shwarzenegger.
The next Stallone.
The next Eastwood.

Thats it for tonight folks, will finish this post in the coming days.
Thanks for listening.

Ashley Wood inspired sketches

Producing some CAD sketches based on the Metal Gear Solid series of the early 00's
this was made using regular thick-tipped ink pen and scanned into Photoshop.
Comments welcome - cheers.

Brilliant example for peace/happiness.

Still skimming the web for inspiration - and came across this animation that it simply fantastic.
explination as above.
http://dagobah.net/flash/sine.swf