DEVIATED

Dark Side of the Lens

Oct 29, 2010 Inspiration, Motion Leave a comment

A beautifully depicted short film by Mickey Smith.

DARK SIDE OF THE LENS from Astray Films on Vimeo.

The first Short Stories film, by renowned photographer and body boarder Mickey Smith, explores his world as a true waterman – both as an athlete and artist, and is called The Dark Side of The Lens.

“Originally I planned for the film to be more anonymous, rather than biographical, an all encompassing piece, to represent the photographers keeping the surfing machine afloat”, explains Smith.

Something that offers insight into what it takes to grind out a living as a water-based photographer in the surfing industry: a short experimental glimpse at a life lived in the shadow of obsessive photographic pursuits.”

“It also gave me the chance to ask myself a few questions, like, if you’re always observing and documenting what you see and experience, are you ever truly present? Questions like that where I could step back think and then see what the answers were”, Smith says.

As well as documenting various voices and experiences across surf photography, Smith worked with Allan Wilson from the Astray Collective, who acted as Director of Photography on the project. Together they logged hours of footage across the Atlantic coastline, traveling around Ireland, Cornwall and Manchester. Shot in Super 16mm film, as well as groundbreaking work with Canon 5R Digital SLR, Smith also projected images of the huge walls of water within which he works, on to monster urban landscapes such as sky rises and castles in Manchester, as well as the cliff lines at his home of Ireland.

http://video.mpora.com/watch/nit3ypZst/

Calligraphy by Luca Barcellona

Oct 29, 2010 Art, Design, Inspiration Leave a comment

One art form that I always have a deep appreciation for is calligraphy. During my college years, I studied it and only used metal nibs for my assignments. That class provided a lot of insight to the craft and I don’t think that anyone really knows how painstaking the process is…it’s what makes this art form precious.

It’s an artistry that requires, better yet, demands one to be focused, controlled, yet calm, so that your hand and motions are no longer two separate entities. There’s no room to think. You have to allow the nib to become an extension of your hand and then, create movement through the expressive qualities of the strokes you make. If you premeditate your movements, it almost guarantees you’ll f*ck up. Once you do f*ck up, that’s it. You have take all the time and effort you just spent, trash it, and start all over again. It’s unrelenting that way. On the up side though, when you do capture everything in that single go…it’s golden.

I mention this because it provides a better understanding of my latest find (I’ve rarely come across people that have done calligraphy before). His name is Luca Barcellona and his calligraphic work is beautiful. We live in such a digitized world, that when you come across work such as Luca’s, all hand drawn, it’s refreshing to see. I selected a few to show you the various personalities this art form can take on. Each piece evokes a different emotion and I loved going through his diverse body of work.

1nib
Metal nib on paper

2nib2
Metal nib on paper. I also wonder if that statement is true – hahaha.

3brushpen
Brush pen on paper

4jungle
Not sure what medium? I’m guessing it’s all drawn and possibly silk screened onto paper.

Accolades for Pictela website

Oct 22, 2010 Awards Leave a comment

In the past year, a project I worked on at Blenderbox, received various awards. It was project that I concepted, designed, and saw through development. It also involved collaborating with the UX and development team and our hard work paid off.

The project received a Gold W3 Award for Home Page, the Silver W3 Award for Corporate Communications, the WebAward for Best Media Website, the OMMA Award for Website Excellence, and a Best in Class for B2B Interactive Media Award.

The folks over at OMMA also had a nice write-up for it as well.

B2B sites can often look good. They can also often deliver relevant information quickly, clearly and concisely. Rarely do they do both – though that has been admirably achieved at Pictela.com. Blenderbox has packaged the most important points that Pictela needs to communicate to potential customers and partners and fuses them in a bold, striking manner that erases ambiguity with the clarity of the message. From the landing page to the lower pages, the precision carries through and provides users with an excellent experience.

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Accolades for Hey Nice Garden website

Oct 22, 2010 Awards Leave a comment

The website I designed for Hey Nice Garden has received a few awards lately!

The first one was for Print Magazine’s International Creativity & Commerce competition. My work was featured in their October 2010 issue as 1 of 35 winners. Being amongst winners such as Design Army, Motion Theory, Knock, Adult Swim, BBDO, Kate Spade, and SVA, is a great honor. It’s an achievement I am most proud of and humbled by. This project was a true labor of love and what made it more wonderful was working with a great client, Heather Reid, and an awesome developer, Larry Lague.

The 35 pieces selected for Print’s 2010 review of the best business-related graphic design from around the world, Creativity + Commerce, demonstrate that, in any year, it’s the unexpected work that becomes truly memorable. Our judges Timothy Goodman and Anisa Suthayalai, along with Jeremy Lehrer who selected our Green Award for sustainable design, were looking for entries that went beyond style and, in the words of Goodman, “used truth as a threshold for great storytelling.”

I also received 5 Silver W3 Awards. They were for Home Page, Visual Appeal, Environmental Awareness, Green, and Self Promotion. I feel honored to have received these awards for so many categories.

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“Let Go” from the Japanese Popstars Feat. Green Velvet.

Oct 7, 2010 Design, Inspiration, Motion Leave a comment

The Japanese Popstars Feat. Green Velvet – Let Go from David Wilson Creative on Vimeo.

Directed by David Wilson. The team that put this together in 20 days includes a primary Illustrator named Keaton Henson. Secondary Illustrators are David Wilson and Andres Guzman. Drawn Animation is by Malcolm Draper, Matt Lloyd, Ed Suckling, Toby Jackman, Elena Pomares, David Wilson, and Jamie Page.

The Chemical Brothers: “Swoon (Lindstrom & Prins Thomas Remix)” (EMI)

Oct 1, 2010 Music Leave a comment

Chemical Brothers ‘Swoon’ (Lindstrom and Prins Thomas Remix) by cmjct

A new way of advertising: 120 Bikes on a Wall

Oct 1, 2010 Advertising, Bikes, Laughs, Photography Leave a comment

Bikes on a Wall

A bicycle shop in Altlandsberg, Germany advertises their goods with a wall of around 120 bikes mounted on the building’s exterior in lieu of a sign. via Flavorwire