17 Feb
  • Yani Simone-Website
  • Yani Simone Youtube Channel
  • yani source image1
  • yani source image 3
  • yani source image 2

Yani Simone – Branding Overhaul

If you’ve kept an eye on my latest work this past week, you’ll have noticed several new projects have been added to the portfolio. For one of these, the guys at 4012 management asked me to help revamp Yani Simone’s online presence with new graphics for her website and social media profiles.

All the images were supplied by 4012, but it was left to me to come up with the end result. Initially I thought this could be tricky, as there were a mixture of styles and ideas. However, once I had selected and cut the artist images from their respective backgrounds, I devised a concept of “two personas”. The lightning stock image would work great with Yani’s mercenary-like pose, whilst the wall of graffiti and heart images suited the more traditional portrait shot.

Combining everything would set the “strong warrior” look against a more calm, loving & melancholic character.  I used a Youtube Template to ensure the two were spaced accordingly either side of the content, and worked well for …

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07 Oct
Nebula

Nebula

Over the past week, I managed to devote some time to producing “Nebula“, a new digital artwork. I’ve also been thoroughly enjoying The Devin Townsend Project’s latest album “Epicloud“. You might say I was a little inspired by the cover art… However, I’ve also been meaning to create a space scene for some time now, and recently found a fantastic Planet PS Tutorial over at DeviantArt. I referred to this when producing the foreground elements. The texture layering really helps add depth and detail to the world’s surface.

For the nebula regions, I used the Render>Clouds and >Difference Clouds trick, tweaking the hue and saturation over several layers. I then found a source image for the astronaut and worked over it to blend into the design, adding highlights, shadow, and a reflection of the overall scene in the helmet’s visor.

I could have taken the scene further, and was even contemplating adding a spacecraft …

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29 Apr
KUSAMA

Seeing Spots… Yayoi Kusama @ Tate Modern

Angela and I recently met up with friends to attend the Yayoi Kusama exhibit at the Tate Modern. Famed for her repeating dot patterns, Kusama’s artistic passion has lead her from her roots in rural Japan to the New York art scene and back to Tokyo over the past nine decades. In that time, her work has involved an array of mixed media including painting, drawing, sculpture, film, performance and large-scale installations. Key works include her “Accumulations” sculptures, and large ‘Infinity Net’ paintings, made up of endless monotone brush-strokes built up to form textures. At her height in the 1960s, she befriended and influenced many artists, including Donald Judd, Andy Warhol, Joseph Cornell and Claes Oldenburg.

There is a clear focus on the obsessive in Kusama’s work. In 1977 she volunteered for psychiatric incarceration. Since then, she has worked from the ward, including her own studio space. Here, she can continue to produce elaborate designs including installations that immerse the viewer in dots, nets or incredible spaces of infinately mirrored light. …

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05 Apr

The Third Archetype..

Towards the end of last week, I found some time to continue The Archetypes Series, resulting in No.3…

The concept I came up for this project is to explore the relationship between different types of people, the roles they have and the places they are identified with (or more simply put, with buildings for heads).  The RNLI or Royal National Lifeboat Institute is a charity which saves lives at sea around the coasts of Great Britain, Ireland, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man. Lighthouses mark dangerous coastlines, hazardous shoals, reefs, and provide safe entries to harbours. I had initially planned to simply use a sailor or navy man for the piece, but this seemed somewhat a more justified combination.

I’ve a got a load of ideas for further entrants to the series, I just cant decide which to pick next! Guess you’ll have to wait and see. However, I’m also open to suggestions. Wanna see something particular? Drop a comment!

21 Mar

The Dark Knight Rises: T-Shirt Design Contest @ Design By Humans

Whilst we all await Christopher Nolan’s hotly anticipated third instalment in the Batman reboot, the guys at Design By Humans have launched a contest in conjunction with Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures to design an official T-shirt  for the film.

Ten finalists will have their work judged by Nolan and Producer Emma Thomas, who will then decide the winners. This is a fantastic opportunity for any creative designer (and film lover!), and it also gets your work potential exposure with the Film’s Art Department.

The Prizes range from $1.500 for 5th place, up to $3,500 for 1st, plus 1st-5th place winners get 12 tees of their choice from the website’s store.

You must be 18 or over to enter, but all countries are eligible. The contest is open until Midnight PST April 11th, with the winners announced from April 30th. Full Guidelines and Terms of Service can be found at the official competition site page.

20 Sep

Back To School.. Lessons in Lighting & Drawing Meetups

I realised yesterday it’s been just over a month since my last entry, but that’s not for a lack of news or events. In fact, its quite the opposite. I just hadn’t been able to block out any time and record whats been going on.

Firstly, I have begun the LIF (or Lighting Industry Federation) Lighting Certificate Course. As an industry recognised qualification, it runs through everything from a basic understanding of the fundamentals of light, to a host of lighting related mathematics and calculations (which makes up for a LOT of the course). It prepares someone looking for a career in lighting, and helps strengthen the knowledge of someone already within the profession.

As one of those in the latter category, although I’ve been in lighting for several years this is the first time the opportunity has presented itself, thanks to my current company. I’m already picking up highly useful methods and bits of information I can utilise in my daily roles. I also feel like the cognitive part of my brain is shaking the dust off and being challenged again. In an odd way I kinda like it!

The short course culminates into 3 test papers, and a coursework project, with the final work handed in by December. I’ve completed the first paper, and will be working on the second this weekend. The coursework however will be the real test.

In other news, some of you may have noticed the flyers and business card designs for Love Laser Lipo have been completed. These have been both added to the Brand Identity section of our Graphic Portfolio, and published over at our Behance gallery. I’m pretty pleased with the outcome, with a nice clean, professional and unified design across the three-stage project. It took some time to find the right stock image for the flyer background, but once they decided on a winner all the pieces fell together. Client feedback has been highly positive.

Finally, I recently went to a drawing and sketching Meetup event in London, which this time took place in Camden & Primrose Hill. The informal nature of the group and good mix of people of all ages & ability set for a really welcoming atmosphere. Its the sort of thing that encourages me to go to a few more.

Having shunned the pen and paper for so long, I’m very, VERY rusty. Going to these Meetups gives me a reason to practice on a fairly regular basis, and get inspiration from others in the process. You can see the results of the first event here. I think I’m favouring pen over pencil. The sketch from Primrose Hill is definitely the better of the three.

08 Aug

Takashi Murakami @ Gagosian London (nsfw)

Last weekend, I went to see Takashi Murakami’s latest exhibition at the London Gagosian Gallery.

The prolific Japanese contemporary artist, famed for his mixture of fine art, oversized (and over-sexed) sculptures and “Superflat” media has put together a collection of work which highlights the exaggerated sexualisation present in modern culture such as anime. More to the point, it’s this “enduring obsession with sexuality in contemporary human society” which has become more common place.

Centre stage to this analysis are the two large figures “Nurse Ko2″, and the pendulous over-proportioned “3-Meter Girl“. Accompanying these are Mr Big Mushroom and Miss Clam, genitalia edifices with cartoon-like characteristics.. the subject of taboo given a cutesy remodeling is somewhat amusing & compelling as a testament to Takashi’s message.

In a stark contrast to the central showpieces, around the outside of the room are a series of Triptychs honoring the artist Kuroda Seiki. Kuroda was responsible for bringing yōga or Western-style painting to Meiji- period Japan, and “promoted the genre of history painting, as well as the validity of the nude figure as a subject for art.” His own Triptych Wisdom, Impression, Sentiment expresses the female form almost as an anatomical study, void of any sexual overtness, but rather natural beauty. Murakami takes this and re-produces the realism in a modern manga-like illustrative series of paintings. Each of his own Triptychs attempt to improve on the last, getting closer and closer to a typically classic fine-art nude. It is this complete opposite of the central exhibits’ sexual appearance which hits home the artist’s viewpoints on modern society, and completes his analysis on sex & media.

“I think the Japanese male sexual complex originated in the two-dimensional world –animation, games and so on – which then transferred to small three-dimensional sculptures. But before my sculptures Miss Ko (1997) and My Lonesome Cowboy (1998), it had never been represented life-size. “
–Takashi Murakami

The exhibition was then finished with 2 examples of Murakami’s detailled superflat artworks, involving multiple skull shapes engulfed by colour and patterns, as well as a giant sized “cardboard toy” big blox pko2…

Artist’s Website : Kaikai Kiki