Level Up Interactive Ad

This is my first adventure into the exciting world of after effects. Kinetic Typography and stuff.

Untitled from ROCK N ROFL on Vimeo.

Civil War Stickers, Patches and Tees. Coming soon.

Film Production Logo ideas

Some simple ideas and design outcomes for a fictional Production company.

Level Up Campaign

So I'm attempting to bring this blog back to life, regardless of how un-user friendly and completely backwards Blogger is.

Last semester we were asked to create a fictional campaign based on a community issue that pisses you off. After being told animal rights and vegetarianism were too 'depressing', I did the obvious thing and opted for video games. The campaign is based on educating parents and the media on the positive effects of gaming and inspiring gamers to take the skills and intuition they learn in the virtual world and apply it to their everyday lives, contributing to the community and possibly changing the world.

The Poster Design consisted of an advertising on one side, and 1000 words on the other side outlining the purpose and collateral of the campaign. I wasn't entirely happy with the outcome, it was extremely simple and not entirely clever but I though I'd share it anyway.

This semester I am working on re-branding the campaign and here's just a couple of the elements I've thrown together so far.

The infographics were accompanied by a bunch of body copy in my presentation, So you'll have to just guess what they represent. Point is, they look pretty.

This dude

CIVIL WAR

So I drank a couple of beers, listened to some Slayer records and threw a bunch of songs together. You can listen and download them here:

http://civilwar1.bandcamp.com

Civil War - Demo 2011

1. Cold Reality

2. In Fear

3. Left Unsaid

4. Treading Water

5. Wolves

Autumn 2011

Life is kinda cool at the moment and I don't take nearly enough photos for this thing. Let's change that soon. In the meantime, here's some old design work. The brief outlined that we brand ourselves or a fictional design company. Photos are terrible but you get the idea. Mine is named earthbound, old school nintendo fans know whats up. Click to enlarge.

Reading:

Sandman - Neil Gaiman

Tales of the Vampires - Joss Whedon + Various writers/artists

Listening:

Rolling Stones - Their Satanic Majesty/Aftermath/Let it Bleed

Jimmy Eat World - Clarity

Man Overboard - The Human Highlight Reel
Metallica - ...And Justice For All

ZOMBIE JAMS #4

Foo Fighters - Next Year

The Foo Fighters are one of those bands who have always been with me. I can remember watching the hilarious video for 'big me' with my older sister back when Channel V was called Red. I remember being blown away by Gondry's surreal video for 'Everlong' and I remember just a few years ago when they released 'the best of you' and restored my hope in radio friendly music.

It's quite a strange thing actually. I am first and foremost, a fan of heavy music. Same goes for all my buddies but everyone of us seems to love and adore this band. I was discussing it with a friend just a couple of weeks ago and he reminded me that Dave Grohl is primarily a hard dude. He's into hard bands, he played in Nirvana and hangs out with Lemmy Motorhead. I guess in that respect it kind of makes sense. He also seems to be the friendliest guy in rock n roll and I totally respect the fact that after the demise of one of the most impactful bands of our time, he completely reinvented himself and rose to the top all over again.

Now, There is nothing left to lose isn't my favourite Foo Fighters record (that would be One by One). In fact, Next Year isn't even my favourite song (Everlong is) but it gives me a certain feeling that only a few songs can, ever. You see, when I was in high school, I would spend most nights staying up late finishing assignments and enduring small panic attacks. My tiny bedroom TV would be on to keep me company and at about 2am, a little show called Ed would come on. Ed was a charming comedy about a small town lawyer who worked out of a bowling alley and pursued his high school sweetheart. It was light, feel-good and just the small chunk of relaxation that I needed at the time. Point is, Its theme song was Next year by the Foo Fighters and it was like a breath of fresh air.

To this day, when life becomes just a touch overwhelming, I pop this song on my ipod and close my eyes. I have a few friends who understand my affection for this song and they feel exactly the same way. There is just something about it.

So to wrap up this week's edition of Zombie Jams, A) It is completely fine to be into heavy music and listen to the Foo Fighters and B) Somebody should probably release an Ed Box set on DVD, because I would buy the shit out of it.

CORSAIRS

2007

2008

Long, long time ago I was in a band called Corsairs (Formerly BelaLugosi). We were very, young very excited and kind of crappy. We had a lot of fun though, and tonight I'm feeling particularly nostalgic. We wrote and recorded a record sometime in 08' and thought it was the greatest thing ever created. I'm actually listening to it right now, and although I can see where a bunch of the ideas came from, the songs are mostly long, convoluted and confused. Fun to hear though, I can remember each individual thought and feeling from the time. Each song acts like an aural diary entry.

This blog is particularly entertaining. Seems I used to really like the word dope.

http://corsairscrunch.blogspot.com/

Anyway, it was all a learning curve and a huge part of who I am today, so I thought I'd share it.

Oh, and that EP is still up at:

www.myspace.com/corsairs

if anyone's curious.

prints of darkness

It feels like it's been a millennia since I updated this thing and for that I am truly sorry. What can I say though? Real life has been a little too fun and school is getting sort of busy. The last two weeks have ruled monolithically and aside from a broken finger and a distinct lack of udon in my life, things are cool-ish. I did have a dream about the world ending and the earth being engulfed by Lovecraftian Sea beasts this morning, but that was kind of as awesome as it was utterly terrifying.

Anyway, Here is some design work me and some friends produced recently. It was for a fictional campaign funded by Arts NSW to promote the evils of stage-parenting and child stardom, we did it with a satyrical 60's grindhouse flavour and called it kidsploitation.

ZOMBIE JAMS #3

Kiss - God of Thunder

Now, I know that in 2011 the name KISS isn't exactly synonymous with bad-assery and probably conjures images of bloated, self-indulgent rockstars; over the top merchandising and bad reality television but hell. I will always love this band. They were the second band I ever saw live and they ruined my world. I bought their comics, drew their faces in my school books and worshipped the ground Ace Frehley walked on.

It's always unfortunate when a band you love proverbially shits on their legacy but I've always liked to imagine being a KISS fan in the early 70's: smoking under the bleachers, scrawling band names on the back of your jean jacket, doing burnouts in your dodge and not having to hear, "Oh, I think my dad likes them" when you mention you're a kiss fan in the 7th grade.

'God of Thunder' perfectly sums up what is cool about the band. It's heavy, it's anthemic and when they play it live Gene Simmons throws a sword into the stage and spits blood. It encapsulates everything i love about hard music and if you haven't already, spend the weekend at your local markets sifting through records till you come across Destroyer, pop it in your Crosley and pretend it's 1976.

I promised myself...

...that by the end of the day I would understand how to build and design a website. Actually pretty stoked on my progress, it looks a little less than brilliant but at least I understand the mechanics of it all.

I will now listen to this in celebration.

Sydney City udon & candy club with Natalie

Listening to:

Title Fight - Shed

Man Overboard - The Absolute Worst

Alice in Chains - Dirt

Entombed - Wolverine Blues

Reading:

The Graveyard Book, Sandman - Neil Gaiman

The Big Sleep - Raymond Chandler

Scott Pilgrim - Bryan Lee O'Malley