It’s a time for new beginnings.
I’ve recently started working with the fantastically talented bunch of guys and gals at Clever Starfish. I’m going be concentrating more on website design specifically, which (weirdly) is a return to my design roots.
The first of my designs to go live is for Tutti Frutti Frozen Yogurt. Check em out next time you are in Leederville (or any of their 580 locations worldwide!).
My mum died last week after a recent cancer diagnosis. She was integral in shaping who I am today, and I am going to miss her terribly. Love you mum.
Really enjoying the vintage design work found in Paul Malon’s Flickr photostream
You may have read my ramblings elsewhere about how we had our gear stolen at a bus station in Bolivia last year. Aside from losing all the equipment (which we should eventually get repaced if/when our insurance comes through), we unfortunately lost 6 weeks of my photography, including a week in the visually spectacular Galapagos Islands. Foolishly, the photos on the memory card and the backup on the laptop were in the same bag at the time.
So the only images we managed to salvage were the lo-res versions we posted to our travel blog, the best of which I present here for your pleasure:
I’m looking to replace my camera gear soon as I’m getting an itchy trigger finger. I’m thinking Canon 600D, but may lose all self control and go for a 5D mkII (or whatever the new one will be called!).
Brea Grant just let me know that my cover design for her We Will Bury You comic book made IGN’s Top 100 Comic Book Covers for 2010.
It’s at #81, but I’ll take it. Maybe next year I’ll make the 70s.
After 6 months travelling around South America (with a brief visit to Canada and the US) I’m back in Perth and ready to get back to it. Keep an eye out for more regular updates!
If you’re curious to what we got up to (ice trekking, being robbed, piranha fishing, speaking bad spanish…) check out our travel blog at southamerica2010.com
This website has been a little quiet for a while as I’ve been travelling in South America. I’ll be in North America in December and back in Australia (and looking for graphic design work) in early January 2011.
In the meantime things will be a little quiet around here. I have some cover design work coming out for IDW in the months I’m away and if you’re super keen you can follow our travels at southamerica2010.com
Adios!
WPA poster design
One of my big design inspirations is the poster work of the Works Progress Administration (WPA); a “New Deal” agency formed by the US government in the 1930s to help end depression era unemployment.
The Library of Congress has a great searchable archive of close to 1000 WPA posters (500 of them are about not getting syphilis: good to know!).
WPA Opera Poster
Most of the posters feature bold abstracted designs and type typical of the modernisim that is associated with the Art Deco era. Despite the often semi-professional status of the artists who made them, they have come to have their own identifiable style. The posters are a lesson in simplicity, whilst maintaining personality.
You can see their direct influence in my own poster for The Oz Big Band and cover artwork for Transformers: All Hail Megatron.
You may also be interested in my article on vintage concert poster design.
