Sunday, 28 February 2010

Brtish Humour Is:

I was brought up on this stuff, I know it inside out. Whether or not it would work for Ted Baker is another thing.

Red Dwarf:

Interesting fact. My mum watched Red Dwarf and promptly went into labour with me. I won't talk about the terrible thing they did recently with the Blade Runner theme but I love this show. I have a friend in the US who loves it just as me, she doesn't quite get the in British humour but it shows how diverse it is. "And this is mine...and that's mine."



Blackadder:


I'm not sure which one I like better. Stupid Blackadder from series 1 or the smarter one from the other series. I think they both equally as good. Again, another favourite of mine and distinctly British. What with it's reference to the past English era's.

Saturday, 27 February 2010

Window Displays:

Window displays I've seen around the net. I also think this calls for a research trip into town at some point:




Ted baker Is:

For the collab YCN brief that Kate and I are doing. We're trying to figure out just what makes this store what is and how this achieved through their adversing. (something they claim they don't really do.)

A clipping from their website:



In summary, it explains how they started and why they where seen as 'different' from all the other stores selling the same products. (i.e, clothes company's). They've established themselves as quirky and strange.

The give-away include:
- A box of stuffing at X-mas
- Chocolate hot pot
- Foot ball cards


That's just to name a few. However I have a hard time thinking of them as "quirky" or even weird. In a strange way, many people think that about themselves. (I certainly think it's amusing giving away random products that make no sense but intrigue at the same time.) But the people I see shopping there are rather ordinary to me. They're he fashion conscious who don't want to spend too much but have no problem shelling out £40 for a shirt. The middle class that wants to be eccentric, when really they're quite boring and like everyone else. I'm probably just in a very cynical mood today.

Last years Autumn/Winter collection:





Last years Spring/Summer Window display:



Bunny rabbits, cows, tree's, fake grass and gold window frames. Hmmm.

Tuesday, 23 February 2010

Literary Classics Made Better as Comic Books~

Sometimes (nearly all the time) I hate it when books and comics are turned into movies. It's the nit picker in me who sits though movies such as Wolverine Origins and complains that nearly all of it is wrong. However, a book turned into a comic book? I think it improves the visually feel of something, without taking away the literature aspect. We can all appreciate cross cultural media.

Frankenstein (Mary Shelly):



Boris Karloff may have immortalized the image of a bumbling monster on the silver screen, but Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is far more than a B-movie punch line. Adapted by Jason Cobley and illustrated by a team of five artists, this graphic variation captures the novel’s moral subtext and satirical underpinnings with detailed, colour rich images that emphasize its haunting realism more so than its pop culture touchstones. And the "monsters" name is Adam, something I need to suggest every Halloween. Adam. Not Frankenstein.

I Am Legend (Richard Matheson):


Richard Matheson’s I Am Legend might not seem like an uplifting read — a story about the last man on Earth is hardly an optimistic premise, after all — but it offers a moral that none of its numerous Hollywood adaptations has successfully captured since. Writer/artist collaborators Steve Niles and Elman Brown, however, manage to convey Legend’s literal and figurative disorientation in scratchy, woodcut-like illustrations that guard the story’s surprising conclusion in a way that most movies have failed to do.

Dorian Gray (Oscar Wilde) :


Oscar Wilde’s biting humour has never needed much help being translated beyond the page, but perhaps it’s such accessibility that makes successful alterations all the more entertaining. Graphic Classics’ Oscar Wilde features various authors and artists’ adaptations of selections from the Irish writer’s collection. The effectiveness varies from story to story, but Alex Burrows and Lisa K. Weber’s pitch-perfect version of The Picture of Dorian Gray is brilliant.

Buttercup Festival~

Buttercup Festival is a awesome little web comic by David Troupes an American poet who lives over here in West Yorkshire.

The comic's humour is marked by whimsy, puns, parody, and a gentle, eccentric madness. However, not all strips are wholly humorous; many are intended simply to evoke a sense of beauty or wonderment at nature (especially Sunday issues, painted in watercolour and often lacking dialogue), somewhat reminiscent at times of Calvin and Hobbes. (Another favourite of mine)





It won't be everyone's cup of tea, but it makes me smile. I just wish the books where still in print.

Friday, 12 February 2010

Images Problems

Oh blogger. Why choose deadline day to refuse to display any ones images?

I'm going to do my best tonight and try and re upload the missing images. But so far, I think it's only happening on Mac computers because my PC showed them up fine last night. However, a lot can happen in six hours when you sleep. So, sorry for the massive white space where images should be, I'll try and do my best.

Tuesday, 2 February 2010

Audio

Here are a few 'audio' files I have been looking at for my idents. I wanted the robot theme to run with the music, so allot of it is quite trance like. Each robot has a theme and this needs to be shown within the soundtrack.

Queen Ft Daft Punk; We will robot rock you: For Murphy (robocop) I wanted somthing upbeat and heavy like the character:


Pendulum; Spiral: I wanted somthing that sounded similiar to the Blade Runner soundtrack, if not the song it's self:



Mad Capsule Markets; Scary: Bender needs something similar to Muprhy's, something a little on the heavy side but fun at the same time:

Saberpulse; A girl I know & Light speed disco: For both Wall-E (and possibly Marvin) I have 2 saberpulse songs in mind. It sounds like someone recorded from their sega but they're both light and 'happy' (which doesn't really work for Marvin.)



Marvin is currently my problem character than I can not find an appropriate song for.

Monday, 1 February 2010

Warlock-Necrosha

I know he isn't film based, but comic base but the visuals and artist liberty's with this character really work. It doesn't matter what one artist makes him look like, another will completely change him yet it doesn't take away from his character. That's, and it's spiffy!

From the 1999 Warlock series by Joseph Quesada (art) & Louise Simonson (writer):



I'm under the impression that Quesada also did the tittle logo which is what I'm interested. But I'm not sure. (Trying to find this out is like blood from a PC...)

Necrosha:
And yes, it is still Warlock based. I'm not going to bore you with the details but the logo also shows the cybernetics/robot parts that are similar to what run's through my idents.