Utter Shambles

I've just got round to uploading a really fun promo I worked on just before Christmas. The idea was to promote our hugely successful 'Utter Shambles' podcasts, a series of light-hearted interviews and discussions hosted by Robin Ince and Josie Long and produced by Adrian Mackinder. Three series deep, the podcasts have been downloaded hundreds of thousands of times and we thought we should give it the on-air promotion it deserves. The concept was to zoom into a computer and have images of all the different talent on a huge circuitboard which we would move through to hear clips from various dialogues. I approached it thinking of a tube-map style layout, and designed it with gaps in the circuitry to accommodate cut-out images of the guests. I'm really happy with it, the sound design really brought out the electrical flashes I put in to keep the promo exciting.





The podcasts really are worth checking out, there are huge names involved that aren't even on the promo, such as pub landlord Al Murray, 'Sidekick Simon' Tim Key and comics legend (Watchmen, From Hell) Alan Moore!

UK bass 2011

Great article over on submeditation. There's plenty of tunes that i'd stick in there from the drum'n'bass realm, I think there's were some really exciting developments and trends last year (e.g Exit Records' output, the emergence of Dub Phizix and Skeptical, more quality stuff from Calibre) but drawing solely from the vast array of styles and sub-genres that have been collectively termed 'bass music' this is a concise and on-point list. I'm particularly glad the Keysound label got a mention, they've been a solid, experimental and consistently brilliant label for several years now and have championed the likes of LHF, Sully and LV.











 And a few that weren't in the list...

Christmas stings

More Comedy Central goodness...as part of our December effort to make the channel nice and Christmassy, my fellow designer Blake Neale and I had some fun with animating these quick stings. We took our channel navigation character 'Ian' and stuck him into festive situations. He's a cheeky little square!
 

'Network'

Quality design on this piece by Michael Rigley...

Don Hong-Oai

A friend has just linked me this set of extraordinary photographs by the Chinese artist Dong Hong-Oai. I think they're properly mind-blowing, they look wonderful rendered in the desaturated sepia/monochrome colour palette that makes them so reminiscent of the mesmerising work by the old Chinese painters and calligraphers. I've always had a real soft spot for the type of old Asian painting, I focused on a lot of it when I was doing GCSE and A level art. Apart from the stunning landscapes and serene images of village life depicted in the old paintings, I was particularly interested in how they incorporated calligraphy into their pictures. This was something I used to do a lot in my artwork, using short sentences or proverbs to flesh out the theme of a piece of artwork.

Comedy Central - Friends

Here is a selection of Friends promos I did design for. Working with producer Steve Seller, these all aired on Comedy Central UK in the last quarter of 2011.

World Without End

I've finally finished reading Ken Follets' sequel to 'Pillars of the Earth', a properly hefty tome totalling 1200 pages that was almost comically deep in size. My satchel is going to feel so much lighter on the the way to work now, i'll be able to fit an extra sandwich in too! The book was quality though, I'd watched the TV dramatisation of 'Pillars...' early last year and wanted to read the sequel before the TV adaptation (in production right now) of this book hits the screen. I massively enjoyed this epic saga, finding it very hard to put down at times. I feel keeping up this pace and intrigue is a remarkable achievement for a story which spans an entire generation and often deals with humdrum topics such as wool markets, priory elections and poor harvests. (especially when I usually read science fiction!) The plots are so intricate, as I read it again felt reminiscent of other dramas such as 'The Sopranos' or 'The Wire'. The latter in particular, in that 'The Wire' focuses on the power struggles of both the police, the drug dealers, and the politicians. Follets' medieval England depicts the same struggles - everyone plotting and scheming to outmanoeuvre one another, wether you are a monk, a merchant, a peasant serf or a nobleman. In fact the outstanding strength of this novel is in its brilliantly written characters - Godwyn, Philemon and Ralph are truly despicable men, making Caris, Merthin and Gwenda so endearing as the heroes of the tale. In summary it's a great story, look out for the TV adaptation coming sometime in 2012.

Christmas movies

Fun Christmas movies promo I made with producer John Pape!

Happy New Year!

2012... big tings a gwarn! I have loads of projects I am currently working on, one of which i'll hopefully have uploaded in the next few weeks. I'm feeling positive about this year, planning on rolling out tonnes of creativity. Comedy Central, collaborative projects, freelance bits, solo things, got stuff stacked up that I'm determined to get done this year so watch this space! POW!