Poster round 3

Another one for the Toucan club, I do enjoy these, not alot to say this time, frame work of how client wants the poster is set, now its just down to me to get the art sorted. Meet this weeks offering...



Short post, but random info for the week, that is a Fisher Price record player!!! I have photos of the flyers and posters from the last night as I haven't seen my work in (live) print for a while, so it makes me smile!

Anyways...
Michael

Links
Larger Version
Toucan Club
Flip Your Wig/Canton Space Project

Poster with less possibilities...

I posted a few poster designs the other day, with no idea which one the client was going to choose, I found out what there decision was and to be totally honest it effected the design of the second poster I have done for them in a massive way!

First time I was uncertain which poster style would be preferred, so did 2, this time knowing I tried my best to throw myself into nailing down the style as they wanted it last time.

Here we go...



Nice to come back and do it again with a clearer vision. I was happy knowing that the output was black and white as it meant I had alot of fun thinking in halftones and different shades of grey!

I will say, always ALWAYS save your work often and at different stages so you don't have to spend an hour rebuilding what you have lost. Yes I am an idiot sometimes!

Sweet times.
Michael

Links
Larger Version
Toucan Club
Flip Your Wig/Canton Space Project

Music Ramblings 3

Then and now...

I've been listening to Frank Turner and Chuck Ragan's most recent albums lately, and it dawned on me, I hadn't listened to Million Dead or Hotwatermusic in absolutely ages! But this also got me thinking about the countless artists I love, who have a very different past to their current musical incarnation (yes I have already done this on Rod Stewart, but he went from amazing to awful).

I don't want to bore anyone to death with some sort of history lesson, so I think this will just focus on the "Then and now" approach.

First of Jonah Matranga; I am a bit of an uber-fan so I have to contain myself.

Then: Far



Now: Performing as Onelinedrawing/Jonah Matranga



I've always found the transition from massively influential hardcore band to gentle heartfelt acoustic genius astounding. I have tattoos on my arms that are from a onelinedrawing hoodie.

Eric Scrhody; Once again bit of a fanboy, I have a triple platinum award plaque from his first solo album post House of Pain on my wall.

Then: The House of Pain. (Yes this is the remix, I just prefer it)



Now: Everlast.



So he has evolved from HipHop to acoustic/country with some awesome beats. Great example of an artist growing older with style.

Chuck Ragan; bit of a fan again, don't want to ramble.

Then: HotWaterMusic.



Now: Just playing as Chuck Ragan.



Again a fairly natural transition, there are moments in his solo stuff you can hear HotWaterMusic songs trying to escape. Probably the best punk to country/acoustic transition in my humble opinion.

So far I have hit on heavier to lighter, so now for something a little bit more random. Gabe Saporta...

Then: Midtown.



Now : Cobra Starship.



This one, makes me sad, confused and happy at the same time. I miss Midtown soooo much, their records we the soundtrack to many summers, but I can't shake how much I love this slab of disco pop rock!

I've hit on a few that I really love, but this doesn't mean for one second there aren't countless other examples of people doing one amazing thing and evolving to do something even better. Never ending list starts here (I'm not saying either is better, I'm just stating facts):

Dave Grohl: Nirvana - Foo Fighters
Frank Turner: Million Dead - Solo
Phil Anselmo: Pantera - Down, Superjoint Ritual...
Chris Cornell: Sound Garden - Audioslave
Mike Patton: Faith No More - Fantomas, Mr Bungle, Peeping Tom...
Vinnie Caruana: The Moivelife - I am the Avalanche
Tom DeLonge: Blink 182 - Angels & Airwaves, BoxCarRacer
Kimya Dawson: The Moldy Peaches - Solo
Josh Homme: Kyuss - Queens of the Stone Age

This is a never ending list, and to me it boils down to accepting and hoping that musicians you love will continue to produce/write great songs not matter what form they choose to do it. It is easy to say, "It's not as good as...", but those days are gone, we can accept that, move on and enjoy what they are doing now or, shut up.

Bedtime.
Michael

Random moment of clarity.

I don't know about you, but every now and then when I'm working on something I see something in a form that is a total accident that I think looks amazing. Maybe its an extra layer you didn't modify from earlier? Maybe its change of blending? Could be anything really...

So here we have something that I have been working on (or half of it as you will see later) and I duplicated a layer, turned it off, then an hour later, trying to tidy up my layers, always get messy when I'm working, I turn it back on and the part of the image looked amazing. Or attleast I thought it did.

So here you go, part of something I am working on that happened totally by accident.



Embrace your mistakes.
Michael

Link
Larger Version

Poster possibilities...

I was given the task of creating a flyer/poster for a night at the Toucan club in Cardiff, the night is (was) a one off special meeting of two existing nights, Flip Your Wig and Batucada Basics.

I was asked to create a split concept poster representing both nights, as always I try and meet my clients wants and maybe do something different as well. This was one of those moments, I had an idea for want I thought was a good idea, so decided to do both what was asked of me and something that wasn't.

First off I did what was asked of me...



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Second off I did what I thought was a good idea...







I sent both versions in print ready form to the client, I'm not sure which one they are going to use so the excitement can begin. I hope they choose the second one. I'm going to the night, so I'm sure I will find out!

Roll on the Fun
Michael

Links
Larger Version
Toucan Club
Batucada Basics
Flip Your Wig/Canton Space Project

Myspace time again....

So August must have seemed incredibly quiet, on the contrary! August was busy as sin, I've just been waiting for loads of things to get finalised and get live, on top of the fact that I have a job that I have started that involved signing a confidentiality agreement, a non-disclosure agreement and some other form I can't remember the name of that I had to sign! Also I have recently (anyone who has followed my twitter for the last week will know that) been working on making powerpoint presentation. Harder than it sounds, well actually it's easy to make a rubbish one, we've all seen them, but it is difficult to make sweet looking one that works. Rant over, plot.

I was in a band, and we developed a fan, she was great, came to most of our shows, supported us loads and then after a year or so ago, she started her own band! Her name is Sam, she is awesome.

To have the opportunity to do something cool for someone who always supported me, has left me with a big ole smile on my face!

Ladies and Gentlemen I give you Cowboy and the Corpse.



There is a massive list of photographers I should link, but I find their info right now, so I will add it later.

Peace out
Michael

Links
Larger Version
Cowboy and the Corpse Myspace