Regular work rules!!

Here we go again, poster for CSP/Flip Your Wig, this was a really interesting one as I had a different format to play with, as opposed to the split I had a full poster, nice to have an a3 space in portrait, I like portrait!

This was a cool little poster as I was given some freedom to push the Flip Your Wig branding to something a little less bold and more appropriate to what the guys are doing. It's a funny mix as my overall direction was something a little more communist in style, yet keep it funky!

So lots of good things about this bad boy! I really like it, they really like it, what more could you want!



I've got a few more things to post soon, once I get the ok from the right people, so we ears to the ground.

Getting late.
Michael


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Toucan Club
Flip Your Wig/Canton Space Project

Recording studios are great places

So I was in a band a while back and we were lucky enough to get to record with Todd Campbell, great guy does awesome work and is an all round great guy.

This was a challenge as he wanted it to be 'clean, but messy', nice challenge me thinks.



To keep it clean I tried to avoid to much flashy detailing, like some of my other work and focus on simple, but grimey.

I had to design everything from scratch, layout, logo and details. It was a challenge getting the balance right.

I hope this suits him and does him some justice (and maybe gets him some more business).

Still watching Rocky, ADRIAN...
Michael

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Skwad HQ Myspace

Ivan Drago loves posters!

So I'm posting a blog, whilst watching Rocky, hence the title.

Point, stragne things them, another poster for the Toucan Club. This time same info, as the second one, so it is interesting to have to make something different and interesting again, when the details are the same.

I enjoyed this one.



I like the industrial weirdness of the top image.

Back to work (and Rocky).
Michael

Links
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Toucan Club
Flip Your Wig/Canton Space Project

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
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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
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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

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