True Blood meets I Love Dust

Back from my hols, all rested, recharged and raring to go...

Nope, sorry, but I can't keep that up I'm afraid. Lets just say I'm back and leave it at that.

Something that did cheer me up a little though was finding these excellent illustrations produced for one of my favourite TV shows, True Blood.

They were created by I Love Dust, just another example of the tremendous work they do.

Demob happy

I'm in a state. The kind of state that everyone, whoever they are, gets in from time to time. It's that state of not being able to concentrate on anything apart from the fact that you're going on holiday very, very soon. Demob happy if you will.

And it's a great state to be in. My wife and I are going to Majorca tomorrow with some friends to spend a week relaxing and not thinking about work in any way, shape or form. It's been a busy year, at times a pretty hectic one, and I'm totally ready to kick back, recharge, and hopefully come back completely reinvigorated.

So being in holiday mood got me thinking as to what my favourite summer ad of recent times may have been. I had to think quite hard but in the end I think I've settled on this one...

Basically cos I know exactly how they all feel. :)

Handsome Frank do Bestival

Came across these posters designed for this year's Bestival.

They were designed by a group of artists represented by Handsome Frank, an illustration agency representing some of the UK's most talented illustrators.

I think it's a great idea to use illustrators as the styles can very so much from one to the next, which is a little bit like music, really, and certainly like the line-up at this year's event. Check that out here on their fantastically designed website.

Orange 'Film to go'

I was sat at home watching some TV with the missus last night when an ad came on for Orange advertising their new scheme 'Film to go'. The idea is that every Thursday, via iTunes, Orange send their customers (who have subscribed to the service) a new movie for their viewing pleasure.

Fallon were the agency tasked with coming up with creative and, as usual, I reckon they've done a great job. Simple idea executed beautifully.

Star Wars sushi

It's no secret that I'm huge Star Wars fan. The topic has come up once or twice on this blog before. What I haven't mentioned before is that I'm quite partial to a bit of sushi too. Not the sort of topics you would usually put together? Think again.

I was reading today's Metro on the way to work this morning when I came across this article. 'Genius' I thought to myself, shortly before revising my thinking to 'I want one.'

The sculptures are the invention of Japanese sushi chef Okitsugu Kado from Osaka, himself a huge Star Wars fan (who isn't?). He makes them out of various vegetables including carrots, radishes and sweet potatoes.

They're pretty cool, especially the Biker Scout. And, OK, Han Solo looks a tad dodgy but it still a great idea and they would certainly bring a smile to my face if my local sushi bar started doing them.

3D or not 3D?

I went to see the final Harry Potter film this weekend. I took my wife to Westfield to go and see it in 3D as I figured some of the sequences I remembered from the book would look completely awesome - the dragon escape at Gringots for example.

But here's the thing, they didn't. In fact I found myself distinctly disappointed by the whole thing. Not the film, that was pretty good, just the whole 3D experience. The truth is that I've resisted the whole 3D thing up until now, I thought it was all a bit of a gimmick and a waste of time. And now I really do believe that's true. It cost me twice as much as normal, something I would gladly do for a worthwhile experience, but I really didn't feel that this was one. Add to that the fact the glasses are these huge, oblong-shaped, thick framed beasts so you end up looking like a poor man's Buddy Holly.

It may well have been a completely different experience had the film been shot entirely in 3D but it wasn't. It all just felt a little, you know, meh? It's really saying something when the 3D on the adverts preceding the film are more impressive than the film itself.

So the jury's still out as far as I'm concerned and I certainly won't be rushing for another 3D experience any time soon.

3D - bag o' shite

More beautiful typography

I've been working on a project recently that's required myself and one of our designers, Nick, to produce imagery out of type - specifically out of numbers. I've been really pleased with the outcome and will probably share them on here once they've ran.

In our attempts to define the style, Nick came across this. It's full of amazing examples of typographic images and how they can enhance a great idea.

Check them out, in the meantime my own personal favourites are below.