Animatification

Animatification.

Print To Pixel 

Click to view my print to pixel work.

Harvey Pekar; Master of The Drawn Memoir.

Harvey Pekar,

Master Of The Drawn Memoir.

Harvey Pekar was  an ordinary guy who decided to put some of the more interesting aspects of his life into a memoir. Being a long-time comic book fan, instead of writing his life story he decided to produce it as a comic or graphic novel and so he produced a series of crudely drawn strips illustrating his stories. These he passed onto comic book artists, including Robert Crumb, who produced professional drawings for him. 

His stories were drawn by a great variety of artists including his third wife Joyce Brabner, Drew Friedman and Alan Moore. Each artist created their own version of the look Pekar's world that ranged from the cartoonish to almost photo realistic.

Castle Market Fanzine by Missy Tassles

Missy Tassles Castle Market Fanzine.

This interesting item turned up during my research for the Castle Market 'zine project, it's a Castle Market Fanzine that was produced and sold by designer and girl about town Missy Tassles. Unfortunately they all sold out before I got one, buthere's a few interesting page shots from her website.

I suspect it has influenced my ideas a little in an indirect way, the hand drawn images and typography, the hand printed cover are all ideas I have used myself.

CD Cover Made From Reused Cardboard.

CD Cover by Hannah Leonard.

Hannah's Cd cover uses a cardboard box design with an unusual diagonal hinge. It is not clear whether she's re-using old cardboard packaging , but that could very well be the case.

 

 

 The title and track listing of the CD appear to have been produced specifically for the occasion, but again reusing of old material could also be a very viable option.

Recycling And Illustration.

Two illustrators who use recycling as part of their work are Paul Thurlby and Gary Taxali. Both Taxali and Thurlby often work on  found paper, card, old books, newspapers or advertising material, in fact anything that catches their eye.

 

 

  



 Paul Thurlby's prints are accentuated by the distressed nature of the "canvas" upon which he prints.The scuffs and tears of age are as much part of the design as the print itself and the imperfect nature of the print helps to create a complete image and not just a new print on re-used material.

In a similar way Gary Taxali also uses found material as a canvas, but he also collages other found material into his work, postage stamps, old shopping lists and notebook pages play as big a part in his work as the printing ink itself.

 

 This way of re-using  material, which looks back at least as far as the Dadaist, appeals greatly to my mindset, it seems a much more beneficial and ecologically sound way of recycling, as opposed to making a new sheet of paper out of old paper. That's also a good way of recycling, but not as good IMHO.

 

Freak Show Posters

Freak Show Posters.

The freak show, now pretty much a thing of the past, was once thought to be good entertainment for the whole family.  You paid your money and were treated to an array of medical. biological, scientific natural and unatural curiosities. Usually the specimens were alive, sometimes the preserved remains were exhibited by their "owners".

 

Such wonders as tattooed women and men, drawves, midgets and giants all vied for attention alopng side the more exotic sounding Lobster Boy, Alligator Man, Mule Face Woman, Jojo The Dog Faced Boy and of course, Joseph Merrick, the famous Elephant Man.

Posters for these more unusual exhibits often grossly exagerated the phenomenom, with fantastical portraits that more often than not bore little relation to the reality.

These freaks shows, once a regular sight at fairgrounds and shows, have drastically diminished in number  in our more enlightened times, but the art of the billboards and posters advertising such shows lives on  and has become highly collectable.

Today, I believe the freak show ethic lives on in TV programmes such as Extraordinary People and Embarrassing Bodies

Logo Design and Development (Part 2)

Logo Design and Development.

More ideas and designs from my sketchbook.

 Some logo variations on my CW initials, including an attempt to create an anarchy A style letter C. Unfortunately, it just looks like a sketched copyright symbol.

The design that really caught my eye was the one at center bottom. I liked the way this one looked and I have tried to preserve its hand drawn sketchiness in future developments.

 Four variations on the basic design, with a variety of line thicknesses.

A solid body, with a sketchy outline. I think it could do with mor sketchiness.

 A double image of the logo, the image seems to have been clipped.

A version using a large halftone dot. I like this, but don't think it's right for what I want at the moment.














 Three variants set in a circular field,
   
  I think several, especially these last three have possibilities, for use in different situations. I like the idea of using varitions of a logo for different circumstances.

Logo Design and Development (Part 1)

LoGO DesIGN. 

A few pages from my sketchbook.

 OK,  so essence of Chip; my initial ideas were centered around a perfume or aftershave type packaging. Essence Of Chip would smell like a mixture of tabac, amber and sandle wood hopefully.
 The Treebus comment is my self description comparing myself to compulsive horder and hero of the Life Of Grime tv series Edmund Treebus. My hoarding connects with my urge to upcycle, recycle and reuse found materials. I wanted to use some found materials in this project.






 Another page of early ideas, still playing with the aftershave idea and the branding it Chi(p). There are a few notes about Chi and  a couple of  rough ideas for a pictogram  of a dragon using the the letters chip, although they ended up looking like ducks. The orange stain is from the curry I was eating whilst working, it blends in quite nicely into the matchbox drawing.

 Another couple of pages from the sketchbook. This time showing some ideas for logos based on my CW initials



Several non-starters here , but one struck me as having some potential,

 



I worked up this rough, but more logo like version. It reminds me of a bacardi logo.









  There are quite a few on here that I like. The flowing Cola style logo is a particular favourite, but as I say, it's very similar to the Coca Cola logo.

 The sketch on the lower right of the center, with the C and crown W, I thought had potential. 

Below are some variations on this idea.











Working on the idea.

 Another variation.