MTV Staying-Alive: MySpace Designs

Last week I created two MySpace designs for new ventures by MTV's Staying Alive Foundation, which as you'll know, I've had chance to work with on a number of occasions now. As you'd expect for a MySpace page, the emphasis is on user interaction. I'm just showing the page headers here, but needless to say, the style follows through the templates.

For 'The Big Question', visitors are invited to voice their opinion on an important issue, encouraged by slebs doing the same thing. It's also about whether it's possible for people to change their opinions. The visual idea here is just that, with arrows (and a question mark) changing direction and overlapping, representing the diversity in opinion that significant matters can generate. A simple idea perhaps, but I think it works well in terms of providing a striking backdrop and setting the scene.


The second design was for 'Untold Stories', where a sleb tells half a story in a video blog. It's then up to the visitors to finish the story, whether it's in video or written form. One of the stories mentions pavements and crying, and somewhere out of that developed this concept. A heart split in two and turned upside down becomes a tear. Plus it makes a pretty pattern too!


Both projects have yet to 'go live', but they've been used here with kind permission.

Otaku Magazine Illustration

Earlier this year I was approached by Otaku Magazine, and invited to provide an illustration for their new (4th) issue on 'Kaidan', or Japanese ghosts, which is now available. I really enjoyed doing this one, leaving the (digital) ink more prominent than I usually do, and going for a relatively subdued colour scheme.





Only 100 copies are available for international orders, so hurry to get one!

Design is Kinky Connect

I'm very pleased to announce that my work can now be found on the brand new Design is Kinky Connect site, the aim of which is to "filter down the large amount of artists working today into a more manageable format to save you time when looking for new talent." I've not seen the guys since Semi Permanent 2005, where myself, Jason and Rich from Pixelsurgeon did a talk at the Barbican, so it was especially good of them to invite me as one of the first fifty artists to feature on the site. Quite apart from my personal inclusion (!), it's an interesting venture and I hope it turns out to be a successful one.

And now...a Musical Interlude

Lord Vladder is Alex Amelines' pet project, an animation that he's been working on for some time, which is now really starting to gather pace. As well as providing some artwork for the project, I've recently started to work on a soundtrack. It's been a very long time since I composed any music (my degree was a dual honours in music and visual arts from Keele University), but Garageband has been beckoning me like a siren on the rocks at sea, so finally I gave in. I got the classical instruments 'Jam Pack' for it, and off I went.

Initially I worked on a main theme for the hero, Sir Askalot 'The Doubtful', just to get things up and running. But then I got the idea of doing a new score for the teaser trailer. It was a great way to focus, and let me tie the arrangement to the visual timeline, just as one would for a 'real' movie soundtrack. To hear my efforts, and enjoy Alex's lovely trailer, check out the main Lord Vladder site, and go to the movies section.