Monday, October 31, 2011
Friday, October 28, 2011
Hunting a Better Printing Method
I did a test run for turning my little Proper Cup of Coffee broadside into a poster. I used a service called Zazzle (they let me custom cut the paper size), you can fine them here.
The quality is good, but it looks like a giant photo blow-up of a Photoshop file. Looks like I need to find someone local who will give me a range of printing paper to choose from and is willing to hold my hand through the process. Although off-set printing would be nice, I would like to find some happy medium. Something archival, cost effective, and the ability to do very limited runs.
What I Have Been Up To
In a recent Blog post, CarCus asked if I might elaborate a bit on what I have been working on recently. I have to say that these past few years have been the busiest in my career, but sadly most of that work is on projects that I am unable to show or talk about publicly. Still, I have been filling drawers with art and producing work for clients in an variety of diverse industries. I can however roughly describe all I have been up to.
I am still working as an Art Director for IMVU.com, my day job, which I have held since 2006 and one that the company allows me to do from my remote studio in Oregon. Roughly, my job description is to use the 3D tools that we offer our members to continually push what is possible to produce with them. Inspiration by example is my job, followed with assignments to write tutorials, create videos, and review products. IMVU has been a wonderful place to work, and has allowed me the luxury of growing my 3D skills, which are directly enhancing my weekend freelance work.
Although it means I have a seven day work week, Saturday morning starts my other job as a freelance concept designer. I continue to work actively on projects for Walt Disney Imagineering, as well as other theme park companies, producing projects all over the world. I have had the honor of working briefly on The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, and most recently on major area development projects for Walt Disney World. I am most often brought into a project at the very beginning of the brainstorming or blue sky process. All this 3D experience has led me to produce very large and complex area development concepts models, often as the very first step of the conceptual process. The end result will most often be a full color bird’s eye sketch, but before that happens I might develop several iterations of 3D concepts before I finally commit it to ink.
3D environment design is ultimately my passion, and as a concept designer my job is to work towards the goal of producing images that communicate to the largest audience of often diverse disciplines. If I can get architects, engineers, and show ride designers excited by an early design then there is a greater likelihood that the final result will most resemble my initial concept. When producing concepts early in the life-cycle of a project, it is too easy to get flashy... communicating energy and excitement but not always working to nail down scale and scope. Having even a rough 3D model allows for me to be honest about just how big a finished design will be and how it will work in relation to the audience and surrounding environment.
As a remote freelance designer you hope that your work will communicate all aspects of your design intent. Since once your contracted time is used up you are not often invited to fight for your design, so it better do a good job of communicating your concept without you being in the room to fight for it. Ultimately, the more information you can instill in your design, the more likely the people responsible for making it a reality will adopt your early goals as your own. More often then not the next time I see a project, after my early concepting efforts, is when the attraction finally opens. This was certainly true of my work on the Toy Story Mania project, which I worked on extensively during its blue sky phase. Although years passed between my early drawing and the final attraction, I can definitely see the influence of the first sketches, despite the many hands which had touched it once it left my drawing table.
Probably the most fulfilling work that I am doing now has been to create elaborate attractions designed specifically to help communicate the potential of a ride system in early development. Although these attractions are unlikely to every be built, I am handed a very rough concept for a ride vehicle system and I am asked to wrap a story around it. It is jobs like these that allow me to pull from every aspect of my eclectic skills and knowledge. Ultimately, once I have delivered a bird’s eye ride concept model or sketch, my client will know that I have thought out every inch of the attraction and its details, virtually riding it in 3D and on paper. Whether it gets built is purely icing on the cake, because I got to experience it first, and with luck that is communicated in the designs I hand over to my clients.
I promise to post any images I can, but more often then not, they are destined for the draws of the archives of the companies I work for.
I am still working as an Art Director for IMVU.com, my day job, which I have held since 2006 and one that the company allows me to do from my remote studio in Oregon. Roughly, my job description is to use the 3D tools that we offer our members to continually push what is possible to produce with them. Inspiration by example is my job, followed with assignments to write tutorials, create videos, and review products. IMVU has been a wonderful place to work, and has allowed me the luxury of growing my 3D skills, which are directly enhancing my weekend freelance work.
Although it means I have a seven day work week, Saturday morning starts my other job as a freelance concept designer. I continue to work actively on projects for Walt Disney Imagineering, as well as other theme park companies, producing projects all over the world. I have had the honor of working briefly on The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, and most recently on major area development projects for Walt Disney World. I am most often brought into a project at the very beginning of the brainstorming or blue sky process. All this 3D experience has led me to produce very large and complex area development concepts models, often as the very first step of the conceptual process. The end result will most often be a full color bird’s eye sketch, but before that happens I might develop several iterations of 3D concepts before I finally commit it to ink.
3D environment design is ultimately my passion, and as a concept designer my job is to work towards the goal of producing images that communicate to the largest audience of often diverse disciplines. If I can get architects, engineers, and show ride designers excited by an early design then there is a greater likelihood that the final result will most resemble my initial concept. When producing concepts early in the life-cycle of a project, it is too easy to get flashy... communicating energy and excitement but not always working to nail down scale and scope. Having even a rough 3D model allows for me to be honest about just how big a finished design will be and how it will work in relation to the audience and surrounding environment.
As a remote freelance designer you hope that your work will communicate all aspects of your design intent. Since once your contracted time is used up you are not often invited to fight for your design, so it better do a good job of communicating your concept without you being in the room to fight for it. Ultimately, the more information you can instill in your design, the more likely the people responsible for making it a reality will adopt your early goals as your own. More often then not the next time I see a project, after my early concepting efforts, is when the attraction finally opens. This was certainly true of my work on the Toy Story Mania project, which I worked on extensively during its blue sky phase. Although years passed between my early drawing and the final attraction, I can definitely see the influence of the first sketches, despite the many hands which had touched it once it left my drawing table.
Probably the most fulfilling work that I am doing now has been to create elaborate attractions designed specifically to help communicate the potential of a ride system in early development. Although these attractions are unlikely to every be built, I am handed a very rough concept for a ride vehicle system and I am asked to wrap a story around it. It is jobs like these that allow me to pull from every aspect of my eclectic skills and knowledge. Ultimately, once I have delivered a bird’s eye ride concept model or sketch, my client will know that I have thought out every inch of the attraction and its details, virtually riding it in 3D and on paper. Whether it gets built is purely icing on the cake, because I got to experience it first, and with luck that is communicated in the designs I hand over to my clients.
I promise to post any images I can, but more often then not, they are destined for the draws of the archives of the companies I work for.
Sunday, October 23, 2011
Proper Cup of Coffee
Here's another favorite British Music Hall tune turned into a Broadside advert. I have heard the chorus for "What I Want is a Proper Cup of Coffee" sung many ways, so I picked my favorite. I couldn't find a definitive video version on the web to share with you, so you are on your own if you don't already know the song.
Monday, October 17, 2011
Broadside Lyrics
I've been thinking about playing with song lyrics as a retro Victorian Broadside advertisement, this one is from a favorite song:
To hear it in action, listen to Brass Farthing sing it at the 2009 Dickens Christmas Fair: Eat Bertha's Mussels
To hear it in action, listen to Brass Farthing sing it at the 2009 Dickens Christmas Fair: Eat Bertha's Mussels
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
They're Making My Bloody Pen Again!
One of the dangers of falling in love with a specific drawing implement is that there is always the chance that one day they will stop making them. This is what happened with my beloved Pentel Fountain Pens, which Pentel stopped making nearly ten years ago. I bought as many boxes as I could, but I have come to my very last box and a lot of my drawing time has been haunted by the reality that these are my last few pens and I better get on the ball and fall in love with something else... and fast.Well, I am happy to say the "Pen of Damocles" has been snatched from over my head! I just discovered that Pentel has re-released my old standby, under the new name "Pentel Stylo - jm20". I can't express how relieved I am, and I promise you I will be buying a crate of these as well. Now I am freed up to worry about more important things.
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