Foruli Publishing
12-07-10
Virtual-inc have finally completed the re-design for Foruli Publications, a cool publishing company that produce limited edition, hand made collectors books. Using HTML rather than Away3D like our previous 'Cure' project, Virtual inc tried to steer away from the stuffy world of book publishing and present a fresh design in-keeping with the publishers content.
They are currently promoting a book by Peter Hook that chronicles the rise and fall of the legendary Hacienda nightclub.
Wordpress works
04-02-10
I have been developing custom sites with my own CMS quite happily for many years. I have used Drupal and a couple of shopping carts for some sites that suited it but never had a need to venture into the Wordpress world.
A client has just asked for a site like another he had seen and I saw almost immediately that it was based on a WordPress template. Some time ago I played with the WordPress template system just to see what it was like but this was the first time I was going to use one for real.
I have been impressed with the ease of generating a custom template and putting together some content and I now see that there are many people out there who make most of the sites they do on WordPress. I can see that the range of plug-ins and hacking of the PHP code make this a very versatile tool and I am sure I will consider it for future projects.
However, I know that most of the sites I build have too much custom structure that would not fit comfortably in a WordPress setup. Clients always want things done in a certain way and I like having control overall the components that go into the site.
Who knows? In a few months I might look at this and wonder why I haven't used WordPress earlier. Watch this space.
314x314 Exhibition
07-08-09
Currently I'm organising a charity design exhibition which is bringing together some of the music industry's most influential graphic designers, illustrators, photographers and artists of the past 30 years. They will pay homage to the art form that is the 12" record sleeve now seemingly in decline as the digital age is upon us. Upcoming creatives will also be invited to contribute as they will form the basis of music influenced design in this new era, and help shape the future of visual creativity which in the past has drawn heavily on this unique art form.
I'm asking artists to design an original piece of front cover artwork using one of the following briefs:
• Re-design a classic sleeve of a favourite band which has influenced you in some way or one which you feel could have been designed differently.
• Re-design a sleeve which you have previously worked on but was executed differently because the band or record company influenced the final design.
• Design an original sleeve for a new or existing artist or band.
After the event, a book will be published incorporating all the artwork and will include interviews with designers who will share stories about their creations, the history behind some of their previous creations and thoughts on the future of music related design. It will also include a CD of music that is related to the 314x314 project.
For the last 50 years, the record sleeve has been the catalyst of many an aspiring artist, designer or photographer pursuing their creative careers. From purchasing the 12" record, taking it home, putting it on the turntable and perusing every last inch of the sleeve whilst listening intently to every note and lyric exuding from the speakers, this has been the routine for many a teenagers life over the years.
For many, their introduction to art is the sleeve of their first record purchase because it is easily accessible and indentifiable. Even today, people still talk about albums that influenced their lives and in the same sentence mention the artwork which accompanied the music, whether it's 'Sgt Peppers Lonely Heart Club Band', 'Dark Side Of The Moon' or 'Blue Monday'. Unfortunately with today's music, the advent of digital downloads and corporate wholesale attitude of the industry, it has somewhat anaesthetised the art of the record sleeve and the creative process unless the music artist has been intrinsically involved with the process.
This exhibition will aim to bring back the power to the creative, free from outside influence and constraint and hopefully let the public see what is achievable when the some of the best innovative minds are able to express themselves through this work.
Hopefully this will also encourage young designers and musicians to understand the important relationship between vision and sound, and the effect it has on young peoples lives. For this very reason, 314x314 hopes to bring awareness to the dangers of drug and alcohol dependency which has been prevalent within the music industry for decades. How this will be achieved is by auctioning the original artworks submitted and the proceeds given to charities who help young people with these problems and educate impressionable teenagers through mentorship and music industry support.
ROAD RECOVERY is dedicated to helping young people battle addiction and other adversities by harnessing the influence of entertainment industry professionals who have confronted similar crises and now wish to share their experience and knowledge.
With support from the mental health field, ROAD RECOVERY provides hands-on mentorship training, educational/performance workshops, peer-support networking, and “all access” to real-life opportunities by collaborating with young people to create and present live-concert events.
ROAD RECOVERY empowers young people of all backgrounds to face their struggles and helps them develop comprehensive life skills, guided by professionals and supported by a community of like-minded peers.
Once all the artwork has been submitted, a six week exhibition will take place the Notting Hill Arts Club starting in November afterwhich all the work produced will be auctioned and the proceeds go to the mentioned charities.
Check out the gallery so far at www.314x314.com
Mark
Jquery magic
04-08-09
It has only been recently that I have discovered the joy (and frustrations) of using jquery to animate the page and fetch ajax requests.
I am not sure why it tool so long to notice all the possibilities that jquery offered, although keeping up with a regular stream of work makes it diffucult to explore something new. I had also waited for the "right moment" when browsers were capable of rendering all the javascript extras without problem. Like breaking bad news to a partner there is never a good time.
So, the moment was right and I soon discovered that jquery made the complexities of page manipulation easy and wrapped ajax up in a digestable bundle.
I shall write more on a few of the problems I had that were tricky to track down on the web. Ajax can be a delicate tool to debug and some time was spent adding plugins to firefox to find out what on earth was being passed silently from the web page up to the server.
More to follow...