This was finished and released/published last week. I’ve been working closely with the new record label Sub Slayers. Headed up by the legendary Jay Cunning. I’m working long term on the project, heading up the digital branding, visual identify and presence for the label. Some big things are planned for the summer, but I can’t tell you about them at the moment. You can view this mailer (with the working links and audio samples) by heading here.
Consistent, high quality, simple and effective branding. That easy is it? Well I decided to give it some thought and put pen to paper (I really did). This is where I went:
Do you have a real world presence. Is a real world presence needed anymore for creative businesses? This is something I’ve been toying with ever since I took the plunge into freelancing about a year ago. Are we seeing a spilt between digital and non digital creativity. Video editors are increasingly being overlooked in favour of graphic/web designers who “dabble” in video. Who’s responsibility is this, the clients or the creative?
Having 10,000 Myspace friends or 25,000 Twitter followers; does this equate to increased value and follow-thru popularity as a creative. Are you seeing increased business or just increased exposure. Indeed, could it be having a negative impact, having crossed the line into noise/spam.
Is being an online focused creative working? For me, nearly all my business, clients, and exposure happens online. Occasionally I get to work with print, which these days is the old school. Is being mostly online focused restrictive? Or is the new media strong enough to support purely online creative ventures.
With the Internet (formerly the World Wide Web) you have instant (well as good as pending your ISP) access to a vast ever expanding worldwide network. But is being that big the right path to take. Do you feel swamped like a tadpole in an ocean of tadpoles? Personally I fully embrace the internet and the worldwide communication it offers.
Despite the collective global network I still remain either by choice or necessity (it varies from day to day) in a niche. Your brand, every brand, needs to come out of its niche and own than niche. Be the top of your niche. Why not straddle a few niche’s. You never know, a new avenue of interest, purpose or revenue may well open up.
This is what has been happening to me recently. As makemassair I offer a variety of linked creative disciplines and the digital brand management has seemingly evolved from my freelance work. On reflection, it’s always been there but has generally been focused inversely on personal projects. I’m guess my switch got turned on.
So this is something I’ll be delving into further. Keeping tabs on any new developments. And with the ever brooding death of Myspace hiding around the corner, it’s game time for 2010.
Ahead of Friday’s Tate Britain screening of the AV project sevenzero (feedback from the screening coming up in a bit), I decided I needed some business cards to promote myself. Despite having been operating as a full time freelancer since February 2009 all my work has been in the digital/online domain and I’d not needed a business card. Having them now makes me feel that little bit more business like. Not that I didn’t feel that way before, but there is something satisfying in saying:
Please, have one of my business cards. I look forward to hearing from you soon…
So these are my business cards. Printed locally on 350gsm card. I think they came out brilliantly. I have been promising on Twitter that I would put them up for people to see. So true to my word here you go:
And the artwork, designed by yours truly of course:
If you would like one of these highly collectible, and limited edition cards (hahaha), get in contact.
I’ve been doing the graphic design, branding, web design and even video production (see the Acedia project) for the fashion label Sample Remix. Earlier today I updated the front page design of the Sample Remix site to tie in with promoting the Acedia project, essentially adding a link to the promo/press page for the performance and updating the imagery used. It is getting rarer for sites to have splash pages but I think that this site works with one.
The original splash image, which was the only link to the subsequence site:
And the updated image and page design, adding in a text based link to the subsequence site:
Also, the Acedia web promo/press page is all but complete (I’ll be adding production credits below the row of button links at the bottom). I feel it keeps the simple, clean and clear design of the Sample Remix graphic design and branding so far and let’s the trailer and information shine through.
The opening sequence created for the ProMax/BDA Africa 2007 annual event celebrating the best in broadcast motion graphics and channel identity design.
All I’ll say is that it’s pretty awesome.
Panic Embryo (one of the 3D animators):
It was myself and another 3D animator who both work at a company called Orijin that put the sequence together. The robots are 3D on all of the wide shots. We did close ups and tight cuts with other kinds of contraptions.
Following on from the last post on here, this is the Main Titles of the awesome looking OFFF 2009 festival.
36 logos/titles in this fantastic film produced by OneSize for the 2009 OFFF sponsor titles. Click the first image for the big version of the 8 minute film.
Big fan of Chris Cunningham. And this is beautiful audio visual harmony. You can view this on the Gucci site, just click here. Wonder what’s happening with his supposed feature film…
Dazed Magazine’s online existance, Dazed Digital, has a fair bit of info about this piece, the beginning of which I’ll shamelessly repost for you here…
From its original incarnation as a silk scarf specifically designed for Princess Grace of Monaco in 1966, to the sought-after accessories and ready to wear pieces designed by Frida Giannini in the 21st century, Gucci’s Flora has proven to have a timeless allure. Rediscovered by Giannini as inspiration for the new Gucci fragrance, the heritage of Flora has been transformed into a sensuous and empowering new scent. Flora rolls out across the world from this month, launching internationally with a commercial shot by Chris Cunningham.
Cunningham’s film, starring Australian model Abbey Lee, captures the seductive and ultra-feminine notes of the new fragrance while emphasising its call to strength and self confidence. A young woman in a diaphanous Flora print dress stands waist high in the middle of a seemingly unending mass of pristine white flowers, illuminated from behind by the setting sun. Taking on the power of nature she controls the movement of the wind to bring the field to life before shape-shifting into a ephemeral, Rorschach-like butterfly of dancing fabric and golden light. Shot over four days in Latvia during July last year, the film’s field was created using more than 20,000 fake flowers.
Riccardo Ruini who developed the concept for the commercial with Giannini and Cunningham, explains the evolution of the film:
“Foremost in our minds was a desire to avoid the heroine being perceived as passive or dreamy. We wanted to portray the female as an active character who brings to life in an active way the Flora personality by controlling the nature around her. We also felt it was important to demonstrate a movement of the female from mademoiselle to empowered woman; a woman initially delicate and feminine transforming into someone stronger and more powerful. “
Having worked with David Lynch to launch Gucci by Gucci, Ruini and Giannini wanted an equally powerful creative vision at play on the new project. Working with Italian production house FilmMaster and Ridley Scott’s RSA Films in London, Chris Cunningham took the reins to steer the commercial from concept to execution.
“The main drive was to create a deep poetic feeling rather than something simply romantic, a word that doesn’t fit in the Gucci code. The choice of using Chris Cunningham fit perfectly with this concept,” says Ruini. “Chris added a lot to the original idea, making the whole project more majestic and cinematic. We strive to give as much creative space as possible to great directors that are involved in our projects so we avoid setting limitations at the outset. Chris developed the initial storyboard by adding his own principles and aesthetics.”
Part of that vision lay in the choice of music. With Lynch’s film playing out against a backdrop of Blondie’s Heart of Glass, Gucci decided to stick to a 70s and 80s sound and blend Cunningham’s visuals with Donna Summer’s disco classic I Feel Love. “We wanted to go further with the sound on this film and knew of Chris’ renowned passion for music so we asked him what he felt about re-recording, producing and arranging a new working of the track. He answered by travelling to Nashville in November last year for a few days to re-record the vocals with Donna Summer,” reveals Ruini. “Donna’s track is an amazing classic and we were all blown away the first time the song was played to Chris’ images.”
Found over at swissmiss
Awesome news. MANTIS has been featured in the dance music magazine FREEZE. It’s based in Greece and as such it’s all greek to me. Funny that. Huge love goes out to Vasilis (who is an artist I’ve played on the show quite a number of times as Fabrics) for spreading the word and for providing a translation. Here’s what the guys at FREEZE magazine had to say about us:
DVNT presents for a while now the cream of the crop in electronic music through his MANTIS radio show on Brap FM, showcasing the modern urban culture. 2 hour length shows full of unreleased tracks, guest artists and many flavors: breaks, electro, techno, dubstep, idm, ebm, trip hop, you name it. For all us, too far away from Brighton, we can always download the shows from the MANTIS myspace. Download and listen carefully…
Thanks guy.
7divine