some things from over the easter. from top to bottom: massive wood burning pile we found at 2 in the morning in the local woods; countryside near my house; dan's cat paul playing ''good news bad times''; tree cutters removing ''dead wood'' from woods aka being massive dicks to the lovely trees; bike rides through the surrounding countryside
my contribution to the 2012 falmouth illustrators FALPHABET exhibition. i took a random pick out of all the letters and worked up something appropriate thereon. originally my design was going to be for hydraulics, but that got pretty boring pretty fast. i figured actually cutting a H in half might be more fun, and it was!
image compiled out of cut out shapes arranged in photoshop and then screenprinted into a run of 5. kept one back for myself so 4 are for sale this coming thursday at expressini in falmouth. it's gonna be super fun times in tiny coffee stores.
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every year, our illustration class puts out a promotional book called illustrated quotes & sayings; it hits the agencies, publishers, studio circuits of a whole bunch of contacts in our tutors back pockets, sort of like a little foot-in-the-door portfolio of all of our classes talent. this was my submission, only it's cropped down in the original. i also just realized that the file i handed in for printing is 29mb big, whoops!
pretty excited to see the final printed book!
''The change happened whilst I slept. Its details I shall never know; for my slumber, though troubled and dream-infested, was continuous. When at last I awakened, it was to discover myself half sucked into a slimy expanse of hellish black mire which extended about me in monotonous undulations as far as I could see, and in which my boat lay grounded some distance away.
Though one might well imagine that my first sensation would be of wonder at so prodigious and unexpected a transformation of scenery, I was in reality more horrified than astonished; for there was in the air and in the rotting soil a sinister quality which chilled me to the very core. The region was putrid with the carcasses of decaying fish, and of other less describable things which I saw protruding from the nasty mud of the unending plain. Perhaps I should not hope to convey in mere words the unutterable hideousness that can dwell in absolute silence and barren immensity. There was nothing within hearing, and nothing in sight save a vast reach of black slime; yet the very completeness of the stillness and the homogeneity of the landscape oppressed me with a nauseating fear.
The sun was blazing down from a sky which seemed to me almost black in its cloudless cruelty; as though reflecting the inky marsh beneath my feet. As I crawled into the stranded boat I realized that only one theory could explain my position. Through some unprecedented volcanic upheaval, a portion of the ocean floor must have been thrown to the surface, exposing regions which for innumerable millions of years had lain hidden under unfathomable watery depths.
So great was the extent of the new land which had risen beneath me, that I could not detect the faintest noise of the surging ocean, strain my ears as I might.
Nor were there any sea-fowl to prey upon the dead things.
For several hours I sat thinking or brooding in the boat, which lay upon its side and afforded a slight shade as the sun moved across the heavens. As the day progressed, the ground lost some of its stickiness, and seemed likely to dry sufficiently for travelling purposes in a short time. That night I slept but little, and the next day I made for myself a pack containing food and water, preparatory to an overland journey in search of the vanished sea and possible rescue.''
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one of three illustrations to accompany the h.p lovecraft short-story ''dagon'' - wonderfully bleak little tale of a man stranded in a bleak, desolate land seemingly thrown-up from beneath the ocean. more images to soon........
cut-out shapes arranged in photoshop, printed on heavy-weight card. soon to be screen-printed, screens currently ready and prepped just too tired/lazy to get them printed but it will be done.
“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”
- steve jobs, 1955 - 2011
arguably one of our generations most important entrepreneurs, inventor (as it were) and designer. rest in peace.
really good things: male bonding ''endless now'', letlive. ''fake history'', touche amore ''parting the sea between brightness and me'', shapes ''motonony chic'', circle takes the square ''decompositions vol I'', the james cleaver quintet ''ten stages of a make up'', das boot, american gangster, shooting stars, curb your enthusiasm season 2, george rr martin ''a storm of swords vol I & II"', la noire, falmouth with parents (past), falmouth with myself (present), falmouth with kate (upcoming)......
ISIS, oceanic, 2002 / artwork, design by aaron turner
simple. fitting. apt. i was in love with this record before i had even heard it, and i was still in love even after i realized that ISIS were not a band to ''get into'' very simply. i think that even though i didn't necessarily enjoy the music on the first couple of plays, the fact that the sound and atmosphere of this release was so dripping (literally) with nautical themes, and that the tone and recording of the album really put you into a place of crushing pressure, that a sleeve that only goes on to show the rippling of waves and a booklet composed mostly of photographs of the ocean speaks volumes.
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peter gabriel, 4/security, 1982, sculpture/design by malcom poynter/peter gabriel
there isn't much needs be said here - it's weird, just like what gabriel's pop-rock done strange is all about. i cannot even find much said about the artwork or sculpture on the internet, and thinking about it, i don't think i want to. mystery is wonder as ignorance is bliss.
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at the drive-in, relationship of command, 2000 / artwork by damon locks
like the mythological sacking of the city of troy, in which the greek soldiers lay waste to the city by hiding away inside of the hollowed wooden horse, this album does exactly that. what we have here is something that is imitating a 'regular' disk and a 'normal' inside booklet, but the real content of this record is anything but. it sneaks into your bag at the record store and then steals its way inside of your record player and before you know it, everything is over. all the things you loved about music before are wiped clean; everything you thought you knew about music is eviscerated, blown to pieces by the sheer audacity and intense aural riptides that at the drive-in make with what may as well be alien artifacts at their disposal as opposed to the mundane guitar or microphone, the sound is just that special. basically, sticking a wooden horse on the front of this album is the simplest way of not showing their sound, and the wonder from the graphic construction of the chop-cut linocuts was enough for this record to find it's way to my collection all those many years ago. well, that and an absolutely ridiculous live show of hit single one armed scissor on later... with jools holland.
nine inch nails, the fragile, 1999 / design by david carson
this, like oceanic, is another sleeve that had me hooked from the design alone, although nine inch nail's output is far more easy going than that of ISIS', though not necessarily any more simple. in fact, calling it easy going is quite ignorant of me in it's own right. irregardless, this is a true visual depiction of how this record sounds. i have nothing more i can say to back that up. i honestly cannot think of how i could even begin to prove that, or recite why i think that this is the visual that matches the aural. you don't even care. i don't even care. just have a listen to this fabulous downer of an album and have a think on that one yourself. i'll be right, you'll see.
