We have recently completed a launch animation for Inspired Wine – a new way to enjoy wine. For more info visit inspiredwine.co.uk

Animation, Inspired wine

Following a similar topic to Jonathan’s post on the internet changing the way we think, this animated insight by Iain McGilchrist into the way our evolving minds have altered our behaviour is fascinating. McGilchrist suggests that as a race we’ve pursued information, and we now have it ‘in spades’, but we’ve become less able to use it and understand it. We’ve pursued freedom, and live in a world “monitored by CCTV and subjected to a network of small, complicated rules”. I’m fascinated by the way our minds work, and love it when complicated science is presented in a form that us lesser mortals can grasp.

Animate, Iain McGilchrist, RSA, The Divided Brain

I attended the Typo London conference last week. The event which hosted a wide range of speakers from Neville Brody to Lawrence Weiner, had the theme of ‘Places’ but to be honest was much broader than that. It was brilliantly facilitated by Erik Spiekermann and Adrian Shaughnessy (among others) and was easily the best conference I’ve been to in some time. One of the best things about it was that most of the speakers stayed for the duration and watched the other presentation, which created a real feel of community.

It’s the first time this event has been held in England, having previously been in Berlin and judging by the feedback from everyone, it looks like it’s going to return to the capital next year. I will be putting together a presentation covering all the amazing talks which will be shared here but for the time being here’s additional reading about it from Creative Review and Design Assembly.

Conference, Places, Typo 11

Unity is awesome. A complete  games development kit that costs less than a single PC. It works on PC/Mac, iPads and iPhones, Android and Wii. It’s pretty easy to get into -the scripts are simple enough even for my very limited coding skills. The graphics range from brilliant to amazing – there’s realtime lighting, shadows, reflctions, depth of field, bokeh lens effects and all kinds of surfacing such as bump, specular and transparency. It interfaces really well with 3D Studio Max too making it easy to create for. It’s on my Christmas list…

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Last month myself, Michael and Iain travelled across to Vancouver to attend a conference called Siggraph (short for Special Interest Group on GRAPHics and Interactive Techniques).  This is an annual conference on computer graphics.

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Innovation, Siggraph 2011, Vancouver

Life & Fate TVC from devilfish on Vimeo.

I’m a sucker for all things Saul Bass inspired, and this TV ad for BBC4’s dramatisation of Vasily Grossman’s novel Life and Fate is particularly good. Illustrations were by Ben Newman, the ad was produced by Wonky Films.

BBC4, Life and Fate, Saul Bass, TV, Vasily Grossman

“Back To The Start” is a wonderful animated short film by film-maker Johnny Kelly, depicting the life of a farmer as he slowly turns his family farm into an industrial animal factory before seeing the errors of his ways and opting for a more sustainable future. Both the film and the soundtrack were commissioned by Chipotle to emphasize the importance of developing a sustainable food system, and features Coldplay’s ‘The Scientist’ performed by country legend Willie Nelson.

I absolutely love the tone, pace, style, choice of music and the overall message of this charming film – for me it’s nigh on perfectly executed.

Chipotle Mexican Grill, Coldplay, Farming, Johnny Kelly, Soundtrack, Sustainability, Willie Nelson

Following on from JK’s comments here, here are a few images taken from Patrick Ness’ new book ‘A Monster Calls’, illustrated by Jim Kay. Using a mixture of relief printing, black pen and ink, and various printed textures digitally pieced together, Jim has created a wonderfully dark atmosphere. I’d love to see the original works; I imagine the textures would really bring these images to life. There’s a lovely german trailer for the book, and you can see more of Jim’s illustration work.

A Monster Calls, Book design, Illustration, Jim Kay, Painting, Patrick Ness

Just My Type from Pentagram on Vimeo.

Hypnotic video trailer for Pentagram’s book, Just My Type, re-released next month. It pulses through 999 fonts in a minute starting and ending with Archer, the font used for the book’s US cover. While the smooth flow and pace of the animation is nice (at least the first 30 seconds), it’s a shame it doesn’t offer us a bit more, and tell us more about the book itself. It somehow feels a bit ‘basic’.

The book itself considers typography through the usual historic figures like Gutenberg, Baskerville and Gill and considers legibility, readability, typeface choice, politics, digital type – nothing new and much like many other typography reference books. I think the theory of typography has been pretty well exhausted now, and find the culture of type, and real-world contextual studies much more worthy of exploration.

I guess this raises a completely different question to the original purpose of this post. Are we being saturated with reworks of old material? What would you prefer to see? Any thoughts?

Baskerville, Book design, Fonts, Gill, Gutenberg, Just My Type, Pentagram, Typography, video

MÖBIUS from ENESS on Vimeo.

Mobius, a sculpture project by Eness in melbourne brings form to life through the use of stop-motion photography, creating a work of art beyond the original form.

Animation, Art, Film, Sculpture, Stop-motion