Ian Mclaren

Over the past couple of days I have been working with the esteemed graphic designer Ian Mclaren in order to produce material for a symposium looking at the influence the graphic design of the 1972 Munich Olympics had on the world. Hence the lack of posts for a few days.

As well as working as a senior member of Otl Aicher's design team on the Munich project Mclaren has worked for Braun, Penguin books, Ahrend as well as producing standout works for the protest group CND (Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament). He has had a close relationship with "protest" art, recently producing a poster for Hanging Out an exhibition of Protest Art.

With over 50 years in the industry Mclaren is uniquely placed to present this symposium, it should also be noted that he was also one of the original signatories of the first graphic design First Things First manifesto. He is noted for his abstract designs, which enabled CND to hang its posters in the London Underground despite the policy of London Underground to not allow political imagery on posters.

Scenes 1-3 Flu Virus Animation

Scenes1,2,3 unedited from SIMON HOLLAND on Vimeo.

This is a composite of scenes 1-3 of an animation that I am working explaining the flu virus At the moment they are completely unprocessed (apart from an ambient occlussion pass) and unedited.

Simon

Minimal Thumbnails.

Hey guys,

no update yesterday as I have had to sort out a few business things, managed to pull in some freelance work to keep me busy for the next couple of months, watch this space for updates. Also I have a small editing job next week, which should be fun. Today I worked on some R&D stuff for the upcoming project, getting used to animating in Maya again, also set up some rendering which is taking an uber long time. Tonight I started playing around with some minimal thumbnail stuff. These were created using just 4 rectangles and limited use of the transform tools.

I should also recommend another blog. This particular blog showcases the work of students on the CG Arts and Animation course at the University for the Creative Arts at Rochester in Kent, England. Check it out there is some great work there.

Looky Here

Simon

Robh Ruppel

Hi guys, another day and another update.

Today I thought I would recommend the artwork of Robh Ruppel.
Currently hailing from Southern California, Robh has a client list that includes Disney and Sony Computer Entertainment and has worked on titles such as The Emporers New Groove, The Uncharted series of games,     Meet the Robinsons among others. Mainly specialising in environments he has tackled subjects as varied as 1950's Jetsons inspired scenes for Robinsons through to modern landscapes from around California. Worth checking out are his pencil studies of landscapes.

Website

Blog

Robh has worked as a concept artist, matte painter, production artist. His blog is particularly useful as he often gives breakdowns of his process.

Make sure you check out his website and blog I'm sure you will inspired.

Finally to round things off, England made me happy by coming top of the group in the European Championship, well done lads. Roll on Italy

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Towers

Thought I would work up a quick overpaint of one of the pictures I took yesterday, I probably could have pushed it further and brought in some more elements. Going to attempt to do several of these a day so this one should be considered a trial.

UCA Maidstone, Photographs and Brick Lane.

Today I travelled up to The Rag Factory, Brick Lane in London to help the Fine Art Media guys bring back their degree show.  The day started well, I got over to UCA Maidstone a little early to pick up my co-pilot Tariq. Whilst waiting I decided to get some shots of the building. I was trying to find some interesting angles that I use as a starting point for some digital paintings.

I think the rain spouts form some nice shapes to work and the rain gutter has also given me a few ideas to play with, not sure where I can go with the wooden posts maybe playing around with some cropping and rotation may yield.

I also took a few general shots of the building, especially the foyer/reception vestibule.

All in all the run went pretty well although getting home at 20:00 was a bit of a bummer, I also would have liked to get some nice shots from around Brick Lane as it is a very cosmopolitan and vibrant part of London, unfortunately  time was at a premium so I couldn't grasp the opportunity this visit.

Simon

Well first off I thought I recommend this blog by a great artist by the name of Ashley Wood.If you get the opportunity then drop by his blog, there you will find some great paintings.

He has produced works for Dreamworks, SKG, Marvel, Warner and Konami, among others, He works with traditional media mixed with photography and digital software.
Also worth a look is his website:

Website: http://ashleywoodartist.com/

Ashley has quite a broad range of styles and tackles a wide range of subjects from mutant/ cyborg/ zombie Nazi helmeted characters through to kitschy robots (I'm looking at you Bertie)and pin-ups, if you are lucky a combination of all three. If any of you guys like fluid mark making over saccharine digital art then Ashley is a fine remedy.