SlangBang / New Tshirts / Splendour 2010

Heya blog
So a few months ago I started this Tshirt design, but only just got around to finishing it. Im not sure what the guys are going to be able to afford but hopefully they will be able to get both variations printed. I love the idea of having a story between two shirts.
Oh and this is the finished poster design for DZ's Upcoming tour. Typography isnt my strength, so its a shame that so much text got added to the brief after I designed it. I think it still turned out ok, there are a few hierarchy issues though. Next one will be better :)
On a more personal front, I just took a few weeks off to spend with friends and family in Queensland. Was really great to catch up with everybody!
Part of the trip involved a 4 Day camping adventure at Splendour in the Grass. Seriously one of the best weekends ever. Great weather, finest of company and so much music to lose your mind to. Musical highlights included- The Strokes, SUCH a phenomenal set from one of the bands that defined the last decade. Wall to wall hits. The Vines, Ive never seen these guys before and I know creatively they are a bit passed it. They were however THE band that changed my musical taste when I was 14 and in turn had a massive influence on my creative course. They have a terrible rep live which is why I've avoided them until now, but their splendour set was off the planet. LCD Sound System - Im so sad that I only started listening to LCD in the last 12 months, especially because they are breaking up after this tour. Their set at Splendour was a total party. James Murphy has to be one of the smartest guys in music. Yeasayer- Probably one of my favourite modern bands. They played plenty of old songs, which I loved but probably caught some people off guard. The build up of energy through their set was bliss. Passion Pit- This was just a crazy 30thousand person dance party. Some of the most surreal crowd participation I've ever seen- Everybody in the Amphitheatre stage making spazzy arm movements in the air creating a fleshy writhing pit of humanity for minutes at a time. Pixies- It was really good to see these guys after being mildly obsessed with them for years. Their set closed the festival, and while it didnt quite have the energy that some of the previous musicians did its hard to fault PIXIES. Definitely was a great way to end the festival.

Steve and Liam wait with us to get into the wine bar.

Laura Marling

Passion/Flesh Pit

SOOO much! DZ promo work, Game Art Direction, and Illustrations

My buddies DZ asked me to help out with some art for their upcoming Single Launch. I did about a million ideas but these are the two that we went with in the end. The first is the tour poster design (sans text), and the second is the single sleeve. You can hear the single hereThe guys have had a pretty massive 12 months. National Tours, much acclaim, EP releases ect. To give you an idea of what they are like, this is their last music video- Teeth'. Its pretty fantastic.


A personal illustration -

I spent the last few weeks helping out my friend Bill Northcott and studio I Love Biscuits with an up coming game release. Bill has produced some really successful flash games off his own back and with the amazing organisation/programming power of Biscuits things came together quite quickly.
I was asked to define the art direction and design the backgrounds and props. Bill took care of the character work and animation.
These are a few examples of frames from the very long back ground. (in game all layers paralax)

And these are a layout of some of the props that I designed
And last but not least- These are a few illustration/doodles that I played around with between projects as well

Anyway, thats a slice of what I've been up to in my downtime! Would love to hear some feed back on it, so let me know what you think :)

Hopeyoure all well
Alex.

Fresh scars for old wounds.

So blog.

A few little tid bits of information.
Firstly, I got a new job working in Melbourne as a character animator. Its like a proper salary delio, so that means much less freelance for the medium term. Hopefully I'll be able to keep doing illo work for peeps though. I leave on Wednesday, and start on Monday. Big thing for me!!!
Secondly, Im not doing the DZ cover art anymore. The wolf pic above was my last submission to them, but as its no longer getting used I am sharing it. Check out they're latest release here. you can also get a taste of some of hype they've been getting lately.
Thirdly, I just wanted to say I am glad that I have been blessed with such lovely friends here in Brisbane. I am going to miss them all a lot. they are all loving, patient, and inspiring and I appreciate them with all of my heart.



much love

A.

DZ Shirt Design

soo this is kinda the final design for DZ. there were a few tweaks i wanted to do, but I had to leave them.
Also, i got my business card printed. great success. If you are a brisbane kid, use king of print. Their customer service is pretty crap, but the product is great and cheap.

Winner?

Heya blog,

So I got some positive feedback from the guys about this design. I can imagine that im going to develop it further over next little while. I really have to talk to the guys a some more.
Once again, would love to hear what you think.

Alex

DZ EP cover. Progress 02

Hiya Blog,

So as promised here are some more progress pics from my development for DZ's up coming EP launch. I started them before I got feed back on the last one. So, predictably, they weren't received well. Actually, they were received well, but the band shared my opinion that they weren't really suited to an EP cover. Its a weird magic. I cant really put my finger on what it takes for a piece to be suitable for a CD sleeve. I guess because its packaging, there are a different set of expectation. Tricky. I find that my favorite covers are photographic, or quite abstract. Most of my skills are focused towards figurative work, so that habit is inhibiting me I think.
All of the designs so far are based on my Feather Wolf concept. Ironically, the Feather Wolf design struck me as the one I liked least of the set. I appropriated the middle design as a blog link button for my myspace page





As always, Im always interested in your opinions.

Love
Alex

DZ EP cover. Progress 01

Heya blog,

Im working with a band called DZ at the moment; trying to produce a CD jacket, as well as some branding and merch. I think I will keep some of my work in progress up here.



So this is the first colour sketch i sent through, kind of a concept for things more stuff. They liked it but didnt think it fit they're image. So back to the drawing board. I like it though. I hope you do too

DZ, cd cover

Heya guys this is a CD cover that Ive put together for a band called DZ. A kickin little garage/grunge. I haven't shown the guys yet, so there will be revisions for sure.
I wanted to try something a little different with this, so its all hand done. The illustration in the text was inked with nibs at about A4 size. A lot of the story is lost because its shrunken down, but there is one in there. The ornaments at the bottom and top were inked with a finer fountain pen. I think ink is something that i want to explore a lot more.

would love some opinions on this one