Washed Out - Feel it all around ― Thursday 28, 2010
As its a sunny and kind of warm day today I thought I’d post this tune by Washed Out called Fell it all around, its beautiful and the video isn’t bad, although its not the official one, it sort of fits nicely. Roll on July!!
Another brain busting epic from Jack Hudson and Adam Hancher ― Friday 2, 2009
I blogged about these chaps a few months ago and it looks like they’ve been getting their swagger on with some music videos. This is their latest for the ‘Tigers That Talked’ new single due out this month on Bad Sneakers. Its in the vein of Wilhelm the Maker so if you’ve seen that its instantly recognizable, great balance of motion and dark colours. Woah, that sounded pretentious, sorry it looks rad yo! ....... that’s better.
jackhudsonillustration.blogspot.com/ www.myspace.com/tigersthattalked
Leeds Night comes to Leeds ― Thursday 1, 2009
Light Night Leeds is based on the model of events such as Nuit Blanche in Paris and Toronto and Notte Bianca in Como, Italy. For one night each year, city centre venues that are normally closed at night open up late to host a range of cultural events, displays, shows, exhibitions and tours and provide bizarre, unusual and out-of-context entertainments, designed to celebrate the wealth of creative and cultural activity in the city.
Leeds was the first city in the UK to host such an event, adapting it and renaming it ‘Light Night’. It was first conceived four years ago as part of the regional ‘illuminate’ festival. It has continued each year since and in 2007 became one of the more bizarre parties held as part of the Leeds’ 800th birthday celebrations. This year, it takes place on Friday 9th October and will open up museums, galleries, shopping centres, places of worship, cafés, theatres, universities, colleges, bars, shops, arcades and the streets themselves, late into the night.
Previous Light Nights have seen murder ballads in the Town Hall, shire horses and ice cream vans parading along Briggate, thunderstorms inside Holy Trinity Church, fire shows at the Royal Armouries, daring displays of visitor participation with white umbrellas and boilersuits, ghostly audio tours and outdoor light projections. In 2007, some 50 venues and more than 240 artists took part.
Light Night is a celebration of the creativity of the people of Leeds, showcasing the work of individual artists, emerging theatre groups and major arts organisations of national and international repute. It is also a celebration of your creativity: ‘The Show becomes The Audience and The Audience becomes The Show’. Sing, dance, draw, play, get involved or just watch… Whatever you choose to do, Light Night is a fantastic Friday night out, the likes of which you will never have seen before.
Download the PDF brochure designed by Nous Vous HERE!
THE HALLOWEEN COSTUME by Jonathon Yule ― Wednesday 29, 2009
A pretty self explanatory short about a boy dressed like Boba Fett, its a feel good one so get a cup of tea and enjoy.
THE SEED by Johnny Kelly ― Wednesday 29, 2009
A two-minute animated voyage through nature’s life cycle, following the trials and tribulations of a humble apple seed. The film was funded by Adobe, made using their CS4 range of software. It was produced at Nexus Productions and features a soundtrack by Jape. It was made using a mixture of stop motion papercraft and 2D drawn animation.
See making of here: vimeo.com/2425610
vimeo.com/2425610 mickeyandjohnny.com/ nexusproductions.com/
Kraffics - Taking the world apart page by page ― Wednesday 29, 2009
Kraffics is a Leeds based collective run by Leemun Smith and fellow collaborators Kirst Wilson and Jessica Charbonnier. Together they spin things upside using the medium of cut and paste, photography and illustration. They’ve just finished the Tubelord artwork and are set to go berserk at Nation of Shopkeepers where they have been commissioned to do a permanent wall with scenery fixture (whatever that means) it’s gonna be dope, rest assured.
Wilhelm the Maker by Adam Hancher & Jack Hudson ― Tuesday 28, 2009
An animated short that explains the story of a miserable village and a misunderstood giant. The giant (Wilhelm) enters the village by night, stealing various objects. Some townsfolk regard him as just a myth, others fear him, believing him to be some sort of evil spirit. The only real knowledge of Wilhelm is a result of hearsay and rumour, but the reason behind his actions aren’t known…
jackhudsonillustration.blogspot.com/ www.myspace.com/adamhancher
PROJECTED, LAURIE INNES ― Monday 15, 2009
Laurie Innes lives on the Old Kent Road square on the Monopoly Board. Well actually, the road in South London, but it’s just as great in real life. From this stately base he creates a variety of exciting projects, often video and animation, but also print and artist’s books. Laurie is a member of the art collective PLATS and is currently writing his first novel. You can see Laurie’s contribution to the showreel at Nation of Shopkeepers.
PROJECTED, RAINBOW DROPSHADOW ― Monday 15, 2009
Rainbow Dropshadow is a small creative studio based in Portland, Oregon, run by Alex Harris and Bryan Dalton. Rainbow Dropshadow specialises in Direction, Motion Design & Animation, and has contributed some great motion graphics for the showreel in Nation of Shopkeepers.
PROJECTED, FREE TRAPPER ― Friday 12, 2009
Free Trapper is a multi-disciplinary design agency that works with art direction, print, illustration, fashion, moving image and magazine design that believes in the power of developing visual languages. Broadly speaking it is about thinking and doing, dialogues, shapes and colours. As part of the Nation of Shopkeepers’ Showreel, Free Trapper has contributed some a range of new motion graphics.
PROJECTED, DENISE HAUSER ― Friday 12, 2009
Denise is a visual artist and designer who works with animation/film and illustration. She has contributed a selection of fantastic motion graphics as part of the showreel displayed in Nation of Shopkeepers. Originally from Zurich and having spent seven years in London, Denise currently lives in Norway. Since leaving with an MA in Animation from the Royal College of Art she works on a freelance basis. Denise divides her time between commercial projects and collaborative projects with other artists and designers as well as pursuing her goals as an independent film maker. Since 2008, Denise has also been teaching animation and visual communication in Norway as well as being a guest lecturer at the Art University and the KUMU Art Museum in Tallin, Estonia.
PROJECTED, ILONA HANSSON ― Friday 12, 2009
Ilona Hansson is a freelance illustrator and animator, currently designing websites for a new agency in Sweden and an artist in England. Ilona is also working as a stylist and costume design assistant for Cattis Aronsson at Adamsky agency. She recently moved to Stockholm after studying Graphic Design at Camberwell College of Arts and working in London, and has contributed some great motion graphics for the Nation of Shopkeepers’ showreel. Ilona says of her work; “I work around the idea of illusions using people, scale and 3D illustrations, creating large or small sets with organic materials, drawing by hand and collages”.
PROJECTED, CÔME DE BOUCHONY ― Tuesday 9, 2009
Côme de Bouchony is a French graphic designer and art director and has contributed some motion graphics to be projected as part of the showreel displayed in Nation of Shopkeepers. Côme founded his freelance practice in Paris after graduating from the Graphic Design course at Penninghen (Esag) in 2007. He also studied at Willem de Kooning Academie, in Rotterdam, Netherlands. He works on an eclectic range of projects mostly in music, cultural and media areas, including print and type design for posters, books, identities, and records sleeves, as well as motion design such as videos, clips, animations and titles.
PROJECTED, THIS IS STUDIO ― Tuesday 9, 2009
THIS IS Studio has contributed some stunning motion graphics to be projected as part of the showreel displayed in Nation of Shopkeepers. Established in 2006, THIS IS Studio was born through a love for honest, exciting and functional design. Their approach is ideas led and informed by the individual characteristics of the project. Recent projects include work for the V&A and directing and producing two films for MUSE.
PROJECTED, JULIEN VALLÉE ― Wednesday 3, 2009
Montréal based Julien Vallée is a freelance artist and designer working across a wide range of fields, such as art direction, motion graphics, print design, art installation as well as film and design for the music industry. As part of the showreel displayed in Nation of Shopkeepers, Julien has contributed some fresh motion graphics to be projected. In 2008 he was awarded the Young Guns Award of the Art Directors Club in New York, and will be part of the judging panel for this year’s contest. Julien likes to use physical image making well endorsed by the various technological tools available in order to the bridge the gap between physical and virtual art.
PROJECTED, NICHOLAS BENTLEY ― Wednesday 3, 2009
Nicholas Bentley is currently working on a variety of moving image projects on a commissioned and freelance basis, and has contributed some impressive motion graphics to be projected as part of the showreel displayed in Nation of Shopkeepers.
“Music is a massive influence on my work and definitely molds the way I approach it.” At the moment he’s working predominately on music based projects. “I guess I’m trying to develop something distinctive, like everyone else I guess. I’d like to think my approach changes and develops from project to project.”
PROJECTED, JAMES WIGNALL ― Friday 29, 2009
Director, designer and animator, James Wignall has contributed some motion graphics to be projected as part of the showreel displayed in Nation of Shopkeepers. After working in a post production house in Leeds for a few years, James moved to London and worked at Mainframe. James is currently working freelance in London and has produced work for MTV, VH1, Nickelodeon, Sony, Nike, BBC, to name but a few.
PROJECTED, SIGRID ASTRUP ― Friday 29, 2009
Sigrid Astrup is a one-woman creative company, and a part of the Copenhagen based “Hurraaa Studio”. She has contributed some great motion graphics to be projected as part of the showreel displayed in Nation of Shopkeepers. In their small workshop / showroom you can find her in the basement creating miniature landscapes, or in the store with a new creation of unusable pottery. “My work is is all about trying to make things alive. Creating to me, is to break down “the everyday”, by making the surreal ideas come to life.”
AN INTERVIEW WITH NOUS VOUS ― Thursday 21, 2009
Leeds based arts collective Nous Vous were commissioned to visually respond to poems featured in the zine, and also to create hand-drawn artwork to adorn the walls of the venue. Here, they share their thoughts on Leeds and its cultural heritage…
Why are you called Nous Vous?
We toyed with a few different collective names in the very early stages of our collaboration, one favourite being ‘We Appreciate You’ which we looked at in different languages to account for foreign influences in our collective work, literal or otherwise. It translates into French as ‘Nous vous apprécions’. We liked the sound of Nous Vous but felt ‘apprécions’ was a little superfluous. Nous Vous said what it needed to and communicated what we wanted it to, plus it rolls off the tongue quite nicely.
What did you think of the poems you were given to interpret?
They were nice. It’s great to do work where you have something inspiring to work from and support with imagery, it’s a challenge because the poems are strong and its always difficult to conjure up an image to support such strong words and add something extra to the reading of it..
Is it inspiring to have such a literary heritage in Leeds?
It is always inspiring to find out about new pockets of culture in Leeds, the trouble is is that it usually seems confined to the pockets. Culture doesn’t really appear to be at the forefront of the Leeds City Council’s agenda. Therefore a lot of interesting and exciting things you could potentially know about, or be encouraged to find out about, go by the wayside and you never actually find out about them. But it is promising to know that people continue despite this and still create great things, of which there are plenty.
Tell us something we don’t know about Leeds.
It is considered by some that cinema was born in Leeds, by a Frenchman living here in the 1880s, named Louis Le Prince.
PROJECTED, DAVID WILSON ― Wednesday 20, 2009
David Wilson is a music video director based in London. David has contributed some fantastic motion graphics to be projected as part of the showreel displayed in Nation of Shopkeepers. His technique driven work revolves around using intriguing in-camera tricks, and mind-bending psychedelic hand drawn animations. Commercial clients include Ford and MTV, and he has produced work for bands such as the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, We Have Band, and Moray McLaren. He is currently represented by Blinkink and Colonel Blimp.