Flatliner V2

http://www.debutart.com/artist/flatliner-v2/biography

"Jason Cook (AKA Jacey, Flatliner and Flatliner V2) has been a practicing digital illustrator and pixel pusher for around 10 years. Jason originally came from a photographic background and the progression to digital arts was a natural one. Jason has delved into music design, animation, social documentary photography, then on to art directing web sites for a new media company which before long lead him back to his real passion, combining photography and illustration with digital technology." (http://www.debutart.com/artist/flatliner-v2/biography)

I came across the work of Jason Cook recently and his work has been inspiring for my final major project. His work tends to use photographs mixed with graffiti style backgrounds using lots of ink splats, lines and shapes. I have always been inspired by illustrations such as Jason's, whose style is similar to illustrator Miles Donovan but seems to be more commercial with the photographs that are used.

When I first came up with the idea to use abstract illustrations with lots of ink splats, lines, shapes and colour I was finding it hard to find people who used this technique in commercial work, but after finding Jason's work I am happy that my work would easily fit into my TV identity for E! Entertainment Television.

Light Trail Photography

My Photograph

My Photograph

Alex Wise Photograph

Alex Wise Photograph

I have always been interested in photography and last year bought a Canon digital SLR, which I have been experimenting with taking lots of different kinds of shots. Light trail photography has to be my favorite type of photography as you can create beautiful trails of lights using any type of light source.

I have recently come across a freelance photographer from Australia called Alex Wise. He has a wide range of photographs on his site, but his light trail photography stands out for me because of the beautiful composition of his shots. What I like about Alex's work is the way he uses different light sources and camera angles to capture his photographs. Most people tend to use busy streets and motorways to capture the light trails of the passing cars, however Alex describes on his website that he uses a torch under a bridge to capture a single line. The torch effect gives an abstract feel to his photographs and leads your eye directly to the light.

I wanted to have a go at experimenting with my own light trails so I went for the obvious shot and found myself a motorway bridge and began to experiment. As I had never done anything like this before I thought I would test it with motorway bridges until I began more advance at the techniques. With my photograph I made sure my shutter speed was open for 30 seconds to capture the light of as many cars as I could and used f5 for my aperture to make sure I kept the details of the whole photograph. Lastly I experimented with the ISO and used ISO-100 which makes the camera more sensitive to light and allow my photograph to come out clear. I have included my photographs on my blog and in the future will experiment with more advance photographs using different light sources, locations and angles.

See the rest of Alex Wise work here... www.alexwisephotography.net

Splurj

www.spluj.com

Splurj are a 'dynamic image design' company that create idents, title sequences, short movies and trailers, branding, music videos, print based graphics and on-screen visuals. These are the areas of multimedia that I love and want to try and pursue a career within. As I have mentioned before on my blog, motion graphics is my main interest and with each of these area's I can adapt motion graphics to them.

As this company seem to work on everything that I love about design and moving image, I decided to contact them to see if they would be interested in seeing my work and to find out a little bit more about them such as where they are based and how many people they have working for them.

After reading through their blog and becoming a fan of theirs through facebook I have come to conclusion that they seem like a very down to earth bunch of people who adapt their own style to each and every project they come across.

I decided to email Splurj, this is what I wrote,

Hi Splurj,

I'm Aaron Nicholas and I am currently studying a Multimedia Design degree at Stockport College. At the moment I am working on my final major project and I'm creating a channel ident.

I came across your work and I'm really inspired by it including the website itself. I particularly like the BBC introducing piece you created.

I was just wondering where about your studio is based and would love for some feedback on my work to gain some advice and feedback to improve it if that was possible at all.

Thanks for your time,

Aaron Nicholas

Attick

www.attick.com

Attick are a Multimedia design studio based in San Francisco, USA and Leeds in the UK. They create a wide range of multimedia work including branding, advertising and interaction.

Over the years they have worked for some of the biggest companies in the world including Adidas, Sony, Nike, MTV, Manchester United and Lexus. Their wide range of work is something that I am interested in because as a multimedia student we have worked in many different areas of moving image.

When I find companies such as Attick, I find myself thinking that my skills in certain area's are not up to industry level. For example their work varies from 3D, 2D to flash websites and motion graphic advertising and branding. If I were to be given a brief to produce the same project using a 3D program for one and after effects for the other, my after effects piece would be significantly better. I know certain projects are created by different directors and artists but through thinking about the industry standards, I decided to create my final major project in after effects and create a rebrand for a channel. I feel that there are many job opportunities in motion graphics and I am working extremely hard to bring my level up to industry level with my final major project.

422 Creative Email Reply

422 Creative also replied to my email today and they replied with,

Hi Aaron,

I have passed your email onto our graphic designers. We are quite busy at the moment, so I can't guarantee that someone will be able to get back to you.

Good Luck with your degree,

Hannah

Although I may not have a portfolio critique lined up, I was happy to receive an email of the Hannah from 422. There could be a possibility of a meet if one of the graphic designers respond. From this email I sent back,

Hi Hannah,

Thanks for your reply,

I understand that you are busy, just wanted to say thanks for emailing me back and thanks for the good luck! (I am going to need it)

Cheers, Aaron

After this email I didn't think I would hear back from the company but to my surprise Hannah sent me another email,

Hi Aaron,

Just thought I'd let you know that Owain has said that he will try and get it touch with you after he finished his current job... which has a week or two left on it.

Hope this is ok!

I'm sure you'll be fine!

Hannah

Hi Hannah,

That would be great! I will have a couple of weeks left on my project then, so it would be cool to get some last minute tips and advice to improve it!

Thanks for getting back in touch,

Aaron

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Purple Penguin Design Email Reply

Today I received a reply from Purple Penguin Design following my email I sent them regarding a portfolio critique. This is the response I recieved,

Hi Aaron,

Thanks for your email.

We'd be happy to have a look through your portfolio and give you some advice. Let me know what day / time would be good for you to pop in and I'll let you know our availability.

Regards- Rik

I was really happy with the response and Rik seems like a helpful guy. In response I sent back this email,

Hi Rik,

Thanks for your reply, I appreciate it.

Anytime on Thursday would be good for me or any day next week. I won't take much of your time up.

Thanks again for your reply,

Aaron

Hi Aaron,

Next week would be better actually [I'm on a course for 3 days as of tomorrow], maybe Tuesday? If that's OK with you let me know what time suits you and we'll book you in.

Regards - Rik

Yes Tuesday is fine with me. Around 10 O'Clock will be good or whatever time suits you.

Cheers, Aaron

10am is good, we'll see you then.

Regards - Rik

See you Tuesday,

Thanks for letting me come again,

Aaron

Ladyhawke- My Delirium

Ladyhawke- My Delirium

Phillipa Brown is a solo singer/songwriter from New Zealand, better known as Ladyhawke. I have been a huge fan of Ladyhawke since she released her song, 'Paris Is Burning' last year.

Recently she has released her latest single, 'My Delirium', which has an awesome music video. The video is created by the design company, Frater and is illustrated by Ladyhawke's former flat mate, Sarah Larnach.

I love the way the video blends from live footage to a watercolour animation using rotoscoping. The animation style is very realistic but the paint stains giving it a hand drawn effect. I really admire the watercolour effect and have been adapting it to my work for my channel ident.

Although my ident uses still images rather than live footage, I have been experimenting with growing elements in after effects and trying to incorporate a hand drawn approach to my work which seems to be quite popular medium, with Gnarls Barkley also using it in their music video.

Hove

www.hovestudio.com

Hove Studios are a design and multimedia studio based in Barcelona. They were formed in 1995 and created a wide range of work including motion graphics, channel idents, graphics, interactive design and much more.

It was the showreel that I came across first and has gave me some good ideas for when I get round to creating mine. It has its own introduction to show the audience who they are with a countdown to their show-reel. This is a good idea as it reminds the audience whose the show-reel is and can also show some more design skills if you create a fancy introduction.

They also keep each project on the show-reel very short, which keeps the audience interested because you get to see lots of different work rather than just a few. This is somethings I am going to do with my show-reel so I can show that I have used multiple techniques and mediums.

I also really like the soundtrack of the video, I think choosing a song is the best option for a show-reel as it would be annoying for the audience to hear lots of short audio clips from each video.

I will continue to look at different show-reels to gain some more options for when I get round to making my own.