Friday 27 February 2009

Blast from the Past

Song: Starsailor feat Brandon Flowers - Tell Me It's Not Over
Game: Loads of games on the Vectrex
DVD: Family Guy


We had a retro morning today, the Vectrex console arrived at GM offices. I never remembered this, probably due to the fact it was released before I was born. So this little machine is actually older than I am...hmmm. Out of the package was this TV like box, covered in dust. It was like discovering some hidden treasure in a tomb somewhere in Egypt. The box was full of games, mini cartridges that came with a plastic acetate sheet that goes in front of the screen, this was the way colour was added to the otherwise black and white screen. Sounds crazy doesn't it, but this was probably amazing at the time.

We all had a quick go on each of the games, some were dreadful, some were ok, but some were actually quite good for what was essentially dot to dot graphics. It's obviously not the most amazing machine ever, but its quite cool and a pretty nice retro toy to own. Over 25 years old and still going, no red rings here. 


Thursday 26 February 2009

Hadouken!!!

Song: The Killers - A Crippling Blow (Still)
Game: Street Fighter IV
DVD: Justice - A Cross the Universe

Street Fighter IV Inspired artwork made from dots. I was bored!

Tuesday 24 February 2009

Day & Age

Song: The Killers - A Crippling Blow
Game: Sega Rally 
DVD: High Fidelity 

'I dont need time, I dont need time, No I can get by myself...' 
The Killers - A Crippling Blow

In a very lathargic mood today, not done too much but seem to of lost a lot of motivation. I got the new new Killers album the other day though and been listening to it none stop, I have to say that its better than I thought it would be, Brandon and the gang have come up with the goods yet again, the album artwork is pretty cool as well (designed by Paul Normansell) 

It's one of those albums with some pretty nice songs on there that makes you think about certain things. Makes me think about the future, and how things will turn out (or not)

The Simpsons

Song: The Killers - Joy Ride 
Game: 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand 
DVD: Deja Vu 

Here is the new Simpsons title sequence to celebrate their move to HD. Im not that fussed about HD, and to be honest, I'm not sure what difference it would make for a cartoon, but this does look quite cool. Nice to have a change to the usual sequence though.

Monday 23 February 2009

Left 4 Dead

Song: Franz Ferdinand - Lucid Dreams 
Game: 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand 
DVD: Southland Tales 

Best multi player game I've played since Timesplitters. Been switching between this game and 50 Cent's new game the last few days. Left 4 Dead is a pretty awesome game, good fun when playing with some friends. The game has inspired me to do some Academy illustrations based on it, heres my first one, of Louis. 

GamesMaster goes Mad(World)

Song: Noisettes - Don't Upset the Rhythm 
Game: Left 4 Dead 
DVD: Mock the week: Too hot for TV 

Here is a rare chance I got to experiment with the layout of GamesMaster. We normally stick to strict styles throughout the magazine each month, but here I have used the style from the new Sega game, Madworld, as inspiration for the layout of this preview. As the game only uses red, black and white (and yellow for some of the text, but rare) colours through the game, I decided to apply this effect to this spread, even the writers picture is black and white.

Im pretty happy about this, probably one of my favourite pages I've done. Even the people at Sega said the page was really cool, and they were happy with it.

Let it snow

Song: Lily Allen - The Fear 
Game: Sega Rally 
DVD: Futurama Season 4

Not seen any proper snow for years now, its normally the crappy snow that melts as soon as it hits the ground, but some proper hard snow came today. Looks pretty cool, though its not going to be fun trying to get up north today due to the crap British transport system, buses and trains were cancelled in many places.

Toy Story

Song: Justice - Stress 
Game: Fallout 3 (Still) 
DVD: Rush Hour 3 

Found these the other day, Special edition versions of Toy Story and Toy Story 2. As they are 2 of my favorite films, I just had to buy them. The thing that sold it to me was the special pop-up packaging the DVDs came in.


Tony Hart R.I.P

As many of you may already know, Artist and former television presenter Tony Hart, died on 18th January 2009. He was a legend and an inspiration to millions across the country, bringing his creativity to shows such as Hartbeat and Take Hart. His programs also introduced us to the orange plastacine fella, Morph, who itself is now an iconic character. I believe that if it wasn't for him, I wouldn't be a artist/designer today, I can remember watching his programs when I was younger and how inspired I was from what he did. You just dont get presenters like him today, he will be missed. R.I.P Tony. 


New Blog Launches

Song: Lady Gaga - Pokerface 
Game: Fallout 3: Operation Anchorage 
DVD: Monk Season 6 

Hello, welcome to my new blog. Here you will find weekly updates on various things I come across day to day and how I feel about it. Each insert will include pictures and a bit of information on the subject in question. (It will also include plenty of spelling mistakes)