Illustration and Storyboards

Stephan Martiniere is probably my favorite concept artist. He has been involved in many movies and video games. His work is very varied, with everything from quick sketch fine art fully rendered digital paintings. They are all extremely visually descriptive and tell their own story.

Another artist who tells convincing stories through sketching and art is Jim Mickle, a storyboard artist.
Jim Micke does a great job getting an idea across using just quick sketches and occasionally descriptions. He uses the main image of a scene to describe what is going on.

The ability to tell stories is an important part of a designers skillset. It is practically everything we do. We tell the story of a product; we tell the story of a problem someone is having with a product; we tell the story how a product or system causes a problem; we tell the story of how a problem can be solved.

Quick Visualization

I just finished up some exercises in quick visualizations of some USB thumb drives. The exercise was not just about an overall design but about working on details and some new rendering and guess...visualization techniques.
USB drives were used because there is not much to design other than details; the shape and size is basically fixed. With the quick schedule of school, this part normally gets overlooked. I traditionally go from a nice sketch to 3D really quickly (not always the best approach).
I choose the company Konzuk. They are a Canadian jewelry company known for their work with stainless, concrete, and powder coating.



I realized that there are ways to do things faster. It took me awhile on my first few, but then I was able to go quickly. The problem was that previous to this, I was either sketching or rendering. I never did much of the in between. I had to learn how to do this. There is a big difference between a sketch render and an incomplete final render.
I realize how helpful this process can be. I already did some more of it for my sustainable pc project this quarter.
I think this could be a good thing for a client because sometimes you do not want them to fall in love with an idea too early; this process makes them realize things are still in the design stages. If you gave them hyper realistic renders early and then find that it cannot be done the client might be very disappointed.
The rest the work for this will eventually be on my coroflot portfolio and my pdf portfolio.

Design from Down Under

Surya Graf is a designer in Brisbane, Australia. He is currently working at a Street and Garden Furniture Company. Most of his website work is personal work. His site is extremely basic but fun and effective. In comparison to my work, his is all set on simple forms and colors. Graphically, in comparison to Colin Roberts, he is quite simple, only the basic and what is needed. I cant really say which is better. I know that simple works well for me (maybe because I am just not good at getting too intricate), but it is definatly personal and no matter what should be whatever displays the work best.

See his site here.

Different Styles

I wanted to talk about an Colin Roberts, I feel mildly lame picking a designer from UC that just graduated. I am not really into the same things, as his big thing is shoes. I do think it is good to learn from people whose work is very different than yours. Not only is his work very different, his graphic style is also very different (He has a very urban, street, and loose feel to his graphics). Sometimes the best place to pick up new techniques and styles is to learn from people with ones very different from your own. I am not saying I want my work to all of a sudden look like his, but I might find something that I could incorporate into my work.

Take a look at his his portfolio here.

Moving Fast

Technology changes at a faster pace than ever before, it seams every few weeks or even days new ideas and technologies are becoming a reality. I feel our life will be very different in the future, the changes will be more drastic than when our parents were young to the present day. I am going to leave these categories slightly general because I believe that there are too many to narrow it to three individual technologies.

1. Local Green energy

This one is obvious, but I couldn't leave it out. I don't really know if there will be just one that changes everything or is the answer, it will probably be a combination of multiple technologies. I think the noticeable difference will be that things will be more local, it will not be what we have now where there are giant power plants for millions of homes and buildings; it will be local things. (Solar is not so great in the arctic for half the year, and wind is not that great in most inland areas)

2. Nano Technologies

This can have a huge impact on everything, from consumer electronics to medical equipment. The new possibilities are endless when things get smaller. More can be shipped, more lives can be saved and improved with the shrinking of components, Certain things that might have to keep someone in a hospital now hooked up to machines may one day be a small device inside them enabling them to live a normal life.

3. Social Networking and Information Sharing

(Facebook, Myspace, Linkedin, Flickr, and the millions of other similar sites.)
This has already had profound effects on society, but I think some of the possibilities have not all been reached or realized. So many people can have access other people's information as well as post there own. The internet has already connected so many people and enabled people to share so much information. I believe that so much more is going to come from things like this, the quality of information and amount will continue to grow exponentially. The world will continue to get smaller and smaller.

Tease

I recently saw the trailer for the move The Watchmen, originally a graphic novel by Alan Moore.



I recently worked on a teaser for my portfolio. A movie trailer/teaser is very similar to this, the movie is the teaser for the movie and my teaser is a teaser for me/ my portfolio.
What I thought worked well in the Watchmen trailer was that they showed quite a lot, but not anything truly important. It got me excited and kept me wondering and wanting more. This is exactly what a teaser should be, get them excited and wonder what else you are capable of.

Keep on truckin

Freitag, a Swiss bag manufacturer, not only has a strong message, they also live by it. Recycle. In this day and age it is more important than ever. The two brothers that own the company make the bags out of used semi truck tarps and old seatbelts. By using strong and durable materials while maintaining good designs, they have created an object that people will want to keep for years and one that will last for all those years.
I mentioned that they also live by this. Their headquarters in Zurich is made of old shipping containers.

Finally Done

Portfolio...Enjoy!

Portfolio Time

Here is a good article from Design Sojourn about describing some different types of portfolios. They discuss the different types as well as the persona, audience, dangers, and examples of each. The article is nice and short so your ADD shouldn't kick in.

Design Sojourn Designer Portfolio Shootout

Enjoy