Sony HD: The Five

This is a Sony ad series I put together with my good friend and fellow designer Ben Phenicie. These were made for Current TV in San Francisco. After submitting these spots, I was contacted by the marketing department at Sony New York and was told that they loved them. However, we’re still waiting for them to be used for broadcast.

Digital Story Telling: Production

So this week we’ve been filming non stop. Thankfully I was able to get most of my shots finished at the beginning of the week. Above is a screen shot taken from some of the footage in my short film.

Digital Story Telling: Pre-Production

I’m ashamed to say that I’ve produced videos before but I’ve almost always, to my own detriment, been able to get away with flying by the seat of my pants. It’s been an interesting process writing the script, sketching the story boards, working up a shot list and finally assembling a production check list… There’s a lot of work to do before you get boots on the ground so to speak. I think the thing that always hindered me from taking these preparatory measures was that I thought it would stifle my creative process, but what I’ve found is that I’m able to visualize the story in my mind and come up with cool ideas during the pre-pro process. I’ve posted some images of what pre-production looks like. Enjoy and stay tuned for the final product.

Design & Art Theory: Painting

So this is the first time I’ve ever painted anything in my life… other than easter eggs when I was a kid… I may have also used finger paints as well. He he. Either way, I’ve never plopped down in front of a canvas with only the primary colors and white and black to work with. Basically at this point, I’m not really into the amount of time it takes to create the color I want. I’m just so used to the speed of the color picker in photoshop, that it frustrates me to spend so much time on that aspect of my creative endeavors. I won’t however go as far as to say that I hate painting or, for that matter, that I will never enjoy mixing paint. It’s just that my first time was really time consuming and that the end result didn’t justify the means. I’m pathetic. Ha ha.  By the way, I think I’m going to call this one “Creep,” and yes I did mean for it to look so strange.

Design & Art Theory: Perspective

So there are several different types of perspective. The first is seen on the bottom left, and is characterized by the fact that every thing in the image aims towards one point on the page. This, interestingly enough, is called one point perspective. The second type, aptly named two point perspective (we creative types are so creative), is on the bottom right and is typically used when looking down the corner of an object or more commonly a building. In order to draw each of the buildings sides, you would have to use two points. Last but not least there’s (can you guess) three point perspective, seen on the top of the page. It’s similar to two point, in that you’re looking at an object down it’s corner, but you’re also looking up or down at the same time. For instance, when standing at the base of a sky scraper and looking straight up, the shape of the building begins to look triangular. This effect is duplicated using three point perspective. Well that’s that.

Design & Art Theory: More Work With Values

This is just another try at using shading to create depth. The reason I chose to use a woman’s face in conjunction with rigid metallic structures was mainly to challenge myself, as they both require different processes when shading.

Digital Story Telling

I just wanted to put out there that I’m also in a class called digital story telling.  There’s only one project, so the posts about it will be sparse. Right now I’m in the process of writing my script for the project, and then I’ll move on to story boarding it, which I will post here. The idea is for us to make a three minute movie that actually ends up being an advertisement for a specific product. The first company to do this was BMW, with their series of ten web released short films known as “The Hire,” staring Clive Owen. They totally ignored the conventional advertising methods and created a new and highly effective form of advertising. Our goal is to duplicate the same emotional draw they created towards the BMW Z3 and apply it to whatever product we choose. Good luck to me!

Design & Art Theory: Values of Light and Dark

These are just charcoal sketches I did during class. I’m trying to develop my ability to identify shape using different values of light and dark. Neither of these images are meant to make a statement of any kind. They’re simply shapes that I thought would be interesting to draw at the time. In the image above I was attempting to make the shape highly reflective, while the image below diffuses the light much more, giving it a much softer texture.

Design & Art Theory: Proportion, Gesturing & Memory

First off, let me just say that these images are just reproductions and not originals. The point of our last Design and Art Theory class was to learn proportion and gesturing. Gesturing is the act of making a quick sixty second sketch of your subject, no matter what it is. Essentially we are being trained to break down each image into it’s essential shapes and lines rather than first focusing on little details. Within the art of gesturing it’s very important to nail proportion, which is what we really look for to identify people and things. The first piece was actually the last one I completed during class that day, but I like how it turned out, so I’m listing it first… ha ha. It was drawn from an image chosen for me from a magazine. The second image of the weird looking bearded guy who slightly resembles the grinch, was made from someone’s verbal description of a photograph they were holding. I’m really not happy with the second image but (as I’ve stated before), I’m interested in keeping an accurate record of my design work here, and whether I like it or not, this is part of it.

The Price for Relief: A Study of Layout, Shape & Perspective

This piece, entitled “the price for relief,” is really only a study of shape, layout and perspective. We were limited to the use of black marker on white paper for this project. This was meant to force us into thinking only about the image and how people respond emotionally to shape and line. I decided to go with the human skull because I had seen an interesting piece from Mexico where a female artist (her name escapes me) painted a checkerboard pattern on an actual skull for the day of the dead. I found it interesting at the time and the concept worked really well for this project, plus I knew it would be technically challenging for me. So I went with it. Another aspect of this piece that we had to take into account was layout. This is the arrangement of the images and how they, together bring emphasis to a certain part of that image. In this piece the emphasis is actually on the point of the finger, rather than the skull itself. The skull is obviously an integral part of the image as a whole, but it’s the fingertip that tells the story.

So what does all this imagery actually mean? What am I trying to say? Well, I’ll tell you. The medieval halo represents sainthood. The word “wart” and the emphasis placed on the fingertip, means he has a wart on his finger and the only saint who had a wart on his finger (that we “know”), was St. John. The word “relief,” the layout and even the subtle expression on the face of the skull is an homage to all the advertising we’re inundated with every day from the drug companies. Finally the skull itself means death. Now what does all this mean as a whole? What am I trying to say? Well, I’ve always found it humorous that within every advertisement for a drug, there is as well a list of side effects that the announcer has to read. What makes it even more hilarious to me, is that the side effects are often worse than the original problem. I personally don’t think it’s worth getting more sleep at night, if it’s going to give me a heart attack. By the way, the images below are a group of sketches I drew up in preparation for this piece.