So how do you get a job once you graduate?
Theres the obvious email, job sites or attending seminar and advertising fairs amongst many others. Then theres Direct Mail! Im not saying this is the right way by any means or the most creative, but if you find out the the correct name of the art director, More »
100 Monsters is the work of 344 artist. They have been his obsession for the past year, they began as an exercise of drawing something everyday and evolving everyday items as inspiration. “What better to blow a few drops of ink into a shape and make that shape a monster” Quoted from the artist himself. For one hundred days he filmed himself drawing a different monster everyday and posted it on the blog dailymonster.com, the site gathered people from all over the world who began to comment on the monsters and create stories for them and personality’s. The monsters brought together a network of people and created huge online debates and funny scripts. Thus he decided to produce this book which is like a time capsule of the 100 days and includes the monters drawings, names and stories from all the people that left comments about them. The book features all 100 monsters and 257 stories about them. This this goes to show how some small drawings/doodles caught the attetion of the people and how from one innovational idea to another lead to the end book which I am sure will be a huge seller. A must see I think its brilliant, the creative monsters all stemed from ink are a classic.
by Wilbur Smith
The Angels weep is a story based on war and how people sow there seeds of hatred in battles all around issues of race and land. I found it an exciting tale, very moving and colourful.
I believe it is the third of the Ballantynes sequence of novels. The author creates a time older than ours with many the same problems as ours. The story portrays the violence and war fought between pioneers such as Ralph Ballantyne, a man who’s ambition and sense of destiny made him the greatest leader and betrayer to his leader. The Rhodesia pioneers claim the land they sow their crops in, however far in the hills the Matabele indunas are preparing for a bloody assault to claim it for themselves.
The book is a great read for anyone and gives true depth to the characters and world they live in.
by Elie Wiesel
I found the book haunting, disturbing, and thought provoking. The book is based on the final hours of two men one is the executioner and the other is the victimof the executioner, the doop is very deep and quite emotional from time to time. As the main character comes to gripes with how things will be once the execution has took place is really moving. You tend to want the main character to realise the right thing and stop what he is about to do, I found myself almost trying to tell the character what to do,he then is effected by his reflections in his earlier experiences in a concentration camp, and holding cells on both sides of the war. The English have provoked the Jews, and each will assassinate their opponent to make a point. David will be hung by the English, and Elisha will shoot John Dawson. You wonder how such brutality ever took place. You then follow how themain character must come to grips with what he has to do and face .“A man hates his enemy because he hates his own hate. He says to himself: This fellow, my enemy, has made me capable of hate. I hate him not because he’s my enemy, not because he hates me, but because he arouses me to hate.” quoted from the book. The book is a great refelction of war by focusing on specific people and the roles they play toinfluence and effect it.
I think the creativity behind Flanimals is awsome!! The way each Flanimal has its own personality, some are complex and some are just so simple and the way they are all linked like a true animal kingdom gives it that almost non fictional sense. Ricky Jervais has always been a favorite of mine and the book really expels his sense of humor, the book isn’t only designed for children, there is a lot of thinking behind the animals and the story’s and descriptions of them are quite intellectual.
From that the graphic illustrations of each Flanimal is really interesting they look fascinating, right down to the little details such as the eyes, hair and body parts. Its a great short book to get lost in and slip away from everyday stresses. I sometimes find myself evening comparing the struggles in my life to theres and I soon realize mine aren’t as bad, especially for the unlucky Flanimals that are born inside out or who get eating by all the other Falnimals. The book inspired me to dig out all my old math books and lecture pads with all my own personal animal drawings on from being young right up to current day lectures and I begin digitally illustrating them with my graphics tablet in illustrator. The characters so far are on my website in my portfolio. This book is a defnit for the shelf in the easy reading funny pile for when your feeling a bit down or stressed, I haven’ t yet seen the second book but i’m sure it’ll be just as good.
The best laid plans of mice and men dont always work out as planned. The book follows the storyof two men in the industrial revolution age travelling across America seeking work with a final dream in hand. One of the men is a smart man who has worked all his life, the other has a disability and is not as you would say very switched on. Regardless of this they stay together seeking work where they can find it with one looking after the other. There dream is to one day settle down in a nice quiet cottga ein the mountains with vegetable patches and easy living. But the best laid plans of men do not always work out right, when lenny the one with a disability screws it all up. It is referenced along side mice becausethey are just like us they collect food and build a home trying to make it in the world travelling where neds be, but lenny has an obsession with them for a pet, but keeps killing them becasue of his sheer size and his disability, he doesnt know how hard to hold them. Thus it goes hand in hand and follows the story of all the trouble lenny gets them both into and the final action his friend must take to rectify the situation and maybe fulfill there dream. It is a book that you personally can relate to as we all have plans that dont seem to work out just as how we want them too.
I own these books and there a fantastic source of inspiration, ideas, research, valuable information and general interest. There a collection all by the same author Jim Krause, each book is full of examples of work related to the title not designed to be copied but designed as possibly a starting point a a spark of inspiration for when your stuck on that impossible brief. From experience they really do work as well, taking two minutes out just to skip through a relevant book provides you with hundread’s of flowing ideas. I would strongly recommend them to any designer with lots of briefs on the go. The colour index provides a vast archive of rgb and cmyk colour codes all in order of ‘nature’, ‘love’, ‘fresh’ etc so if your looking for that perfect colour its basically a massive colour wheel in one book.
