iancul

Marjolaine Roller has some great illustrations and especially very cool monkeys. Take a look for yourself :)

A priceless one from Savage Chickens. No other words are necessary :D

Joel Sundberg created these fascinating characters, called “Dark Odors”. A bit creepy, but funny nevertheless. They do remind me a lot of the “Jojo In The Stars” (you can view the short animation here).

Larger image here

Always inspiring. Still hard to understand. But, God’s permit, we’ll have a lifetime ahead of re-reading and re-watching until we’ll come to understand Mr. Rand. Dying trying is not that bad either. After all, there’s more than just one way to reach Rome, right?

Description from YouTube: A short film by Preston McLanahan interviewing Paul Rand, the great American Modernist designer. Filmed in 1996, shortly before his death he talks about his process, art, aesthetics, and design in general. A very inspirational video and soon to be released on DVD.

(via Swiss Legacy)

The “well-dug-in-the-ground-reaching-for-help” Bruce

Illustrator Martijn Rijven wrote several weeks ago about his involvment in redrawing Akzo Nobel’s “Bruce” during the rebranding project started by Saffron and finished by Pentagram. It was a beautifuly-written article about ups and lows in the design process, about the final version proposed by Saffron and the final-final version approved by Akzo under Pentragram’s watch (probably a “design-by-comitee” solution) and its short-comings. A rare-to-read insight in the development of large rebranding projects.

Unfortunately, Akzo (or Pentagram, who knows) felt that the article was not the kind of PR their new logo needed so they brought in the big-mean-law-guns and forced Mr. Rijven to censor the article completely. It’s a real shame. I can understand commercial interests, hell, we are working with them in mind on daily basis, but freedom of speech and design ethics should not be trampled under feet. In the end, we’re graphic designers, it’s not like we’re saving lives every day, we just make people’s lives a bit easier and more pleasant—or, if you prefer the empty side of the glass, we just help sell things people don’t really need.

But I guess nothing else matters when big money is involved.
It’s the cold, chilling truth.

Last year I had the pleasure of playing with a “brush pen”. The beauty of its lines blew me away. Writing and drawing with it was such a pleasure! Drawing type, logos, sketches, everything looked different from a normal pen, free, vibrant, ever-changing in thickness, ranging from hairline-thin to broad, thick brush strokes. And everything without the hassle of dipping it in ink every three or four strokes. Just cap it back and put it in your pocket. I had to have such a wonderful tool.

Several weeks of searching on the web only brought me frustration. Sure you could find it easily. But finding someone that would ship it to Romania was a different story. After a few months, a colleague told me she was going to Tokyo. You can easily guess my plea :) She brought me some brush pens—thank you Delia—and I was finally able to enjoy drawing with them every day (another friend brought back from Paris a big Corto Maltese poster, one could not ask for a better subject to copy and practice the brush pen). But the pleasure would’ve soon ended, since you can’t refill them (there are other refillable brush pens, a little more expensive, but the problem is the ink, you have to use special ink since other types would dry and make the brush tip useless).

Fortunately, last weekend I showed the brush pen to my sensei and he told me its real name: fude pen (”foo-day” pen). Searching again on the web, this time with the proper name, gave me the much expected results: someone that would ship fude pens to Romania. So here you are, JList ships almost everywhere in the world a lot of Japanese merchandise, fude pens included. Be sure to check out the wide variety of fude pens. I’d recommend the bold line one, the others I still have to test (the shipment’s on the way, can’t wait).

So, if you’re an illustrator, any kind of designer or artist, or just an asian-caligraphy enthusiast, the fude pen is a must have—no other drawing tool will ever compare (ok, fineliners excepted) :)

(foto taken from wikimedia commons)

Touching and thought provoking story by Shel Siverstein. Admire it here.

(thank you Estera)

Great posters for Ratatouille by Eric Tan. Reminding of Paul Rand or Cassandre’s Dubonnet posters. Btw, Cassandre was the one that made the Yves Saint Laurent logo. You can view some of his work here.

and here’s one concept drawing from the The Art of Ratatouille book:

Ever felt that you just got lucky at some point? I sure did when I found this poster by accident on Google images, digging for some cheap stock photos.

Nocturna is a wonderfully animated motion picture, a 2007 spanish and french co-production (as it seems). What caught my eye from the begining were the beautiful colours, reminding me of one of my favourite french illustrators, Bengal. Then came the unusually drawn characters, the cartoonish-Dark-City-like town, the enchanting light present in all the screens I could see. It looked like the kind of movie that catches your imagination from the very begining, making you feel like a kid again.

And it sure is worth it. While its story might not compare to masterpieces like Tekkon Kinkreet or Spirited Away, its magical feel, honesty and ingenuity sure make up for it. The scenery is gorgeous (early storyboards and art direction made by Enrique Fernandez), the characters are hilarious and truly fascinating (you’ll just have to see for yourself, I won’t give them away), the music is magical, everything building up to form an enchanting universe where you can let your imagination roam for a long time.

Did I mention its superb soundtrack?

You can find some more information on Catsuka (french website)

Beautiful illustrations from Alexander Jansson. They truly tell stories.

(thanks Gina for the tip)