Abduzeedo

My boss at my old job in Texas told me about this website. It's another tutorial/inspiration site, but I feel like they consistently showcase interesting material.

Gareth Pugh and SHOWstudio

Gareth Pugh is a British fashion designer based out of Paris.  When the fashion industry was getting hit pretty hard by the recession, and some big name designers were canceling their runway shows, Gareth Pugh teamed up with SHOWstudio and Ruth Hogben to create this short film to display his A/W 2009 collection. Rather than canceling the shoe, he had a screening of this film.

Pugh is a huge inspiration as he is not afraid to push boundaries. Some of his ready-to-wear clothing he has produced over the years are works of absurd, unwearable beauty. He pushes the boundaries of fashion into the art world, immortalizing himself amongst such names as Comme des Garcons.

SHOWstudio: Gareth Pugh A/W'09 by Ruth Hogben from SHOWstudio on Vimeo.

The Cyclone

The Cyclone at Coney Island. Even watching this gives me a headache.

Hey Kylie

I have this not so embarrassing obsession with pop music. I mean I like all kinds of music just as much as the next Brooklyn hipster, but the thing that really helps me concentrate while chained to a computer for hours at a time are Top 40 radio hits and embarrassingly gay dance music. So here is another nugget of inspiration from Kylie Minogue for her song "The One."

It seems to have After Effects written all over it. It has beautifully lush colors, has a touch of Busby Berkley, and you can tell that they made this video so that it would look great projected onto a big screen over a crowd of people.

Think what you will about the song, but the music video is absolutely stunning.

Another Site to Shorten Your Attention Span: FFFFOUND!

I have been following this blog for years, and the stuff on here never ceases to amaze me. It's mostly still images and design projects posted by approved users, but inspiration comes from anywhere. So I present to you the best way to waste you time: FFFFOUND!

Illustration Inspiration for Project 2

I think I will be going with my "Escape Route" concept for Project 2. While the kaleidoscope idea sounds fun, my professor thinks it would be too easy. While it would be great to just rotate images, it's not challenging enough to really get to experiment with After Effects. I completely agree with her. I'm in grad school. I'm going to push to make the best of it.

I'm being inspired to draw more in all my classes lately so I'm going to make Project 2 be completely illustrated. It won't be anything to crazy, but something along the lines of Persepolis. Simple lines, minimal shading.





I'm excited to get started on it! I just need there to be more than 24 hours in one day, and I REFUSE to be another coffee-addicted grad student. I'm finding that getting enough sleep boosts my creativity and brainstorming abilities ten-fold. I'll get started right after this nap.

Project 1

Escape to Coney Island from Garrett Traya on Vimeo.

Backward and Forward

While brainstorming for Project 2, I decided to look back at old Coney Island commercials for inspiration. Here are some of the ones that I liked. It's good to know where you've been in order to know where you're going.

Soundtracks

Joy Division's "Atmosphere" will be the soundtrack of my first project. Of course, all the words will be gone, but the nostalgic feeling of the song will go great with my whole nostalgia/escape feeling that I'm trying to capture.

It's hard to listen to music for the feeling that it evokes and not think about the meaning of the song. It definitely was interesting trying to find a mood to match.

Here were some of the other choices that went through the pipeline before I settled on the Joy Division song.

Inspiration for Life and Design

It gives me nightmares thinking about how long it took to make this, but the end product is beautiful... and makes me tear up.

Web Design Inspiration

Here is a website that my old boss showed me called Web Creme. I've been looking at this site for a couple of months, and it features really beautiful HTML and Flash based websites.

My old boss was sensing my interest in digital design and pointed me to this website. He said when he was first learning about building websites, he would take screen shots of websites he liked and would replicated the look in photoshop. That way he would learn more useful Photoshop techniques while understanding the current trends in web design.

The greatest piece of advice he gave me concerning web design was to build everything in Photoshop first. Just get the look and feel of the entire thing down, then you can worry about adding interactivity later. Don't let the code dictate what you can and can't do.

Flash UI Woes

Flash is making my eyes bleed, metaphorically of course. Those little tiles for each frame are too small. There should be a way to play with the UI of the program or at least a zoom.

Buried

I am a horror movie fanatic, and because brainstorming for classes never EVER ends, I found this trailer for the movie Buried to be inspiring and applicable to Digital Design.  It was one of the previews before The Last Exorcism. Follow the link to Trailer 2.






Buried Trailer

The graphics are very Saul Bass, my own personal design hero, but with a modern twist (but isn't that the way everything is nowadays?). The trailers are well cut, well paced, and make me want to see the movie so badly.

Coney Island Visit #1

Coney Island was not as glamorous as I remembered it. It's old and run down with half of the attractions open which I guess is a result of it being open for one more weekend before closing down for the fall/winter. Don't get me wrong, it's charming, full of nostalgia and history for everyone that visits. It probably looks beautiful at night with all the lights on.

The main attraction of Coney Island to me is definitely the beach and the boardwalk. The rides and amusements are great, but it's not something that everyone enjoys. At about $5 per ride that part of Coney Island is kind of pricey, and why pay money there when you have the whole Atlantic Ocean across the boardwalk FOR FREE?

I think the main point of my first project will focus on the beach and how Coney Island is an escape from busy, hectic New York life. You can go into the ocean, let the waves hold you, and just drift. It will sell the nostalgia of the place because of its history, but I don't want to show much of the amusements because of all the development that keeps threatening to shut them all down.

Being able to open up to people is important, but the key is opening up to people who have time to consider you. Those that can’t be bothered will only make your thoughts feel less than they are, when in fact, every little thing is important, or you wouldn’t feel it.

Soundtrack

I can imagine listening to these while walking down the Coney Island boardwalk.

Sunglasses on, hot dog in hand, and sand in my shoes.

Hawt Topic

So I decided to do my Digital Design project on Coney Island mainly because I don't really know much about the different parts of New York City. I'm trying to get out there this weekend as it's ABSOLUTELY GORGEOUS OUTSIDE. It's days like this that I wish I had a backyard and a hammock.