inspiration Archives - Page 43 of 60

Yao Xiao

I’m enjoying the work of New York based illustrator Yao Xiao today. She emailed me about her work and what really piqued my curiosity was her personal illustrations, where they’re done beautifully and meticulously. And in the midst of that busy perfection, there she is. Vibrant, imperfect (she draws herself comically against the rest of her well-chiselled characters) and colorful. It almost seems like she longs to bust out of an invisible shield – maybe it’s a metaphor of sorts?

Perhaps it’s just me, but seeing highly finished, glossed up versions of finished artwork doesn’t seem to cut it anymore. I’m looking for humor, depth, flaws and blood these days, and if you’re an illustrator reading this right now who has kept their best personal projects under lock and key, do me a favor – dig them out and put them into your portfolio right now.

When you’ve done that, get in touch with me.

Philographics

[quote]A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away. ~ Antoine de Saint-Exupery[/quote]

I discovered the work of Genis Carreras via his Kickstarter campaign this morning, and I think it’s brilliant. I’m a big fan of paring down concepts and ideas into simpler, digestible chunks and his project, Philographics aim to distill the meanings of various philosophical -isms out there into a simple graphic and accompanying text that’s as simple as the image itself.

Reducing complex matters into something that is able to be understood easily takes great skill – conversely (and ironically!) it doesn’t take much for simple matters to get wholly complicated. And therein lies the beauty of the project. It’s definitely something to think about (especially for students) when communicating ideas.

Happy Monday folks! Also, don’t forget that the giveaway of the Draw Your Own Alphabets book is ending tomorrow, so share with me your favorite fonts to be one of five lucky winners!

A Rabbit Fable

I’ve spoken of my love of point-and-click adventure games before – you know, the VGA graphics and the DOS command line of days gone by that made 756-colors look ultra trendy. Where game developers like Sierra Online, LucasArt and EA Games put out muy excellente titles such as Gabriel Knight, Police Quest and Indiana Jones (to name a few!) I find myself longing for those sort of games – where things don’t get blown up and people don’t have to die a bloody death. A game where it’s a bit more civilized than the mind-numbing, violent first-person shooter that makes me queasy while giving me mind-throbbing headaches.

One day, I stumbled on The Rabbit Fable by an Argentina-based indie games developer; Antennaria Games and immediately I was drawn to the all the weirdness (ever played The Neverhood anyone?) which was quite a breath of fresh air, if you ask me. In it you play a house-bearing rabbit that’s been rejected by the gatekeepers of his longed for realm. And poof! He soon finds himself flung into a swamp with weird creatures, where he must figure out a way to get to where he wants to be.

I’m mid-way through, and I have to say that it’s quite fun! There are no dialogues, so there’s no language barrier to get around. The animation is smooth, and the creatures are odd yet amusing.

Give it a spin and you might just be pleasantly surprised at what you’ll discover.