Recently in DESIGN Category
It's here! Thomas Dolby's first new studio music in 20 years, the "Amerikana" EP is released today, and I can finally divulge the news that I will be working with Thomas Dolby on ALL of the design work leading up to and including his new album, "A Map Of The Floating City" later this year. It's a dream come true for a huge Dolby geek/fan, but I've had a great time collaborating with Thomas so far, and there's some really cool stuff coming up in the near future!
Here's the official press release:
Today I'm releasing my first new studio music in nearly 20 years. It's called Amerikana, and it's available ONLY to members of my online fan community, The Flat Earth Society.
"I've chosen not to make this a full commercial release for various reasons. My plan has always been to put out a series of three digital EPs (taking their names from the 3 sections of my upcoming album A Map Of The Floating City) followed by a physical album with additional tracks. But as I've yet to settle on a particular release method for that album - be it self-publishing, a record label, or some new hybrid - I'd prefer not to undermine the album's commercial appeal by pulling the trigger too early. However, my 'hardcore' audience have been following my adventures on my blog and web site as I go through the process of writing and recording these songs, and it's only natural they would want an early listen to my new music. So I arrived at the idea of releasing the EPs exclusively to FES members. You will only be able to buy it here on my website, and not on iTunes, Amazon etc.
Amerikana is an affectionate look back at the 22 years I lived in the USA before returning to my native Britain three summers ago. While living in the States I became very fond of roots American music. And as it's music that was always spread and shared by travelers sitting around camp fires, I felt I'd add my traveler's voice to its ongoing story. Needless to say, I'm no hillbilly or good ol' country boy, so my own flavour of americana is a bit twisted, a bit mischievous. 'Road To Reno' charts the progress of a pair of hapless lovers as their red convertible blazes a trail across the desert in a kind of indie road movie, serenaded by my longtime cohorts the Jazz Mafia Horns. 'Toad Lickers' is about a group of crazed eco-hippies in the Welsh mountains who get high on Bufo alvarius and creep into the local town after hours in search of munchies. It has cameos from Imogen Heap on jaw harp, longtime FES member Crackers on accordion, and fiddler Natalie MacMaster.
But the EP's 'coup de resistance' is a 7?38? epic entitled '17 Hills'. Very much in the tradition of 'I Love You Goodbye' and 'Budapest By Blimp', this song weaves a bittersweet tale using words, sounds, textures, and surprising left turns in the arrangement. It features beautiful playing by Mark Knopfler, who graciously allowed me into his private studio as he added some of his signature licks, complimenting my vocal to perfection. Pedal steel player Bruce Kaphan, who produced American Music Club and has toured with David Byrne, adds soaring atmospherics. Natalie MacMaster injects a touch of Cape Breton charm with a mesmerising looped fiddle solo. Radical string quartet Ethel beckon us into the realm of the surreal. And Jeffrey Wash's pristine fretless seems to channel one of the greatest bass guitar showcases of all time, Joni's 'Hejira'.
As I mentioned, Amerikana is only one section of my album, and three of its four songs are represented here. The price, including high-res MP3s and a print-ready digital booklet, is a very affordable $3.00 / E3.00 / £2.00. The subsequent two EPs 'Oceanea' and 'Urbania' - available later in 2010 - have quite different styles, and some may prefer one over another. My albums, as you know, often cover a wide range of genres, because like a novelist I really enjoy exploring a new idiom, instrumentation, time and place; and thankfully my core fanbase has been willing to go along for the ride. So you have options: you can choose to wait for the full album and get all the goodies in one package, or you can plunge in now, and see where you end up! The eventual AMOTFC album will definitely contain at least 3 songs not included on the EPs.
That said, there is a theme running through the EPs that you might want to be aware of. The album has a backstory which is something you will have to dig a bit to uncover. Contained on each EP is a 'clue', and you're going to need to unravel its secret at each stage of the proceedings. I won't say more than that for now. My recent visit to JJ Abrams' facility in California might give you a hint about what I'm up to!
Here's the link to buy the EP. If you're not already a community member, you can sign up here!
I hope you enjoy Amerikana, and will look forward to hearing your feedback."
So there you go; sign up for his online community and get free cool new music, designed by me! It's a win-win situation.
OK, so here's my "big news" that I've had to keep quiet about until I could talk publicly about it. Thanks for putting up with my "non-disclosure" self, it's been really hard sitting on this one!
I'm doing design work for Thomas Dolby's next music release.
As you may remember, a while back I entered and won a contest to design a t-shirt for the one-off gig at Union Chapel that Dolby did. He was very happy with my shirt design and used it extensively in the show itself. I wrote him a follow-up email, congratulating him on a successful show and thanking him for getting so much use out of the design for the show. His reply: "No, thank you. Fancy taking a crack at doing the design for my next single?"
You must understand;
I have been a hardcore Thomas Dolby fan since I picked up the UK import 12" single of "Europa and the Pirate Twins" from my local music store in 1982, and have continued to love his music solidly since then. This is a complete mind-blower for me; I imagine time-travelling back to 1985 Paul Sizer, still in college, and whispering in my own ear that in 20 or so years I would be doing design work for my musical hero! My head would have exploded, and a horrible time paradox would have occurred also (not to mention my younger self screaming when I saw what I would look like in the future)!
Thomas and I have been in constant communication from the UK (he lives along the North Sea coast with a re-constructed large life boat on his property that is his studio, powered by wind-power, of course), where he is recording his new album, "A Map Of The Floating City", due out late this year.
So yes, it's true. And here's the cool part. Thomas is also the musical director for TED, and he did a live version of a new song called "Love Is A Loaded Pistol" which you can see performed at this year's TED Talks.
And you can also sign up at his site and and download a free version of this live single with my artwork for the cover. I'm working on a lot of other design work with Thomas that is linked to some incredibly cool concepts and ideas he has for releasing a new album on his own, and making use of what the internet and mobile tech can now really offer an artist who is as tech-savvy as Dolby (his company Beatnik created the polyphonic ringtone technology that is in every Nokia phone on Earth, so he's got THAT on his resume along with "She Blinded Me With Science").
Here's the info about Dolby's announcement of the new album "A Map Of The Floating City"
Was that worth all my ominous teases? Hope so, I am seriously geeked about this, let me know what you think.
"ARMCHAIR REVOLUTIONARIES" is a site that has just launched, and they are using my artwork as part of the big media blitz they are rolling out, which means in the last 24 hours my art have been posted on USA TODAY.com and C-NET.
C-NET
USA TODAY
This is a "social crowdsourcing project", meaning that, in the same way that people play the Farmville game on Facebook, people can do the same here but raise awareness of scientific and social causes. They more work they do, the more prominent their mini-site within ARM-REV's site is featured. As they accumulate more "credits", they can "rent" artwork like mine to trick out their site area, and draw more attention to it. I still own all the rights to the artwork, and every place it's used, it's hotlinked back to my site. And I get paid when my art gets used.
This will be interesting to see how this progresses. The site is backed by a ton of Hollywood bigwigs, so it's going to be interesting to see where this leads to as far as people seeing my work. Will it translate to paying gigs? We'll see...
Very weird, but very nice.
This week's REMAKE/REMODEL challenge; the redesign of Amazing Fantasy #15, the first appearance of Spider Man.
One illustrative, one typographic.
As you may remember, I won a contest to design a T-Shirt for one of my musical heroes, Thomas Dolby, for a one off concert he just did March 28 in the UK.
Well, they produced the t-shirts with the design for the concert, but they also used my design on a huge video screen in the church where the concert took place, and hooked up a webcam on Dolby's piano so that when he was playing, his face showed up in the center of my design! How cool is that? Here's some photos of the actual t-shirt that people sent me, along with shots of the video screen.
Had to miss this show, but Mr. Dolby has assured me he'll make it worth my while when he tours the US for his upcoming album.
(Photo courtesy of some nice fan at the show, many thanks!)
Tons more photos here: THOMAS DOLBY'S FORUM
Wow, THIS is going to be an interesting week...
The pitch from Warren Ellis:
"So here's the deal:
You are an artist/designer. You have to put together the cover for a comic called SUPERMAN. It is issue 1 of this book.
You have been told that Superman is a man who dresses predominantly in a shade of blue, and wears a red S symbol. You know nothing else about the character.
The cover must include a logo and the text THE COMPLETE STORY OF THE DARING EXPLOITS OF THE ONE AND ONLY SUPERMAN.
And that's it.
It's up to you what kind of company you're at. What kind of comics you make. How you translate that description of Superman. What era you're in. Who you are, even. Go nuts with it.
You have one week. Go."
Decided to whip out the type-fu for this one, go all Swiss on it.
Worked really hard to keep it simple, and assume nothing more than exactly what was given.
All right, this is getting weird, in that "OK, what happens next?" level of good things popping up.
">
A few months ago, I find out that my musical hero Thomas Dolby ("She Blinded Me With Science" is what everyone knows, but in some ways it's the least of what he's done as a cool musician) is holding a competition through his blog for fans to design a t-shirt for a special one-off gig in Ilsington, England, that is called "Thomas Dolby and Friends: Circumnavigating the Flat Earth". It will include many cool musicians that have worked and collaborated with Dolby over the years, and is meant to be a celebration of a lot of the music he's made with them. Sounds pretty cool, so I activate my design tools and go to work. From the outset, they say that they can't pay really for this, that the rewards are having done it, and that's about all they can promise. Still cool with me.
So, I design and submit. Others do as well on the forums. As with all things, it takes time, as it's around the holidays.
Last night, I get an email, from the moderator of the boards, alerting me that Thomas has looked over all the entries, and mine has been picked for the winner.
This morning, I get another email. From Thomas Dolby himself, thanking me for the design, and apologizing that he can't fly me over for the gig, but saying I have a "rain check" for when he tours the states for, as he puts it, "The VIP treatment".
That's what kind of nice person he is.
If you heard a distant pop this morning, it was my head exploding, many miles away.
Here's the design that will be produced:
Hey, it's finally live, but I won a contest (through Warren Ellis' WHITECHAPEL forums) to design the new logo and identity for a UK fiction writers blog/site called WEAPONIZER.
WEBSITE
BLOGSPOT
Here's the identity on it's own. The head editor likes retro space pistols, and wanted them incorporated into the design.
This last weekend I spent 4 days with senior level graphic design students in northern Michigan on our yearly drawing workshop, where the students are tasked to re-connect their art brains into their design brains and make connections with the weird environment up there that doesn't include computers. It's a good time for me as well, as I get to do quick micro design projects with very low tech tools, and get some ideas flushed through my head. Good mental design house-cleaning.
So, spurred on by Warren's post from a month or so back about the attempts to design a flag for the Earth, I decided that while I didn't like that design, why not try one of my own?
I made a ton of sketches, establishing parameters of what needed to be communicated with someone from another solar system in reference to our planet.
It came down to a few key elements: our star, our planet's spacial relationship to that star, and the fact that we had one moon. No human type, the mark for third planet away from the star was a iconic, simple counting mark. No color, highest contrast for maximum visibility.
Here's my sketch process (white plaka on black paper):
My final marks (rendered in the computer afterwards):
And the large scale flags/banners I painted (I only brought a yellow plastic tablecloth, no white) and the little "Earth business cards" I made to hand out to all the students on the trip.
|
|
