Nascent Ideas

Don’t Panic

nascentideas — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 14:42:56 +0000

I got a call from Daniel Stacey at the ever excellent magazine “Bad Idea” to ask if I’d do a black and white, Bad Idea themed illustration for the cover of Don’t Panic (the free monthly flyer pack). Of course I said yes, the theme was to be the “credit crunch” and was to feature the last issue of the magazine. Here’s what we eventually ended up with. Gordon Brown reading the magazine.

Is it Worthy?

nascentideas — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 13:53:48 +0000

I’ve just finished my degree and at the weekend I got my grade through, I’m at the point where it’s now time to use my skills to pay the bills, get out there and make something happen. I’m going to paste in full the text from a recent post by Seth Godin but I highly recommend you go there and read through his blog. It’s a marketing blog but in todays age we’re all in marketing, right?

“Is this the best I can do?

I’ve paid for the rent and the furnishings and the menus and the
staff and the insurance… is this plate of food worthy of what went
before it?

I’ve flown across the country to visit this museum–a building that
cost more than a billion dollars to create and fill and maintain. Is my
attention focused enough?

We paid $300 in marketing costs just to get this phone to ring this one time. How shall we answer it?

I’ve had a great education, suffered and scraped and scrounged to
get this point… is this diagnosis, this surgery, this prescription,
this bedside manner the end that justifies that effort?

We live in a stable democracy, a place where people have lived and
died to give us the freedom to speak out… is that talking head or
this spinning pundit the best we can do? Or is he just trying to make a
profit and air another commercial?

Is cutting corners to make a buck appropriate when you consider what
you could have done? What would someone with a bigger vision have done
instead?

Is being negative or bitter or selfish within reason in face of how
extraordinarily lucky we were to have been been born here and born now?

I take so much for granted. Perhaps you do as well. To be here, in
this moment, with these resources. To have not just our health but the
knowledge and the tools and the infrastructure. What a waste.

If I hadn’t had those breaks, if there weren’t all those people who
had sacrificed or helped or just stayed out of my way… what then?
Would I even have had a shot at this?

What if this were my last post? Would this post be worthy?

The object isn’t to be perfect. The goal isn’t to hold back until
you’ve created something beyond reproach. I believe the opposite is
true. Our birthright is to fail and to fail often, but to fail in
search of something bigger than we can imagine. To do anything else is
to waste it all.”

Spec Work and Competitions

nascentideas — Sun, 25 May 2008 07:09:28 +0000

Any illustrator/designer will know the pitfalls of spec work, working for free for the possibility of “winning” a competition to have their design used. They’re all over the place and in general if you’re picked then it will have been worth the effort, if you’re not picked then it’s just a waste of time. I came across a competition today to design a t-shirt for “X-Large” a label that I used to respect quite a lot and that in the past has used designs by Geoff McFetridge amongst others. The competition has the normal provisos that all designs will be the property of X-Large etc etc but what struck me was how bad the “prizes” were. Three runners up win

A free T-Shirt with the winning design.
A $25 Gift Certificate to XLarge.com.

And the winner wins

Worldwide recognition for designing an official XLarge T-shirt.
5 free T-Shirts with the design to show off.
$100 Gift Certificate to XLarge.com.

Doesn’t that strike anyone as quite bad? Add to that their track record for these competitions, they held one in the past that appears to have had no winners at all and I’d suggest that entering is probably a waste of time.

Anyway, if you still want to enter you can do so here.

Turntablism

nascentideas — Fri, 16 May 2008 08:08:12 +0000

Just a quick post today to throw up some Turntablism videos. I used to scratch all the time when I was younger but financial concerns meant selling my turntables!

Portfolio Updated!

nascentideas — Mon, 05 May 2008 17:07:54 +0000

I’ve updated my portfolio site today with a large amount of new work. There are still a few navigational issues to be worked out still but I hope you’ll take a look!

Nascent Ideas

Dune Covers Part 2

nascentideas — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 14:18:47 +0000

Some “final” versions of the Dune covers I posted a couple of weeks ago, these form part of my degree show and were a self initiated project because I love the books so much. Click each to see a larger version.

Gradus and Job Wouters Write the Alphabet

nascentideas — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 09:50:10 +0000

Really nice little video of a father and son writing the alphabet.

Via Drawn

Python Power

nascentideas — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 18:27:46 +0000

Just a quick post to show a piece of recent work, one of a series of three WWF illustrations.

Degree Show 2008

nascentideas — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 10:48:36 +0000

In addition to Free Range there is of course the Brighton Graphic Design and Illustration degree show itself. This will be open to the public from lunchtime on the 31st of May until the after noon of the 5th of June. Details can be found here.

Free Range 2008

nascentideas — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 10:44:50 +0000

It’s coming up to that time of year now for the annual London student show, Free Range. Brighton Graphic Design and Illustration will be exhibiting this year from the evening of the 5th of June to the 9th of June. Click here for more details.