The first 3 covers for Ivan Brandon and Nic Klein’s VIKING are in the bag (issues 1 and 2 are available now, 3 will be in shops later this summer). Its great fun being involved in the creative process with Ivan and Nic — aiming to get the best possible product on the shelves. If anything, the production values on the comic are unlike anything in shops today. The slightly oversized format, thick paper stock, and spot varnish on the cover make it really pop.
When I designed the logo I had a clear idea of how it would be applied, but as with anything rules are meant to be broken, or bent at least. The cover art for the first issue largely dictated how the logo would appear on the book, and the way I had designed it made it adaptable enough for later issues.
But when I received the art for the issue 2, I inadvertently started to change the logo when I was working on the cover design: I made it larger, created a new texture, cropped it differently and so on.
Instead of having a formulaic approach I made the call right then that each cover treatment should be different and ‘meld’ together with the art. So now we have 3 covers. And all 3 look different — with 3 being the richest in texture so far. Its an ongoing experiment to integrate the logo with the art while not losing the bold graphic element.
Ivan sent me the cover art for issue 4 the other day — another beautiful piece by Nic thats completely different from the current covers — and it looks like the logo will be going through yet another permutation.
Large versions of the covers at my Flickr account.
In no particular order, this is the stack on my desk right now:
• MPD – PSYCHO #8, 9 (Dark Horse Manga)
• GANTZ #5 (Dark Horse Manga)
• Batman and Robin #1 (DC Comics)
• The Amazing Spider-Man #596 (Marvel Comics)
• Anna Mercury 2 #1 (Painted cover variant) (Avatar Press)
• Ignition City #3 (Painted cover variant) (Avatar Press)
• Crossed #5 (Wrap cover variant) (Avatar Press)
• Ultimatum #4 (Marvel Comics)
• Battlefields – Tankies, part 2 of 3 (Dynamite Entertainment)
• Wolverine – Old Man Logan #72 (Marvel Comics)
• Air #9, 10 (DC/Vertigo Comics)
• Unknown Soldier #7, 9 (DC/Vertigo Comics) Missed #8 somehow!
• The Unwritten #2 (DC/Vertigo Comics)
• Universal War One: Revelations #3 (Marvel Comics)
• VIKING #2 (Image Comics)
• Phonogram — The Singles Club #3 (Image Comics)
• Hellblazer #256 (DC/Vertigo Comics)
• Astonishing X-Men #30 (Marvel Comics)
• B.P.R.D — War On Frogs #3 (Dark Horse Comics)
• Fantastic Four #567 (Marvel Comics)
• Incognito #4 (Marvel/Icon)
• POPBOT #8 (IDW Publishing)
• Scalped Book 1 “Indian Country” (DC/Vertigo Comics)
• Scalped Book 4 “The Gravel In Your Guts” (DC/Vertigo Comics)
• Criminal Book 2 “Lawless” (Marvel/Icon)
The Europe By Designers competition that ran a few months ago has announced its winners, or rather an exhibit of the 52 designs that were chosen. From the site:
EUROPE BY DESIGNERS is an international artistic project whose aim is to unveil a multitude of images of Europe from the inside and from the outside. Design as the expression of a cultural vision, a political vision or a simple and unposed feeling… Design and its diversity as a new way to catch Europe.
I was one of the judges, and so partially responsible for the selection that is now displayed. And to be brutally honest I’m surprised at the quality of some of the pieces that made it through. I know that an open competition yields a large fluctuation in work, but it looks like the overall sense of quality control seemed to be incredibly relaxed. Sorry to burst your bubble but thats how I’m seeing it. Personally, I think the list could be slashed even further to get rid of some of the tired and clichéd ideas and some badly executed work.
Am I too uptight? Should I be more lenient when I’m judging work, or were my expectations unrealistically high?
Here’s a funny one: Back in 2004 (seems so long ago) I was entertaining the idea to write a monthly opinion column for Computer Arts. I can’t remember what gave me the idea to do it in the first place (maybe I liked Jason’s column and thought “I can do that!”), but I felt I had opinions about web design that I wanted to get off my chest. I think I was at the stage where I was talking to CA about the possibility of writing it, and I’d even written a sample article. It was an article on the seeming decline of widespread Flash use, and how HTML-based sites were making a comeback. For some reason I decided at the last minute to pull out, because I didn’t feel I did the topic justice.
Anyway… for posterity, I thought it’d be fun to share the article and see if I got anything right and how much has changed since then. (This was obviously written well before the “web 2.0″ boom and the widespread proliferation of web technologies like AJAX and JQuery)
Opinion column.
Is Flash Dead?
By Tom Muller.The last couple of years have seen Flash seriously coming of age and used in one shape or form on web sites: from full blown sites using intense Flash scripting and database driven applications, to ‘in-your-face’ portfolio sites and interactive showcases; to today, where more and more designers seem to go back to HTML/PHP driven sites, avoiding Flash altogether.
Does that mean that Flash has seen its peak, or have designers grown up with the application and realized its full potential?
Just added some new work to the site that my brother Tim and I completed for Diesel: Only The Brave.
I was invited by my friends over at Hellohikimori as one of a select group of designers to create an online art installation as part of the online campaign for Diesels new fragrance.
The project ended up being a collaboration between myself and Tim, who created all the 3D imagery you see in the piece, while I was responsible for the overall art direction, animation and graphics.
Computer Arts published a countdown of their top 20 designers you should follow on Twitter, and included me (and a “dodgy” quote) in their list. Thanks guys!
Trying out some new things as well as stocking up on paperbacks of series I should has started reading long ago…
In no particular order:
• Ignition City #2 (Avatar Comics)
• Gravel #11 (wrap cover) (Avatar Comics)
• Battlefields — Tankies, part 1 of 3 (Dynamite)
• Phonogram V2 — The Singles Club, part 2 of 7 (Image Comics)
• Fantastic Four # 566 (Marvel)
• The Unknown, part 1 of 4 (BOOM! Studios)
• B.P.R.D. — The Black Goddess #5 (Dark Horse Comics)
• The Unwritten #1 (DC/Vertigo Comics)
• Hellblazer #255 (DC/Vertigo Comics)
• Air #7-8 (DC/Vertigo Comics)
• Universal War One: Revelations # 2 (Marvel)
• Hotwire #3 (Radical Comics)
• The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Century 1910 (Top Shelf)
• Olympus #1 (Image Comics)
• Incognito Special (collecting issues #1-2) (Marvel/Icon)
• Criminal Book 1: Coward (Marvel/Icon)
• 100% Hardcover (DC/Vertigo Comics)
• Scalped Book 3 (DC/Vertigo Comics)
Cosmonaut, originally uploaded by helloMuller.
Space and astronaut imagery seem to be all the rage these days, with everyone re-purposing vintage NASA photos etc. I don’t mind that because I like space, and that whole era of the space race. Just as long as it doesn’t become over saturated, over used style quickly (which of course it will be — them’s the breaks).
Anyway — here’s a piece I did a little over 2 years ago which was going to end up in a short SF story and a collective project that ultimately never saw the light of day.
Omega Code Poster Exhibition, originally uploaded by XTRABOLD.
Shot of all the Omega Code posters on display at OFFF Portugal (no I’m not there).
My poster is shown bottom right.
“You wouldn’t just read the top of a newspaper, and so design website content that cascades down intelligently”
— Tom Muller
That, and more web design myths uncovered in this month’s .net Magazine!