Had a great time doing a quick 20 minute odd talk, which went really well according to my number one fan Ajmal:
…apart from the last guy, who my and friends and I felt talked at us like were we undergraduates, and didn’t get the hint when half the audience left.
It was also another excuse to continue test-driving my Nagasaki font (watch this space, more info on this soon), and as always a pleasure seeing Simon and Aporva (once again, stay tuned for something fun as well).
Sometimes I think I still read too much straight up superhero comics and not enough alternative things, although…
• Ultimate Avengers 2 #5 (Marvel Comics)
• New Ultimates #3 (Marvel Comics)
• The Avengers #3 (Marvel Comics)
• Secret Avengers #3 (Marvel Comics)
• The New Avengers #2 (Marvel Comics)
• Astonishing X-Men #34 (Marvel Comics)
• Philip K. Dick’s Electric Ant #4 (of 5) (Marvel Comics)
• Scarlet #1 (Icon/Marvel Comics)
• Haunt #8 (Image Comics)
• Officer Downe (Image Comics) — RECOMMENDED
• Batman and Robin #13 (DC Comics)
• Batman: Odyssey #1 (DC Comics)
• Batman #701 (DC Comics)
• Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne #4 (of 6) (DC Comics)
• Hellblazer #269 (Vertigo/DC Comics)
• Hellboy: The Storm #1 (of 3) (Dark Horse Comics
• Abe Sapien: The Abyssal Plain #1, #2 (Dark Horse Comics
• Wolfskin: Hundredth Dream #3 (Blood Thirst variant) (Avatar Press)
• Captain Swing and the Electrical Pirates of Cindery Island #2 (Avatar Press)
• Neonomicon #1 (Book of the dead variant) (Avatar Press)
• Hotwire: Deep Cut #1 (Radical Publishing) — RECOMMENDED
• Shiny Beasts — Rick Veitch (with Alan Moore and S.R. Bissette) (King Hell) — RECOMMENDED
Next Thursday, July 29th Glug London presents DixonBaxi at Cargo to host this month’s Glug evening. While they will be talking about their way of working they’re bringing along some friends to speak about their own work, including photographer Jason Tozer, director Cassiano Prado, and my good self.
Come along and share in some free drinks, BBQ, and good atmosphere.
Tickets are available now via the Glug Meetup group!
See you there!
I "met" Ash via email back in 2001. At that time I worked on the site for my local comic shop in Antwerp. I showed him the site, he liked my work, we started talking and that resulted in me redesigning his site. More websites (and redesigns) followed, leading into doing print and logo projects (and ultimately more comics work in general).
Thats a tricky one… I’ve learned that there is a time and place to fight and other times to come to a consensus instead of having to back down. I think design as a whole is always a collaborative process that extends to the client being involved instead of a fight where one party has to "be right" and "win". While I’ll be the first to admit that I always try to pull the client to my side of the argument (and I usually succeed by way of explanation and design), a lot of my more known work has come out of a shared solution with the client.
Its something I’ve thought about on occasion, and while I absolutely love designing for the comic book industry, I don’t want to limit myself. The one thing that makes design interesting to me is that I’m able to do a lot of different things. I think too much of one thing, no matter how much you love it is ultimately going to become a drag. Having said that, I’d love to do bigger comic-related design projects.
Assuming you’re talking about font families, my 5 fonts would be Berthold Akzidenz Grotesk, Univers, Futura, Nagasaki and Aldine 721.
It’s always an honour (and an ego boost – let’s be honest) to be asked to speak, whether it’s a large event or a small lecture. The fact that people are paying money to see you monkey around on stage is enough motivation to do something interesting. Semi-Permanent was great, met up with Ash Wood, long distance friends and a very receptive audience.
It never went away. Just like any major design philosophy, it trends in curves. You have to look beyond the poser shite, because they don’t last. Modernism is more than a typeface and a grid.
Great British Identity cover
and 
.