Beautiful book

This book designed by DU.ST studios has been very well crafted and has a beautiful finish with extra characteristics that have been thought out and make the book look amazing.

Need to consider these sort of ideas for my DC book and Whale publication.

Wise words from a Mad man

Sleep a lot, eat a lot, brush ’em like crazy.
Run a lot, do a lot, never be lazy.
Sleep a lot, eat a lot, brush ’em like crazy.Run a lot, do a lot, never be lazy.


Listen at 1:03. Wise words.

Poem by Muhammad Ali

Last night I had a dream, When I got to Africa,
I had one hell of a rumble.
I had to beat Tarzan’s behind first,
For claiming to be King of the Jungle.
For this fight, I’ve wrestled with alligators,
I’ve tussled with a whale.
I done handcuffed lightning
And thrown thunder in jail.
You know I’m bad.
just last week, I murdered a rock,
Injured a stone, Hospitalized a brick.
I’m so bad, I make medicine sick.
I’m so fast, man,
I can run through a hurricane and don't get wet.
When George Foreman meets me,
He’ll pay his debt.
I can drown the drink of water, and kill a dead tree.
Wait till you see Muhammad Ali.

Cover

Trying even more colours with the right size of a Ep cover with the logo to see the relationship between type and image.

Ocean Giants

BBC's Prodcution 'Ocean Giants' was a amazing, interesting and beautiful 3 part series on large mammal sea creatures including Whales and Dolphins.

Here I found out some information on the people who made it.

I think the type used is rank so I shall do my best to stay away from it.

Lighting

I found an article on Martin Schoeller, he talks about his career etc. But there was an interesting section on his technique  for doing the portraits.(Full article avialable HERE)


'I use a medium format camera that takes roll film. I light them with these light banks. Fluorescent light. Basically they look like fluorescent light bulbs but their color temperature is daylight color temperature. They’re called Kino Flos. They’re mainly used in the film industry, because it’s not a strobe light, so it’s not actually that bright. I mean they’re bright to look at because they’re much brighter than the flashing strobe obviously. But they’re for a very shallow depth of field and a very narrow depth of field which kind of also emphasizes what I’m trying to do with bringing out the eyes and the lips, where most of the expression in a person’s face is all about the eyes and the lips. I try to get my focus right so the eyes and the lips are the focus. Everything falls away so quickly because of the shallow depth of field. Everything else becomes secondary. So not only am I focusing on just the face, I’m even concentrating it more by having everything else look like it’s out of focus.'


ALso I found a film on YouTube that shows his set up. LINK

and Kevin Bacon.

Book

I purchased the book online and recieved it today. I already like the design. I am going to read it and get a real understanding of the book.

Music to my Ears

Well this is just the best video ever. Shows how much humans are interested in / love whales. A mariachi band play a little gig for a Beluga whale. It's got 2.4 million view on you tube.

Colour

Adding colour to the illustration to see what colour palettes will work.

Wonders of the Solar System.

Brilliant book by 'Studio 8' sort of similair to my whale project as they are both for a BBC production. It has really good layout and info graphics which I will take elemtents from.

Book marks

These book marks  have used a good style of illustration and layout which I could take elements from in my design for the Whale project.

Whales

Films

Films that could be part of my Tarintion project.

Reservoir Dogs - 1992
Pulp Fiction - 1994
Natural Born Killers - 1994 (Writer)
From Dusk till Dawn - 1996 (Writer)
Jackie Brown - 1997
Kill Bill: Vol. 1 - 2003

Kill Bill: Vol. 2 - 2004

Death Proof - 2007

Inglorious Basterds - 2009

DJango Unchained - 2012

Illustration.

More development

Diplomatico

This Venezuelan rum is beautifully packaged. The "gift" box is a fine idea to broaden the range.

Ho ho ho and a Bottle of Rum.

Looking at more RUM bottle designs. 

The shape of this bottle appeals to me.

This 20 year aged rum looks awesome with the web like mesh covering the bottle.

 Think the use of typography is good on this design, the square-ish bottle is also cool.

 I thought the use of metal on the bottle, like a badge or broach looks good.

 This bottle of rum is from 1885 and if you want a bottle if will only set you back £3,5000. I thought the box was good with the sugar cain padding.

Pirates

Could use a pirate theme in my rum project, may be a bit obvious and kitsch though...

Blackbeard, was a notorious English pirate who operated around the West Indies he captured a French merchant vessel, renamed her Queen Anne's Revenge, and equipped her with 40 guns. He became a renowned pirate, his cognomen derived from his thick black beard and fearsome appearance; he was reported to have tied lit fuses under his hat to frighten his enemies.


Other famous Caribbean pirates.....


Henry Morgan (Captain Morgan Rum)


Calico Jack (British)


Bartholomew Roberts (Welsh)


Hendrick Lucifer (Dutch)

Titanic

I think the white typography works beautifully on the different colour whiskeys.

Drunken Sailor

 Cool packaging for 'Drunken Sailor' rum, I like how the designer has used the song as the main concept.

Bottles

BOTTLES <--- Link

I found this website that has quite a good range of glass bottles that may be useful for this project.

or maybe this one
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Eddingtons-Roma-Bottle-750ml/dp/B002N7BOSU/ref=pd_sim_kh_4

Inverted

Experimenting on how these two logos work on a black background. The type still looks messy and needs work done to it.

Development

More sketches of the logo, this version is more heavy and tail-y. Still ain't right though.

Skull Bottle

This is an awesome bottle, a HUGE USP.

Martin Schoeller's

Martin Schoeller's portrait photography is something simlilar on how we want the portaits to be like. Here are some famous examples.

Starry Night

This has a cool concept for the whiskey. Stars and constellations. This could relate to the Navy/ Rum idea for the concept. Could take elements from this, perhaps go even more in depth with constellation images like the gods etc.

Voodoo

Voodoo is famous from coming from Haiti (Via Ghana). Above is Baron Samedi a  fictional voodoo witch doctor from the James Bond Film ' Live and let Die'

Other infamous voodoo traits are, curses, shrunken heads and voodoo dolls

Caribbean Folklore

Very popular in terms of Caribbean story-telling, and a direct transfer from West Africa to the Caribbean are the Anancy Stories (Nancy Stories) told throughout the region. Ananse is theAshanti word for spider, and the trickster Anancy, with his quick-witted intelligence and his knack for surviving the odds, often through trickery, is the most popular of this genre of African-Caribbean folk-tale characters.


Other folklore characters include,

Papa Bois  ("father wood" or "father of the forest") is a popular fictional folklore character of Trinidad and Tobago. Often called the "keeper of the forest".

His appearance is thought to be that of a short, old man of African descent with cloven hooves and a beard of leaves, who, despite his age sports strong muscles and can run faster than a deer. His body is completely covered with hair like that of a donkey and small horns sprout from his forehead. He is also known to carry a hollowed-out bull's horn, which he uses to warn animals of hunters' approach. He is also known to have the power of metamorphosis and is commonly thought to transform himself into a deer, luring hunters deep into the forest and getting them lost. It is believed that if one meets Papa Bois, one must be polite and refrain from staring at his hooves, and say a polite greeting to him. For example, "Bon jour, vieux Papa" meaning, "Good day, old father."

La Diablesse is a woman whose poise, figure and dress make her appear to be beautiful; her hideous face is hidden by a large brimmed hat. Sometimes she takes the form of a beautiful woman, to lure some unsuspecting passerby to his death or perhaps to madness. Her long dress hides the fact that she has one human foot and one cow's hoof, also she walks with one foot on the road and her cow's hoof in the grass at the side of the road. She can cast spells on her male victims and She leads her unsuspecting victims to the into the forest. When in the forest, she disappears and the man, confused, lost and scared, runs around the forest until he falls into a ravine or river and dies.

Lagahoo is a mythical shapeshifting monster. It seems like a normal human by day, but this creature takes on the form of a man with no head, who roams the night with a wooden coffin on its neck. On top of the coffin are three lighted candles and the long loose end of a heavy iron chain, noosed around its waist, trails behind him. Often, it is seen with chains around its neck, which change size. One appendage is said to be turned backwards. It can shapeshift into various animals, including horses, pigs or goats, and said to often take the form of a creature similar to a centaur; is also thought to be a blood sucker which is less than particular about its food source, making do with such animals as cows and goats.

Soucouyant lives by day as an old woman at the end of the village. By night, however, she strips off her wrinkled skin, puts it in a mortar, and flies in the shape of a fireball through the darkness, looking for a victim. Still in the shape of a fireball, the soucouyant enters the home of her victim through the keyhole or any crack or crevice to suck the blood of people from their arms, legs and other soft parts while they sleep. If the soucouyant draws out too much blood from her victim, it is believed that the victim will die and become a soucouyant herself, or else perish entirely, leaving her killer to assume her skin. The soucouyant practices witchcraft, voodoo, and black magic. The skin of the soucouyant is said to be very valuable, as it is used when practicing black magic.

Caribbean

Barbados - Crop over festival


The Crop Over summer festival is Barbados' most popular and colourful festival. Its origins can be traced back to the 1780's, a time when Barbados was the world's largest producer of sugar. At the end of the sugar season, there was always a huge celebration to mark the culmination of another successful sugar cane harvest - the Crop Over celebration.

Caribbean / Ideas

I drew a picture of the Caribbean to help me understand the geography of it all. Also initial ideas for a concept for the rum. 

Drunken Sailor

Thinking about Rum and sailing reminded me of this classic tune. Could potentially use this folky area for the rum concept.

What will we do with the drunken sailor ? Early in the mornin'

Logo Slytones

This drawing was an idea I had, the sort of circus - y feel to it reflects the bands music. But after a meeting with the clients they preferred something a little less in your face.

Two more sketches for a logo, still needs a lot of work but the general approach to the typography is there.