Web design competition - win $10,000

5 Apr 2010

Weebly are offering $13,000 in prizes ($10,000 1st place, $2,000 2nd place, $1,000 third place) for the best submitted themes. Sounds like a pretty good competition to me - you don't even have to slice and dice the design yourself, just submit the .psd.

Of course, they can use all of the designs submitted, so it's a good deal for them too, but it's still a great opportunity for any web designers out there! They also have a fairly impressive list of experts judging the competition, and will give credit on the designs so everyone should get a little something out of it.

Animation Showreel

4 Apr 2010

We are exceptionally pleased and proud to reveal our new showreel! It contains our work over the few years from projects including Title sequences, Music Videos, Short Films, Series pitches, Idents and Commercials, for Clients including Sky and ITV.

How to train your dragon

1 Apr 2010

Dreamwork's new film How to Train Your Dragon has not been on top of my years must see films. The films coming out of the studio (since the original Shrek, which I wont hear a word against!) have been generic, formulaic and, lets be honest here, designed with merchandising very much in mind!

The trailers haven't done a huge amount of improve my opinion of the film (although I have read some very good reviews), but yesterday I came across this concept art which shows where the film came from visually. I've always absolutely loved dragons and fantasy art, and this is no exception. It looks like at one point it was going to be a really dark, moody piece with atmosphere and drama.

I don't want to judge the film before I've even seen it, but comparing this beautiful concept art with the images of the finished film screams to me that someone somewhere took a very wrong turn!!





... and how it turned out. Very happy meal friendly!

New website!!

20 Mar 2010

Any regular visitors to this blog may just have noticed that the design has changed. Gone is the epilepsy inducing red, and here (we hope) is a slightly more tasteful design based on our new brand identity and website.

As is often the way with web design studios, our own site has been slightly neglected of late, and we've been meaning to redesign it for over a year. Just like the shoemaker's kids' shoes (or whatever the saying is), it's just something that we've kept putting off.

But now it's finally finished, and we're very happy with it. I hope you'll check it out and let us know what you think! The site has already been listed on over 100 international design reviews, and has been picked by several influential blogs.



Tex Avery

13 Mar 2010

Everyone knows Tex Avery. It's just that not everyone knows that they know Tex Avery.

Do you know Porky Pig, Daffy Duck, Bugs Bunny or Droopy? Then you know Tex Avery.

The man was a legend. He worked at Warner Bros and MGM for most of his prolific career, and created more memorable characters during that time than most other studios managed put together. He practically invented slapstick animated humor, and taught animators all over the world how much power they really had over their creations.

He stretched the boundaries, pushed the line, and created a style of animation that no longer looked to emulate live action, it looked to exceed it in every way.

So why am I waxing lyrical about this man 25 years after he died? Because I came across a website today which contains several of his character sheets, and it really brought home to me how ground breaking the man was. I'll post one here, but check out comicrazy for the rest.