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BA GD| L2 | SEMESTER 1 20011-12 STUDIO PRACTICE 2A: METHODS & MADNESS | UNIT EGRD 2009
BA GD| L2 | SEMESTER 1 20011-12 INDEPENDENT PRACTICE 2A: INTERROGATION | UNIT EGRD 2010
METHODS AND MADNESS
SHOOTING STARS
3 /63
UNIT/METHODS AND MADNESS
For this brief we were given the task of taking a current news
story and analysing how it is represented by the media, how it
was constructed and how essentially it would be percieved. The
challenge being how to turn the result of this investigation on
its head, and create a video a minute long that communicates
and alternative to the one the media portrays.
BRIEF
THE RESEARCH
I chose Amy Winehouse as my subject, She was a great example
due to her high profile in the media and her treatment leading
up to her death and I felt that she embodied the glamorised
miss-communication that the media favour in order to
capitalise. In my research I found out the 1800’s is the earliest
recording of the public fascination with celebrity culture. the
first celebrities were those elements of high society who were
eligible to get a mention in the obituaries when they passed. As
in those days it wasn’t just anyone who got a mention. Strangley
Ironic given these days the media won’t leave celebrities alone
until they pass away.
APPROACH
I had not used any editing software prior to this excercise so
veiwed this as a daunting yet welcome challenge. I decided
to make a visual collage that repressented Amy’s birth in the
media to her televised demise, using a visual and auditory
crescendo to create a metaphor for the lead up to her death.
SHOOTING STARS
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UNIT/METHODS AND MADNESS SHOOTING STARS
UNIT/METHODS AND MADNESS
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Early footage in Black and White to
represent to give the feeling of times gone by
footage where you see her start to spiral
into a life she no longer has control over
I made the footage blue and green with a
washed out feel to mimic the coldness of her
ongoing torment.
The static in between represents the
changing of channels which is meant to
show the scope of which the media were
involved in her life and how that translated
to our TV screens.
SHOOTING STARS
UNIT/METHODS AND MADNESS
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As her life spirals in the video the footage
speeds up in time with the layered dialog
getting increasingly hectic to give a
crescendo meant to echo the way her own
life built up to it’s sad conclusion.
SHOOTING STARS
UNIT/METHODS AND MADNESS SHOOTING STARS
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UNIT/METHODS AND MADNESS SHOOTING STARS
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CONCLUSIONThis was a great task to start the semester on, instantly
challenging as I had not worked with editing before. It was a
huge yet rewarding challenge to have to work out how to use
Final Cut in such a short space of time, but gave me the push
I needed to move forward in other areas.
The task itself was interesting, it helped me understand the
value of understanding the way the media operates and how
that is relevant in design, previously it had not occurred to
me the social impact design can have and vice versa.
Since this task I have found myself questioning the meanings
behind what I see not just in the media but in literally
everything.
As regards the actual piece looking back at it now it seems
somewhat remedial as I have developed further techniques
over the semester which would have been benificial at the
time of making this short. But I do feel it has impact and
fullfils the criteria.
VIRGIN BRIEF
UNIT/METHODS AND MADNESS
BRIEF
Create a corporate communications piece for the Virgin brand
showing sector and worldwide spread of the business in a fun
and engaging way.
We were restricted by the stipulations of virgins existing
branding and by the target audience which was predominantly
existing Virgin employees as well as prospective business
associates. They wanted to create a clearer way to show how
they are structured.
THE RESEARCH
For this brief I looked carefully at Virgin as a company, the
ethics they stand for and how they convey their business. My
partner and I looked at the Virgin facebook page and studied
the existing available material. The one thing that seemed
prominent in the brief was the fun aspect that was being pushed
and this seemed to reflect Sir Richards character, so we felt that
this would be a good place to start.
THE APPROACH
My partner and I initially kicked around a few ideas but the first
idea stood out by far as being the best. The brouchure’s kept
refering to ‘the Virgin Motherbrand’ this immediately made me
think of motherships i.e spaceships. this was a fun concept and
also worked perfectly as a metaphor for the structure of Virgin
as a brand.
VIRGIN BRIEF
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UNIT/METHODS AND MADNESS VIRGIN BRIEF
VIRGIN BRIEF
VIRGIN BRIEF
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Some early workings of how to structure
the booklet, it had to be easy to mail and
inexpensive to make, yet look high end,
also it needed to be environmentally sound,
we realised that we could make an A1 in
length poster that would fold down quite
small in it wasn’t A1 in width, also we
could make it double sided, and have the
poster fold up into the cover which could
then double as the actual envelope. This
was great as it solved almost all of the
issues, we just had to make it look high
end.
VIRGIN BRIEFUNIT/METHODS AND MADNESS
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VIRGIN BRIEFUNIT/METHODS AND MADNESS
Initial concepts for the structure and pallet
of the design. After discussions we decided
that we should keep as much red as possible
to keep in with the original branding,
the rest of the pallet was inspired by 50’s
B-movies, which we felt was appropriate
considering the style of the design.
Still from the movie Forbidden Planet 1956
VIRGIN BRIEF
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UNIT/METHODS AND MADNESS VIRGIN BRIEF
UNIT/METHODS AND MADNESS VIRGIN BRIEFVIRGIN BRIEF
UNIT/METHODS AND MADNESS VIRGIN BRIEF
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UNIT/METHODS AND MADNESS VIRGIN BRIEFVIRGIN BRIEF
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UNIT/METHODS AND MADNESS VIRGIN BRIEF
UNIT/METHODS AND MADNESS VIRGIN BRIEF
CONCLUSION
I found this brief a great brief for stretching the aesthetic
creative muscles, I enjoyed the challenge of trying to come up
with the ideal product to meet the varied requirements. The
Crit we had with The young man from virgin was positive and
constructive and my partner and I made the neccessary changes
in order to meet his needs and found that the end product was a
success. The most challenging part of this brief was to cater the
design so that it would appeal to a wide demographic, in the end
our approach communicated the hierarchy of the Virgin Brand
and on the other end of the spectrum could also appeal to small
children with the fun science fiction edge.
VIRGIN BRIEF
BIOGRAPHY
UNIT/METHODS AND MADNESS BIOGRAPHY
BRIEF
For this brief I was given the name Jeremy Bentham and had to
find out who he was and as much information as I could without
using my usual research methods. Then finally to represent my
findings in some way.
THE RESEARCH
The research for this task it seemed was the point in the
task, having to find new ways of thinking and getting around
the obstacle of google denial. At first I found it hard to stop
thinking about going to search engine’s, I found my mind kept
going in circles from “how do I find out about this man?” to I’ll
could use. . . . .” and then I would just think of search engine’s.
This was surprisingly difficult to get out of, which in itself has
taught me that I rely far too much on the same few avenue’s
of research, which I realised makes the results of my line of
investigation limited.
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UNIT/METHODS AND MADNESS BIOGRAPHY
THE QUESTION
UNIT/METHODS AND MADNESS BIOGRAPHY
‘Who, or what, is a Jeremy Bentham ?’
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UNIT/METHODS AND MADNESS BIOGRAPHY
The techniques that I ended up going
with in order to gain as much info as I
could about Mr Bentham all relied in one
way or another on other people telling
me.
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UNIT/METHODS AND MADNESS BIOGRAPHY
THE ANSWER
UNIT/METHODS AND MADNESS BIOGRAPHY
Thread from Drowned in sound music forum
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CONCLUSION
I was surprised to find that out of my four methods...
1. Place an add on Gum Tree
2. Post a status update on facebook
3.Put posters around the uni
4.Post the question on a music forum
5. send an e-mail to as many variations of Jeremy Bentham in an
e-mail address I could think of.
that method four was by far the best, it seems music enthusiasts
that post regularly on forums know more about Jeremy Bentham
than I first would have thought, and oddly enough the methods
that I thought would work best, methods two and three turned
out to have little to no results, proving once again that I should
veer off my standard paths of investigation in future. Putting an
add on Gumtree gave to most accurate results, I am assuming
because of the format, i.e nobody would bother to read the post
as it was irrelevant to the use of the website unless of course they
already knew or had an interest in Jeremy Bentham. Another
interesting result was that after posting a link to the finished
poster, I had a reply from a teacher saying they were going to use
it in their class.
This shows to me that although some of the facts are false the
end result is a good example of the publics perception.
UNIT/METHODS AND MADNESS BIOGRAPHY
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INDEPENDANT PRACTICEINDEPENDANT PRACTICE
THE LAST EMBRACE
UNIT/ INDEPENDANT PRACTICE
THE BRIEFFor my Independant practice I wanted to cover the subject of
Love, in this brief I was given the task of creating a large poster
for a friends band called ‘Love among the mannequins’ they
wanted a poster that conveyed a general romantic theme but
retain a punk rock vibe and without using any text.
THE RESEARCH
I started by asking people what was the first thing that came
into their heads when I said Love to them, the answers were
far more varied than I anticipated and also far more negative.
People tended to either come up with cliche’d imagery like
‘hearts’ etc or they would refer to break ups or feeling bad. It
seems obvious that the question would beg these two outcomes
however it was the conveyance of this that was interesting.
one of the things that interested me the most was marriage
and the vows we take and how although they are meant to be
romantic they also refer to death ‘death do us part’. I found
this acknowledgement of our mortality within a romantic vow a
juxtoposition that reflected my general findings. And so decided
to make the poster a deathly image with a romantic heart.
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UNIT/ INDEPENDANT PRACTICE
I wrote the word romance on a piece of paper and
gave people 1 minute to write down as many things
they could think of connected with it.
THE LAST EMBRACE
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UNIT/ INDEPENDANT PRACTICE THE LAST EMBRACE
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UNIT/ INDEPENDANT PRACTICE THE LAST EMBRACE
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CONCLUSION
UNIT/ INDEPENDANT PRACTICE THE LAST EMBRACE
This design was incredibly labor intensive, with all the line
work hand drawn and the dot work for the texturing of the sky
hand drawn as well, a technique that when I look back now
only really benifits when the illustration is viewed close up,
something I will avoid in future for larger pieces of work. The
feedback I have recieved has been positive with people making
reference to the color pallet and neon border. These are both
things that I have added after researching artists like Kevin
Tong and El Boca, so it has been a great experience being
able to look at their work and apply certain visual styles to my
own work. I also had to look at a lot of images of fire in order
to attain the liquid effect of the atmosphere being penetrated
this was a good learning curve also as it gave me a better
understanding of shapes and how they can convey texture on a
large scale.
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FALLING IN LOVETHE BRIEF
This was a self set brief. I had been relying too much on
illustration and felt I wasn’t getting enough diversity in
my design so I wanted to try doing an animation as it was
something I hadn’t done before and due to some workshops
this semester understood how to do on a very basic level. So the
brief was to create an animation that could potentially be used
for an advert or a short to promote valentines day cards. I had in
mind when doing it clinton cards or a similar company.
THE RESEARCH
Whilst researching the theme of love in general I looked at
terms that are used commonly in reference to love, one of the
most obvious and probably universal terms is ‘falling in love’
which when you dissect it literally is interesting as love is an
emotion and falling is a physical action so it does not seem
obvious to pair the two, however in a literal sense it made for an
interesting idea.
THE APPROACH
I wanted to give the animation a colorful and fun aesthetic to
fit in with the kind of marketing normally used to advertise
seasonal based media. I also wanted the animation to be some
kind of play on words so I married a literal concept of falling in
love and colorful basic illustration.
UNIT/ INDEPENDANT PRACTICE FALLING IN LOVE
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UNIT/ INDEPENDANT PRACTICE FALLING IN LOVE
FALLING IN LOVE
FALLING IN LOVE
UNIT/ INDEPENDANT PRACTICE FALLING IN LOVE
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UNIT/ INDEPENDANT PRACTICE FALLING IN LOVEFALLING IN LOVE
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UNIT/ INDEPENDANT PRACTICE FALLING IN LOVE
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CONCLUSION
UNIT/ INDEPENDANT PRACTICE FALLING IN LOVE
It was an extremely painstaking process to make the animation,
the first thing I have learnt from this experience is patience, I
found that because I had become so close to the project once
it was finished I could not tell if the message was effective or
not, I showed it to some peers that reassured my it conveyed
in a clear way. I was pleased with the final outcome on the
whole, although in future I would spend more time getting the
aspect ratio a bit better as I ended up with a letter box effect
on the sides which was not intended. I think I was successful
in creating something that could be used as a sassy advert as I
think the level of humor is at a good place within the confines
of terrestrial television.
FALLING IN LOVE
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THE BRIEF
Create a piece of photography based design that could be used
again as an advert or billboard campaign for a product, any
kind of product with romantic connotations, from condoms to
perfume, or potentially even a bed. I wanted to try my hand
at something simple that invovled photography as I have not
really done any so far but I do enjoy it. I also wanted to create
something that was really simple conceptually but at the same
time effective.
THE RESEARCH
To research this I trawled the internet for famous advertisments
like the ‘lemon’ ad for volkswagon and various examples of
found typography for inspiration. I came across an uncredited
image of typography made up of bed clothes which gave me the
idea to make a heart shape out of my own to see what it looked
like. The text is one of the things that was said to me when I did
my survey of Love association.
CONCLUSION
I always tend to feel that something isn’t good if it comes too
easy, and although I took a lot of photo’s trying to get the right
one and played about with the typography for a long time, it still
felt too easy. However the response to this piece has been great
and I do feel that it connects very well between the aesthetics
and the concept. In future I think I need to be more confident
when it comes to simplicity
UNIT/ INDEPENDANT PRACTICE LOVE IS A DOING WORD
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DEATH DO US PART
UNIT/ INDEPENDANT PRACTICE DEATH DO US PART
THE BRIEF
I wanted to create another avenue more consistant with some of
the work I have done previously so I tried designing a logo for a
potential clothing range in the vein of clothing ranges like drop
dead and atticus but still give the range the theme of Love.
THE RESEARCH
I turned to marriage vows again as this subject still interested
me, and I also looked at seal’s on products i.e quality stamps
etc I decided to apply this to the design to make it look more
uniform and mounted, you see a seal and you automatically
know there is going to be a message behind it and thats what I
wanted for this design.
THE APPROACH
In my previous design I found that metaphors are great vehicles
for carrying messages in a subtle way, so I tried to couple the
literal side of death do us part, i.e death and the romantic side
to give the message an ultimately darker image even though it is
a romantic sentiment.
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UNIT/ INDEPENDANT PRACTICE UNIT/ INDEPENDANT PRACTICEDEATH DO US PART
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UNIT/ INDEPENDANT PRACTICE DEATH DO US PART
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UNIT/ INDEPENDANT PRACTICE DEATH DO US PART
I tried experimenting with making the skulls
look like they were kissing, in doing so I realised
that the shape they made when together was a
heart which was a a perfect ‘happy accident’ .
DEATH DO US PART
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UNIT/ INDEPENDANT PRACTICE DEATH DO US PART
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UNIT/ INDEPENDANT PRACTICE DEATH DO US PARTDEATH DO US PART
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UNIT/ INDEPENDANT PRACTICE DEATH DO US PART
UNIT/ INDEPENDANT PRACTICE DEATH DO US PART
CONCLUSION
DEATH DO US PART
I added colour to emphasise the heart and the message. I’m
drawn more to the grey only design as I think it looks better
as a design in just one colour, however the coloured version
does stand out more as having a message and the text is more
obvious. I still struggle to when there are small boundaries
between what looks good and what conveys the meaning the
best. This project has proven to be one where I cannot tell
and would have to get a lot of feedback in order to make and
informed choice, something that is becoming more and more
valuable I have noticed.
UNIT/ INDEPENDANT PRACTICE
LOVE SHACKTHE BRIEF
This semester we hadn’t really done much in the way of
corporate logo design, and this is something that I want to get
better at. Making smooth logo’s using illustrator in the standard
mode to create really clean lines and curve’s etc. So I decided to
design a poster for the remainder of the associated Love words.
And after seeing La Boca’s work I felt compelled to experiment
with gradients and patterning.
THE APPROACH
I didn’t really research this project as more experiment with
various objects to see how well I could represent them in
illustrator. I did however refer back to la Boca’s website for
inspiration in texture.
LOVE SHACK
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UNIT/ INDEPENDANT PRACTICE
The results of what people think when they
hear the word ‘LOVE’.
lots of juxtoposition going on between
positive and negative and emotions and
objects. Lots to work with!
LOVE SHACK
LOVE SHACK
LOVE SHACK
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CONCLUSIONThis task was more for fun really, I wanted to see what I could
do with the icons, in that respect I feel I could have done better,
they suffer from a lack of uniform and they look to me to be too
literal. I found that when looking at other icon design, icons
tended to be very simple where as my icons seem a little clumsy.
That being said I felt the poster itself came out quite well and
I found a way to integrate photo imagery (the moon) without
it looking cut and paste which will be useful in the future as I
am hoping to be able to combine illustration and other types of
media, something which has eluded me so far.
UNIT/ INDEPENDANT PRACTICE LOVE SHACK
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UNIT/ INDEPENDANT PRACTICE LOVE SHACKLOVE SHACK
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BURNING LOVETHE BRIEF
For this brief I origianaly wanted to make a short video made up
of close up shots of burning photo’s of couples that had broken
up, I felt I had covered the romance side of love, the fun side of
love so I now wanted to deal with the product of love, a broken
heart.
THE APPROACH
Again this was meant as more of an experiment to apart
from looking at short films on youtube like ‘the gift’ by Carl
E. Rinsch to get the pace right. Apart from that it was pure
experimentation.
UNIT/ INDEPENDANT PRACTICE BURNING LOVE
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UNIT/ INDEPENDANT PRACTICE BURNING LOVE
I put out a plea for people to send me photo’s
of them with ex-partners for me to burn, the
response was enthusiastic to say the least.
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UNIT/ INDEPENDANT PRACTICE BURNING LOVE
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UNIT/ INDEPENDANT PRACTICE BURNING LOVE
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UNIT/ INDEPENDANT PRACTICE BURNING LOVE
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CONCLUSION
After I filmed the footage I realised that I couldnt’ achieve the
look I was hoping for due to various technical hitches so I was
about to abandon the project and move on. However I started
to reflect over my original independant practice statement and
realised that I could manipulate the footage like I did with the
shooting stars brief. I heard a song round a friends house acouple
of days later called burning love and realised I could use the
footage I da to make a music video for the band, so I got in touch
with them and they approved the idea. I am really pleased with
how well the imagery was adaptable to the meaning of the song
and style of the band. With more time I would like to add more
Typography and shoot more varied footage.
UNIT/ INDEPENDANT PRACTICE BURNING LOVE
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INDEPENDANT PRACTICEI am really happy with my Independant Practice this semester, I
have experimented in areas that I previously have avoided or been a
intimidated by, this ongoing experimentation has done wonders for
my confidence and has made me excited about future possibilities. I
have also found that the two units have crossed over much more with
this semester with some of the illustration skills I have learnt helped
inform and produce the Virgin brief and with the shooting stars brief
informing my animation and music video.
I feel the quality of my work is growing as I learn new techniques and
that my skills in research are growing. My first port of call when taking
on a brief is research where previously I would have dove straight into
making work. To me this is a huge leap as in the past this has always
felt like an alien process.
I also feel that with every passing brief my concept of how my work
relates to the audience is more and more defined. This can only be a
good thing.
METHODS & MADNESSAt the start of this semester I was instantly thrown with the first
brief being a moving image based brief, but this turned out to
be a blessing as I would go on to use the skills I learnt in that
first brief for much of my independant practice. The following
briefs I have to admit I found frustrating, the ambiguity of some
of the tasks put me in an uncomfortable mind set.
However when I look back at the unit I can see it from a more
positive perspective and now find myself a bit more able to
tolerate ambiguity and treat it as a license to be more creative.
As always the initial frustration turns into a skill. This can be
said for the pace of this semester as well. As at the begining it
was a slow start and toward the end time management became
an issue. Unfortunately I did miss certain workshops and the
LAB due to my lack of awareness of what was to come. But this
can have it’s positive merits as from now on I shall work to pre-
deadline deadlines.
I look forward to next semester and the challenges that may
come but will definitely work harder to pre-empt unexpected
time constraints.
BIBLIOGRAPHYhttp://www.behance.net/walterhansen Walter Hansen
http://www.veritykeniger.co.uk/ Verity Keniger
http://www.tragicsunshine.com/ Kevin Tong
http://www.laboca.co.uk/ La Boca
http://www.johnalvin.com/ John Alvin
http://www.rhyswootton.co.uk/ Rhys Wooton
http://chloeearly.com Chloe Early
http://artisproof.bigcartel.com/ Art is Proof Press
http://www.juxtapoz.com Juxtopoz
The Designer as Producer by Ellen Lupton PDF.
The designer as author by Michael Rock PDF.
http://designnomad.blogspot.com/ Design Nomad Blog
http://thedudedesigns.blogspot.com/ The Dude Designs Blog
Youtube
ISSUU
Vimeo
( http://vimeo.com/33025640 ) Directed by Carl E. Rinsch, ‘The Gift’
http://drownedinsound.com/ Drowned in Sound