Antikewl Daily » Design

The art of the WALL·E end title sequence

Trevor May — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 15:46:00 +0000

The Art of the Title Sequence interview end title sequence director Jim Capobianco and animator Alexander Woo about the end titles to Disney·Pixar’s WALL·E.

Jim Capobianco’s end credits to Andrew Stanton’s “WALL·E” are essential; they are the actual ending of the film, a perfect and fantastically optimistic conclusion to a grand, if imperfect idea. Humanity’s past and future evolution viewed through unspooling schools of art. Frame after frame sinks in as you smile self-consciously. It isn’t supposed to be this good but there it is. This is art in its own right. Peter Gabriel and Thomas Newman’s song, “Down to Earth” indulges you with some incredibly thoughtful lyrics and, from the Stone Age to the Impressionists to the wonderful 8-bit pixel sprites, you are in the midst of something special.

Coming soon: Antikewl Daily 2.0

Trevor May — Tue, 26 May 2009 20:49:09 +0000

If you have noticed that things have been rather slow around here again it is because I am struggling to do two things at once: build a new Antikewl Daily whilst keeping this old one populated with fresh content.

Yes, you did hear me correctly; this site is getting its very first design! Since becoming a blog in 2003, antikewl.com has worn numerous off-the-shelf themes on both MovableType and WordPress before settling on an increasingly cobbled hack of the PlainTxtBlog theme in 2006, now it is just too big (and wobbly) for its boots.

You might have noticed a few extra features that I have added already like the ability to subscribe to comment replies, links to related posts on every article and short urls… but these are just the beginning!

Keep your eyes peeled for the new Antikewl Daily soon but, in the mean time, I apologise for the lack up updates. Bear with me!

Also, there is a little peek at the top of the mockup of the new homepage above — what do you think?

The Art of Penguin Science Fiction

Trevor May — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 20:19:42 +0000

I’ve just been browsing The Art of Penguin Science Fiction, a website “that explores the history and cover art of science fiction published by Penguin Books from 1935 to 1977.” I’ve always been a big fan of classic Penguin paperback books covers and this tied neatly to yesterday’s post on man’s vision of the future through the years.

The cropped image above is from the 1963 paperback of John Wyndham’s The Kraken Wakes. It was scanned by Michael Bojkowski — he has a few more higher resolution scans of classic paperbacks on Flickr. If you’re into Penguin covers be sure to browse Penguin Paperback Spotters’ Guild Flickr pool too.

(discovered via Noisy Decent Graphics)

Video Game Level Design Learned from Disneyland

Trevor May — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 22:24:58 +0000

Yes, yes, yes! A belief I’ve maintained for many years — that Disneyland is an experience designer’s wet dream — has been confirmed! I’m so glad to see that THQ’s Creative Manager Scott Rogers shares my understanding. Scott worked on games including Pac-man World, God of War and Drawn to Life.

Thankfully Cory Doctorow took notes from Scott’s presentation at GDC today and made them along with photos of the slides available for all. Scott states on his blog that he’ll make his slides available shortly.

Update: The slides are now up.

This has just brought to mind the piece Cory wrote for Wired back in 2006 interviewing former Disneyland Imagineer Danny Hillis about Disneyland as an alternate world, a precursor to today’s massively multiplayer games. It all gets me wondering whether anyone else has written about or has been inspired by this topic… Some investigation awaits!

(via Boing Boing)

Rubitone: Rubik’s Cube + Pantone

Trevor May — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 20:10:58 +0000

Design geeks! Check out this wonderful Pantone Rubik’s Cube concept by Italian industrial designer Ignacio Pilotto.

I also particularly like his Race Clock and ice bucket that turns into a watering can once the ice has melted!

dConstruct07

Trevor May — Sun, 09 Sep 2007 22:32:24 +0000

dConstruct is all over for another year.

Highlights for me were the insanely personable Tom Coates and his talk, “Designing for a Web of Data” and Cameron Moll on “Good vs Great Design“. No real lowlights, other than that I wished Denise Wilton and George Oates had a bit of a Q&A at the end of their talk… actually, a bit more Q&A all round would have been nice. Oh, and free coffee during the day would have been cool too.

What I really enjoyed, though, was meeting (meatspace social networking?) a lot of lovely like-minded folk. What’s even better is I’ve come out feeling incredibly invigorated and excited about what I do for a living — which really is a superb and unexpected bonus!

And the beer was nice too.

Actually, I have another low: Because I’m feeling more excited I’m up at eleven thirty on a Sunday finishing off a draft for an antikewl redesign — when I really should be in bed!

Boing Boing redesign

Trevor May — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 08:08:04 +0000

In the unlikely event that you’ve read this article before reading Boing Boing this morning, head on over there now and check out their gorgeous new redesign. The new simplified appearance was created by my friend Jemma at Sans Nom and it now has a sister blog, Boing Boing Gadgets. Enjoy, but please come back! :)

SoftBank Pantone cellphone

Trevor May — Fri, 22 Jun 2007 17:10:34 +0000

SoftBank Pantone mobile phone: A perfect gift for the design geek. (via NOTCOT)

A month in the life of a graphic designer

Trevor May — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 21:04:09 +0000

Through June, Creative Review are following the daily life of a graphic designer.

Michael Place, from London agency Build, “has agreed to record everything that he does during this period. Every piece of work. Every idea. Every presentation. Every meeting.”

“You’ll thrill as he meets his bank manager. Gasp as he checks some proofs. Marvel as he tours exotic locations such as Walthamstow and Epping Forest. All will be revealed.”

Munich 1972 = Good, London 2012 = Bad

Trevor May — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 13:06:17 +0000

After forgetting about the new London 2012 Olympics logo for a week I stumbled upon this post at Design Observer. I did love that Sun headline. Anyway, to try to forget this “cool” new rave identity (at least until it gets plastered over every billboard in town) I decided to do a little search for one of my favourite Olympics identities of the past: Otl Aicher‘s work for Munich 1972.

Here’s what I found:

72 Exhibition
1972 Munich Design Report Flickr set
1972 Munich Olympics Flickr set
Otl Aitcher and the Munich Olympiad Flickr set
Otl Aicher: Utilitarian Design

Human Computer Interaction in Science Fiction Movies

Trevor May — Thu, 05 Apr 2007 14:18:18 +0000

Human Computer Interaction in Science Fiction Movies (via BoingBoing)

The Helvetica Notebook

Trevor May — Thu, 05 Apr 2007 13:49:22 +0000

The typographic geek inside me finds this two-sided notebook from Veer incredibly amusing. Featuring quotes from Helvetica, the documentary film by Gary Hustwit, in 3pt type it’s available direct for $22 if you’re in the US. If you’re outside the US I’m afraid you’re out of luck. (via swissmiss)

Disneyland: How to Draw Goofy book

Trevor May — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 14:12:27 +0000

Jenny at The Blackwing Diaries has a great set of scans from this 60s Disneyland book “How to Draw Goofy: A Walt Disney Character Model Guide”. I particularly like the quote from Walt Disney himself.

Part one: Cover and Walt’s quote.
Part two: Page scans.

Feodor Rojankovsky

Trevor May — Tue, 13 Feb 2007 15:17:58 +0000

John K has a great post on Feodor Rojankovsky‘s illustrative paintings over at his blog today.

Rojankovsky (1891-1970) was a Russian-born artist best known for his animal-filled childrens illustrations. “Two great events determined the course of my childhood. I was taken to the zoo and saw the most marvellous creatures on earth: bears, tigers, monkeys and reindeer, and, while my admiration was running high, I was given a set of color crayons.”

More of his work for children can be found here and here. He also drew lady parts. Um, that last link probably isn’t safe for work.

Sony confirms Wipeout for PS3

Trevor May — Mon, 05 Feb 2007 20:54:07 +0000

Sony confirms Wipeout for PS3: “We have nothing to add, but we will be making an announcement with more details in the near future.” Hopefully they’ll bring back tDR… or perhaps another design agency that’s “de jour” to realise the visuals. (via Kotaku)

The Design Disease

Trevor May — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 12:26:04 +0000

Noisy Decent Graphics on The Design Disease: “…it’s there in every aspect of life. You can’t stop looking at things through your designer eyes. Everything you do is clouded by this thing that lives inside you.” Related posts:Design for browser size, not screen size The Art of Penguin Science Fiction Video Game Level Design Learned [...] Related posts:

Saul Bass: The Hollywood Connection

Trevor May — Fri, 05 Jan 2007 16:45:29 +0000

The Skirball Cultural Center in LA is currently hosting an exhibition of Saul Bass’ film-based work until April 1st. I missed the show at the Design Museum in London a couple of years ago and kicked myself that I did. If you’re near to the sunny part of California it might be worth taking a look.

Happy New Year!

Trevor May — Fri, 29 Dec 2006 21:30:54 +0000

A bit early, but it’s the last chance I’ll get. Thanks for reading! I’ll leave you with another great post from Stuff from the Park. Not only does he have a fantastic poster from Disneyland, New Year 1962 but there’s also a fantastic photo of the Pirates of the Caribbean model used in the 1965 Disneyland 10th anniversary show.

See you next year!

Design for browser size, not screen size

Trevor May — Wed, 06 Dec 2006 12:45:53 +0000

Design for browser size, not screen size: I’ve been saying it for ages but I like reading things by people who say the same things as me. ;) A nice tool here at whatsmy.browsersize.com as well.

Live Free and Die Hard

Trevor May — Mon, 28 Aug 2006 14:08:46 +0000

I think I’m going to forget all I’ve read about Die Hard 4′s title and who it’s being directed by and move swiftly on — possibly forgetting that the whole thing ever happened. Perhaps I should just be grateful that it’s no longer called Die Hard 4.0… on account of the plot revolving around an internet-based terrorist organisation… *lone cough in silence*

Here’s something that caught my eye… Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez (Sin City) are collaborating to produce an exploitation horror/slasher double bill called “Grind House” in the vein of those 70s horror flicks with fantastic posters (but were actually total crap). Both filmed in Texas, Death Proof, Tarantino’s movie, stars Kurt Russell as a mad man hell-bent on killing hot chicks with his big car (“sort of a slasher film, but instead of a knife, it’s a car”), and Planet Terror, Rodriguez’ half, is a zombie movie starring Rose McGowan with a machine gun for a leg.

It all sounds too good to be true… but there’s more! They’re also shooting fake trailers for spaghetti western, blaxploitation, sexploitation and kung fu movies which will show between the two films. Want more? One of the trailers will be directed by Edgar Wright (Spaced, Shaun of the Dead) and another by Eli Roth (Cabin Fever, Hostel). If all that wasn’t enough, check out these gorgeous teaser posters.

Has accessibility been taken too far?

Trevor May — Fri, 25 Aug 2006 11:21:02 +0000

It’s unusual to see the flip side to the debate on web site accessibility. Jeff Croft offers one here:
“I believe too many people are trying to make accessibility a binary (yes or no) matter. It can’t be. It has to be a continuum.”