Monthly Archive for June, 2009

The Ride of your Life

Published on June 25, 2009 in design. 4 Comments Tags: , , .

bikeandnatureMe and my officemates had another wallpaper challenge today.

What is a wallpaper challenge?

At my workplace, the designers have an event every week called “Wallpaper Challenge”. We – the designers, will be given a theme/topic five minutes before starting to create the wallpaper, five minutes is allotted to think of your concept and gather some resources. One hour is allotted to create the wallpaper, we all start and end at the same time.

This week is our 7th wallpaper challenge, the person assigned to give the topic is a fan of bikes, so the theme is:

Sport Bikes and Nature

It was a tough job just  looking for an appropriate photo, I wasted about 15 minutes of my time just for that, I even had a first version with a bicycle, but my officemates told me that sport bikes are the ones with motors so here’s the second and final version.

I didn’t like how it turned out though, but some of them are saying that my work is the one that fits the theme completely. Yes, I intended it to fit the theme.

Eden of the East

Published on June 25, 2009 in anime and manga. 3 Comments Tags: .

eden-of-the-eastThis week, I watched all the episodes of the anime series Eden of the East (Higashi no Eden). At first, I was hesitant on watching the series due to the artwork style, but I was hooked instantly after watching the first episode.

The Plot

The anime revolve around the Selecaos – 12 people who were given phones that have a value of 10,000,000,000 yen each. This money cannot be converted into cash and must be used to save Japan. The money must also not reach zero while not being able to save Japan, if that happens the penalty is death. These Selecaos are in a game they can’t refuse to accept were there is only one winner, and will be the only one to survive in the end.

The interesting part about the story is about the personas the phones were given to. Each of these people have different beliefs, passions and personalities. But the story centers on the 9th Selecao and his quest to stop the evil plot of the other Selecao members.

The Artwork

At first I didn’t like the artwork, the characters have a weird look on their face, due to the big smiles and flat-looking nose. I really didn’t like the shading on the mid part of their noses, since it adds up to the “flat-nosed” effect. Besides that, I have no complaints. They have good backgrounds that uses vibrant colors which easily catches attention. In some parts of the anime, they used 3d objects like cars, building and even the thousand buck naked running men. I would have preferred those 3d objects to be drawn traditionally, since the characters and the backgrounds would blend more naturally.

Also. their opening theme has a good art style. I like the combination of good typography, contrasting colors and vector shapes in the video. It greatly adds to the modern effect, and they pulled it off perfectly.

Conclusion

Overall, I loved the series, Eden of the East now belongs to the list of  my favorite animes. I would recommend it to anyone who wants a unique story and great entertainment. I can’t wait for the release of their first movie on November 28, 2009.

Design Fight Club

Published on June 19, 2009 in design and websites. 4 Comments Tags: , , , , .

005_new_orleansToday at my workplace, we – the designers had a meeting to decide for a name of our collaborative project. We had a long list of possible names to choose from, and finally we end up with one – Design Fight Club.

After the meeting, we had a wallpaper Challenge, this is the sixth challenge and I do think this wallpaper looks decent. Our topic was “New Orleans”, as in the city located in Louisiana. I have no idea about New Orleans, so I ended up using a picture of One Shell Square – the tallest building in both the city of New Orleans and the state of Louisiana. Then, I edited the whole thing to be a haunted building. I do like how the end result looks like, but I’m sad that I haven’t put into much thought on creating a wallpaper of New Orleans, but it’s understandable since we’re only given five minutes to think of a concept, and an hour to create the whole wallpaper.

About the Project Collective, I have here more information on what we’ve been up to.

Continue reading ‘Design Fight Club’