Tina Webster Illustration

The Neon Museum, Las Vegas

admin — Wed, 22 May 2013 10:24:17 +0000

Being a sucker for a bit of retro, I couldn’t resist dragging Rob along to The Neon Museum in downtown Las Vegas while we were there! I’d read about the museum in the Evening Standard last year and knew we had to make a detour to see the old abandoned neon signs which now reside in their very own boneyard on the outskirts of town.

I really enjoyed walking around the iconic signs and hearing about their history! For me though, the best bit was seeing all the different types of typography used in each sign. Some were made up of hand written/script style fonts, while others used very blocky western style letters. They even mixed font styles up in an attempt to lure customers into the casino’s on the strip.

The museum exhibits lights from as far back as the 50′s and houses around 150 historic signs. Unfortunately, most of the signs are beyond repair, propped up against one another in a collage of colour and corroding metal. The good news is that in 2008, a stretch of Las Vegas Boulevard was designated a National Scenic Byway and you can now see icons lights such as Binion’s Horseshoe, the Silver Slipper, Society Cleaners and Lucky Cuss Motel which have all been restored to their former glory!

10 Maori inspired logo designs

admin — Mon, 06 May 2013 09:22:55 +0000

Whilst in New Zealand I became rather fond of the beautiful Maoir carvings and works of art surrounding us as we traveled the north and south islands. It made me think to myself, humm I wonder if there are any Maori inspired logo designs out there? Low and behold there are lots! Here are 10 of my favourite brand designs from the web!

Evolve New Zeland

Air New Zeland

ICC Cricket Wold Cup 2015

Tohu

NZ Maori Tourism Council

Te Kakano

Paddle Republic

iJada

Tohu Wines

Maori Exotic Deli

Street art in Melbourne’s arcades and lanes

admin — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 08:10:50 +0000

I didn’t realise before heading to Melbourne that it’s known for being one of the worlds great street art capitals. It was only when I started wandering around the lanes and arcades in the city that I soon realised how much of it there really is!

The ever changing urban spaces around Federation Square, Little Bourke Street and Flinders Lane are a mass of colour and artistic expression. We saw images of Ganesh, zombies, 1940′s pin ups and even Bart Simpson all on the same street!

Not all the street art is spray painted either. We say posters, stencils, hand painted signage and murals! It was really great to see such a variety of artistic styles in one space. Here are a few images I took whilst there.

Jessica Hische – Moonrise Kingdom lettering

admin — Sun, 10 Mar 2013 06:19:17 +0000

I came across Jessica Hische’s work whilst looking for cool examples of responsive website design. Luckily for me she not only has a great site, but some very beautiful lettering and illustration work.

I didn’t realise the term “Lettering” means the illustrations of letters, words, and phrases. It was only after reading Jessica’s FAQ section that I was enlightened by the difference between lettering and font design.

Anywho, while browsing, I checked out Jessica’s portfolio and found that she created the film titles for Wes Anderson’s newest movie, Moonrise Kingdom.

I’m a bit of a Wes Anderson fan (recently investing in the The Royal Tenenbaums and Rushmore on DVD here in Oz) so I was thrilled to see her work featured in his latest screenplay. Here’s some examples of her lettering in the film:

The font has an Edwardian feel and I love the curly flicks at the start and end of each letter/word. It fits perferctly with Wes’s style of film making and i’ll be keeping an eye out for it when I get my hands on the DVD!

(All images take from Jessica Hische’s website)

McCann’s – Dumb Ways to Die ad campaign for Metro Trains

admin — Sat, 02 Mar 2013 00:29:43 +0000

I was clicking around the internet, as you do, and came across this really cool ad campaign by McCann.

Commissioned by Metro Trains, the message behind the ad is to warn people of the dangers of crossing train tracks here in Australia. The online music video and series of print ads feature these pleasant mannered characters dying in dumb ways!

Watch the video below and listen to it’s catchy tune!

Just 24 hours of after the ad came out, the “Dumb Way To Die” song had reached number 10 on iTunes. It’s now one of Australia’s fastest growing viral campaigns with over 40 million views and counting!

Have a gander at their humorous and rather macabre print ads below!

It just shows you that public announcement safety messages don’t have to be all “proper” and drab to grab your attention!

(All images taken from the McCann website)

Sheep Walking Illustration

admin — Sat, 16 Feb 2013 04:57:40 +0000

So, I thought it was about time I started playing with pixels again and produced this little number. It’s a little illustration about “Sheep Walking”. If you look closely it features a little black sheep who isn’t following the flock shall we say! Hope you like it!

ING Direct Australia ads and illustrations

admin — Sun, 20 Jan 2013 05:38:44 +0000

I was watching the telly box a few days ago and I spotted a rather cool animated advert for ING DIRECT Australia. I really love the illustration style used and the bold graphics work well with ING DIRECTS brand.

Unfortunately I couldn’t find a YouTube clip of the ad I saw, but I did find this little beauty about PayWave here in Australia.

Digging around on the tinterweb I also spotted some print work in the same illustrative style. All images are taken from ING DIRECT Australia Facebook fan page.

They’ve also incorporated the illustrations into sections of their site related to savings. Very nice ING DIRECT!

Aboriginal art at the Australian Museum

admin — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 13:42:33 +0000

This week we decided to head to the Australian Museum in Sydney for the day. Thank goodness we did as the air conditioning was a godsend in the 40 degrees heat! Here’s a bit of Aboriginal art work that I drew inspiration from…

My favourite illustrated websites of 2012

admin — Sat, 29 Dec 2012 17:03:11 +0000

Games We Played website

On this site, I love how each letter of the alphabet represents different games played in Singapore. If you move your mouse over each letter it begins to animate. Check out the slight noise affect applied to each animation. It reminds me of Terrestrial television back in the day!

Evo Energy website

This site is full of environmental statisitics presented in a cool and interactive way. Roll your mouse over elements and data is revealed to the viewer. It’s a great use of illustration and infograhics in a website.

These Are Things website

If you scroll up or down on this site our two designers (Jen and Omar) get placed in different environments related to the work they love doing. It’s a very nice idea and you can’t help but look at every part of the page. As well as having a smashing website they create some pretty nifty maps and infographics where they strive to simplify complex data.

Well Done Team GB website

Here’s a clever site that celebrates our athletes achievements at the 2012 games. I really like the characterisations of Mo Farah, Chris Hoy and other sporting personalities.

Impress a Penguin website

This site has a great bit of storytelling going on. Click though each slide and you’ll see what I mean. It’s a fantastic idea and really makes you want to engage with the site.

WWF Food Story website

Here’s another really good example of how interactive infograohics can be used in website design. By sliding the bar from left to right you can see the impact we are having on the environment when it comes to food production.

Adopt a Yeti website

Adopting a Yeti sounded pretty impressive! So when I had a look at the site and saw the fantastic illustration and colour scheme I knew I was onto a winner. Clicking the “Adopt your own Yeti” button takes you to a PDF download where you can cut and paste your own Yeti together. You’re then encouraged to take pictures and post them on the site for the rest of the Yeti adopting community to see!

Nobal Design blog

I love the work of Glen Noble and I was very pleased to discover his blog recently. I love the way he’s used cassette tapes, iPhones and photographs to signify the type of post he’s writing about. For instance, when he has a great piece of music that he wants to share it appears as a sound file that you can physically play in a cassette tape. It’s the same if he shares a video, it appears in the screen of an iPhone. Very clever!

Cool wine/beer company logo’s that I’ve spotted in Western Australia

admin — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 22:07:44 +0000

Living in Perth for three months, and being so close to two beautiful wine growing regions (Swan Valley and Margaret River), it was hard not to notice some of the cool Wine and Brewery logos that have come out of WA.

Here are a few favourites that I spotted when driving around the vine yards and browsing the bottle shop shelves.

Barton Jones Wines

Broomstick Estate

Ferngrove

Howling Wolves

Mad Fish

Oakover Wines - Designed by Exposure

The Wine Place - Designed by Exposure

The Wine & Truffle

Vasse Felix

Wines of Western Australia

Arthur Fortified Wines logo design

Cheeky Monkey Brewery & Cidery

Little Creatures

Indian Ocean Brewing Company