David Earl Dixon

http://www.myspace.com/davidearldixon

British artist David Earl Dixon lives in colchester, where he runs a skateboard company and works as a reelance artist and illustrator. Curious characters, fantasy worlds, and the interactions between humans and animals permeate his artworks. He also brings his world of characters to the street. "Sketching helps exercise the demons!" he says. "No the truth it's just a good space to let ideas flow as freely as possible. In fact most of the time it's the stuff that to me looks the best. It has that creative spontaneity, that unsure yet somehow confidant set of strokes or lines, which is often impossible to recreate, or pursue. Its a momentary thing... the first furtive ramblings of ideas and thoughts."

Danny Danky

http://www.theroyalgrotto.blogspot.com/

http://soundcloud.com/danky

This is a mate of mine who is an illustrator he has some great designs having flicked through his sketchbooks and he also makes beats, mainly dubstep, check them out at the link above. Hes a good guy and is onboard with ideas I have for my clothing line expressing an interest out of his comfort zones. I will be forced to collaborate with him on a project at some point. Good luck to him on his course this September.

North Korea

Right, North Korea. I don't know much about this place but i've watched my share of documentries and I cannot believe what is going on there. It looks like post war Britain, the people live in poverty and fear. The whole county has one opinion, that of Kim Jong-il. There are no cars on the roads, no one goes in or comes out. The world was surprized to see them at this years FIFA World Cup, the country let a few fans go, no media we're allowed to talk to them. I think its disgraceful and something needs to be done and quickly, these people have been brainwashed to thinking Japan, South Korea and America are their bitter enemies. The government controls the media, the money and just about everything else.

I would love to link a future project to this country and their situation, maybe i'll have more to say and a better opinion on whats going on.

Check out their countries website
www.korea-dpr.com/

Body Pop

I have posted this video because of how this person looks and the crowds reaction to him before he starts dancing and when he steals the show. The slow motion move is crazy i don't know how its done, this man went on to to the car advert to the song singing in the rain, where he was dancing in the street on the pathments and around the lampost. The video speaks for itself, never judge a book by its cover.
Later George Sampson, winner of the 2008 Britains got talent won with his interpretation of this advert.

Worst Rapper

When I first saw this I had to find it online and post it, I like funny videos, I really can't believe some people are blinded by a dream and not realise that some things are just beyond their reach. This fool who is more than English raps in an American accent, straight away he's going wrong, he doesn't have the foggiest idea whats going on. Simon Cowell is ruthless anyway but if you're going to give him the ammunition, expect to get shot. Bottom line, set your dreams within your reality, don't wish something that will never happen, it's just a waste.

iPhone App Idea

I have recently scrapped my car, stupidly, and have been getting the buses a lot and I can't believe how expensive it is to travel even compared to a couple of years ago. A Megarider which entitles you to travel on Stagecoach and Magic Buses for 7 days costs £11.00! Are you joking? for the dream journey that includes tight seating spaces for a 6ft 2 man like myself, scallys showing everyone how loud the music on their phone can go aswell as lighting up a fag. Having to stand up when they are crowded and having to deal with a driver on a power trip that thinks that bit of plastic infront of him is a forcefield to treat you like s***. While my idea doesn't put a stop to all of these I can make a bad situation better. My idea is to have a Megarider App, You heard it here first patent pending. It will cost £8.00, £3.00 less than one should be, It will be all digital scrapping the card, paper, plastic and ink to make each Megarider helping the environment. You simply download the app, buy a Megarider online then the image and real identification codes (yet to be thought) downloads to your phone, so the comutter simply whips out their phone, displays the DigiRider and gets on the bus, for a cheaper price. This can also work for just buying single way tickets, train tickets etc. Dragons Den here I come.

Triangle Manchester

Open City Photography Exhibition:

Open City set up an exhibition using amateur and non photographers, gave them a quick crash course in photography and let them loose on the streets of Manchester armed with a camera. The exhibition was shown in the Triangle shopping center. I went to visit it and see what these budding photographers had done, I was actually pleasently surprised with the pictures I saw and the certain peoples perspectives upon this city. Above are some of my favourites from the exhibition. I really like the picture of the girl in the white sun glasses with her boyfriend looking back at her, you can see his face in the reflection of her glasses, He looks protective of her in a subtle way, walking slightly ahead probably holding her hand, I think it makes a nice picture, could also work in black and white with the contrasts made sharper.

Mode2

www.mode2.org

I found this interview with mode2 online.


Could you introduce yourself and tell us where you're from and where you grew up?

I'm from Mauritius, where I spent the first eight years of my life, then came to London in '76, Paris in '87, then back to London recently.

How did you get into painting graffiti?

I was bored after sitting my 'O' Levels in early summer '84, was hanging out in Covent Garden, where all the hip hop was coming together then, and because I had already been drawing since childhood, I was naturally attracted by this new tool that was the spraycan, and all that you could do with. I had seen Dondi on the Buffalo Gals video outlining a year or more before, and that had also got me hooked. I had always been into writing, for the sake of the beautiful handwriting kind of thing - so there's another reason!

How were the Chrome Angels formed?

Scribla and I hooked up at the Capital Radio Venture Day in Battersea Park, summer '84, and we got painting and drawing together then. Later that summer, we saw Zaki Dee, with the back-piece on his denim jacket, walking up towards Covent Garden tube station, along with Eskimo and Zerox. They were called the Trailblazers, so we joined up with them. It's not until the RapAttack gig at the Shaw Theatre in April '85 that we finally became The Chrome Angelz, when Pride also joined us.

Can you remember any of the funniest moments from that time in your life?

Too many to name, or to put into any real order, as the time, place and circumstance of each puts them on a level of equal importance.

You moved to Paris at the end of the 80s, how did this come about?

I went to work in computer graphics, hung in there for like eight months, got frustrated, laid off, but ended up staying in Paris, as those were really good hip hop years, and it was live over in Paris at the time.

What was the hip hop scene in France like compared to the UK at that time?

People didn't understand the lyrics much, so had not imported some of the more negative stuff that could be heard here and there, but it must be said that crews like Public Enemy did in fact export some of the political issues that they had in the U.S. as far as Paris. Anyone with an identity crisis could fall into the confusion of that, and a few did. Still, we were not affected by the rave scene that was sweeping across the UK, and really thrived off of what to me were the best years of hip hop, when those who were teenies and fans of Sugar Hill Gang or Grandmaster Flash, or Spoonie Gee, Cold Crush and so on, had reached maturity and were defining hip hop their own way, before the record industry stepped in massively. We were mostly into tagging and parties then, that was our lot in life and kept us busy and inspired...

What do you think is most interesting about Paris at the moment, what should people who go over there be checking out?

I only just moved back because there's not much work out there right now, but I guess there IS still much going on. You'd have to wait for stuff to build up again perhaps. Still, for food alone, it's definitely worth the trek, and my list of restaurants is very long indeed! Let's not forget all the small stores that have produce that's so hard to find over in London...

Where are you based right now, and what are you doing at the moment?

I'm back in London and trying to somehow get a grip on all the things that are going on at present. I'm working with Pictures On Walls, where we're pushing stuff from Banksy, Jamie Hewlett etc., and we're preparing for Santa's Ghetto, our annual Xmas art fair, on the first of December. I'm just getting my bearings, letting people know that I'm about, and networking to the maximum...

As someone who is a recognised figure on the world graffiti scene, you must travel quite a lot. Do you think that hip hop will continue to be the dominating global youth cultural movement for years to come?

I think that hip hop and rap have got mixed up, and that rap has actually become the new pop. I think that, unless we manage to get some distance from what we do, and try to define today's equivalent of what we were doing then, rather than simply repeating ourselves, we shall not be the dominating global youth cultural movement as you put it. We shall simply become more and more like the consumers that society and market forces would like to make of us... This is too long a debate to get into over a short answer, but I feel there are bakers, cobblers, and plumbers that may be more hip hop than those out there wearing all the gear. All you need to do is put your craft before you, feel the sense of duty towards your predecessors, and one of responsibility for those who came after you within whatever craft or culture that you're into. Too many out there are just out for self, with very short-term goals attached.

What graffiti and other artists do you rate at the moment? Do you have any recommendations for stuff to look out for?

Ride the trains and buses, and catch what you like... There are many talented people out there, and it would be hard to try and draw up a list, without excluding some people by a slip of the mind, and pissing them off or discouraging them in some way.

Does graffiti have a future?

Only as long as the innovators will remain at its core, and that what they bring is recognized by the rest masses, will it still be breaking ground. If a particular style or direction that someone has brought is not recognized at its just value, we'll all be on the decline... END.

I think mode2s work is unique in many ways, his use of media is fantastic mixing many mediums that artists wouldn't dare. He is evolved grafitti artist at its best.

The Quote Idea

This is my hand drawn quote in the text style of the DO Lectures logo, I am really pleased with how it has turned out, how clear cut it looks in the black and white style fitting in with the websites look. If I choose this idea this is the text I would go for as its origional and personal to the brief.

Sherlock Holmes Credits

This is the end credits for the 2009 film Sherlock Holmes staring Robert Downey Jr and Jude Law. I saw these closing credits after the film and thought the style was brilliant and fitting to the 'Old England' look throughout the film. The way they have gone from live stills to breaking it down to drawings adding layers and tea stained/ old parchment type colours. The music is a huge part and sets the mood well. I would love to explore this technique in a different way, maybe a different colour scheme for a future project.

Iron Man Race

Although you might watch this and laugh, I did, its hilarious, it also has a story of determination when all seems lost and you have nothing left to give, life will always want that bit more from you. These two ladies gave it their all, it doesn't even become about winning or losing, if you finish, your a winner, whether your being dragged across that line or not.

Studio Ghibli

Studio Ghibli. My favourite animation company headed by Hayao Miyazaki. They create films like no other and what they do with animation competes with computer generation all day. Many of the images are drawn frame by frame to perfection. Hayao Miyazaki is an extreme perfectionist, only the best will do in his films.

Films such as Spirited Away, Howls Moving Castle, My Neighbour Totoro are record breaking at the box office and have won countless awards. Miyazakis films often come with a theme, the most common is Man Vs Nature as seen throughout 'Princess Mononoke'. The frame by frame work would take absolutly forever but the results speak for themselves.

Inception

I saw inception two nights ago. Its a bit of a mind duck, throwing you right in at the deep end from the off. Kind of reminded me of the matrix the way it has to explain a new world and the rules that surround it. I have a cineworld pass and could do with seeing it again to properly get my head around it but I thought it was great, very interesting and a great mind to come up with the story. Di Caprio plays his part well as do the rest of the cast. The visual effects are truely brilliant, making whole city environments and destroying them down to tiny particles, CGI at its greatest.

9FIVE Eyewear

9FIVE Blog: http://9fivesite.wordpress.com/

9FIVE are an eye wear company with a unique style. They are growing and expanding in America. They are in my blog for their unique style and their strange advertising campaign using semi naked beautys to sell mens glasses, they attract attention the though. I also like the look and simple look of their website, very easy to find what you want and purchase it hassle free.

The Seed Idea

Here are some tree references for me to look at as part of my research. The tree I draw won't have leaves, the long thin branches will make up the logo.
Idea: maybe the 5 second closing ident leaves could grow on the fully formed tree as a good outro?
The tree will look as realistic as possible, I think a good pen can draw up the fine lines needed of the branches and using a revealing technique on after effects I can slowly show the seed developing into a tree.

A Life

A Life is a clothing line from America, the clothes are quite basic and just prints on shirts although I do like their sneaks, definatley a company I would want to get in touch with. Any who, its their website I'm looking at, very simplistic but extremely effective, big picture of the product you've clicked, other products on display, price is clear, information about the tee is available, sizes and a bright red 'buy now'. This website has been made so basic with no distractions that people who arn't familliar with the internet or internet purchasing will understand. I would make my website in a reflection of this one with afew adjustments.

Grind Time Presents

The two videos above are from the American rap scene called Grind Time which is a battle league created by rappers, for rappers, taking the previous privilage off a company called Jump Off who treated the rappers badly so they decided to break off and form Grind Time. Its very big on YouTube if your into this scene you will at some point come across Grind Time, and you'll stick with it.

They are pushing albums for these artists who are performing and promoting clothing lines such as IMKING who advertise along with 9FIVE Eyewear.

Concieted The small guy with the chris rock sounding voice is one of my favourite in the league.
Battling a guy called Illmaculate he breaks down the sylabols of his name, Ill and Mac to use against him "Once I let all the Guns and the Clips Blow, It'll be the first time you'll see a Mac running through Windows" The crowd goes wild. I could spend forever watching these battles, I think the quick wit and funny lines along with perfect execution win over the battles.

It might not be your thing but take a look anyway, it won't hurt.


Unfortunatly blogspot wont load this video, i will keep trying though.

Underworld

MacIntyre's Underworld is a series of documentaries on the UKs criminal underworld and leading crime figures. The best picture I could find of Brian Cockerill, the man above was from his book cover. This brute of a mans job is to tax drug dealers in his area, basically he finds out where the drug dealers houses are, goes in weaponless (unless you count his enormous fists) demands the money and drugs from them, even torturing them to find out where they are then he leaves with the loot. Its a dangerous job but also very clever, because after being robbed of everything, which drug dealer would call the police to say whats happened? Non, because in finding him guilty they would be prosecuting themselves. Brian Cockerill comes across a nice normal family man in the documentary which is very unexpected for a man with his reputation, but you can see he is also very scary holding both fear and respect in the Underworld.

Ross Kemp

Ross Kemp On Gangs, Ross Kemp In Afghanistan, Ross Kemp In Search Of Pirates.

Ross Kemp goes deep into the heart of gangs, gangland territory, war zones and many other dangerous situations to uncover the opinions and frontline truths discovering answers only others have guessed at. He speaks to gang members, lethal people and on their turf, not in a London office block drinking tea. Just for that he has my respect because I don't know what I myself would have done in the situations he has found himself in. Ross infiltrates these street gangs to discover who belongs to them, what drives them and what the law is doing to curb there activity.

Kemp has also been to frontline Afghanistan to work with the soldiers based at Camp Bastian in Hellman Province. You see great footage of shoot outs of which some last all day, raids and meetings are also seen, it's an interesting watch if you have never bothered and worth while to see what soldiers fighting in this war experience.

With a growing rise on piracy off the coast of Somalia it was not surprising to find Mr Kemp yet again at the heart of it, this time with a different title, "In Search Of Pirates" because they are that hard to find he only actually spoke to one, and I think he was nearing retirement. But he rode on board with the Navy who are tackling this growing problem.

All the Ross Kemp shows are worth a watch whether they have your interests or not, you might just enjoy them and learn something along the way because if you think the worlds just a nice place where pretty flowers grow, your sadly mistaken.

The Orange Bus

www.orangebus.co.uk

Orange Bus are a website design company that other businesses can approach to improve their business and online sales and hits. Their website is very well thought out as they use there portfolio of work to sell themselves, explaining the specific websites target audience or the problems they were encountering that were hindering the business sales and how they put them right, and the results speak for themselves. The orange bus website has video walk throughs of what they have done with each client and i was really impressed. Team Hell Clothings problem was too many products for customers to find on their website so they asked orange bus to organise the product search to make it easy which they did, they made it so quick and simple browsing stock in an instant.

The Coen Brothers

My dad brought me a Coen Brothers DVD Collection for xmas, its taken me until now to watch them all and I actually enjoyed 3 out of the 4 films. The box set contained 'The Big Lebowski', 'The Hudsucker Proxy', 'Barton Fink' and 'Blood Simple'. I didn't enjoy Barton Fink, it took forever to get going and then never actually did, the murder in the movie which turned out to be the highlight, came 10 minutes from the end and was wrapped up and concluded very quickly. 'The Hudsucker Proxy' was a brilliant film, very funny, heart warming with great characters sporting many great accents and brilliant script writing keeping me entertained throughout. Really love the film poster for it (above) as that flimsy, old, used piece of paper is shown in the film and sums up the film very simply.

'Blood Simple' was made in 1983 and is the story of a jealous bar owner hiring a hitman to kill his wife and her lover, but with a twist, obviously. The suspense and tension is captured really well, the texas setting feels a perfect and mysterious setting for the plot. Not a bad present in the end.

Gangster No1

Really great gangster film, very edgy with hardcore violence and camera techniques that added to the strange twisted feel of the film. The acting was excellent starring Malcolm McDowell, David Thewlis and Paul Bettany. Directed by Paul McGuigan. The story follows and up and coming Gangster/ Hitman slowly gaining fear and climbing up the underworld ladder. I would recommend this film as it is an origional 'Rise to the top' gangster film and who doesn't like a gangster? Apart from his victims. I will try and look at some more of Paul McGuigans films for future posts.

Le Prophete (A Prophet)

Great Film! It blew me away, I love gangster films and this one takes the prize showing the climb of a man treated badly by all his prison associates. Set in a French prison and following a young muslim man whos cell block is in the caucasian territory, he is asked by the big boss to kill a man or himself be killed, with no choice he furfills the boss's wishes and becomes his errand boy, this is the start of his ruthless climb to the top. The scenes really grab emotion and the tension that would be felt within the prison walls and within the company he keeps. The film has dark comedy moments that contrast nicely from say a murder scene just passed. Its quite a long film but thats a good aspect as the director hasn't rushed anything, the quiet scenes of the characters reflection on his life are just as important as the scenes with dialogue. Great film again, worth a watch, I really want to see Messerine which is another gangster film by the French. They are making a name for themselves in this field of film.

Exploring Techniques

I really think the hand drawn feel relates to the DO Lectures, having looked at their website that is the theme of their type and throughout each site page. I definatly feel I will keep my ident organic as it will feature on the site and i wouldn't want it to look out of place. Obviously I have different ideas that will have different mediums used.

The Seed Idea will be a hand drawn tree system showing above and below ground starting from the seed to the roots to the tree to the leaves baring the Do logo.

The Quotes Idea will be a text based animation and whether i find the text or hand draw it, it needs to fit in with the websites theme.

The Hurdles Idea I thought would be a digital piece maybe done in Maya maybe, I will have to explore this technique more and see what I choose and what I come up with.

The Clothing Idea will be live footage and photoshop touched up digital imagery beside me as I talk about my business. I wouldn't use any colour in my piece as black white and green are the only colours used on the site.

Rags To Riches

The thing about most rich men who have made it big from nothing is that you wouldn’t have heard them singing, ‘If I were a rich man’ while they were on the road to success. Most rags to riches stories are all about having very clear goals and working hard to achieve them. If they did dream wonderful dreams like this, they also made a roadmap as to how to get to the place where all these material dreams were made possible. Take a look at all the successful entrepreneurs you know of and you’ll find that they were very single-minded in their pursuit of wealth.

Every rags to riches entrepreneur shares many common traits with others like him. One of them is to think and believe beyond his present circumstances. Just because he is born in a particular kind of family or situation or circumstance is no barrier to the world being open to him. He does not let the limitations of birth or circumstances deter him from seeking and conquering new pastures. These entrepreneur traits are present across the board for all who belong to this select circle.

The strange thing is, many of the most famous successful entrepreneurs

did not really do well in school – in fact many of them were dropouts. However, they believed in themselves and they believed they could do it. There is usually no question of just trying or every giving up when they come up against roadblocks. The only way is to make it happen and make it happen well. This is what makes all of us feel that it can be done – that going from rags to riches is not beyond us but is within our grasp if we want it to be. You need the fire to succeed to burn within – so bright that you work against all odds to achieve the goals you set yourself. So bright that you don’t mind taking risks, sometimes bold ones because somewhere deep down, you have the confidence that no matter what, you can handle it.

Yet another trait is thinking outside the box – any problem should be an opportunity in disguise. It takes grit and determination to succeed and these people have plenty of that to keep them going.

Hurdle Idea

This idea is about getting over the problems people experience on the road to success and chasing their dreams. The idea I had was to show a running track from the point of view of the runner, the runner begins to run and comes up to hurdles which have 'Dont' wrote on them. Each hurdle represents a time to give up, stop or go back, but the runner leaps over and leaps over the next one and the next one until they come to the finishing line and the finishing banner that bares the 'Do' logo and the success of achieving your goal or your dream.

I love this idea because of what it represents and i know the audience at the Do Lectures would understand immediatly, it is a great introduction to a speaker.