Radio Times World Cup Cover
Out today. A previous version was finished & ready to go to the printers when the publisher saw it in horror & deemed that a Russian flag on the cover, given the current tensions, was financial suicide. This was the alternative, quickly put together over the weekend. With no mention of Russia...
You should have seen the ones that got away...
Balls. World Cup 2018, Russia
For each big football event sports companies create special balls. I enjoy the challenge of modelling these new footballs & wrapping the flags and the bumps around them, this year using Modo.
Though as I listen to the radio I can't help thinking that given the political situation this event in Russia is not going to happen...
Modo
Created completely from scratch in Modo: my transition from Lightwave is more or less complete. I love Modo's modeller & render engine.
Beer: Experiments with droplets # 3.
Experimenting in Modo...
Merry Christmas
We're going skiing. Hope you have fun too!
Radio Times Christmas Quiz 2017
One of my favourite projects of the year. There are clues to 50 TV & Radio shows of 2017 here. How many can you spot?
Art director Jacob Howard from an original idea by Paul Smith.
3D Printed Snowflake
I've been working on this for months: it was a huge learning process, understanding snowflakes, battling with 3D printing, battling with new 3D programs. The most complex 3D model I've ever made. A collaboration with the Canadian photographer Don Komarechka. Now you can have one for Christmas if you're quick, in a choice of materials from inexpensive plastic to solid platinum if you like!
Fireworks 8 sheet poster
One of my more unusual commissions: I've never made fireworks out of tomato ketchup before. For Jenny Green, an up & coming Art DIrector at the Chapter Agency to celebrate bonfire night.
Bauble Grotesque : Christmas Typography
Christmas comes early around here - my first Christmas commission arrived in June. So in preparation I finally finished my font: Bauble Grotesque.
Christmas typography bauble font decorations
Wonder Woman
A lot of filming happens around here. Bloomsbury Square & the building opposite the studio, Victoria House, has film crews around most weekends. 'Mr Selfridge' is filmed there: the building was designed by the same architect as Selfridges & they look very similar. I keep having to move my car.
This production last year was much bigger than usual: hundreds of extras in First World War uniforms, lots of period vehicles, horse poo everywhere. The filming lasted for days. The production was called 'Nightingale' which was confusing as Florence was no longer around by WW1.
We've just found out that 'Nightingale' was the code name for 'Wonder Woman'. I guess we'll have to go & see it now...
http://dccomicsmovie.com/wonder-woman-filming-at-bloomsbury-square/
Album Covers
I know I'm not alone in wanting to work in art & design because of the album covers I loved as a youth. One of the reasons for the resurgence of vinyl has to be holding a 12 inch work of art in your hand.
I did get to work on a number of album covers over the years. Few of them troubled the charts!
Das Psycho Rangers. Art directed by Neville Brody. Photograph by Ian McKinnell
Speed Reaction by Spirea X. Art directed by Vaughan Oliver for 4AD. Model by Pirate. Photograph by Ian McKinnell
Vote Dalek! The making of the Cover of the Century
I recently created a post about the making of this iconic Doctor Who cover & the fun that was had with the doctors evil enemies, the Daleks.
It lives here: https://www.ianmckinnell.com/behind-the-scenes#/cover-of-the-century/
The Economist
I rarely see what happens to my image library work so it was great to see this - a poster from the Economist's ad campaign with BBDO NY on a Boston station in the US
Digital Archaeology
Spent a lovely day here yesterday http://www.64bits.co.uk , wallowing in nostalgia. I took along my first (THE) first Macintosh from 1984 with a pile of disks & found lots of illustrations I'd forgotten about. Jim Boulton & a team from the British Library will try to get some of the images into a format that can be read on todays computers.
Here's an image that I managed to salvage earlier. It was a 2 bit (black or white) illustration, so to print in colour involved creating a series of separations for the repro house to wrangle into CMYK. Such low resolution presented great limitations; I really enjoyed working my way around them. Happy Days.
Vitsoe Chairs
These wonderful chairs were designed by the famous Dieter Rams. When Vitsoe.com finally obtained the license to remanufacture them they needed to show what the many colour combinations & modular design would look like. Before they had been made. Something I do a lot, photographing things that don’t exist.
The chairs were designed in the 1960’s so there were no computer models: I created new models using the original engineering blueprints. I'm gradually getting more & more into CAD
And the system's modular. You can make a sofa as long as you want.
