States of Play

Cold Shoulder

2012-02-28T15:15:00.002-08:00

After that rather long blurb, here's a weapon designed to shoot ice spears!

In Brief

2012-02-28T15:06:00.006-08:00

Actually, this isn't brief at all... So, more analogy riddled design analysis.*

This time, I’m going to chat a bit about the importance of a good brief in product design. The brief should be the starting point for any product design program. At TMS work covered prior to this generally sits around feasibility and overarching marketing campaigns – not areas typically covered in product design, but a specialty which sometimes calls for product designers to dip into other areas, which is fun.

The brief is the starting point for any design work. It is a written document analyzing what properties a successful product would contain. This is possible to specify even without knowledge of what the product is. Imagine walking into a sushi restaurant - You’ve never eaten sushi before. The chef asks what kind of sushi you like, but obviously you have no idea. He will always make good sushi, but he wants to make good sushi for you in particular, so he asks you a series of questions: do you like spicy food? Do you have any allergies? What’re you looking to spend? – These questions are the verbal brief for the chef. In the agency world there are several “customers” who need to satisfied. The client, the licensor, and internal marketing peeps. Our account teams write the brief and need to accurately summarise the needs of these groups into one concise document.

The brief allows product designers to do exactly what the project desires, even when the people involved do not specifically know what they want, or how have the skills to execute it. This starting point, for me, is at the very core of product design – creativity within constraints. The skill of a product designer lies not in finding an acceptable solution to a brief, but an inspired solution.

But briefs are a difficult thing to write. They need to be short (as implied by the name) and accurate as to the desires of the parties involved. An incorrect or vague brief can have disastrous effects upon a design project.

An incorrect brief is pretty inexcusable, and leads to misdirection of the project. At the early stage of the design process crucial decisions are made. If the criteria for success are wrong, then the decisions will be wrong. This point is fairly obvious – it would be like saying “I love spicy food”, and not liking spicy food. Our sushi chef wouldn’t really be to blame for making a disappointing Maki.

A vague or badly written brief can be a lot harder to spot. Briefs can look wordy and juicy, but lack important descriptive information. “I’d like the most deliciously scrumptious fishy sushi in the world”… Here’re some examples:

“An exciting new marketing campaign” - why would designers produce a boring old marketing campaign? All work should be considered from a fresh perspective for each project anyway.
“It should be really fun to play with” – In this case “fun” is an entirely subjective term, and is of no use in terms of design criteria.
“Pushing boundaries” and “innovation” – These are both important parts of product design, but the scope of innovation is laid out by the boundaries of the brief. The place to push boundaries is in the brief - That will allow the creative result to be surprising and new.

The kind of information needed in a brief should be descriptive and concise. “A fun toy for kids” could be anything from “a scientific educational toy for 5-6 year old boys” to “a creativity based fashion doll for 2-4 year old girls”. In fact, by defining in the brief what is really wanted we can reduce the amount of time spent designing, or produce more relevant designs in the same space of time.

Gah! That was a lot of writing again!

*from the Mark Cunningham Agency/Restaurant analogy. More on that later…

Weather or Not

2012-02-24T12:08:00.004-08:00

I'd been meaning to write a post on the weather here for ages. But through circumstance I haven't really had the ability. It snowed again last night, maybe for the final time this winter, so I thought I'd at least mention it.

Discussing the weather is known as a pretty British thing to do, and I guess this post makes that even more evident. But in the last five months I've talked about it far more than normal, and most of the time I haven't even initiated the conversation. Maybe people were second guessing me!

It's been a very mild winter here in Chicago. I was warned from the day I arrived of the horrific weather conditions here last year. Apocalyptic snow storms, and bone chilling temperatures, but this year they haven't really materialised.

I had imagined myself as some kind of Scott of the arctic - Bravely struggling to work through sub-zero conditions, but I haven't had the chance to really prove myself. There have been some rather icy days, and a few large snowfalls, but all in all, I'm a little disappointed. I had psyched myself up for frostbite weather.

I've no real point to make, I thought I would do given the extreme weather predictions, but come rain or shine, life goes on. – Except snow, then, for at least 24 hours, everything grinds to a halt no matter how prepared you are.

Pancake Day!

2012-02-21T15:32:00.002-08:00

Today is pancake day! Or Shrove Tuesday, or the start of Mardi Gras if you will. Tomorrow is Ash Wedneday, and yesterday was President's Day.

But today is pancake day, and I will eat pancakes!

Fare Play

2012-02-17T12:02:00.000-08:00

I’ve taken a lot of taxies over the last 4 months. I take one to work every day from the train station to the office, then, if I can’t scrounge a lift home I take one back to the station. Needless to say I’ve met a fairly broad range of people in these cabs. Cabbies are nearly always middle aged men, the same but wildly different, and for many people it is a fallback position from a stroke of bad luck – common in these hard economic times. Here’re some of the more memorable ones… Gah, blogger really doesn't want to show this so the text is legible!

Illmatic

2012-02-14T16:28:00.001-08:00

Not drawn a car in a while... That's better.

Monster Monster Monster

2012-02-13T14:52:00.000-08:00

Here's a monster to make up for all that writing. It was for Conceptart.org - Valhalla Guardian.

Chinese Whispers

2012-02-13T14:34:00.000-08:00

Chinese whispers do not just happen in our Hong Kong office. I'm going to talk about when creative process GOES BAD! I could write essays, but have tried to keep it brief.

Firstly… Design continuity - is the ability of an idea to remain as consistent as possible from conception to execution. The theory of design continuity is a pretty solid one and can stop concepts becoming diluted by fuzzy thinking. It does not rule out designs needing to adapt to restrictions (e.g. manufacturing, safety etc.), but it tries to avoid “design by committee” which can lead to a lot of half-arsed ideas being cobbled together into one big compromise. Yuck.

Chinese Whispers is a kids’ game. The participants sit in a circle and whisper a message around the room. When the message reaches the end person, its meaning has changed dramatically, often with comical results. Famously "Send re-enforcements, we're going to advance" ends up as "Send two and sixpence, we're going to a dance." - An old WW1 example from the trenches apparently.

An element of Chinese Whispers occurs in design work, and affects the transfer of information from person to person – and therefore, the design continuity. Information can be lost in the "space" between people. This problem is especially apparent in design work because the design process includes passing ideas to other people, rather than hard information.

Another factor of design continuity is the changing ownership of an idea. This can have equally negative effects, if the idea is not fully formed. Creatively, we all think differently. You and I might solve a maths problem in totally different ways, but come to the same conclusion. But it would be unreasonable for me to hand you my notes, mid-working, and expect you to solve the question using my methods. It would take you just as long as doing it yourself in the first place.

Design is similar. A change in design leadership can throw a project from its intended course, and into confusion about earlier decisions.

Every time creative leadership changes, we lose a bit of what was originally conceived, and we gain very little because we are confined by the structure laid out for us. Imagine a composer hands his half-finished manuscript to a contemporary to resolve – Sure, the receiving party would want to stamp his creative mark on the project, but could only do that within the confines of what was intended. Frustrating for both people.

Ultimately the problem is in the communication of an idea between two people. It’s an age old problem with no real answer. Sorry, I bet you thought that was going to end in some kind of epiphany!

Sadly (or not), I think a benevolent creative dictatorship is the best way to run a project.

Pump Action

2012-02-08T15:07:00.000-08:00

Shotgun Monkey is back! This time with more shotguns!

Reflection

2012-02-06T12:41:00.001-08:00

Look! It's The Bean, or rather Anish Kapore's "Cloud Gate" sculpture to use it's proper title. But let's be honest, it looks like a bean. A BEAN FROM OUTER SPACE! Some kind of spaceship bean from an alien bean planet. Bean.

The sculpture is actually pretty stunning. It's a chromed form, so all you see is a distortion of what's around you - which in this case is the Chicago skyline, so the results are bound to be good. I haven't mentioned it on this blog before, but I've seen it every weekend or so when kicking about downtown. It is held in pretty high regard by Chicagans, and I can see why. It's endlessly interesting.

It reflects our surroundings back at us, but with a distortion which makes them new and fascinating. I guess a similar effect is looking at a close friend in a mirror, seeing them reversed is familiar, but also alarmingly odd. Try it, the effect is weird. We become so used to looking at people and things that we stop really looking. we have an idea of what things look like, but no reason to question that or reconsider. When we see something seriously wrong our brain goes "Whoa!" and is forced to reassess the situation. The Bean plays a similar trick on us. We see the everyday buildings, but twisted into new unfamiliar shapes.

We don't just really go to see the bean, but our lives in a new and interesting setting - to reset our brain for looking again.

FROM SPACE I TELL YOU!

Hurry Up!

2012-02-02T11:39:00.000-08:00

I am overly excited about Mass Effect 3.

Science Is Great

2012-01-30T07:58:00.000-08:00

This weekend I went to the Museum of Science and Industry. Brilliant!

It was a funny mish mash of popular science, fun experiments and just cool stuff. I'll try not to flood the blog with too many photo's, but there really is a lot to talk about. You can click here for lots more pictures, but here're some highlights:A Tesla lightning simulator on the ceiling which generated 3 meter arcs of 1.2 million volts.A magnetic liquid. This reacted to lines of magnetic flux to create stunning spikey shapes.

An entire WW2 German U-boat, and a 20ft indoor tornado. (pics on Flickr)

The musem also housed a toy production line, which meant that a you could follow a toy as it was assembled and packaged. The whole system was automated, and set up so that you could follow your toy's pallet as it moved through the process. Nice to see that sonic welding and quality control processes are getting their share of the limelight. The production line was a massive pull for kids, and much more interesting than the toy to be honest.

The museum also commented on Ray A. Kroc's initial business model of McDonald's. He brought the assembly line methods of manufacture to restaurants to ensure high quality at a reduced cost. Nice one Ray.

Emergency Exit Only

2012-01-27T15:34:00.001-08:00

Lost, But Not Forgotten

2012-01-24T12:43:00.001-08:00

Anyone remember Lost Vikings? I think they need to come back in app form.

Another major difference between our London and Chicago offices is the skillsets of the creatives. Our London designers have traditionally come from a product design background, where as our Chicago team tend to originate from an illustration background.

There're obviously quite a few differences between the two diciplins, but one that's really stood out is the great character drawings from the Chicago team - something which I've been pestering the guys here about and trying to learn. Figure drawing is a pretty difficult area to tackle, especially when we're trying to portray three dimensional forms, rather than just 2D shapes. One of the toughest parts of the job is then ensuring that the life of the origional drawing is kept during the toys progression to reality.

Sandwiches, Soups, Brunch

2012-01-20T10:21:00.001-08:00

Here's another take on a comic panel.

One of the reasons I've been out here in the states is so that our two offices can share info about our work processes. One of the differences between the two offices is their use of computer modeling at various stages of the design process. Our US office uses a CAD system called Freeform which uses a haptic feedback stylus (shown below). The stulus is used as a tool in 3D space to sculpt the model. The haptic feedback element means that you can literally feel the "clay's" resistance in virtual space when pushing the tool into it. Neat eh?

Weird

2012-01-19T07:33:00.000-08:00

Here's a naked fat lady with a hat on. Slightly dodgy knees, but I'm happy enough given it was without reference.

Oop! I meant to write a bit about work - I got to go to a meeting on Tuesday to meet with some peeps from an animation studio. We were talking about licensing opportunities which I obviously can't really chat about here, but the visit itself was really worth it.

The ability to chat face to face with people about their projects is invaluable. Sure, the interweb and "electronic mail" has made it easier for us to send information between businesses, but face to face human contact is still the best form of communication.

Model of No Restraint

2012-01-18T15:05:00.000-08:00

Killer Cat! - Here's an Urban Vynal figurine I've put together. It is a variation on a Trikky, from Kid Robot. I've never put one of these together before, and learnt a lot from the process and outcome.

I'm actually a little disappointed with the final result, and the model looked a lot cooler without the addition of guns and bionic bits. This was partly a colour scheme issue, and partly because of the pattern. The block blacks and yellows act as dazzle camoflage and break up the smooth surface, and the accessories distract from the silhouette, confusing the image further - they would've looked better in an accent colour. Both ideas would've worked okay seperately, but together they just make for confusion.

Basically I chucked too many ideas at one object! Ah well, live and learn...

Blue Period

2012-01-13T12:41:00.000-08:00

I've seen a lot of architectural drawings since being in Chicago, and they're really beautiful objects in their own right. So here's a doodle inspired by one. Still had to stick a vehicle in there, but they don't translate as well as buildings to zero perspective drawings.

I saw a Bertrand Goldberg exhibition about his life and design work with a large section on how the Marina Towers were designed. (See post from way back). Below is a detail sketch from the original design. The interior apartments are pie segments in plan view, and apparently a nightmare to find furniture for due to the lack of right-angles.

Comic Timing

2012-01-11T08:39:00.000-08:00

I've done a little more of this comic print. I'm working on the text with an old friend - Hi Alex! but there's just Lorem ipsum in this version for the moment. Once it's done I'll drop it in and I've got and idea for printing and framing which I think could be interesting.

Chicago has a fairly large arty culture, and it's inspiring to walk around small galleries in town. Rotofugi Gallery is a great little place, and has given me a few ideas and forced me to work on the drawing above. Aside from the gallery part they sell and display Urban Vinyl like Dunny and Munny (Figurines inspired by Japanese character design). I've bought one, and will have a crack at making a character. Urban Vinyl toys have had a huge impack on the adult toy market, and are a whole genre in themself. I've got a few thoughts on them, but will save that for another post...

You can also find a few more photos from NYC here.

I "Heart" NY

2012-01-05T14:38:00.001-08:00

Ooh, Look! The original doodle for "I Love NY" by Milton Glaser.

Sorry, boring writing post...

We've done pretty well with galleries. Aside from the Guggenheim yesterday, we made it to a few more.

MOMA - The Museum Of Modern Art, is massive and crowded, but for good reason. You can barely crane your neck to look at obnoxious children without seeing iconic masterpieces. Actually it wasn't that bad, we went in the morning and it was pretty manageable. My favourite piece was a huge pollock painting, and a couple of older favourites by Umberto Botticioni. MOMA also has floor of design work, and an exhibit on plywood in design. Super cool.

We managed to get to a few smaller galleries too. MAD - Museum of Art and Design, was a tiny block just at the south west of central park. It housed a mix of pieces which bridged the gap between the two disciplines. Highlights were the korean and Japanese floors.

Soho, a manhattan district, is home to a few smaller sales galleries. One of them had an exhibition of stuff by entertainment artists like Matt Groening, Tim Burton, and Brian Froud (Labyrinth).

The Museum Of Comic and Cartoon Art was as brilliant as it was hard to find. It's a tiny little gallery off Broadway which showed a few Batman exhibits and some other video related stuff. I'm not a comic expert, in fact I have none, but the character and mood of the drawings really was something else. I'm really pleased to have been to this little place and enjoyed it more than a lot highbrow artsy stuff.

New York, New York

2012-01-03T17:17:00.001-08:00

- So good they named it twice. I'm here for the week with my parents which is fun!

I've taken a bunch of proper photo's but have no way of uploading them to the blog. Unfortunately my iPad won't take 'em with it's lack of USBing, so they'll have to wait. Angryface.

Anyways, today we went to the Guggenheim, which was brill. Pics were only allowed in the main atrium, which was taken up by a huge installation by Cattelan. The installation was a collection of a bunch of his work all hung from the ceiling. It consisted of a lot of dead horses and manekins throwing nazi salutes / being crucified. Funnier than it sounds, he makes a fair few irreverent jokes but misses much aesthetic beauty - something which doesn't seem particularly necessary for art today anyway.

The building itself was quite a highlight. Stunning from the outside and from within, it's brilliantly detailed, and winthin it's permenant collection contains pieces inspired by itself! It's Frank loydd wright's only building in NYC.

Bloody Hipsters

2012-01-01T09:57:00.001-08:00

Hipstamatic is a great app, don't get me wrong, but i have some gripes with it and what it has done to casual photography.

Basically, the app mimics an old Hipstamatic 100 camera from the 1980's by using various digital filters. Lenses, film roll and flashes can be changed to produce different effects. The overall finish to your pictures is retro styling, with altered hues and saturations, faded edges etc. etc.

My main problem with the app is the implied emotional content contained within the images. By mimicking our old printed photographs they instantly form an association with our past. Pictures of angry rows, war photography, or even photographed turds are suddenly transformed into warm memories of the distant past.

A result of this is that it limits the photographers emotional vocabulary. I'm not saying the pictures don't look good, it's just that they all start to feel a bit samey.

Really good photos capture a moment in time which is meaningful. A lot of the time there isn't an exciting moment to be captured, but the app is good at transforming less exciting moments into reminiscent ones by visual association. A down shot of this is that good photos can be ruined, especially if the content isn't fitting with the emotional overlay.

That said, retro stuff looks cool. So there.

Mor' on Fish

2011-12-28T14:59:00.001-08:00

Fishy...

2011-12-27T14:32:00.000-08:00

Just had the long Christmas weekend! I checked out the Shedd Aquarium to see if fish celebrate Christmas. They don't. In fact fish don't observe any religious or national holidays.

Christmas Drawing?

2011-12-22T10:35:00.000-08:00

Of course not! In space no one can hear you scream. It's the composition for a comic strip poster I was noodling up, but I quite like the abstractness, so I think I'll leave it. Words still to be added (and thought of), and hopefully another vertical strip to sit along side it.

Work is pretty busy at the moment, but the project is really exciting, and it's stuff I've always wanted to work on. It's great fun, so the time flies. Our North American office deals with the larger promotions both in terms of quantities, and licences than our european counterpart, and although some of the bugets appear lower, the economies of scale really come into their own, making a lot more possible.

Anyway, last day in the office before the Christmas break. But the Chicago office is up and running inbetween now and the new year, so no rest for the wicked.

Christmas Push

2011-12-20T16:06:00.001-08:00

Really? Do you really need it before Christmas? I mean, I'm pretty sorted, and I've done everything you've asked, and worked quite hard. It has arrived quite late, and are you sure you need it? ...Okay, it'll be sorted for Christmas.

I'm pretty busy as well as santa.

Doodled

2011-12-16T07:43:00.000-08:00

Doodled faces from the interwebs.

Yay!

2011-12-14T08:15:00.001-08:00

Also, I've been featured on Concept Ships, and Concept Robots.

This has massively made my day as there is some awesome talent on those sites. Big grin.

Sears / Willis Tower

2011-12-14T07:53:00.000-08:00

Last Thursday was our office hoiday party (not Christmas - the Americans are quite P.C.). And guess where we had it! - The Willis (formerly Sears) Tower. At the time of it's completion in 1973 it was the tallest building in the world and was for nearly 25 years! The concept behind it's constuction was several smaller buildings all supporting one another. In a shameless rebranding exercise London based Willis Group Holdings renamed the building in 2009 The Willis Tower, but Chicagans still affectionately know it as The Sears Tower. Some things are so deeply rooted in peoples lives they are difficult to change. The party was brill, and on the 99th floor, so stunning views of the city. We snuck up to the observation deck which was incredible, and I plan to go again with a camera and less inebriated.

It's been a tough year for businesses as we found out at the company presentation before the party, but The Marketing Store is still slogging away. Last year we produced around 850 million toys, and 360 unique designs... Just under one per day! Those are crazy figures!

Ooh, and look at these satalite dishes from my window! They look like a little bird!

Quadrupeds

2011-12-12T11:22:00.000-08:00

Everyone loves pianos!

Morning Metra Drawing

2011-12-08T07:14:00.000-08:00

More commuter doodling. I really wish I could take credit for the cool bits of this piece, but the camera really does a lot of the work with the colours.

Ones of a Kind

2011-12-07T07:44:00.000-08:00

Here's another Artrage landscape from my Metra ride.

Last weekend I went to an arts and craftsy show called One of a Kind. As it turned out most people there were producing very similar stuff. The audience was mainly women with jangly earings. And etsy had a small area which was fun. Like a lot of shows it was no pictures, but here're links to the good bits instead.

Nhavuu Studio Design.

is felt.

In T' Face

2011-12-05T20:03:00.001-08:00

People often say (and I am one of them) "My god! Look at that two year old using an ipad! Isn't it scary how easily they pick up new technology..."

Yes, it is amazing, but the greatest compliment should go to the designer. Human intuition plays a massive part in design and as designers we need to use this to our advantage. As well as drawing pretty pictures to communicate with clients we need to ensure that the product itself communicates with the end user. Products should be easy to interpret functionally, avoiding frustration and confusion (like I suffer with badly designed tv remote controls).

Good design can often be mistaken for simplicity, but bad design is always noticeable - It is just that we have been plagued with clunky interface design for so long that we have become used to it.

But also, kids are pretty switched on. They learn fast and adapt quickly. Like aliens.

Proper Hellboy

2011-12-02T14:18:00.000-08:00

Gah! I came back and knocked this out in 15 mins! I knew I had it in me somewhere. Why couldn't I have just done this straight away? Bigger bolder brush strokes, and much better flow. Less thinking, more feeling. Needs darker darks, but I can't be late for my train! I'm temped to delete the post below, but I think I'll leave it to remind myself that I'm learning.

Hellboy

2011-12-02T10:14:00.000-08:00

I'm not really that pleased with this, but I thought I'd post it anyway. I'm trying to branch out a bit from the usual robots. This Hellboy pic started out okay, but I get quite confused with my colours and lighting. I should've probably worked values out first, but I just went for it. Also, too many brush strokes. Check out Rich Lyons blog great portraits with bags of character.

Some Landscapes

2011-11-30T20:03:00.001-08:00

I've never been good at landscapes. I don't get much practice and their construction feels pretty alien to me. Plus I'm normally pretty daunted by colour choices. These quick thumbnails were made using a mishmash of programs. I imported hipstamatic photos into artrage, where I used a pallet knife to mess up the image. it's a great way of setting a pallet and composition without thinking too much. Both started off as pis of the train station.

Prime Mate

2011-11-30T14:03:00.000-08:00

Not been much artyness on here as of late. Here's a Sculptris model of the Shotgun Monkey from a few posts ago. His nose is a bit off compared to the sketches, and I got bored and didn't sculpt the spikey hair on his head. Fun though.

Thanksgiving!

2011-11-29T08:08:00.000-08:00

It's been a really busy week! Work has been totally manic, and I've been flat out on a program for Latin America. It's been a real eye-opener working for a new client in a totally different region of the world. Frustratingly presentations have been over the phone, and you really realise how important eye contact can be with clients to really sell an idea.

It's also been thanksgiving here in the states. I have extended family in Atlanta, so I headed there for the national holiday. Jackie and Jay, my cousin's parents in-law, fed, watered and entertained me. So a huge thank you to them. Jay also showed me round Atlanta - the spiritual home of Martin Luther King and the Civil Rights Movement.

Thanksgiving is a huge holiday in the states. Families get together over large meals, and the lack of religious connections makes it accessible to everyone. It's like the UK's Christmas, but without the Goddy bits.

I took some pictures. Here.

I also left my camera to Naomi, my cousin's youngest daughter, for a little bit. She took these great snaps, and she's only 4! Here.

Chitag

2011-11-21T07:05:00.000-08:00

- Or Chicago Toy and Game Fair was this weekend. The Marketing Store had a stand there showing some of our retail items which are in the market place.

Toy fairs can be quite corporate, but Chitag is open to the general public and attracts a lot of kids and families just as a fun day out. It's located on Navy Pier, in downtown, so is super central. Here's Ray, one of our creative directors.

One of the great bits of the fair is an area given to kids who have created their own games. They each get a bit of space to present their game, and persuade visitors to vote for their design. This little chap, Adrik Herbert, was last years winner. He'd designed a pretty bloody good game this year too, and then proceded to beat me at it.

It's a great bit of consumer research to talk and play with kids at the fair. They're very honest, and If they don't like something they'll make it well know. The little rotters.

Sky High

2011-11-16T13:57:00.000-08:00

Ooh! An HDR image!

I went to Wistconsin this weekend. It's big and open and so are the skies, and the people. I can totally see a horror film being set there - see truck rear. One of the strangest things about being in such a vast country is that space isn't a commodity. A lot of unused buildings (and vehicles) are left standing, rather then being knocked down and used for redevelopment. It means a lot of ghost buildings exist in the less densly populated areas.

Gun Runner

2011-11-14T07:13:00.000-08:00

This is what Chicago looks like at night. If it were attacked BY A GIANT ROBOT!

Sushi!

2011-11-12T11:14:00.001-08:00

How could I forget about sushi? The American take on sushi is great. It's cheapish, and about a billion times better than those little supermarket packs you get in the UK. Again, it's not just a copy of the Japanese stuff, but an American take on it. Can't get enough.

Food For Thought

2011-11-11T13:40:00.000-08:00

Chicago is brill to eat out. Generally cheaper than London, and a lot more mid-range decent places. Plus you get loads more food! I'm having a hard time not getting fat.

The best place I've eaten by far is Tango Sur, an Argentinian steak house, I'll stick up some blurb about other nice places too, but in the mean time, here're some less classy options...

Chicago's famous Pizza Pie. Y'know, "When the moon hits your eye" and all that... Basically it's a kind of pizza quiche. This was a pretty small one, and I shared it with Dan when he was here. We can both normally eat a fair bit, but this was enough for both of us. If you consider the lashings of cheese and sausage meat, then it's basically a whole weeks worth of calories. Yummy on a wet and miserable day. Nothing like the Italians do it, but great none the less. 8/10

America's Dog. - It's a hotdog! (Voted No. 1 Hotdog in Chicago) I thought it was pretty good. Heavy on the gherkins, and slightly undergunned on the meat. It's super tangy and fun on your tongue, but I'd take a bratwurst above it any day of the week. 6/10

White Castle! - a fast food chain, all styled on the exterior like white castles. Genius because, when you're drunk, they're really obvious. Basically the idea is that you buy hundreds of tiny burgers, which have a cumulative effect on your hunger levels. This is a pile of 20 burgers - not the biggest option on the menu. 2/10, or, after a night out 7/10

Ray Guns

2011-11-07T10:00:00.000-08:00

This should lower the tone a bit.

Silhouettes are an important bit of design language, these were generated using a brush made from a photo of a submarine. It lets you put down fairly abstract shapes without getting bogged down in detail. It has a certain amout of randomness buit into it, so it's more design by luck than judgment.

By Design

2011-11-07T09:25:00.000-08:00

Fairly highbrow weekend! I visited the Museum of Contemporary Art and SOFA Chicago - a design show.

The MCA is great. A lovely gallery, with a great exhibition space. There was an Iain Baxter& exhibition which was fun and a little silly, and an Ieko and Koma bit which was just plain creepy. My favourite by far was a minimalism exhibition which was great and had an awesome Sol Le Witt piece in. Quite hypnotic to see in the flesh. SOFA Chicago is an arts and crafts fair. Some nice design work, and some just plain obnoxious. I went there with my toy design thinking hat on and thought these were the most interesting bits.Ooh, that table was lovely too. Marine engineering inspired.

Adds Up

2011-11-04T08:53:00.000-07:00

What do you think of this image? Get it? Does it make you smile? Laugh? Or are you just totally confused?

One of the best bits about good design is the “I get it” moment. The consumer can relate to and interact with a bit of design. When our brains understand things which are not simply pointed out for us we feel a sense of achievement, be it a joke/puzzle/riddle. There is an enormous sense of satisfaction in finding a solution. The “I get it” feeling is when the consumer can see, process and understand an idea. When the viewer “gets” the idea they feel connected with it. Part of their mind has been used to interact with it, and so therefore their connection with the idea is more solid than just a passing image from their day.

The image above is totally meaningless. The feeling of not getting a joke is one of confusion, and can alienate the viewer. Presenting the lack of understanding is a good way of demonstrating the point above. Sorry about that, you’re not really stupid.

I have not understood some of the adverts I have seen here in Chicago, or at least I have not engaged with them on the level which was intended. This isn’t a complaint, these are local adverts targeted at local people. So I assume this is because of a cultural difference, rather than me being a thicko. It’s important for us to identify the markets we are dealing with and understand how they think and behave so that we understand how to interact with them. Working in a global company highlights these issues more than normal, and design for large marketing campaigns needs to be clever without alienating audiences.

(I read about this in a book, but I can't remember the name of it!)

Robotany

2011-11-03T06:48:00.000-07:00

I wish I'd stop drawing humanoid robots, but it seems to give them instant character. These guys were super fast Alchemy creations.

Commuter Training

2011-11-02T09:29:00.000-07:00

I've never had to commute to work before, and I've never really wanted to, but working in the suburbs and living downtown has meant that I've needed to catch the Metra (train) every morning. It's one of thos cool double decker trains as seen on source code. The ride is about 40 minutes, and as I'm traveling the opposite direction to most people it's surprisingly relaxing. I sketched this monkey on a ride one day, and decided to carry on developing him. Here're the doodles so far. I've got a lot more commuting, so I'll try and develop a character sheet with turn arounds and key poses.

Flow

2011-10-28T12:19:00.000-07:00

Here's an entry for a Conceptart.org industrial design of the week. It asks that WIPs (works in progress) are posted too. It's great to see and learn from other peoples work flows, and to look at your own. It can cut out unnecessary stages, and reduce design work to a fast bare minimum.

The design was mean to be for a super fast grave digger considering a massive popluation crisis. This machine basically pile drives people into the earth... Nifty eh?

Stylusin'

2011-10-26T11:26:00.000-07:00

I bought a stylus or my iPad. It tightens up what you can do, but not a huge amount. No presure sensitivity, and slightly inaccurate because of the size of the nib, but sketchbook pro is still lovely. A change of drawing mdium is always weird, but does force you to adapt your style to suit it. If anything the restrictions imposed by the ipad have forced me to relax and loosen up a bit.

Daily Movements

2011-10-24T10:18:00.000-07:00

I've had a week off in Chicago! Dan, A friend of mine who is on route to South America, has been crashing on my sofa. We've been charging around and soaking up culture before the weather turns too horrid. Check out his photoblogthing here.

Picture highlights from an architectural boat ride, and the Field Museum - never seen so many dead animals!

Here are some more photos.

I Scream

2011-10-23T10:48:00.000-07:00

It's amazingly difficult to blog from an iPad! Surely this is exactly what it's meant for, but somehow it really doesn't get along with blogger... This is the best I could get to with the image. If anyone knows any good blogging apps I'm all ears.

idone a Drawing

2011-10-19T17:18:00.001-07:00

I bought an iPad! Here's my first finger painting since I was 5. I used the sketchbook pro app, which isn't quite as fluid as the real version, but is still lovely for a bit of digital sketching on the move. I had to use my hand sausages, which is more stressful than it sounds. I need a stylus. And a beer.

People and Folks

2011-10-17T09:28:00.001-07:00

Here's a website about Chicago gangs.

I've just got a book of drawings by Celia Calle. Her stuff is ace. This drawing started out trying to emulate her stuff, but became overworked and blah.

Brand New

2011-10-14T14:31:00.000-07:00

I'm not normally one for wordy analysis , but one thing which has really hit me in the last few weeks is my own sense of brand familiarity.

New experiences are great, but sometimes all we really want is something familiar and comforting, like the trusty Hoisin Duck wraps from M&S (british super-market). So, it's been interesting these last few weeks to be emersed in unrecognisable logos, and confusing menus. Being here in Chicago has meant that I've paid much more attention to where I eat, drink and shop, often looking for something familiar to identify with, consciously or not. Being surrounded by a totally new set of brands can be a daunting prospect, and so I've experienced a lot more active decision making than I normally would in the UK (like my decision default Hoisin wrap).

To overcome a potential customer's anxieties the pull to spend needs to be large, and the setting unintimidating. In the modern age we are surrounded by choice, so even a little bit of uncertainty in a potential customer is enough to cause them to continue walking down the the road for other options. Obviously a good product is vital for a business, but the consumers feelings and first impressions have their impact well before the product is even in their hands. Clever marketing is vital in a world with such a ridiculous amount of choice.

I naively presumed that I was above the lure of marketing campaigns.

We are saturated with brands and their personalities from the begining of our lives, and it's almost impossible to imagine what our world would be like without them. With this in mind the closest we can really get to identifying this brand feeling would be to jump into a land where all brands are new to us. We start afresh. So, in order to gain a more objective viewpoint we need to travel.

100th post!

2011-10-13T14:47:00.001-07:00

Robot sidekick maybe?

Pew Pew

2011-10-13T07:21:00.000-07:00

I wanted to develop a character with a small universe and back story, so you might see some more of this guy / style. Or you might not.

Snappy Title

2011-10-10T15:01:00.001-07:00

You can more pics here as Blogger is playing silly buggers with me! My workmate Josh, and the Chicago skyline. bigger version on the link.This weekend I spent taking photos. I went on a bit of an adventure with one of the guys from work, and we found an old grain silo covered in graffit. I had a bit of a play (and fail) with HDR (High Dynamic Range) photography. It's a way of creating a picture using several others taken at various different exposure lengths. It can be used to pick out hyper real looking snaps. This one isn't HDR, and most of them were a bit lame.

Head Strong

2011-10-07T07:59:00.000-07:00

For some reason helmets on motorbikes aren't a legal requirement the US.

Mould-a-rama

2011-10-05T14:58:00.001-07:00

Zoo Time!

I headed to the zoo in Lincoln park last weeked, and it was great. It's totally free, and has cool animals. The primate area was probably my favourite, and I have a soft spot for gibbons, not only do they move fantastically but it's also a really fun word to say. These little dudes above were cool too. They kind of look like the sort of thing that Bobby Chui and the Imaginism Studio lot might come out with.The other cool thing in the zoo is an old Mould-a-Rama machine. This is basically a promotional toy dispenser, but with the added bonus that you get to see the toy manufactured! As a product designer this is fun, but it's a cool process and gets kids interested too. The Mould-a-Rama blow moulds a bit of hot plastic into a set shape, then lets it cool (fractionally) before dropping it out like a vending machine. Thus I have a small plastic gorilla.

Buildings and Bums

2011-10-03T07:59:00.001-07:00

Tramps here look a lot more resilient than the ones back home. Something to do with the super harsh winters I guess. I often think that a plush range of cuddly tramps might be a good idea, what with all the lovely textures and layers they wear... Then I realise it's a silly idea.

Here's Marina City. It was one of the first (1964) residential high rise buildings in the USA, and was built to encourage urban regeneration. It pioneered the parking/residential/office space model for skyscrapers and has been used as a template for buidings around the world. At the base is access to the river, with loads of swanky moorings.

And they look like corn-cobs - Something to do with honoring the farming heretige of the mid west.

Hanging

2011-09-29T07:09:00.000-07:00

Ohgoonthenhereisaspaceship!

2011-09-26T15:21:00.000-07:00

The view from the John Hancock observatory. This picture has been tweaked a little in photoshop.

This weekend I visited the John Hancock Building. The view from the top is incredible, and you can see out over downtown Chicago and beyond. The lift (elevator) is the fastest in North America, reaching speeds of 20mph, and climbing 94 floors in 40 seconds. - Facts. Aside from that, the exterior of the building is pretty brutal (in a cool way). It's supported by massive steel "X"s which act as a superstructure and, I'm told, run through the apartments in the building

Also, DUTCH PEOPLE, PLEASE STOP PUSHING IN FRONT OF ME. We all got in the same lift anyway, and I got out first, so who is the real winner?

I've moved into my apartment downtown, and I've almost started to unpack. A bit. It's lovely to be in a place of my own, and finally start to relax. The place is new build with lots of mod cons. TMS have helped kit me out with a bed and basics which has started to make the place feel a bit more like home.

Lombard

2011-09-22T10:23:00.000-07:00

No point in heading home to a hotel room, so here is a robot wot i drew.

I've been living in Lombard, a suburb of Chicago, for a couple of weeks. It's pretty cool, if you're into car parks. Fun stuff exists, but out here the car is king, and without transport you're kind of paralized. I owe a big thanks to people who've been giving me lifts to and from places. (like the Southern Comfort Fiery Pepper party - thanks!).

The main TMS office is about 3 miles from the Lombard station, which seems like a livelier area. But this part of Lombard is pretty quiet. I guess, like any city, as you head away from the centre land becomes cheaper, so you end up with large malls and business parks out here. The upshot of this is that the massive retail areas are really good for product research, and there's a vast amount of stuff available to look at/break.

Target is like Tescos, but more intimidating.

The HR team have been a massive help settling me in here, and I'm moving into a pretty pimp flat in downtown Chicago at the weeknd. More on that to follow.

Cheeky Monkee

2011-09-21T09:10:00.001-07:00

Oh, I'm Monkee Design Concept Designer of the Week. Thanks to everyone that voted for me.

Post Post Post

2011-09-21T08:40:00.000-07:00

This post should've really been before the last one. But I forgot.

I watched Rango on the plane. I don't know if it was the travel tiredness, or the free gin and tonics, but I really enjoyed it. The character design was brilliant, and lots of old spaghetti western influences, and cool dream sequences made for a great film. Here's a scribbled character. Based on an Austrailian thorny devil. Not really wild west, but one of my favourite animals.

Also, I promised Amy (my US counterpart who's in London) we'd compare luggage. I travel pretty light, and my bags weren't even full.

Hear Here

2011-09-16T19:45:00.000-07:00

So, a pretty hectic week has just passed. I'm now in Chicago!

I worked in London on Monday, flew to the US on Tuesday, and started work on Wednesday. So it's all been pretty non-stop. I was pulled straight into helping out on a project, which was a fun start.

As I'd been told, American hospitality is second to none. Everyone here is massively friendly and helpful - if anything I find it a bit unnerving. I arrived to the hotel to find a goodie bag with beer nibbles and some guide books. Everyone has carried on being friendly, and I'm starting to think it's not a ruse.

Within a couple of days it's pretty obvious that this exchange will be a good help for our teams. It turns out that Josh (one of our engineers) was working on a similar proposal to something I was working on back in London. So after a flurry of emails we got to a decision on a problem which had arisen in London, but already been looked into By Hong Kong and the US.

Trump Tower is pretty mega. I'll try and space out my pics of all the great skyscrapers. Also, my moniter's colour calibration is a bit dodgey, so these might look really bright.

(Self) Promotion

2011-09-16T11:32:00.001-07:00

Oh, look, I got nominated for this - Monkee Concept Designer of the week.

Chicago's pretty good too. Update to follow.

Jet Set, GO!!!

2011-09-09T07:59:00.000-07:00

Right. So, my company, The Marketing Store, have given me the opportunity to go and work in our states office in Chicago! Obviously this is a massively fun thing to do, and I said yes and nodded my head as enthusiastically as possible. The result of all of this is that I’m headed to the USA on Tuesday! ‘Mazing!

Part of the deal is that I keep a blog of my experiences, so this here blog is going to become a bit more about Chicago and my experiences there. Hopefully I'll get a bit of US drawing done of the buildings 'n' people 'n' shismus and that will go up here along with badly spelled annotation. Also, I’ve changed the name. "Orbis Pictus" was a bit silly anyway.

Obviously there will still be silly scribbles and such from my brain. And to demonstrate that, here is a robot.

'Splosion

2011-09-05T02:04:00.000-07:00

Exploded diagrams. Bloody cool.

Also, my mate Mark just won a Renault!

Predictable Riot

2011-08-22T01:37:00.000-07:00

CA.org had a cool brief last week, which is the first character one I've ever managed to finish. Predictably my internet then broke a bit over the weekend, and I didn't enter it in time. Still fun though..

Suitable

2011-08-08T09:32:00.000-07:00

Here's a space suit, or the helmet at least. I need to find some new shapes, these brushes are getting a bit regular in my work.

Proper Plane

2011-08-03T08:04:00.000-07:00

Propellers are good. And I like yellow at the moment.

Meh, Warrior

2011-07-22T06:47:00.000-07:00

MechWarrior has had a lot of sway over my imaginatiaon throughout life. The horror of the MechWarrior: Mercenaries intro has stayed with me to this day - "...Look on the bright side kid, you get to keep all the money".

Back in black, and white

2011-07-14T08:15:00.000-07:00

Did this in a few lunches. The most of it came together quickly, and then I got stuck on the hand (again) and some other gubbins. Still, seems alright. Thanks for recording all those old Akira Kurosawa films Dad!

I'm mature

2011-07-12T09:50:00.000-07:00

I realised the other day I'd never drawn a girl with a gun. Cliched as it is, I really enjoyed it. I'll get back to more imaginative, and less "teenagey" stuff soon.

Note to self: less giraffe reference, more hand reference.

Red Magic

2011-07-08T09:22:00.001-07:00

I have a figurine on my desk made by Red Magic - this is what he'd look like if he were alive. He stands besides a duck of death I picked up from a toy fair. Sadly I ran out of time to get that into the picture too.

Weekender

2011-07-05T02:00:00.000-07:00

Busy one this weekend. Here're some pics I took at Goodwood. And here are some more if you're interested.

BBQ

2011-06-28T10:16:00.001-07:00

Following that yellow science bloke a few posts ago I thought it might be fun to do some variations on a theme. The vibrancy of this bloke isn't quite as good as the first. I tried to steer clear of the exact same colour scheme but keep bright and saturated. Could maybe do with more intense shadows from the blue light source.

Neeaaw work

2011-06-22T04:43:00.000-07:00

Really busy again at work so not had much time to draw. Managed to drag this out of my head and on to paper, but it was a very painful process. Sometimes I just seem unable to do anything I'm happy with. Not really any explanation, just Wipeout doodleing.

Kagemusha

2011-06-07T10:38:00.000-07:00

Here's a start to a Conceptart.org brief. It's asking for a smuggler spaceship, and it's AI avatar. Here's the ship part. I'm pretty happy with how quickly it came together, but all the fiddling around with the background and surroundings is sending me loopy.

2011-06-01T11:10:00.000-07:00

I hope I'm not going soft.

Alex! - your oldschool robot hands inspired this one. Trying to do a bit more story telling. Wall.e was on the other day, and we need to remember that robots have feelings too.

Drawing Hazard

2011-05-24T09:16:00.000-07:00

Coloured sketch. I'm feeling pretty vehicled out but there's an amazing Local Motors brief at the moment, with a stunning judging panel. Can't decide whether to attack that or have a break and draw some characters. this bloke's arm is a bit dodge. Oh well.

Valiant Effort

2011-05-21T02:00:00.000-07:00

A bit of aeroplane design. WW2 crossed with a V-22 Osprey.

Ooh, Sidequesting featured my hotrod. Check out the other cool entries too.

Safety First

2011-05-17T05:42:00.001-07:00

I've been away on a toy safety workshop. Very dry and full of inuendo. Small balls guage - snigger. Finished my entry to Sidequesting though.

Back to Work

2011-05-09T10:45:00.000-07:00

I've been away on holliday for a while and not posted!

Here's a start to the Sidequesting hot-rod design competition to get back into the habit. The brief is a futuristic hot-rod for a computergame. I'm going to do a couple of views before I enter, to explain the asymetry of this little thing - so more to come.

LOps.

2011-04-13T09:55:00.001-07:00

Another abstract start suit, but this one ended a little more polished. I think it loses a little life, but gains in understanding as the details get pinned down. Narative and design work tend to build together hand in hand - So the explanation kind of developed as I worked.

Logo Loco

2011-04-07T09:50:00.000-07:00

Here's a good game.

1. Pick a freebee font from the interwebs. 2. Think of a company that might use the font. 3. Design a logo!

Odysseus

2011-03-30T10:28:00.000-07:00

Here's the next stage for the Odysseus. The jump to 3D is a bit daunting. Hopefully a sketch model should help to resolve a lot of the issues.

Check out Novos on facebook for more info.

Pandamonium

2011-03-29T11:38:00.000-07:00

Two posts in a day! Wow! - Silly sketch coloured.

Shipment

2011-03-29T01:27:00.000-07:00

Some development work for Novos. The Odysseus is a large carrier vessel. I'm actually pretty chuffed with these. The silhouette was decided from an earlier thumbnail, so the structure was slotted in with the brush strokes. Guess the sky scraper inspiration on the third...

Troning

2011-03-24T11:57:00.000-07:00

Haven't posted for a while, so I thought I'd get something up. There's a Tron bike design competition so I thought I'd crack something out. Took a couple of hours, which is what was requested in the brief, but an hour of that was spent tweaking and playing with the background - ridiculous.

Butcher of Berwick

2011-03-09T04:29:00.000-08:00

I was in Berwick Upon Tweed this weekend with my parents. Here's a doodle inspired by a butcher up there.

Ugly Mug

2011-03-02T05:51:00.000-08:00

Sketchbbok page. I haven't been back to the west country for a while.

head study

2011-02-25T08:04:00.000-08:00

I don't know if these are getting more accurate or not. They're getting quicker at least.

Full of Hot Air

2011-02-15T10:24:00.000-08:00

Very busy at work. Here's an older piece for Valiant.

Exhaust-ed

2011-02-04T09:30:00.000-08:00

99% of the time my more abstract pictures are rubbish, but sometimes this happens and I'm happy!

Life drawing 26.1.2011

2011-02-02T09:48:00.000-08:00

Change of paper last week. Nice to start with a neutral background and add highlights rather than slogging away at the mid-tones with my pencil.

Saturation

2011-01-25T04:31:00.000-08:00

Y' don't see many pink robots do you. The flashy bastards.

Eye Eye

2011-01-18T11:09:00.000-08:00

Too many brush strokes, but he really did have wonky eyes - so not my fault. A bit low contrast to look any good, still, good practice. I think I'll try some people I know next...