Guild Wars 2 Concept Art - December 9, 2009

This new art for an upcoming sequel to Guild Wars was released quite a while ago, but I completely forgot about it until I ran into it again today. The original game had beautiful works of concept art, as well as the final products, and many of the artists even won awards for their talent. The art director, Daniel Dociu, was named a Gold Award winner in the fourteenth annual Spectrum competition. That shows the immense amount of talent they have upfront, not to mention what they've had lurking behind the scenes for years. Kekai Kotaki has worked his way up from Texture Artist all the way to Lead Concepts Designer, and his work in that second picture shows why. It seems as though with many of their pieces they're going for an epic feel. Everything seems so grand in scope, and the enemies more threatening than they've ever been. Things also seem to be more dire than ever as well, with most of the pieces showing some sort of destruction or chaos taking place. Really they're just beautiful, all of them, I don't really know how to describe them because I've never really cared much for art but these literally made me go out and buy their concept art book just to read WHY they were made that way. It's the first time I've looked at a piece of art and thought more than "Oh, that's really cool looking", it made me want to learn more about it, which means quite a bit to me. Hopefully it all transitions into a 3d environment wonderfully!

Seven Trees Website - December 7, 2009

Website

This is a website for a clothing company in Vancouver. All the artwork is done by an artist named Dave Oram who strives on doing this out of pure passion. The clothes represent the culture in the city as well as their history. The wet-coast rains and city scenes are meant to express a real-life inspiration. The textures and his art on the page really make that idea of "wet" and "history" stand out. They all look really rugged and worn, and bring across a feeling of something very old but beautiful. I also like the stacking look the website has for all the components. It looks like you're sitting at his desk reading through and looking at his work. The text also matches the subtle "underground" tone he's trying to convey. There are some changes that could definitely be made to better the site, though. The news page should be revamped and have all the sections separated, it's too much of a pain to scroll through all that garbage when a link could easily represent it on the main news page. Other than that it's a great website. A good example of artwork making the website.

A Clockwork Orange - December 2, 2009

A Clockwork Orange is a movie made by Stanley Kubrick in 1971 and based on the book written in 1962 by Anthony Burgess. It is about a near future dystopian Britain in which law and order no longer exists and the government is on its heels. The main character is named Alex DeLarge and he is the leader of a gang. Dim is the dumb muscle, Georgie the mutineer, and Pete the quiet one are his little "droobies". They go around basically doing whatever they want which includes beating up people, robbing them, and even raping if they feel like it. Alex is excited by this "ultra-violence" and lives for it. Eventually he murders someone, is "reformed" by the government, and goes back to where he started without serving his full sentence with a great job and the government on his side. The way this world of anarchy and chaos is portrayed is perfect. There is nudity literally everywhere, in all forms of art, trash is strewn about, nothing looks fancy or even close, and group seems to trust another. Their clothes look like they're wearing whatever they can throw together, but still very colorful, it's hard to explain, but it does so perfectly. And then there's the subtle undertone of a very dark humor in the movie and couldn't have been presented better. It doesn't try to be epic or to blow the audience away, it is what it is and isn't afraid of it. It's something missing from most movies today, but so easy and simple a concept.

The Company of Myself - December 2, 2009

The Company of Myself

This is a game I discovered last night as I was working on my Flash game. It's a very simple puzzle, simple as in controls and idea, but at times has some pretty challenging areas. The game is very simplistic in design, but also beautiful. Great animations, great filters, effects, and perfect music that sets the mood. The story is about a man who is basically all alone and has been a hermit ever since he lost his loved one, Kathryn. There are 20 levels in the game and the idea is to use your past actions, by hitting spacebar, to interact with your present self to solve puzzles. It's reminiscent of Braid, but not as complex. The levels are designed along with the story and hard times in the story mean hard puzzles. While it only took me 20 minutes or so to finish it was absolutely THE most moving flash game I've ever played. You really feel for the character, and want to know what happens next. Then the ending wall of text comes up and the words hit you like a truck when the story is explained from someone else's point of view. It's games like this that epitomize how a story should be used in a game. It should be integrated into it, and not just told in between levels. I'll leave out the ending just in case anyone decides to try it, it's well worth it.

Fossil Palindrome Too - December 2, 2009

Well apparently this is a watch by Fossil and created by Starck. The design is very simplistic, to say the least, and tries to give a sleek look with its stainless steel casing and polyurethane strap. It costs $150 and comes with an 11 year warranty. Honestly I don't understand why these people like it so much, but then again I was never into the whole design over functionality idea. A watch is used to check time, that's it's primary purpose, and this watch doesn't make it easy. There may be other features added on to it, but when those features hinder its primary function then maybe it's time to go back and look at the design. If you want to make a fashion statement or represent yourself then you may as well just call it a bracelet.

Gyrofocus Fireplace - December 2, 2009

Isn't it beautiful? Well apparently there's plenty of designers out there who think it is. It's officially the world's most beautiful object according to the Pulchra design competition. With good reason too. The design is classy, simple, elegant, and any other adjective you want to throw on there, it's just that good. It's based off the 1968 design by Dominique Imbert, and stays true to the original. Not only does it look good, it's got one great feature that any fireplace enthusiast would want; it rotates 360 degrees! Now there's no reason why you can't move your couch to the other side of the room without losing the warmth of your hearth. There are arguments that can be made, though. The fact that it has to hang from the ceiling, probably in the middle of a room, can make it a pain to use the room for anything but the fireplace. That means you'll have a hard time getting more than a couple couches in the room comfortably, and probably no TV unless the fireplace is off to the side.

Zipper Lamps - December 2, 2009

Today I stumbled across yet another wacky design for a normal household item; the lamp. It is called "Cache-Cache" lamp which means "hidden" in French. It was designed by Victor Boeda of Paris, who apparently is a quite amazing designer. The light stays within a concealed flexible material which can be open or closed to create the amount of illumination the user desires. The system is very similar to that of a zipper. It's not only great as a desk lamp, but for decoration as well. The design is very minimalist and just seems very sleek and elegant. As for it's usefulness in an everyday household; it probably won't be a hit. This designer doesn't look like his products will come at a decent price. The idea may get across, though, to some of the bigger named manufacturers and produce a college student version.