“Sometimes it simply doesn’t matter how good the brief is, how good your idea is or how well the project seems to be going. Design is a creative pursuit and definitively ‘right’ answers simply don’t exist. To design – or do anything creative – is a practice in asking questions, trying things out and exploring uncharted territory. Attempting new approaches and new ways of thinking are a part of being a creative person. This experimentation can lead to brilliant, maybe even groundbreaking results. But not always. Unfortunately, sometimes you just have to concede that what you’re trying to do, simply doesn’t work. By no means an easy thing to accept, the fact is that attempting new things won’t always result in success. Saul Bass knew this… Keep reading…
To the uninitiated, BUG: The Evolution Of Music Video is an ongoing series of bi-monthly events at the BFI Southbank in London, celebrating global creativity in music video. The shows are hosted by Adam Buxton — the funny, petite, bearded half of Adam and Joe — and have become an essential forum for fans of music videos and aspiring film-makers alike. If we can get tickets we try and make it along each and every time, it’s that good. It’s not just about getting away from our desks though, Adam literally has everyone in stitches, and the music videos aren’t half bad either. It’s sound and vision at it’s best.
It’s normally a packed out event, so for those that couldn’t make it along, or for those that didn’t even know it existed, we’ve compiled all the videos shown at last nights event. Watch / listen — have them on in the background. There’s dubstep, there’s throat slitting, there’s weird horse dancing and something a little perverse. So, something for everyone. Just think of it as your Mat Dolphin Friday visual playlist.
To the uninitiated, BUG: The Evolution Of Music Video is an ongoing series of bi-monthly events at the BFI Southbank in London, celebrating global creativity in music video. The shows are hosted by Adam Buxton — the funny, petite, bearded half of Adam and Joe — and have become an essential forum for fans of music videos and aspiring film-makers alike. If we can get tickets we try and make it along each and every time, it’s that good. It’s not just about getting away from our desks though, Adam literally has everyone in stitches, and the music videos aren’t half bad either. It’s sound and vision at it’s best.
It’s normally a packed out event, so for those that couldn’t make it along, or for those that didn’t even know it existed, we’ve compiled all the videos shown at last nights event. Watch / listen — have them on in the background. There’s dubstep, there’s manga, there’s people jumping out of windows. Something for everyone. Just think of it as your Mat Dolphin Friday playlist.
You know how it works by now, we show you Five Things we’ve seen this week that we think are of interest, and you love ‘em. Simple as that. Always a random mix, this post includes amazing architecture, scary monsters, beautiful bookmaking, a nose into someones diary, and lot of lipstick. Enjoy.
Whether we like it or not, here at Mat Dolphin, we conform to a few incredibly predictable ‘designer stereotypes’. One of the big ones is the fact that we’re unashamedly geeky Star Wars fans. And we’re not alone. Amongst our peers it’s clear that whilst it’s not a prerequisite for a graphic designer to be hugely influenced by the creativity and storytelling of the George Lucas masterpiece, it helps.
So, it’s with great sadness that we heard about the death of Ralph McQuarrie, the conceptual designer and illustrator who’s sketches and paintings played a huge role in defining the look of the original trilogy. Designing key characters such as Darth Vader, Chewbacca, R2-D2 and C3PO as well as many of the sets and vehicles, McQuarrie was instrumental in creating what would become some of the most iconic imagery in film.
Also playing the uncredited role of Pharl McQuarrie in The Empire Strikes Back, he has had an undeniable impact on millions and his pioneering, unique vision will be not be forgotten.
George Lucas remembers “…his genial contribution, in the form of unequaled production paintings, propelled and inspired all of the cast and crew of the original Star Wars trilogy. When words could not convey my ideas, I could always point to one of Ralph’s fabulous illustrations and say, ‘do it like this’.”
Hello 2012! We’ve hit the ground running this new year and are very excited by the projects we’ve got coming up. We’ve got plenty of exciting things in the pipeline and, as always, lots of lovely things to share with you. Which brings me nicely onto the latest post in our Five Things series. A mixed bag as always, we’ve got some great student work, some brilliant filmmaking, a lovely bit of branding, something music-related and some foodie stuff. Hopefully something to keep everyone happy.
Without further ado, click below to check out what’s been catching our beady little eyes recently.
Our blog has been comparatively quiet over the last couple of weeks, mainly due to ridiculous amounts of client work (which we’re not complaining about), looming deadlines and a couple of well deserved holidays in the sun. Feeble excuses aside, we’re back in your face like a plate full of shaving foam with another Five Things that have caught our interest this week.
Five Things is back, the first installment in the series this year takes a look at some of the creative goodness we’ve seen over the last week. Covering film, photography, advertising, printing and erm… eggs, there’s sure to be something for everyone. Dive in and check out what we’ve been looking at.
It’s been a busy week here at Mat Dolphin. In between meeting lots of nice new people and talking about lots of nice new projects we’ve been keeping our eyes peeled for interesting stuff. Here are some of the highlights we’ve spotted over the last week.
We decided a Mat Dolphin field day was in order. Last weekend saw a trip to St.Albans to check out the exhibition and get a first hand look at some behind the scenes photography, original props, concept sketches and other Kubrick-related artefacts. Curated by The Museum of St Albans and University of Hertfordshire, the exhibition was fully supported by the Kubrick Estate and the Stanley Kubrick Archive at the University of the Arts.
Five Things part five! The next installment in our regular blog series. We’ve been super busy of late what with new client wins and a much needed overhaul of our site but a few things have come to our attention over the last week or so that we thought were worth sharing.
Here we go, the next installment of the Five Things I’ve Seen This Week series. Links to design related niceness that should help you on your way to the weekend.
In the second of our series looking into the life and career of Stanley Kubrick. We thought we would shed some light on what was to be his most epic work. Widely touted as The Greatest Movie Never Made, his biopic of Napoleon Bonaparte was in development stages for a staggering 40 years and a true labour of love for the director. Renowned for his meticulous research, Kubrick amassed 25,000 index cards documenting each day of Napoleons life to gain an insight into his subject.
…is the highly original and ingenious name of the new regular blog feature in which I’ll be posting… five things.
The content of posts will vary but essentially I’ll be showing a regular succession of five design-related goodies that I come across during the week. The ‘things’ might be websites, videos, events, exhibitions, books, films etc. If I see something I think is worth mentioning I’ll be sharing it here.
Following our recent blog post, we had the chance to sit down with director Jony Lyle to ask him a few questions regarding his latest project, To Have And To Hold – an in-depth look into the world of record collectors, DJs and vinyl connoisseurs.
Here’s what we spoke about and another look at the teaser.
As well as being a great DJ and super-talented director, Jony Lyle is a good friend of ours. In his latest project he combines two of his passions; record collecting and film making in a documentary looking into the world of vinyl junkies.
