Archive for the ‘Design’ Category

Retro Magazine Art

Retro Magazine Art

If you are reading this you are already taking some time out from work, right?  I am a big fan of retro artwork, especially these magazine front covers from science publications from the 1920′s and 30′s. They are all visions/dreams of how the future might be. The ideas look a little naive now, but the illustrations still have charm and appeal. These images are from the modern mechanix blog (weblink at the bottom of this article). So why not sit back and be inspired by the ideas and dreams of a generation gone by…

These are just a few examples of the huge resource of vintage magazine cover and articles available at the Modern Mechanix blog

CLICK HERE to pay them a visit.

Read More...

Apaganza Creative CoolKits now available!

Apaganza Creative CoolKits now available!

Apaganza Vector CoolKits, Texture CoolKits and PS Brushes are now online and ready to go. At just $4.99, yes you read it right, ONLY $4.99 you are getting a great big box of creative ammo! What’s more, the crazy dudes here, have decided that the first five customers will get one FREE* Vector Coolkit pack for each one purchased. Be the first! get these creative tools first and get more FREE!!

*After your PAYPAL payment goes through, we will email you and ask which FREE CoolKit you want, and we will send it to you within 24 hrs.

Read More...

CSP Construction

CSP Construction

Classic stationery and airborne adventures…

With the widespread use of Word and inkjet printers, most business tend to generate their own stationery with a logo dropped into their documents. Most don’t realise that it’s a false economy, inkjet inks are expensive!!

CSP Construction MD, Tom Coghlan, wanted something a bit more classic for his tropical construction company. The team at APAGANZA were happy to oblige.

First off we experimented with some logo options, something clean, simple and effective for summing up what Tom’s neat operation was about.

The final contenders (above) where then discussed and the ‘palm leaf’ option was chosen. We really wanted, with the stationery, to get across Tom’s ideals of retaining as much of the local nature as possible in his projects. Something natural and simple was the key.

After hunting through paper samples of Bangkok’s paper suppliers, we chose Tintoretto Malange stock from Italian paper supplier Fedringo. Fedringo have a great reputation for using clean hydro-electric power where possible and are involved in forest replenishing (Every tree taken for pulp, a new one is planted), they also use fast growing plants for their pulp such as cotton, hemp, flax and bamboo. Way to go…

The finished result was stunning, the stationery looked, smelt and felt good and was achieved on a surprising low budget.

The next project, after the stationery, was a decent brochure that would really show the beauty of Tom’s projects. Again we were happy to oblige. The first task was to obtain some good photography. Time for some adventure…. Graphic design is a great profession, intellectually stimulating and rewarding BUT sometimes lacks physical adventure.

Apaganza head honcho, designer, tea boy and sky pest, Ivan Longland, decided that to get some really great shots, it was time to unleash the beast……

This is his La mouette 210cc paramotor trike, quite simply, just sit in, start her up, inflate your wing and you are off to the skies….

Paramotors are ideal for airborne photography, they are relatively stable and with enough height, allow the pilot to fly hands free for short lengths of time to capture some great photography.

So, with a 6 a.m. take off from a local sports field, he was on his way to Tom’s project ‘Coconut Grove’ in Hua Yai district. An hours flight with his sony digital camera firing off in all directions Ivan landed with some stunning results…

That task done, we set about designing the brochure. We decided to use as much local paper as possible and again, keep things looking as natural as possible.

One of our pet hates here is seeing too much obviously computer-generated floor plans and artists impressions of buildings, it sucks! so Tom’s architect ‘Bay’ drew up some great traditional hand-drawn plans and elevations. As for the finished project… you can flick through it yourself… HERE

If you are lucky enough to be interested in having a beautiful home built in Thailand, CSP-Construction are the people to talk to… www.csp-construction.com

Read More...

MIXX Promotional Video

MIXX Promotional Video

I was asked by the owners at Mixx Discotheque in Pattaya, Thailand if we could produce a promotional video for the club.

Of course we accepted the challenge….

The Brief: The client wanted an ‘Ibiza’ style promotional video showing the expensive interior of the club and the fusion of European and Thai customers. Mixx Club is located on Walking Street in Pattaya City, an area reknowned for bars, clubs, restaurants and non-stop entertainment. The competition is fierce between clubs and bars to attract the recent downfall in tourism currently in Thailand.

Working with ex-MTV Editor, Jim Wilson and Keeta Media HD Video in Pattaya we set about the project… We spent 5 nights in the club on different occasions: Mixx 2nd anniversary, Thai Hip Hop star Joey Boy concert, DJ Domination Scratch show, Thai Penthouse magazine fashion show and a “normal” Saturday night. To film the atmosphere of daytime Pattaya we employed a microlight and a speedboat. Six days of filming with a five day edit by Jim in Final Cut Pro, Some graphics contributed by myself and the project was done. The results… Take a look…. WARNING: THIS VIDEO CONTAINS PARTIALLY DRESSED PENTHOUSE MODELS!

VIEW HERE

Look out for MIXX website redesign in the new year….

NEW website now live… HERE

Read More...

Creating a glass orb effect

Creating a glass orb effect

Using Photoshop’s polar co-ordinates filter

The polar co-ordinates filter in Photoshop is a rarely used gem. Following this tutorial I will show you how to simply create a reflective glass orb or ball from any photograph. This works with ANY version of Photoshop going back over the last 15 years.

How to do it.

Select your photograph (I am using an image from Stockvault).

image003
For best results crop you image to a square using the crop tool with ‘shift’ key.

image004

Now apply the Distort: polar co-ordinates filter on the ‘Polar to rectangular’ setting. You will have a weirdly distorted image!

image006

Next go to image:image size and unproportionaly scale your image height by 50%, then duplicate your Background layer.

image008image010

Now go to image:canvas size and increase the height by 200% leaving your image in the top half.

image012

Now Edit:transform your ‘Background copy’ layer using ‘Flip Vertical’, then with your shift key held down move the whole layer down to the bottom half to line up.

image014

Here’s the fun bit

Flatten your image in the layers palette. Now run Distort: Polar co-ordinates again using ‘Rectangular to polar’ this time.

image015

Voila! You have the start of an Orb!

Now select your orb with the ellipse selection tool then you can adjust the amount of edge reflection using Distort:Spherise filter  (I will use 100% for this exercise).

image017

Edit: Copy the orb. Now File:Revert back to your original picture. Then Edit:Paste

image018

Adding Shading

Scale down your Orb a little then select it again (Ctrl click the layer icon).

image019

Next gently shade the bottom right hand edge using black, a soft brush set to multiply and 20% opacity.

Select a slightly smaller circle and centre it in your orb.

image020

And using a smaller soft brush with white set to ‘screen’ and an opacity of 20%, gently brush in a highlight inside your inner circle in the top right.

image021

Finishing touch

Create a new layer and edit:fill:black 100%. Then Filter:Render:Lens flare (Pick one to your liking). Then set this layer to ‘Screen’ in the layer palette

image022

Move the layer so the bright spot falls on your brushed in highlight….

image023

You are done!

This is a great technique for generating crystal balls, Christmas tree baule baules and (using different areas of an image) bubbles. Have fun with it.

Ivan Longland.

Read More...

T-Shirt range - design project

T-Shirt range – design project

We were asked by Nikko Toshugo sports to design a range of 50 T-shirts. The designs had to appeal to an audience made up of mostly males between 14-40 that enjoyed mixed martial arts. Working in conjunction with Dutch artist Noud van Miltenburg the team at Apaganza set about the task. The design brief was ideal, Nikko director Bas Boon told us ‘Just do some cool stuff’. Over a 4 week period we went to work….

The first part of the task was to vectorise Nouds Illustrations, then we set about generating some interesting vector elements ourselves (many of which are available in our Vector CoolKits). We also purchased some other vector elements from the great resource at US design firm GoMedia’s website. Then we let the creative juices flow…

nikko viz

The outcome? we have a completed set of shirts, a very happy client and some radical looking work to show….

UPDATE

These T-shirts have now been rebranded with FIGHT GAME a new Hollywood movie production and Computer Game,

Bas Boon being the executive producer! http://www.fightgameshop.com/

Read More...