Tuesday 19 October 2010

10 INFLUENCES:

Here's a brief summary of my top 10 influences, some of which are scattered around my blog:






Une

The Mill: Produce the most stunning post production special effects and visual effects in general. They dominate the creative advertising world through innovative adverts, always breaking the boundaries and shedding light on how well produced and thought through one single advert can be. Although I'am against most advertising alone, The Mill make adverts exciting, and most of all, worth watching. They've created countless moments of advertising history, with highlights being the Citreon Transformer car, the latest series of Cadbury's adverts (including that gorilla), and Reebok's classic "belly's gonna get'ya" campaign.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFWvToN9Cyo&feature=related - Showreel 2009
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfIbj-gFtX0&feature=related - History Showreel






Deux

Miss LED: She reinvented street art in to being a woman's world by taking over the streets of London and reshaping street art styles in to something she now manipulates. She uses a lot of feminine symbolism and voluptuous characters that flirt and flutter around her artwork, drawing on a lot of Pre-Raphaelite references.
Her unmistakable style has meant she's had the privilege of working for many a high profile client, from the likes of pouring paints over a Vauxhall for Brick Lane's Art Car Boot Fair, to being commissioned to draw over custom Reebok's, and illustrating on to one of Selfridge's stunning windows.
Miss LED hasn't just broken the graffiti mould, she's smashed it in to smithereens, becoming the first ever female winner of Secret Wars (the live art tournament) and building her drawn world in to a fully functioning art business.
She's someone I aspire to, and that's why I regard her as a very solid influence.

http://www.missled.co.uk/






Troix

Scroobius Pip: I've mentioned him a couple of times previously within my blog. He's not so much an artist but a majorly intelligent poet with a wise way with words and likeable philosophies encompassed within his lyrics. My intrigue and curiosity about Scroobius Pip (and beat-making sidekick Dan Le Sac) stemmed from the release of their debut album "Angles". I found that the whole album spoke out to the world on various potentially dangerous, and often quite dark, subjects. But this is a trademark of Pip's talent, of standing up, flying against the current and promising not to be another act that gets washed up in the flotsam and jetsam of the pop sea. Together their work evokes realistic imagery upon the first listen, with detailed story-telling techniques and motivational (but not preaching or ranting) ideas to essentially "make the world a better place".




Quatre

Colleen Henderson-Heywood: She's the strongest, most selfless person I know. My journey with Colleen started back in 2007 when I started my first week of work experience in year ten. It's funny how two weeks of work experience at Colleen's company at the time - Mine! Creative - became an untouchable bond, in the least cliched way as possible. Through the last through years Colleen has always been a constant guardian through not only my own darkest moments, but everyone else's. And that's who Colleen is to me, a guardian. But this isn't her professional role, although it may as well be! Colleen was diagnosed back in 2005 with Parkinson's disease (a degenerative disease that damages the ability to control our muscles from our brain, not attacking the muscles themselves) of which there is no cure. Since then, her role of helping anybody who asks has elevated her to becoming a European Ambassador for Parkinson's disease, establishing campaigns that offer priceless advice to those in need, and promoting positivity.
This was for her and everything she's given me:

http://www.behance.net/gallery/4-Days-and-10-Pens/195575

Cinq




Romain Gavras: Gavras is an ingenuitive French director, famous for a few extremely challenging videos, based around ideas of Parisian gang violence, ethnic cleansing and the lives of rockstars. His two most shocking videos: MIA "Born Free", and Justice "Stress", have challenged our modern ways by showing the ugly truths of our past and present. MIA's "Born Free" video points fingers of disgust at ethnic cleansing by shocking the viewer in to accepting what has happened and does happen when power looms over the masses in the wrong hands. Many of the graphic scenes within the video aren't appropriate for the light-hearted, which meant both this video and Justice's "Stress" were banned from public viewing on music channels.
Controversy is cemented as Romain's middle name in his video for "Stress", which portrays the journey of a group of young boys who choose to terrorise civilians, beginning from the run-down outskirts of Paris, and in to the more recognisable areas of the city as various crimes are committed on the way. The story essentially shows the decline of control over young people and the lack of discipline and guidance in their lives.
But what makes Gavras' films are how they are shot, the beautiful cinematography and a hand-held homemade feel that only adds to the harsh reality.







Six

Phil Dunne: Since being about 16 I've always kept an eye out for Dunne's work. He's a brilliant illustrator from Dublin, who hails with an original and contemporary style that features heavily within branding. Over the years, Phil's developed a style that encouraged the use of comic-book-esque story telling, fused together with amazingly complicated drawing skills. A repeated presence in his work tends to be the use of modern pop culture and ideas of fashion and image, as during the daytime Phil works as a window dresser. This means that the influence is always accessible, from viewing clothes in-store to keeping current on the fashion front.
This year, Phil took a new, refreshing change in how he works, by integrating the use of high quality photography, and layering these delicately with his intricate drawing, he's managed to fuse two worlds that work in a harmonious synchronisity.
Hopefully one day I can perfect a seamless portfolio of work much like Dunne's.

For plenty of examples of Phil's work, visit his website on:

http://www.lovetherobot.com/

Sept









Francoise produces the most colourfully palletted portraits in a bright and vibrant street art style that carries a massive energy and certain youthfulness in every swipe of fluerescent colour.
Francoise's way of slashing colour and layering it over and over produces a fast, almost cinematic drama of beaming lights and danger. It is the sharp degrees, quick angles and fluidity of colour that allow her paintings to burst and flourish out, from even a computer screen.

And what's best about Francoise's portfolio is the sheer mass of work she has produced in her signature style, constantly evolving and maturing over the years.div>










Huit

Evgeny Kiselev: His work is astounding, uses colour with such wisdom and dominance, just creates digitally illustrated work that flows with a lot of grace and finesse. The way he balances the use of subtle gradients of colour provide the undertones of the work, layered above the complicated - almost anatomical - illustrations. I like the fact that you question how the work has been produced in the first place - whether it is entirely computer generated, or part by hand. In this sense Kiselev's work is shrouded in a bit of mystery. At other times his work can seem very flamboyant and pyschedelic, reigniting a modern version of hazy days of the past. Another aspect of Evgeny's work is the sheer amount of detail in his work, and the potential for large-scale printing. Some of his work would look incredible either as massive prints that could be easy to paste out on to walls, or printed as complicated wallpaper for a true 60's electric feel.

http://www.behance.net/gallery/Retrodelica-2_0/575069
http://www.behance.net/gallery/Astra-05/543167








Neuf

Belleville Rendezvous: Is such a wonderful film, it's the kind that leaves you wanting more and more of the same story. But about the story, it follows Madame Souza, the grandmother of Champion, a young man on the road to the Tour De France. But when Champion is abducted by the scheming French mafia, Souza commences on a journey to uncover the truth and return Champion to the Tour De France. Along the way, Madame Souza meets various comical; almost surreal characters, including the Belleville Triplets, for which the film is called, who perform a 1930's style feather-boyer clad cabaret act in what looks like New York. I just love the way that the whole film is drawn and animated, aside from the story, it's nice to admire the detail of the work and the life that has been injected in to the story. The film is a must see, with hilarious action chases with dubious mob members and a great final climax. Bring on Les Illusioniste!

Dix

Improving: I find myself influenced by a lot of previous work, whether I feel embarrassed or quite proud of the work I've produced in the past, it is always something I devote my spare time to improve on, and to excel as an creator in the best way I can. It is sometimes seeing my own work from GCSE or even early BTEC work that proves that I can improve, with enough patience on whatever work I'am doing. In this way it's quite a self-indulgent idea, but it's never a soul influence, more as something lingering in the back of my mind, along with everything else. Belief in yourself is priceless.

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