FAMILY VISITS & MONTREAL

I recently went on a quick trip to Montreal to visit family friends.
They have a lovely place in the suburbs and were kind enough to show me around the city.
The weekend before that I went with my brother, sister-in-law and nephews and niece to visit with my grandparents.

Here are some photographs from those excursions, shot on my OM10.
Forgive me, on some I was too lazy to edit out the dust!

FOALS! SURFER BLOOD! LIVE!

Last night I went to see FOALS. Emillia and I had wandered to their set during Coachella 2011 and were instantly hooked.

It was their first headlining show I've seen. I invited my friend Marie along who had never heard of them before. She listened to Total Life Forever in advance and enjoyed it, but after the gig she exclaimed "they're one of those bands who are better live!"

 I'm generally not moved by music enough to dance at concerts. I could not stop. Singer/guitarist Yannis Philippakis and guitarist Jimmy Smith (the only two band members I could really see), were so engaged and moved by what they were playing, it was impossible not to feel it too. Most of my neighbours were rocking out wildly without regard to the lack of space surrounding them. Somehow, for the first time, I didn't mind.

 As per the Coachella gig, Yannis ended up crowd surfing, and to my delight, doing a lap around the venue with his guitar. Stage antics are always great, especially when it involves interacting with the crowd. Banter was minimal. One thing that surprised me was that they were allowed to smoke on stage. And no one seemed to mind fetching Yannis's mic stand after he repeatedly tossed it off stage, and slammed it into the stage with vigour.

I enjoyed middle act Surfer Blood's set. I had been gifted their album Astrocoast by Emilia ages ago, but never took much notice of it. They looked about 15, but singer John Paul Pitts' impressive vocal range was commendable. I am very much looking forward to further exploring their music.

Overall great gig. Omit the opening act Blondfire, whose sound was tediously bland.

*It should also be mentioned that FOALS have beautifully designed merch. It's worth a gander.

VIDEOS

 

AN ODE TO MY MUM

This bewildered-looking kid was born on October 19, 1954. 

Her name is Linda Sue Evans and she is my best friend. 

I felt it appropriate to write a little post about the incredible woman who raised me. 

As I've come to understand, it's not an easy thing raising three rambunctious mini people. 

Being a single parent to those goonballs seems a job only suitable for superheroes. 

Somehow, my mother managed to do a pretty bang up job and miraculously maintained sanity. 

Believe me, we provided every parenting challenge in the book. She was ceaselessly patient and kind, selfless and encouraging, and no matter the circumstance, she was always there. 

The only reason I've been able to have the experience I've been fortunate enough to have, is because of my mother. She believed in my dreams and capabilities more than I did. She did everything within her power to make them come to fruition. She took on three jobs to help support me through university, flew over to take care of my miserable butt when I wasn't feeling well in the UK, drove 2 hours in a broken car to help me take my giant sick computer to get fixed. 

So I want to share some of my favourite photos of my mum. 

The first one is a bit blurry, but I think she looks stunning. 

Love you mum!

CANADIAN GEOGRAPHIC WEB ADS LIVE!

It makes me happy when clients choose the variation of their project that you were secretly vying for.

Win!

I was psyched to be approached by Canadian Geographic to help with their web ads. I hope they were pleased with the results.

I learned a valuable lesson from their project. Make sure to ask all the right questions. Don't get to excited by the idea of creative freedom that you forget to inquire about a possible direction they have in mind. Read the brief a hundred times to make sure you aren't missing anything.

Anyway check them out live here.

 

GETTING WILD WITH WEB ADS

Holy toledo!
Things have been busy!

New clients, old clients, broken computers, job offers, and I've barely had time to eat (other than many boxes of Oreos).

I just wanted to share some recent work, which won't be used, but was one of the first projects I had received that didn't require adhering to strict brand guidelines. It was also the first time I made a project colour palette for myself. I'll admit I got carried away. But it was fun.

I have a hard time with web ads. They aren't meant to look sleek, but generally serve the function of commanding your attention (while identifying the brand they represent). Making them is challenging because I tend to make everything clean, simple, and use bold colours sparingly. Creating them often feels like reading backwards, or using my opposing hand to write.

Here are some visuals: