Here’s my recent work plus some all time favourites. If you want to see something not listed here, just ask.
The Long Tail.
Online Promo
For: Apt Studio
Client: Random House UK
The Long Tail is the title of a new book by Chris Anderson, the top boffin and all round nice guy who’s Editor in Chief of Wired magazine.
Random House UK and Apt Studio chose me to knock together an animated promo for the book, which provided me with another opportunity to get my hands dirty with Maya, under the watchful eye of Paul Lambert who art directed the piece.
I’m particularly proud of the fact that we were able to make all the source assets available to download under a Creative Commons license so that anyone can go off and make their own remix. It’s also great to be able to offer a hi-def version of the animation for download too.
Click here to view The Long Tail promo site.
Click here to view The Long Tail promo on YouTube.
Click here to view The Long Tail promo on GoogleVideo.
Adobe Propaganda Wall.
Online Toy
For: Dog Digital
Client: Adobe
Adobe Live is a free 2 day conference and exhibition aimed at punting Adobe’s fine line of creative software to creative industry peeps. The site for the conference was done by Dog Digital, and I was drafted in to knock together this wee graffiti app that allows visitors to lay out a poster with control of type, colour and imagery, and then spray some stencil artwork on top.
The really clever bit is that this is a communal wall that everyone can leave their mark on, meaning that you end up laying down artwork over other people’s creations. In order to do this and keep the app running smoothly I relied heavily on the new BitmapData class that allowed me to effectively ‘flatten’ layers of artwork to a single bitmap like you do in Photoshop, but this is all done at runtime inside the Flash player!
Another clever technology in full effect here is the wonderful Flash Remoting which makes loading and saving all the artwork data a complete breeze.
Click here to view Propaganda Wall.
Cardross.
Website
Client: St Peter’s Building Preservation Trust
I’ve worked with the St Peter’s Building Preservation Trust to create a website to help raise awareness and encourage debate about one of my favorite landmarks of modern architecture. There is a real danger that St Peter’s is going to disappear to make way for an unsympathetic property development that would strip the college to its structural shell. I encourage you to have a look at the original photos of the building and the more recent photos to see what we stand to lose.
Click here to visit www.cardross.org
Call for Artists.
Website
Client: Civic Works
Sunderland is spending 8 million quid on artists’ commissions over the next 10 years. That’s a shitlload of money. But how do you find so many talented artists that want to make something truly brilliant in exchange for a chunk of this dosh? Cue my latest website launch, CallForArtists.org.
It’s got a bunch of clever things on it that I should have got around to doing before now but hadn’t - like an image uploader and a layered admin section. It’s the dogs. Unless of course you’re using I.E. on a Mac, in which case it’s time for you to switch to something WAY better, like Firefox or Safari.
Click here to visit Call for Artists at www.CallForArtists.org
Raven’s Gate.
Cinema Advert
For: Apt
Client: Walker Books
Anthony Horowitz has just released Raven’s Gate, the first in a new series of books called The Power of Five. I worked with Apt Studio to create a powerful cinema advert to promote the book which is set be another run away success for Walker Books.
It seemed like such a shame to limit the audience for the ad to peeps in the cinema so we also put together a wee site, just so that you’d not miss out.
Click here to visit the Power of 5 site at www.powerof5.co.uk
Lunar Park.
Teaser Promo
For: Apt
Client: Picador
American Psycho author, Bret Easton Ellis, has a new book coming out called Lunar Park. Luckily for Mr Ellis and Picador, the hotly anticipated Apt Studio has opened for business to save the world of book marketing. I executed Apt’s clever concept for a text based animation to help seed the multi faceted viral marketing that’s helping ensure Lunar Park’s success.
Click here to visit www.lunar-park.com
Alex Rider.
Website
For: Screenbase
Client: Walker Books
Alex Rider is the teenage super spy in a series of very popular books by author Anthony Horowitz. I worked with the Screenbase team to produce this standards compliant site for Walker Books, taking responsibility for overall site design and Flash content development.
Some of my favourite bits are the log-in application on the landing page, the gadgets viewer, and the places browser. The timeline application in the header is also well cool – make sure you hit the FWD button at the right side to see the cool tween animation!
Click here to visit the Alex Rider site at www.alexrider.com
We Stand United.
Website
Client: Stand
The Stand site actually started life as a prototype for this very site you are reading now. I hijacked the code and worked closely with the designers at Stand to create this content managed Flash site. I really, really love the boldness and clarity of the design, which is held together nicely by the headline version of the font Unica.
This was my first commercial use of AMFPHP for the Flash Remoting cleverness. If you’ve ever dabbled with hooking up Flash content to a database then I highly recommend it. It’s a doddle to set up, puts a lot more control into the hands of the Flash developer, and results in a site that places significantly less load on the server. Oh yeah, and it’s free. :)
Click here to visit Stand’s new site at www.WeStandUnited.co.uk
Golem. Magic Berber.
Promo
For: Screenbase
Client: Walker Books
Your computer has just been hijacked by a pirate program. Strange things are happening on your estate. And there's something lurking in the basement... Is Golem just a game or something more sinister?
Working closely with Screenbase producer Peter Collingridge, I produced this mini-promo for a series of kids’ books. My favourite bits? Twitch’s music and the dragon in the Easter egg (can you find it?).
Update. My mate Alex reckons it’s too hard to find the Easter egg. This is only true if you haven’t read the book. So - if you like dragons (who doesn’t like dragons?) then buy the book, read it and all will become clear.
Click here to view the Golem mini-promo at www.golem2005.co.uk
ITC Classics.
Rich Internet Application
For: Equator
Client: ITC
I worked with the very talented team at Equator to produce some very flexible animated content for this chic travel company that allows the client to serve up a multitude of image and text animations through a single Flash movie. This XML driven application means fast downloads for users and full control for the client.
Additionally I created a Rich Internet Application (yep, jargon sucks but that’s what it is) to allow visitors navigate ITC’s destinations graphically using a map interface. Sounds complicated but it’s simple to use – click here to try it out. Again, all data is dynamic, fed in as XML by the database boffins at Equator.
The cleverest bit is the bit you’re not going to see – it’s an admin snap on that allows the client drag destinations about the map, set their zoom positions, edit their rollover text and every other property imaginable. This makes adding and removing destinations a breeze.
Click here to visit the ITC Classics site at www.itcclassics.com
Life of Pi.
Promo
For: Screenbase
Client: Canongate
Great client, great producer, and great brief – I couldn’t really go wrong. This online promo for Yann Martell’s Mann Booker Prize winning book broke a lot of new ground and owes a lot of its success to the client having the balls to break the mould of how books are supposed to be marketed.
My brief was the book itself, and I was given full creative freedom. There’s a major event that happens about a third of the way into the book, and it’s on a par with the surprise you get when you realised that The Lost Boys was actually about vampires. It was important to me to not give this away explicitly to the viewer while still being compelling to someone that hasn’t read the book. Additionally I wanted people that come back to the promo after reading the book to get more out of it.
Click here to view the Life of Pi promo at www.lifeofpi.com
Boxman. Reality Sucks.
Promo
Client: Edinburgh International Film Festival
Thirteen wee squares – that’s all he is. But he’s so much more – he’s a star! Another example of a great client with a great brief.
Specifically, the brief was to ‘make something cool’ for the Edinburgh International Film Festival. This was the sequel to a trio of Boxman animations that I did for the previous year’s festival.
Click here to view Reality Sucks
Liberated Theatre.
Promo
For: Limone Media
Client: Host Universal
Play with this music mixer and then watch your masterpiece mix into Flip from Bournemouth’s tune, then into Mehdi from Man, then Irv from Vancouver, then Fiona from Balfron and then Dave from Glasgow onto God from Heaven.
Yes I agree, this is a crap explanation. Load it up, mix your tune, save it off and then sit back and enjoy.
Click here to view www.liberatedtheatre.co.uk
Pride or Prejudiced.
Promo
For: Screenbase
Client: HarperCollins
Mr Darcy versus Aragorn in this animated word of words. Take your positions please ladies and gentlemen; it’s time to get personal!
I created this promo to support HarperCollins’ successful promotion of The Lord of the Rings to win the BBC competition The Big Read, where members of the British public voted for their favourite book of all time.
Click here to view the Pride or Prejudiced promo
Spank the Monkey.
Toy
For: Vector Lounge
Client: Self
Thousands of people spank my monkey every day. Originally created as part of Vector Lounge, Spank lives on and on as one of the web’s most popular stress relievers. Downloaded more than three quarters of a million times on its first weekend online and many, many millions of times since.
Go on - you know you want to.