Many moons ago I designed a character for my friends at Realmac Software called ‘Ember’. Well, he’s had a glossy makeover and is the mascot of the re-branded app Little Snapper, now called Ember.
There’s lots in store for this fiery brethren of Droplet, which I can’t announce just yet. Be sure to stay tuned via the Ember teaser page with what comes next!
CommentsI forgot to post this… My good friend Ciaran O’Connor, who I’ve worked with a lot over to years to bring my flat 2D designs to life! Well this time was even more special, as Ciaran worked his magic on my FIFTY FIFTY Store x DIAMOND SUPPLY CO. graphic and brought it to life with a hell of a sparkle!
It was shown as a looping video, on the TV & iMac inside the store at the launch, and was also projected onto the building opposite too, it looked fantastic!
Ben Ridley from Eye On The Wall Recordings added the icing on the cake by way of some gorgeous bespoke sound design!
Anyways, enough waffle, hit play and watch the magic - nice one Ciaran!
Sorry for the radio silence at the minute, I’m absolutely snowed under both in work and outside of it! I have a 5 foot tall dog by the name of Gromit to contend with at the moment, which needs to be finished by the end of the month, which is panicking my slightly (but in the most exciting way!)
I’m also away this week, in a secret location, filming as a secret thing, which is very exciting (and secretive!). I can’t wait to share it with you!
Anyways, I must go, I need to try and play catch-up with everything else! Follow me on Instagram (@JamFactory) for some sneak peaks as always!
If you missed out on all the fun from the FIFTY FIFTY STORE x DIAMOND SUPPLY CO. collection launch, then check out the above video, recapping the night!
And if you want to get your hands on the collab garments then you better be quick, they’re nearly all gone! Get yours whilst you can at 5050store.com/brands/fifty-fifty
Very stoked to say that there’s a brand new set of #GoProFoSho films for you to watch, from myself and Ricky! Head on over to goprofosho.com to watch them both, and then you vote for your favourite film by sharing / liking the one you prefer! The theme this round is ‘Wheels’…
If you don’t know what #GoProFoSho is, well let me tell you; it’s a filmmaking challenge between myself and Ricky Martin, where we make themes based on a certain theme, using only our GoPro cameras. Both films are uploaded anonymously and you head on over to goprofosho.com to watch them both, then you vote for the one you like best by clicking share or like on the site itself or the YouTube video. At the end of the round we total up all the likes & shares and the film with the most, wins!
What a night! The FIFTY FIFTY x DIAMOND SUPPLY CO. collaboration launch event was a success; a queue of people before the store opened, a flurry of folk eager to get the collab and a brilliant atmosphere all night! What’s left of the stock (and there’s not much at all!) will be going online today at 5050store.com.
It’s always such a buzz to see something you’ve designed come to life in the real world, especially as not only was the design on the clothing itself, it was 10 feet tall on the store’s window front and then a motion graphic version (modelled and animated by the mighty Ciaran OConnor) of the collab artwork was projected onto the building opposite the store!
I’m so grateful to my very good friends Danny, Louis, Syd and all at Fifty Fifty, for giving me the opportunity to get involved with the Diamond hook up, it’s been a whole tonne of fun! I never thought i’d be working with my heroes, for a store that has the legacy that Fifty does, collaborating with a brand as huge as Diamond. I am a very very lucky pup!
So stoked to finally unveil this, my design work for the FIFTY FIFTY x DIAMOND SUPPLY CO. collaboration, which is dropping this weekend here in Bristol!
The design is a mixture on the classic diamond-esque big bold graphics, with a British twist, with the weapons being a graphical nod to Fifty’s motto ‘Only the strong survive’. Printed on Black, White and Diamond’s classic turqouise, the collection looks rad, I’m so proud!
The collection, which consists of the tee, crewneck sweater and hoody, drops this Saturday 27th April, at Fifty Fifty store on Park Street, right here in Bristol. The launch event kicks off at 7pm so be there or be square.
Here’s the Facebook event and had over to 5050store.com for everything else you might need to know!
A huge thanks to Danny and my good friends at Fifty for giving me the opportunity to do the design, I’m very humbled!
I was absolutely stoked to found out that little ol’ me managed to make my way onto the Bristol Culture ‘arts and culture power list’!
To be mentioned alongside such legends as Geoff Barrow (man behind Portishead, Beak>, Quakers and Invada Records to name a few projects), George Ferguson (newly appointed mayor and all round legend) and Peter Lord & David Sproxton (Aardman Animation founders) is a huge HUGE honour for me, I really am so humbled.
Most of all, it means so much to feel accepted in a city I dearly love and call home. I’m not a native Bristolian, I moved here from Leicester nearly 8 years ago and have absolutely fell in love with the place, so to be on this list means a great deal to me.
A big thanks to Bristol Culture for including me, they’ve made a small man have a big grin!
SO hyped to show you this… it’s a little teaser for an upcoming collaboration between my very good friends Fifty Fifty Store here in Bristol and the mighty Diamond Supply Co. over in the states!
I’m so proud to be the designer behind the collab, but what you see above is just a teaser, the design is yet to be revealed! The gorgeous looping animation is by the fantastic Ciaran O’Connor who has taken my 2D design and brought it to life in 3 dimensions, but even that is still under wraps, this animation is a teaser itself using the refracting light particles happening in the soon-to-be-revealed motion graphic.
Stay tuned to 5050store.com or Fifty on Facebook for the latest on the collaboration, dropping REAL soon…
Today was the best day EVER! It was like Christmas & birthday all together, because I got to unwrap a present… my 5 foot tall blank Gromit! Y’see myself and fellow Aardman designer Sarah aka Berny have been lucky enough to be selected to be one of the 70 artists customising a giant Gromit as part of Gromit Unleashed!
Needless to say I am SUPER excited to get started! All the Gromits will go on display around bristol on July 1st, so I’ve not got long to get mine looking ace. I’m filming absolutely every element of the painting process, so they’ll be a video edit online when it’s all done!
Obviously, I am super honoured to be a part of the project and feel so fortunate to be involved, I can’t wait to get cracking!
Stay tuned to gromitunleashed.org.uk for more info on the whole project!
I now have my own stock of my Droplet Series 2 vinyl toys, the last batch (once they’re gone, they’re gone!). This time I’ve opened the blindboxes as well, so you can purchase whichever colour you like, so you can complete your collection or simply pick the ones you want the most!
They’re all available from my online store right now, so why don’t you treat yourself to a lil’ bit of vinyl fun, they’re just £6.95 each and come in a hand-signed box! Get yours from:
jamfactory.bigcartel.com
Hey Brighton, I’m coming for you! Next Wednesday the 17th April I’m speaking at SkillSwap, which is happening at Lighthouse, alongside crafty creative Kyle Bean! The tickets are free so why don’t you come on down? I don’t know many folk in Brighton so I’d feel a right berk if no one turns up, so grab yourself a ticket and i’ll see you next week!
Grab your ticket right here: skillswap.org/brighton/does
Very stoked to say that there’s a 3rd edition print run of the BÖIKZMÖIND DVD & photo book now on sale at the BÖIKZMÖIND online store!
The package costs £29 and features the full BÖIKZMÖIND fixed gear bike documentary (see here for a trailer) plus a 20-minute making of edit as well as photo gallery and bloopers real. The DVD is an all-regions disc so will work anywhere in the world, nice!
The book is a digitally numbered & editioned 95-page 22cm-square photo book featuring behind the scenes photographs, sketches & notes, cataloguing the entire creation of the film!
That’s all held together by a magnetically-sealed screenprinted cord-embossed wrap cover, which was all put together by hand by myself & my good friend Jake Ivill.
I’d like to say a huge thank you to my friends Rik and all the guys at Ripe Digital for printing the book and to Josh & Bex at Whiteduck Screenprint, for printing the wrap covers, it’s great to work with such ace people, especially with them also being in the South West!
There’s just 100 DVD/Books in this run, so grab yours whilst you can. I will happily ship them worldwide, so head on over to the BÖIKZMÖIND store and pick one up:
P.S Don’t forget that you can get the Digital HD release of the film right here!
Following on from the 1st Bring Me The Horizon graphic I did a couple of days ago (see that here), here comes another one! In a funny turn of events, I’ve been speaking to Jordan from the band about the previous graphic and have since done some t-shirt mock-ups (as a very good friend of mine Kat, knows Jordan, so she connected us up, thanks Kat!). Ive got my fingers crossed we can do something with that, so stay tuned!
Anyways, the debut single from the album is ‘Shadow Moses’, which shares it’s name with the fictional snow-filled setting of Metal Sear Solid, one of my favourite video games of all time. So that sowed the seed of bringing these world together graphically!
I wanted to continue on from what I’d done with the previous graphic, using the simple coffin shape with a lyric being centrepiece. One of the most iconic things about Metal Gear Solid, was it’s alert icon, which appeared whenever a guard spotted you. So I knew I wanted that to be paramount, and when sketching ideas the coffin shape instantly became the alert icon by putting a square below it. Make it red and we’re onto something!
Shadow Moses island is based in Alaska and covered in snow, so I used a light snow texture for the background, complimenting the previous graphic which was black with white graphics. Couple that with the coffin / alert icon being on a snow background and having the same rough proportions of a footprint, it’s a nice nod to the stealth aspect of having to creep through the snow in the game. Top that off with the lyric I chose, which features the line ‘I thought I’d buried you and covered the tracks’, it ties in coffin shape and the footprint nod to hopefully make something that works on a few levels!
I’m really happy with this, and it may only be me that see’s all these different geeky elements, but i had an absolute blast making it and smashing together my love of MGS and BMTH together in one big metal / video game homage!
Go and listen to ‘Shadow Moses’ here and do tweet me (@JamFactory) if you’re a fellow Metal music / Metal Gear Solid fan who got all the references!
- Gav
This is another graphical indulgence - sometimes I have little ideas pop into my head during the day, just small design rumblings, so I try to allow that to happen as much as possible but give myself one rule - just spend one evening on it. Don’t let myself get carried away, just execute the idea, in the words of my good friends Ricky & Miles; “Don’t make it perfect, make it now”.
Anyways, I’ve been listening to the brand new Bring Me The Horizon album ‘Sempiternal’ non-stop today, and one of the lyrics on the song ‘The House Of Wolves’ really stuck with me:
When you die
the only kingdom you’ll see
is 2-foot wide
and six-foot deep
My instant thoughts were to combine an icon of a coffin with something that represented a king or a kingdom. my first attempts at having a crown icon above a coffin silhouette just didn’t work, something wasn’t right, until i realise I should focus on a kingdom rather than a king, and what’s the most recognisable thing of a kingdom? A castle of course!
So, after lots of playing around with silhouettes and different castle shapes, it felt most powerful having the negative shape of a castle, with a coffin shape as a doorway, but all within a bigger coffin shape that could also house the lyrics!
I’m really quite pleased with it for a few hours work, and I’m glad I gave myself the chance to scratch that design itch, it’s very satisfying indeed, i encourage you to do the same and indulge some of those ideas floating around your brain!
I think I’ll tweet the guys at BMTH tomorrow to point them in the direction of the design! I’ll leave you with a link to listening to the song that inspired it all:
youtube.com/watch?v=TN4GjxT1NDQ
Thanks all,
- Gav
Follow me on Twitter
