JamFactory

This is a graphic I started a long long time ago but never...

Sat, 14 Jan 2012 15:50:00 +0000

This is a graphic I started a long long time ago but never finished, and when going through some old archive folders I thought I’d update it and finish it off! It was originally designed as a bike jersey for the mighty Milltag but it never went any further. Anyways, here it is for your eyeballs pleasure!

Happy to say that I’ve put a bunch of Droplets, my vinyl...

Fri, 13 Jan 2012 23:17:39 +0000

Happy to say that I’ve put a bunch of Droplets, my vinyl toys, up for sale on my online store! They’re all blindboxed, so who knows which one you’ll get! Each Droplet I sell I sign the box and pop in some postcards and things so why not grab yourself a lil’ plastic bit of fun! Get yours here!

My Two Thousand and Eleven

Sun, 01 Jan 2012 22:30:00 +0000

Great scott! I can’t quite believe it but 2011 is done & dusted and 2012 is upon us, and what a year it was. It really has been a roller coaster of a year for me, some incredible highs with some lows, but I wouldn’t change it for the world, because in those 365 days I learnt a great deal about myself and the world around me, made some fantastic friends and spent time with old ones. Reading the year summery I wrote last year, I was intent on getting a better balance of life / work and I really think I’ve achieved that this year, I feel much more focused and feel liberated because of taking a more relaxed approach to making things in my own time.
So then, what was I up to in 2011 then?

Well, I celebrated an entire decade of ‘being’ JamFactory, which felt fantastic and was celebrated in style thanks to the very kind Gav Hoffman sending me a surprise cake to mark the occasion! I never thought I’d still be here putting out work under the name of JamFactory when I plucked the name out of thin air as a sprightly and stupid 19-year-old, but here I am, here’s to the next ten years eh!?

I got the chance to try my hand at more offline stuff, particularly venturing deeper into the world of customising vinyl toys, from Lunartik’s Mini Tea to A Little Stranger’s Cavey plush. I got super lucky when I got the chance to customise a ‘Spy vs Spy’ toy as part of MAD magazines 50 year celebrations for the iconic character, that was a real honour.

Speaking of luck and honour, us in Aardman Digital have been fortunate enough to win a few awards this year for our work on various projects, we picked up 2 Royal Television Society awards in March, I was lucky enough to be nominated in The Critter web awards under the category of ‘The Next big thing’ but I didn’t walk away with the award (maybe i can just claim the title of just ‘The next thing’?) but the thing that blew us all away was that we won the accolade of all accolades… a BAFTA! But not one, flipping’ two! In May we won one for our work on Wallace & Gromit’s World of invention website and in November we won a Childrens BAFTA for our work on the Tate Movie Project site. Needless to say we’re still all pretty shellshocked about that, the 2 golden masks resting proudly in the Digital studio!

I didn’t do as many talks this year but the ones I was fortunate to give were fantastic, myself and Dan (Efergan - Creative Director of Aardman Digital) spoke at Bristols first TEDx event, alongside such legends as Sir Richard Noble and Imogen Heap! I also got the opportunity to collaborate with an old friend, Andy McMillan, the man responsible for the much-loved BUILD conferences held in Belfast each year. He brought me out to Northern Ireland to give a talk entitled “An evening with Gavin Strange” AKA “Build. Break. Do. Make” as part of the run-up to the main BUILD 2011 conference. For me, It was the best talk I’ve ever given, I enjoyed it so much and really felt at ease. I’m hugely thankful to Andy for getting me out there and make it all possible, I won’t forget that talk, I can’t wait to visit Belfast again.

There was so much that happened in 2011 that I didn’t expect, from raising over £1,000 for staying silent and only communicating in pictures for 24 hours, in aid of Comic Relief to fooling the good people of the internet with the release of my latest vinyl toy ‘Windlets’ in April. From doing some live art with The Dead Sea Mob to getting some new artwork to my feet (I commissioned the awesome Ollie Munden to design a skull for each foot and boy did he deliver, I’m the proud owner of the pretties feet in Bristol in my humble opinion!)

The biggest thing that happened to me and the factory of Jam was the completion and release of my fixed gear bicycle film ‘BÖIKZMÖIND’. (A huge shout out to my co-filmer & co-editor Jonny Clooney here!). What started as just an idea for a 2 minute web edit turned into a 30-minute long documentary which premiered to over 300 people outdoors on the BBC Big Screen in the centre of Bristol and has organised screenings in over 30 locations around the world with many more planned! The positive response really has been truly overwhelming and has lead to some incredible opportunities; I did a TV interview the night before the premiere on BBC Regional news including a live link-up at the premiere location and also went on BBC Radio Bristol to talk about the film and fixed gear bikes in general. It wasn’t all roses though, as during the making of it I was burgled and everything taken from my flat, including all my camera equipment and my Mac. Then months later my beloved bicycle itself was stolen, so 2011 really has had its shares of ups and downs.

The most magnificent of opportunities that presented itself last year was thanks to the wonder of the Internet and social media. Kyle Snarr, New Business Director of design agency Struck out in Salt Lake City, Utah found my work online years ago thanks to Will Beaumont, an old friend from Leicester. Kyle had followed my stuff and heard about BÖIKZMÖIND from me banging on about it online, he thought that Salt Lake City would be a great place to screen the film. Thanks to excited emails back and forth that screening turned into an opportunity for me to fly out to SLC, screen the film and give a design talk, backed by the SLC chapter of AIGA, the American Institute of Graphic Arts! Wow, simply put, it was the most incredible trip I’ve ever been on. I made so many new friends, saw so many new sights (Being sat in the Utah mountains with 44,000 other people watching a college football game is something I’ll never forget!) and I was overwhelmed with the positivity and inspiration I received from being there. Thank you to Kyle, Tim and all at Struck, AIGA and beyond that made that trip come to life, I’m truly humbled by it all.

So, there you have it, what a year! I’ve been very fortunate to have such a great 2011, thank you to you all for making that possible. I want to thank those friends and family who’ve pulled me through the tough points of the year too, their support and love means more than anything else, because really that’s what it’s about isn’t it. You can push as many pixels as you like, but if you don’t have the love and support of your friends, family & dear ones then it’s worthless.

To borrow a phrase from someone dear to my heart;
“Here’s to shared experiences and making memories”

Thank you for reading, here’s to 2012.

- Gav

Happy New Year!

Sun, 01 Jan 2012 16:54:00 +0000

Just thought I would have a play with making a couple of animated GIFs from a portion of BÖIKZMÖIND! Happy New Year everyone!

Cast your mind back to Halloween earlier this year, I customised...

Tue, 27 Dec 2011 21:33:39 +0000

Cast your mind back to Halloween earlier this year, I customised a Kidrobot Munny vinyl toy for Anna Mullin aka Sneaky Raccoon’s Art Show / Halloween themed / Celebration party at the Kidrobot store in London! Well today I made a video edit of how I did dones it. Excuse the theatrics and over-the-top music, it was Halloween after all! Enjoy!

- Gav

Merry Christmas from me and everyone who helped to...

Fri, 23 Dec 2011 21:59:28 +0000

Merry Christmas from me and everyone who helped to make BÖIKZMÖIND come to life this year! I can’t quite believe it’s complete and out there, I can’t wait to work on the Photo book and DVD next year!

A very merry Christmas to you all and a Happy New Year!

Home Sheep Home 2 : A Little Epic, the sequel to our...

Fri, 16 Dec 2011 16:28:09 +0000

Home Sheep Home 2 : A Little Epic, the sequel to our BAFTA-nominated 100 million+ plays game ‘Home Sheep Home’ is OUT NOW! Almost a year in development by the game genius Chris Underwood and drew by hand, from scratch, by the incredible Robin Davey, the game has 3 episodes, 60 levels and hundreds of collectables!

I was fortunate enough to work on the game, designing the logo and the in-game interface stuff, it’s been a blast and so stoked to see it out there in the wild for all to play!

You can get it now for iPhone / iPad / iPod Touch or for your PC! Enjoy!

Back in October, I got involved in a custom vinyl toy show put...

Mon, 05 Dec 2011 21:23:00 +0000

Back in October, I got involved in a custom vinyl toy show put on by my dear friend Anna aka Sneaky Racoon! She was celebrating 5 years of ‘being’ Sneaky and that tied in perfectly with Halloween, so she invited a bunch of friends to customise a Kid Robot blank toy for an art show happening at the Kid Robot store in London!

So, inspired by one of my favourite 80’s cartoons ‘Toxic Crusaders’ I set about with a giant candle and some spray paint to create my homage to ‘Toxie’, the leader of the Toxic Crusaders! Throw in some old tea bags, a polystyrene ball and a whole tonne of lacquer and you get the above creation!

I hope you like it, I really enjoyed creating it and am dead happy with the outcome. I shot lots of video at the same time too, so expect a short edit of the process soon! Big thanks to Anna for letting me be a part of the fun!

- Gav

Woohoo!!! This weekend we picked up a Childrens BAFTA award...

Wed, 30 Nov 2011 07:45:59 +0000

Woohoo!!! This weekend we picked up a Childrens BAFTA award under the ‘Interactive’ category for our work on the Tate Movie Project! The project was a bit of a mammoth undertaking, working with the Tate & Fallon, Aardman set about creating a 30 minute film, entirely made by children. The drew the characters, designed the locations, made the sounds and wrote the story! What we did was build the virtual film studio which allowed them to bring their wonderful ideas to life!

I was lucky enough to work on the project alongside the huge and very talented team. Along with David Gillet & Sarah Matthews I designed the style of the site and interface, and art directed the web side of things as the project progressed, very honoured to be a part of it!

So a huge well done to everyone, it really was a huge team that made it all possible, well done and of course well done to the children, as without them, the film wouldn’t exist at all!

You can watch a video of Heather & Dan from Aardman and Jane from the Tate accepting the award right here!

Hello everyone, I just wanted to update you all and let you know...

Tue, 29 Nov 2011 19:35:24 +0000

Hello everyone, I just wanted to update you all and let you know that the DVD / Photo book version of BÖIKZMÖIND won’t be ready until some time in early 2012 unfortunately. The film has been, well, too flippin’ successful and the awesome people that have put on screenings and continue to request screenings, has meant that I haven’t been able to devote the time needed to putting the book / DVD together. I’m stoked that the film is still getting requests to be seen around the world, truly humbled, so that’s a pretty good excuse for not having the offline copy ready, right!?

I also want the book to be perfect, we’re going to shoot a ‘behind-the-scenes’ as well as an accompanying t-shirt and other bits, so I’d rather hold off and get the perfect package together!

I hope you all understand and I really appreciate your patience, hopefully the wait will be worth it. Stay tuned to the BÖIKZMÖIND Facebook & Twitter pages for more info!

- Gav.

By day I’m the Senior Designer for the Digital department...

Fri, 18 Nov 2011 07:42:58 +0000

By day I’m the Senior Designer for the Digital department of Aardman, and that means I get to bring all the wonderful creations that Aardman creates and give them a digital home. One of my absolute favourites is Peter Lord’s forthcoming stop-motion film ‘The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists’ (or ‘Band of Misfits’ if you’re in the US).

I’ve been lucky enough to design the above, a tumblr-powered production blog of how the film’s coming along! All the props and things on the design are actually real-life hand-crafted props, including the custard cream! The attention to detail really is staggering, that’s why I love working on it!

thepirates-movie.tumblr.com

Be sure to make your own Wanted poster too (link on the Production Blog), which I also had the fortune of designing! In the meantime, why not check out the brand new US trailer for Pirates right here!

- Gav

My fixie-fascism parody graphic ‘DEATH BEFORE...

Sat, 12 Nov 2011 11:43:04 +0000

My fixie-fascism parody graphic ‘DEATH BEFORE DERAILLEUR’ has had a reprint in grey sweater form, ready for winter. So you can poke fun at the elitism of subcultures and keep warm as winter approaches! You can grab yours here on the Whiteduck Store, they also come in t-shirt flavour too.

Get yours online here ☞

Oh the fun you can have with a fisheye lens, a lens hood and a...

Fri, 11 Nov 2011 08:19:18 +0000

Oh the fun you can have with a fisheye lens, a lens hood and a cheap ring flash from eBay! Me & Dan (on the left, my good friend and Creative Director at Aardman) have wanted to get better at portrait photography with artificial light, so decided to have a night of using each other as models whilst we figured out what the flip we’re doing!

These two photo’s are how they came out, and without trying, our faces are pretty identical - Our eyes & mouths are in the exact same position! That wasn’t planned, we both shot hand-held and were using guesswork! Don’t believe we’re brothers from another mother? Check this terrifying animated GIF to see for yourselves!

- Gav

Salt Lake City, you have been so good to me!!! I had an...

Sun, 06 Nov 2011 13:33:03 +0000

Salt Lake City, you have been so good to me!!! I had an absolutely amazing trip last week, courtesy of StruckAxiom and AIGA. I got to see the city from a designers point of view and got the chance to meet fantastic people and see fantastic things. I can’t put the amount of positivity I felt from the place into words, but I’ve come back to Bristol feeling energised and inspired, something I really needed.

The design talk and screening of BÖIKZMÖIND went down really well, thank you to everyone who came to check it out, I’m hugely grateful for you giving me your time. Valerie Jar from StruckAxiom had designed a beautiful poster for the event, which was letterpressed by SLC’s own Mandate Press, and each attendee of the talk got one of the posters, so a big thank you to everyone who made that beauty possible!

A huge thank you to Kyle Snarr at Struck & Tim Lee at AIGA for making this trip a reality, and a big mad love to absolutely everyone who made my stay fantastic, there’s too many to mention but I appreciate it so much. This trip came at a time in my life when i needed a lift, and SLC gave me an experience I’ll never forget, it really has made a difference.

Thank you.

I’ve fallen in love with Instagram recently! It’s...

Sat, 22 Oct 2011 15:45:41 +0100

I’ve fallen in love with Instagram recently! It’s got the photo styles of Hipstermatic but the community of Twitter, I like it! it isn’t without its faults (crashes randomly) but I’m hoping the service will just get stronger and stronger.

Add me on there if you’re a Instagrammer too, search for me as ‘JamFactory’

These postcards are a set of 3 designs I’ve designed to...

Fri, 21 Oct 2011 00:31:00 +0100

These postcards are a set of 3 designs I’ve designed to give away to each attendee of my talk / film screening in Salt Lake City next week! Since I’ll be ‘that strange man from England’, I wanted to play up to that and up to the myths that surround England (like, everyone has met the Queen and speaks like a 1950’s pilot).

I asked the good people of Twitter to hit me with their best fake facts about the UK and I selected my favourite 3 and illustrated them up, for a bit of fun! I hope the attendee’s like them, Rik at Ripe Digital is printing them on a nice stock of card with a velvet finish, so they should feel nice and regal too!

The colours are the colours of the United Kingdom flag and the typefaces are by British typographer Eric Gill, so I tried to keep everything on the theme of Blighty y’see.

Big thanks to the creators of the “facts”: @liambrazier, @MrLister15 & @perki and to Ripe for printing them up so dang fast.

My talk is next Thursday 27th October and you can find more info here and get tickets here!

I borrowed a Pental brush pen from Golly (Broadcast Creative...

Sat, 15 Oct 2011 17:45:31 +0100

I borrowed a Pental brush pen from Golly (Broadcast Creative Director and creator of Rex the Runt & Shaun the Sheep) at work yesterday and fell in love with it. So I rushed to the craft shop today to get my own, I treated myself to a letraset marker and fresh sketchbook too. Y’know what it’s like with the first page of a new sketchbook, you have to really think about what you’re going to put on it. So I thought I’d break my new favourite pen in and draw an incredibly unflattering portrait of Golly himself!

Home Sheep Home 2 : A little Epic is the latest work in...

Fri, 14 Oct 2011 13:24:54 +0100

Home Sheep Home 2 : A little Epic is the latest work in progress here at Aardman Digital. It’s the sequel to our original flash game which has racked up over 100 million plays and been nominated for a BAFTA! It really is a little epic, because there’s over 60 levels, 3 locations and a tonne of hidden treats to get your teeth stuck into!

The beautiful graphics have all been drawn by our hyper-talented illustrator & animator Robin Davey, with the puzzles and mechanics all created by our resident games genius Chris Underwood. I’ve been lucky enough to be involved in the project too, designing the logo, in-game interface and this here website too.

The game is coming to iOS and Desktop real soon, keep up to date on Facebook & Twitter!

www.homesheephome2.com

Look at this beauty! Designed by Valerie Jar for StruckAxiom,...

Fri, 14 Oct 2011 00:13:08 +0100

Look at this beauty! Designed by Valerie Jar for StruckAxiom, every attendee to my design talk / screening of BOIKZMOIND in Salt Lake City, Utah in a couple of weeks time will walk away with one of these posters, letter pressed by The Mandate Press!

I’m getting really excited for the trip, any SLC residents here on Tumblr with suggestions of places to see, spots to eat at etc? Also any recommendations for nice boutique hotels would be muchly appreciated.

I’m going to be designing up a little something for every attendee too, with the help of the good people of Twitter in fact. You can grab your ticket for the night right here on the AIGA website, Thursday 27th October, I hope to see you there!

Watch out Utah, I’m-a-coming! Through the power of a...

Sun, 09 Oct 2011 10:37:32 +0100

Watch out Utah, I’m-a-coming! Through the power of a simple emails & social networking, a screening enquiry for BÖIKZMÖIND has turned into something a bit more epic… I’m coming to Salt Lake City to give a design talk and screen BOIKZMOIND!!

In conjunction with the SLC chapter of AIGA (The American Institute for Graphic Arts!!) and design agency StruckAxiom, I’m being flown out in just under 3 weeks! I can’t tell you how excited I am, it’s an incredible opportunity for me and I’m so humbled that it’s actually happening!

So, good people of Salt Lake City, I hope you can come along and please do spread the word, it’s going to be the first time in your fair city and the first time I’ve done a talk in the US of A, I want it to be ace!

It’s happening Thursday 27th October at the Salt Lake Arts Center, beginning at 7pm and finishing at 9. You can find out more about the event here and here, and can grab tickets here.

There’s even going to be a special letter-pressed poster designed by StruckAxiom and printed by The Mandate Press for every attendee, plus I’m going to design up something a little special for everyone so come on down!

A big, BIG thanks to Kyle Snarr at StruckAxiom and Tim Lee at AIGA for making this all possible! If you have any recommendations on where to go / what to see whilst I’m in SLC then please do let me know!