The Phase Collective

Interviewed & Featured: John Gilsenan of IWANT design

It’s probably safe to say that one of the most inspirational things in a young designers life is the album artwork adorning their favorite music. So, we thought it would be fascinating to get a look behind the scenes with an interview and some perspective from John Gilsenan of IWANT design. Based in London, John designs for Buzzin’ Fly Records, the electronic label of Everything But The Girl’s, Ben Watt. If you’re not familiar with them, you probably do know Tracy Thorn (the other half of EBTG) who was featured on Massive Attack’s prolific song, Protection.

Now at the at the forefront of the British dance scene, Buzzin Fly will be releasing it’s 50th single called Bright Star featuring Stimming, Ben Watt and Julia Biel. Buzzin’ Fly is well know for their quality audio and their attention to packaging and developing a visual brand with award winning artwork has helped to define the label. It’s no surprise then that the Bright Star single will be lovingly packaged as a double gatefold with gold foil block and a poster insert. We caught up with John recently to learn a little more about his background and the creative process of designing for a record label.

Full interview after the jump.

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Tags: Album Artwork, Ben Watt, Bright Star, Buzzin Fly, Dance, Electronic, England, Everything But The Girl, IWANT design, John Gilsenan, London, Massive Attack, Record Label, Single, UK

Anders Creative: Letterpress

Here are a couple of recent letterpress cards. The type is a handset wood Gothic Condensed typeface for the “Thanks” and handset foundry Huxley Vertical for “Anders Creative”. As for the elk… just a random line cut. Long live letterpress!

The thank you cards are available for purchase here.

Old Magazines

Hadn’t broken away from the computer in a while, so I pulled out an old magazine, shredded a few pieces, cut a few pieces, and glued it all down. Of course it comes back in to the computer and gets tweaked up a bit. Just a bit though. Sometimes a quick (and otherwise pointless) side project is the perfect fix.

Tags: art, collage, typography

Featured: Michael Vincent Manalo

“I am a lover of life. I get inspired from a multitude of things, from what I see everyday, from what my mind collects from its wandering state and from what my dreams and daydreams are made of.”

“I am Michael Vincent Manalo, a person who likes to dream and forge them for people to believe in dreams.”

Dream on.

Tags: digital art, digital illustration, illustration, Manalo

Happy New Year

Happy New Year from the Phase Collective. Get in touch if you’re looking for cool projects or collaborations in 2010. We’ll have plenty.

Best wishes from California!

Tags: digital illustration, happy new year, pixels, polar bear

Featured: Eyvind Earle

Going back into the vaults on this one, but this is an artist you should know about. Eyvind Earle (1916-2000) is best known for his art direction work for Walt Disney (you’ll recognize his forest-scapes and background art in Sleeping Beauty next time you find yourself watching that movie), but he spent the great majority of his career as a full time solo artist/painter/silkscreener. I love his graphic style, and fantastic color/detail work in his trees (especially the trees) and natural scenery. The images here don’t do the originals justice. Not even close. So if you can see some of his work in person, jump at the chance.

Info on the artist is here. And his official site is here. Check out the serigraphs and oils in particular. Lots and lots of stuff to soak in, and you will be inspired.

Tags: art, art direction, graphic, painting, serigraph, silkscreen, style

Preschool Spanish

Something I did on the side a few years back… and have just rediscovered in my old files. This was meant for the walls of my daughter’s preschool, but it never saw the light of day – don’t quite remember why. Grab the PDF here.

Featured: Dilyana Dineva

The “Signals” project by Dilyana Dineva, broadcasting from Sofia, Bulgaria. This is a fascinating topic to me, and I love how she has visualized something that we all are surrounded with every second of the day. This series depicts the invisible signals that weave through our day – television, radio, wireless data, mobile phones. In Dilyana’s words, we all share an “addiction to receiving”. I’d have to agree.

The photos are from Bulgaria, Greece and Turkey – wonderful lighting and color saturation mix in with the nighttime cityscapes.

More side projects and design work at deemight.com

Tags: Bulgaria, digital art, photography, technology

Trajectory

Designers that really break out from the mainstream – from the worlds of average or pretty good – they all seem to have a moment, or a project, or an idea that propels them. How many designers slowly and quietly build up to greatness? Or to notoriety? How many designers roll casually into a position of prestige – with access to the best professional and creative opportunities? No, they bust out with something striking, and they figure out how to get it in front of people. The name gets around, and the creative gets around, and a heavyweight is born. It almost seems like we could craft that trajectory for ourselves, with just a bit of self-promotional savvy. And a bit of that striking creativity.

It doesn’t have to be a high profile project for a high profile client. Although that helps. You know the power of a mass audience. Greatness in front of 10 million people will get you farther than greatness in front of 10 people. Then again, the larger the project, the more likely your creative work will be part of a collaborative and diluted effort – less yours, less genuine. So then the mid-range project, the freelance project, the pro-bono project; these are the projects where it’s most likely to happen.

I don’t even want to touch the design annuals issue, but exposure in any form, especially exposure to your peers, can help you on your way. Do clients really read those magazines? Do they really look for firms in the Print Regional Design Annual? Print would say they do, but ehhhh…here I go, touching the design annuals issue. Like everything else these days though, organic growth/viral exposure are where it’s at. Because they’re genuine. Recommended and approved by people you (may or may not) know.

The question is, are you and I rolling through our creative careers being nothing more than good (maybe really good?), but anonymous? I think we are. It’s one of those enjoying-the-ride vs. captaining-the-spaceship sorts of things.

Tags: career, creativity, fame, projects

Featured: Able Parris

Able Parris is a collage artist and typographer doing some really cool crossover design/art work. Nice identity portfolio too. He’s all over the internet, but you can start at his Cargo site and take it from there:

work.ableparris.com

Tags: art, collage, design, typography