July 2011
1 post
1 tag
Music To Design Things By.
Part 6: The Low End Theory by A Tribe Called Quest
Where to start with A Tribe Called Quest? One of the most influential hip hop collectives of all time, claiming a back catalogue chock full of certified classic albums. If you’ve never heard the name before you will probably be familiar with their early, Lou Reed sampling, “Can I Kick It?” or at the very least, heard of...
June 2011
2 posts
1 tag
Music To Design Things By.
Part 5: House Of Balloons by The Weeknd
Dark. Moody. Murky. Late night listening. The Weeknd is shrouded in mystery and I love it. House Of Balloons is the first offering from Toronto based Abel Tesfaye, otherwise known as The Weeknd. It surfaced in March 2011 containing nine tracks of dark, dirty “R’n’B” (I use the term loosely) and is something that I’ve been...
1 tag
Music To Design Things By.
Part 4: Diary by Sunny Day Real Estate
For this edition of MTDTB we’re gonna go back to 1994. At this time Seattle, Washington was at the forefront of music, particularly the grunge scene and Sub Pop Records. Sunny Day Real Estate remain one the best bands to come from the scene, but to this day are still criminally underrated. Despite this, many bands and artists that know their stuff...
May 2011
1 post
1 tag
Social (Network) Etiqutte.
I wonder what the social etiqutte is for when someone deletes you from Facebook, but then you’re gonna see them in person anyway because you pretty much have the same friends…
March 2011
1 post
Busy like a Beaver.
Regular readers may have noticed a lack of new posts; fear not! I am still alive at the time of writing this, however I have been quite busy and as much as I love updating this little corner of the world wide web, more important things have had to come first. New content will arrive soon, including picking up where we left with a new “Music To Design Things By” post, so watch this...
February 2011
7 posts
2 tags
Awesome Superbowl Twitter Stats →
Very impressed by the ingenius and involving way to display Superbowl Sunday twitter stats; http://sbtwitter.nfl.com/matchup/
I find this amazing and a real eye opener as to what can be achieved via the power of keywords and social media feeds. I haven’t the foggiest of how to go about creating such a brilliant piece of interactivitymajig but I expect it has something to do with...
1 tag
Project: House Of Frauds.
Hot on the success of Right Side Of Wrong, Dead World Leaders were ready to release their 4th, and what was to be final, single. Right from the off there was an undeniable energy about this single. Created in the midst of polictical scandal and increasingly evident government corruption, House Of Frauds eloquently captured the mood of a nation and the dark skies overhead. More than a single, it...
1 tag
Project: Right Side Of Wrong.
Summer 2008 saw the third single release from Sheffield based band, Dead World Leaders. Already getting good airplay from previous singles and an ever growing buzz around their live gigs, the third release was almost ready to be unleashed. Right Side Of Wrong saw the band adopt a progressively mature sound and right from the first listen it was a clear dance floor filler.
As the musical side of...
1 tag
Music To Design Things By.
Part 3: Brothers by The Black Keys
Design heads, how much time have you wasted skipping album tracks whilst trying to work? I know, right? The importance of being able to play an album aaaaallll the damn way through is rarely thought about or mentioned. I know I’ve spent a lot of time choosing the right music when I could have been designing (hence the birth of this blog series). Well,...
1 tag
Podcast: Doug Loves Movies.
So I’ve recently rediscovered the magic of the free podcast. My first encounter with podcasts was a weekly download of Russell Brand’s Radio show for BBC Radio in the UK, which kept me greatly entertained on the ridiculously long journeys across the city (I also went on to meet him, very nice chap indeed). After that finished I never bothered to find one to replace it, other than a...
January 2011
13 posts
2 tags
Project: Bakey Bakey.
One of my most recent projects is a full website design and construction for the most nomtastic (I’m trademarking that) cakes you’ll ever have the joy of tasting. Bakey Bakey is a small scale production with big, beautiful ideas. Family run, the focus is on traditional recipes and retro-chic designs with an emphasis on capturing your imagination in both presentation and taste. The...
Updates to my little website.
The start of the new year and the reignited desire to update my tumblr with interesting stuff you might actually like to read has nudged me to update my personal website. So although I’m looking at overhauling the design sometime soon, I thought I would adapt it’s current incarnation so it’s a little easier and friendlier to use. The overall theme is signposts and where they can...
The Acting Bug.
The life of a Graphic Designer (and related designy positions) can be a strange one. But rewarding if you’re kick ass at it. In the time I’ve been designing I’ve worked on briefs that cover an extremely wide range of subjects, products and ideas. As a designer it pays to do a little research and get into the mindset of who you are designing for as well as the target audience. As...
1 tag
Music To Design Things By.
Part 2. Rare Tracks by Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth
By far some of the best music to design to, I find, is hip hop. I’ve grown up with it and have a lot of love for it. I still find it divides people greatly, but I think this is due in part to a lot of people being exposed only to the large amount of complete crap that gets released.
The criminally underrated Pete Rock and C.L. Smooth are...
1 tag
Discuss Disqus.
You may/may not have noticed that I’ve now added a comments area to my tumblr feed so that all you lovely people (and weird little spam bots) can leave feedback on all the crap that I post.
Enjoy! x
1 tag
Music To Design Things By.
Part 1: In Reverie by Saves The Day.
To kick off I’ve chosen In Reverie by New Jersy pop punks, Saves The Day. It came down to this album and Stay What You Are, but In Reverie just sneaked the win. For the purpose of this series I’m going to put aside all my memories that are linked to this band (which is quite a lot) and focus purely on this album and just how God damn ace it is.
...
1 tag
Music To Design Things By.
Introduction. To me, music and design go hand in hand. Like Yin and Yang, Romeo and Juliet, like Sun and Moon, Lemon and Lime, Fish fingers and custard… Well, maybe not so much the last one. Creating a design is a lot like making an album in many ways, having seen both take shape.
I think there’s definately a link between the two and as a designer I find music can have a direct effect...
Improv-A-Ganza.
Excited to see Drew Carey bringing back Improv to TV - unfortunately I’ll probably never get to see it over in the UK which sucks, but it sounds great. It’s basically the reincarnation of the US version of Whose Line Is It Anyway featuring a much larger pool of performers. Looks like the only main performer not appearing this time around is the quite brilliant Wayne Brady which is a...
2 tags
In the Lab: Part 1
So I are… Currently in the lab working busily away on an exciting little project for a shiny new EP design for a new band made up of some big names past and present on the Sheffield scene. I’ve heard the EP and it’s a real departure from what I’ve come to expect from these guys but I have no doubt that this will be a pretty big deal. Nice to work on things like this...
3 tags
Oh, and Happy New Year...
Happy New Year all! Ok, so better late than never but the thought is there right? At the beginning of every year a lot of people see a chance at a new start and create resolutions. I do things a little different and although I’m not really into the whole “new years resolution” thing, for the past few years I’ve written a manifesto for the year. (These will never be...
October 2010
1 post
August 2010
2 posts
Soooooo.....
…yeah, I haven’t figured out how to let people add comments yet. If anyone would be kind enough to shed some light, drop me a message…
July 2010
2 posts
Wireless Festival 2010
So after my much enjoyed journey across a large portion of the country I finally arrived in London. St Pancras International is a weird and wonderful place, where families reunite, people scurry around and relationships end. The scope of people is quite beautiful, travellers from all over the world arrive here every day, mixing with business men and women rushing through for the next train,...
Mr Sean heads to the capital.
Well, not written on here in a long time. I’ll try to visit more often. Anywho, want to know the latest part of my adventures? Ok, then I’ll begin…
Sunday morning arrived. I woke early to find the sun pouring through the gaps in the dark velvet curtains. This was a real summer morning.
After breakfast (none too exciting mind), I readied myself for a journey to the capital....
April 2010
1 post
January 2010
7 posts
Bonjour le monde
Je pense aime en journee a Paris une jour.
D’accord, ma Francais c’est mal. Je parler en petit peu ca.
Bonne nuite mes amies.
Woke up with a price tag on my arm - haven’t been to any shops all week so your guess is as good as mine.
Letters of Note: Your pal, John K. →
The very generous response from Mr John K to a young fan (including a book by one of Tex Avery’s animators). Kricfalusi’s cartoons go a long way to explaining the certain ‘qualities’ I posess today. Mainly weirdness.
Mr Martin Presents... A Diary Of Circumstance →
Fancy adding a new album to your collection? How about downloading it completely FREE? Can you see where this is heading?
Albums of the Decade
My albums of the decade 2000-2009. Not in preferential order, just picked my highlights from each year.
(56 in total if you’re wondering) 2000 Coldplay - Parachutes D’angelo - Voodoo Doves - Lost Souls Erykah Badu - Mama’s Gun Outkast - Stankonia 2001 Ash - Free All Angels Incubus - Morning View Weezer - Weezer (Green Album) 2002 Finch - What It Is To Burn Foo...