Trask Industries

So, I finally got to see The Wolverine last night and it certainly did not disappoint (and not just because Hugh Jackman is the most attractive man in the world).

I’ve been waiting for his Japan storyline to make it to the big screen ever since I read this graphic novel by Frank Miller four or five years ago – although I think the film was set slightly before that. Maybe there’s another book, I haven’t read many comics in the last few years and I’m out of touch. Anyway, it was excellent but this blog post is not going to be about that film…

The next X-Men film, Days of Future Past, isn’t going to be out until next year but posters have already started emerging. Not only that, but a detailed and well-designed fictional website has been created for Trask Industries – the company responsible for building the Sentinels, a robot army designed to destroy all mutants.

“As the world's leading full-spectrum genetic security and containment company, Trask Industries continues to uncover new ways to control the mounting X-gene threat. We are proud to bring decades of experience, along with 118,000 innovative minds as we continue to secure human freedoms in every nation on Earth. Our goal is to solve tomorrow's problems, today.” – Trask Industries

Watch the advert for Trask Industries:

Now I think these posters and the effort put into creating a fictional website are awesome, but a fair comment was made on Creative Review’s post about this: “The big question for me is how can viral campaigns break out of just appealing to the core audience. They are typically adopted by the ‘fan boy' audience who, it could be argued, are going to see the film anyway.” I could disagree, but I am a typical fan boy – or girl, rather – so hey.

I’m also a mutant myself. Or a low-affect one anyway, as I have central heterochromia.

But I don’t have any of these abilities…

Is that… Tyrion?

However these aren’t the only posters/visuals for the new X-Men film to emerge on the internet recently. These amazing images combining the young and old Xavier and Magneto were posted on Entertainment Weekly a few weeks ago. Admittedly, the two Magneto’s faces merge together far better than the Xavier’s – or maybe I just love Magneto – but both pretty cool.

I might buy some more comics, or at least re-read the ones I have. Maybe.

Animated Arcade Fire

I don’t know why, but I only discovered these wonderful little animated Arcade Fire music videos a couple of weeks ago. They are in fact 6 years old; although I haven’t quite been an Arcade Fire fan for that long, I am a big fan now.

The videos were created by Joshua Deu who was apparently a former member of the band and lifelong friend of Win’s. He was the reason Win moved to Montreal in the first place, so without him we wouldn’t have Arcade Fire. Genius.

If I had a festival…

If I had a festival and I split it into three different genres for three days, then picked ten of my favourite bands/artists for each day… this is what the line-up would look like.

I like a lot of bands so this was fairly easy, although I struggled with alternative/folk and rock more than punk rock. Punk could definitely have had at least double the amount of bands it does, as that’s generally what I listen to. Whilst rock has four bands that could arguably be the headliner – Muse have always been my all time favourite though so they win. Also, many would argue Neil Young should be above Arcade Fire but it’s my festival!

This has really just been a typography experiment of trying to match fonts to band names. Some are certainly better than others and there’s still more I could do with the actual design and composition of the posters but, hey, this was just for fun.

Also, I don’t have a better name for the actual festival…

Classic cameras

These simple, brightly coloured camera illustrations by Adrian Johnson are wonderful. I don’t know too much about classic cameras but I do recognise some of these, most of them (like the polaroid camera) are fairly iconic in appearance anyway.

Building my record collection

The latest edition to, not only my record collection, but also my "records I designed" collection. Better photographs for website etc. soon now!

Asparagus Feet turns 1

Or it did last Monday according to Tooze. We’ve both been super busy lately and have neglected to update the blog in a while but we’ve each done a drawing this week, so I think we’re back!

Tooze’s latest:

Prew’s latest:

asparagus-feet.tumblr.com

Cats Are Weird

I bought this amusing comic book yesterday in Brighton. If you own a cat, have ever owned a cat or been near a cat you will be able to relate to these comic strips by Jeffrey Brown.

Salcey Forest

I’ve been wanting to go to Salcey Forest in Northamptonshire for a while now to check out the treetop walk, but last time we tried the car park was completely full (Bank Holidays, boo). Today I made it. The shade of the trees is a nice place to be on a day like today – at least when you can’t go to the seaside anyway. And obviously anywhere with trees is good with me. Also, I actually used a camera rather than my phone.

I do like a lone/stand out tree.

Treetop trail.

Looking down on a tall tree!

That’s Northampton over there, from the top of the treetop trail.

I particularly liked the signs in the forest with words and icons cut and painted into wooden posts. I took some photos of those on my phone.