For the Quail

So Evan Sunley James from For the Quail asked me if I could make them a gig poster this weekend and I said "YES PLEASE" and here it is! Man. I really love making posters (hint hint)

Mark and Miri get hitched!

I was asked to take photos at a lovely wedding in Queenstown a few weekends ago between two really lovely people, Mark and Miriam. Only it wasn't really in Queenstown, it was at the entrance to the Routeburn walking track where the bride and groom both worked at the time that they met. Meaningful AND stunning. Perfect really.

It was a beautiful day and Mark and Miri were an absolute pleasure to take photos of given how amazingly radiant and happy they both looked. Their first dance was one of the sweetest things I have ever borne witness to. I hope they have a long and enjoyable life together.

- if you want, you can check out a heap more that I took on my flickr account

BEST NEWS EVER.

New camera lens! Huzzah!

So I decided that I wanted to update my camera gear but I didn't have the cash to buy a new camera body so instead I bought a new lens! The cheapest lens around really, but it's pretty fun so far! Also happy about DJ beginning to get his beard back. Yuss.

Dingding

It is a true story that Ding is one of the coolest cats around. I spend a lot of my time when I'm not at work trying to convince him to hang out with me and then feeling blissfully chuffed when he does, worried when he won't come home, and annoyed/amused when he attacks me.

I also like that in summer and in winter he looks like a totally different cat - in summer he's sleek and shiny and in winter he's got the puffiest ruffs and breeches around town.

We've got an awesome relationship. I can't wait until winter so that I can hang the birdfeeder outside the window again and watch him try to catch them despite the glass in his way.

Happy New Year

Ahoy Brave Reader! I can't believe you're still here! So sorry for keeping you waiting all this time.

A million million apologies for my crapness at posting last year. As it turns out, this is something I seem to do annually - start the year off strongly with a flurry of posts only to have the activity die off over the course of the year.

In 2012 I plan to be much more creative. Good plan hey! In order to implement this bold plan, I'm going to be cutting down on how often I work at Marbecks to four days a week instead of five. Scary stuff. I think I wrangle it though - do some freelance work, make some art, paint my house. Good things to be doing.

I don't want to just post about stuff that I've designed, I also want to post about stuff that's going on in my life. If this turns you off, fair enough, not everyone is into hearing about my cat and how angry customers make me. Seriously though, people need to learn a little thing called respect. Also how to be polite. I encounter so many assholes on a daily basis and they manifest in so many different ways that it blows my mind. What really surprised me was how the worst ones are the older ones who have such a sense of entitlement that they believe throwing their credit card and purchase at you while talking on the phone and not looking at you is a perfectly acceptable form of interaction to have with another person. Yeesh. Give me one of our crazies any day - at least they know how to say please.

Anyway, this was just to say I intend to be on here more often posting about more kinds of stuff and I hope you stick around!

Luci

Derby!

A friend of mine is a derby dame and was asked to take a whack at redrawing/tidying up their logo. She was tearing her hair out about it so I offered to help. I don't know if  they're even going to use it (I think they're a bit uncertain about the direction they'd like their "brand" to head in and I gave it to them about a month and a half ago) but it was pretty fun to make so I thought I'd put it up on here.

Cellists of Otago

 
Months ago a lovely lady called Judy came into our store to ask if she could hang a poster up,  I said sure, and she handed me the poster. It was... ok. I had some time on my hands and told her that I was a designer and that if she'd like me to put together a new poster for them, then I could do it in an afternoon for them for free (not my usual approach but she was so nice and the poster was so... ok). She agreed delightedly and I gave her my email address.

Later I went round to her house and photographed her lovely old cello, sparred with her ferocious kitty on the couch, (there is nothing I like more than teasing and then trying to sooth a ferocious cat - live life dangerously) chatted with her husband George, then headed home to put it together.

I made it simple so that they could reuse it again and again by just changing the text on the left hand side. Judy was delighted. They had very positive feedback on the poster and swore that the audience was larger than usual. They gave me a cute little card with a wee dog on it and a lovely thank you note and a cheque (which was not at all neccessary but nonetheless very kind).

I'm glad I offered my services to them on a whim - it felt good helping them out with a new poster and in a month I'm going to photograph the whole group of cellists which should be some good experience (I don't think I've ever tried to photograph more than 5 people together at a time...).

Matt Langley + Darren Watson

Made a tour poster for Matt Langley and Darren Watson. Sweet deal! The one above is the one they went with. Ah the lonesome road! I liked a couple of the other versions of this I whammied together (I think the deer were my fave):

Below is an even earlier idea that I made for them that fell through - might end up using it again later for someone else... watch this space and all that jazz! This was the first time in a long time that my initial concept was rejected by a band - something I'm putting down to the fact that I tend to make posters for bands who I know both personally and musically, and in this instance I didn't know them well enough to begin with (not that they're not nice guys, they are - I just didn't "get" the vibe/aesthetic/genre bang on first try).

You live you learn.

Michael Gillette

Dude ought to know what he's talking about here - he is an awesome illustrator responsible for the coolest James Bond book covers I've ever seen. Check out his work at here and here.