A Tribute to Switchfoot

Every so often, a band comes along that you just resonate with; a band that puts a voice to the questions you’ve wrestled with over and over in your mind. This band, for me, is Switchfoot.

Described as music for thinkers, Switchfoot sings from a beautiful, sincere place, often more mulling over questions than answers in their lyrics, and asking the hard-hitting questions we tend to shy away from or sweep under the rug. Contrasting their contemplative-natured lyrics, they also inspire listeners to reach for so much more out of life, than just surviving or scraping by each day.

I’ve been following Switchfoot for a good couple of years now - ever since their album New Way to Be Human, and to say that I’m beyond excited that they will be playing again in my town on their Vice Verses tour in just over a week is a HUGE understatement! Last time I heard them was in a school hall in Stellenbosch many years ago – it was a very touching and moving concert, with children affected by Aids (many orphans as they had lost their parents to Aids), singing their song “Dare You To Move” – somehow those lyrics took on even more significance and depth with these kids singing them.

So, here is my small tribute and thank you to Switchfoot, for inspiring me to embrace the questions of life instead of running from them, and to embrace and live each moment fully, to use my talents and to be a blessing instead of a curse in this world.

While I was still studying at college, in my second year, we were asked to create a storyboard of a 60 second clip of any track of music of our choice. I chose the song "Adding to the Noise" off their Beautiful Letdown album.

I had great fun imagining each clip way back then - hope you like! (click on the pics to see them big).

Airport Awesomeness I

Perhaps it's the British Airways billboard that recently popped up in town, or perhaps it's the fact that it's been a year since my first overseas adventure, but I'm just itching to hop on a plane again (I LOVE flying, especially the long international ones!) and go explore somewhere new and experience other ways of life! Actually, even just flying again would be awesome.

Hopefully this collection of airport awesomeness will tide me over for a little while :)

Pop-up Passport ads by BBH London

http://tinyurl.com/7aug9h5

http://tinyurl.com/7ksomk5

Aren't they amazing?!

That British Airways billboard I spotted in town.
http://tinyurl.com/7q3gjov

South African Airways In-Flight Arrivals AV by Maja Studio

Great job by Maja Studio.

http://tinyurl.com/7ofy5se

http://tinyurl.com/79b4cwj

http://www.majastudio.co.za/

Josef Hoflehner's Jet Airliner Photographs

AMAZING.

http://tinyurl.com/raup48

Air Hostess Lego

How lovely are these ladies? Lady on the right is especially lovely - look at that awesome 50's vintage look she's got going on!

http://tinyurl.com/8x2bar4

http://tinyurl.com/7j3g3sz

Airport Illustrations

Brad Woodward's "Whatever Happened to First Class?" Illustration

Brad Woodward based his illustration on a haiku from a New York Times article entitled "Whatever Happened to First Class?" 

The haiku: 

"Glory days of flight 
Attendants wore white gloves, suits
It's peanuts, neck cramps"

http://tinyurl.com/7syfmky

Maria Zaikina's Cover for Le Cool Moscow

http://tinyurl.com/7rebt33

U2's Beautiful Day Music Video

Who can forget this amazing moment from U2's Beautiful Day music video? I can't think of anything more epic than U2 playing their tunes on carpets down the runway! Apparently this was filmed at Paris-Charles DeGaulle.

http://tinyurl.com/yczpode

Some pics of the beginning of an amazing overseas adventure.

 Our plane!

Tata for now!
xoxo

Don't Panic Coat of Arms Submission

My submission for Don't Panic's Design a Coat of Arms Competition! It symbolises some of the more quirkier aspects of myself!

You can vote on the designs for the competition here and here's my entry :)

The meaning behind it all

CROWN - When I was young I would draw crowns on EVERYTHING. So I figured that was important to include.

ROBIN - Besides the fact that my name is Robyn, I was actually named after the Cape Robin, as my dad is an avid birdwatcher!

DAISY (in said Robin's mouth) - I love daisies - they're my favourite flower! There's something so wonderfully straight-forward about daisies; they always seem so happy and unpretentious! Plus, they feature in one of my most favourite movies, You've Got Mail :)

BLUE CRANE - I live in Cape Town, South Africa and the Blue Crane is our national bird.

PENCIL (in Blue Crane's mouth) - I love to draw; I have a real passion for illustration - one day I hope to illustrate a children's book :) (Note how the details on the Blue Crane's back look like pencil doodles ;) )

BOWL (in the shield) - not many people know this, but if I can, I will choose to eat my food in a bowl rather than on a plate. Weird. I know.

PLANE - I LOVE flying! I love take-off, landing, peering out of the window to see the scenery (a window seat is a must!), watching planes coming and going - I could seriously sit for hours at the airport watching them take-off and land! I'm probably the only person I know that wishes flights on planes were longer (even international ones!) and gets excited every time I see the sign for Cape Town International! I love the airport!

STRAWBERRIES - LOVE them! I can polish off a whole box of Woolies' strawbs when they're in season, no lies! Surprisingly I haven't ever gone strawberry picking - but is something I definitely want to tick off this year on my bucket list!

"EVER UPWARD" - The motto of the place I'd most like to see one day - New York City! I've dreamt of going to NYC ever since I was 13! I would go into detail about how obsessive I am over NYC, but I figure my Pinterest board will clue you in! 

POSTAGE STAMP - When I was young I used to collect stamps. My dad would collect the old school kind, while I was more interested in the children's book illustrated ones! I have stamps that feature the vintage Winnie-the-Pooh illustrations, Alice in Wonderland and ones from all over the world with cute illustrations! Go figure. On the stamp, you can see my tribute to Table Mountain - one of the most amazing places to go visit in Cape Town! (Also the new 7th Wonder of the World, so definitely a must-see!) It's so amazingly serene and beautiful up there, seriously one of my most favourite places in Cape Town :)

Below is some of my process work.

Initial quick scamp of what I was thinking of doing - I tend to work on one spot - so I'll keep drawing and rubbing out until I get to more or less what I want it to be.

Based on the initial scamp, but more refined. Again, I tend to keep drawing on one spot until I get it right!

Then I get cracking on my trusty computer and start playing around with colour and composition.

Voila! And there we have it!

Illustration Friday - Puzzled

Quick illustration for this week's Illustration Friday topic of "Puzzled".

Happy Easter!

So it's been a while since I last had a good block of time to doodle away to my heart's content, but in between eating way too many Easter eggs and hot-cross buns, there was time for a bit of a doodle, and here it is! Wishing you all a belated, blessed Easter :)

Some of my most favourite animated videos :)

So last week I stumbled across this video entitled "A Year of Sun with Mr. Persol", produced by Passion Pictures for Persol. SO lovely!

PRODUCTION Passion Pictures // passion-pictures.com

DIRECTED BY Kevin Dart // kevindart.com // Stéphane Coëdel // vimeo.com/steffromuk

PRODUCER Ryan Goodwin-Smith // ryan.gs

ASSOCIATE PRODUCER Jen Coatsworth

DESIGNERS Kevin Dart // Chris Turnham // christurnham.com

ANIMATORS Jérémy Pires // vimeo.com/jeremypires // Nelson Boles // vimeo.com/nelsonboles // Nick Appleton

ANIMATION ASSISTANT Mariano Melman

COMPOSITING Stéphane Coëdel // Celine Desrumaux // groovythesushi.blogspot.com

EDITING Stéphane Coëdel

STORY Kevin Dart // Stéphane Coëdel // Elizabeth Ito // kikutowne.com // Chris Mitchell // jinzoningen.blogspot.com/

SOUND AND MUSIC Dave Newby // vimeo.com/dnewby

AGENCY Winkreative, London, UK // winkreative.com

CREATIVE DIRETOR Tyler Brûlé

DESIGN DIRECTOR Maurus Fraser

ART DIRECTOR Silke Klinnert

ACCOUNT MANAGER Ariane Elfen 

COPYWRITER Matthew Temple 

PRODUCER Julie Thyman

And also happened to stumble across the animated adaptation of Oliver Jeffers' Lost and Found book.

ADAPTED AND DIRECTED by STUDIO AKA's Philip Hunt

BASED ON Oliver Jeffers' award winning children's picture book, "Lost and Found"

NARRATION by the great Jim Broadbent

SCORE by composer Max Richter 

Available on Amazon UK, PLAY UK & iTunes UK

And last but not least, I love this opening title sequence for "Catch Me If You Can" discovered via Art of the Title. Inspired by the amazing designer Saul Bass and the 60's, in which the movie is set, Paris-based Olivier Kuntzel and Florence Deygas created this winner of an opening sequence.

Read more about their process of making the animation here.

CE Design Contest II

So lately I've been very busy on my entry for the CE Design Contest II. Basically the competition called for designers to design a vinyl toy, blister pack and a t-shirt. It's not often that you come across such an amazing brief - so I had a lot of fun dreaming up ideas!

This is Trilby. He's a tiger in the circus who has both a fondness for collecting medals, as well as wearing them. Perhaps he likes to wear so many medals because he thinks they give him a false sense of status. Possibly a kleptomaniac.

Scamp of the blister pack. I'm quite a Type A person, so I like to draw up more or less what I'm thinking of doing. On the blister pack we're introduced to some of Trilby's friends in the circus.

And here's the scamp brought to life!

Some detail shots.

Design for the t-shirt.

And here's my entry! South Africa represent!

My sister also did an AMAZING entry for the competition - you can check hers out here and here!

UPDATE:

Made the top 95 finalists, but unfortunately didn't place in the top 5 international designers :) Congrats to all the finalists!!