Ankhou Graphic Design

Vans, B.C. – From The Ground Up

Ian Houghton — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 06:22:12 +0000

I participated in an art show in Revelstoke recently called “From the Ground Up”, conceived by Joey Norsworthy from OurHabit and held at Society Snow & Skate on Mackenzie Avenue. It was a great experience and very encouraging of the growing youth art scene in Revelstoke.

I worked on a Vans shoe for the show; materials used were polyfilla, acrylic paint, wire, pebbles, sponge scourers, rope ends and acrylic varnish. You can see the photos of my piece below and check out more photos of “From the Ground Up” on Facebook.

Photos

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Poster

I also produced the poster for the show.

Style Vs. Substance – The Bright Young

Ian Houghton — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 19:09:58 +0000

I wrote an article on the present and near future of design on the internet for The Bright Young, a new online journal dedicated to the exploration of modern web culture.

It’s edited by Connor Tomas O’Brien, whose articles on modern technology, culture and the written word I greatly admire. It’s also coming straight out of my home city of Adelaide, South Australia and is representative of the more vibrant creative culture emerging there.

I hope you enjoy the article, and I’d love to hear any thoughts you might have. It’s my first stab at something of this nature, so I’m sure there’s plenty of room for improvement and refinement.

Relief Teacher Business Card

Ian Houghton — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 19:49:53 +0000

I put together a quick project for a friend who was looking for a business card. He’s a temporary relief teacher in Adelaide, South Australia. An eye-catching, single-sided business card was required to assist him in standing out from competitors.

Business Card

Jane Sullivan: Website

Ian Houghton — Sun, 03 Apr 2011 05:58:54 +0000

I’m pleased to announce the launch of the website for Jane Sullivan, an Australian author based in Melbourne. Jane is a journalist for the Melbourne newspapers The Age and the Herald Sun. She also writes fiction and has produced two novels, as well as a short story.

Her latest novel, titled Little People has just been released, and the launch date of the website was arranged to coincide with this. Little People is a semi-fictional account of General Tom Thumb’s visit to Australia in 1870.

Jane is a delightful client, and I look forward to working with her in the future. You can view the entry for the website in my portfolio.

Big Red Cats T-shirt

Ian Houghton — Sat, 02 Apr 2011 06:23:03 +0000

I was commissioned by Big Red Cats to produce a t-shirt design for the 2010/11 season as official merchandise for their business. After a few rounds of drafting, we hit on a design that they were very happy with. I used the tenure of the operation along with contour lines and an adventurous sonar sweep to produce a shirt that is hopefully not just a novelty, but a true souvenir.

You can view the full illustration in my portfolio.

Print Work: Posters

Ian Houghton — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 00:46:23 +0000

It’s been a long winter with a lot of snow and great skiing, which, while it may not excuse my lack of updates on this blog, certainly explains it.

I’ve been working solidly over the past four months for a variety of clients. While much of the work is still confidential at this point, I’ve had some fun designing a number of posters for some events over the winter.

Ourhabit, run by Joey Norsworthy, has organised and sponsored a series of three rail jams in town at the Big Eddy Pub during the last three months. I’ve produced the posters for the jams, as well as a poster for a charity event organised by Brittany Clark, supporting breast cancer awareness and research. You can check out the posters below. They were an interesting exercise in cramming in as much essential information as I was instructed to fit (apart from the video premier poster), while still maintaining readability and making the final product eye-catching.

You can view the posters in my portfolio or read on to check them out.

Revelstoke: Begbie Falls

Ian Houghton — Thu, 25 Nov 2010 21:34:44 +0000

It’s hard to do justice to Revelstoke with photos, but I got a few shots on a hike at Begbie Falls recently which I’m quite happy with. We parked up by the road and hiking in for 30 minutes, found another trail and explored that until it petered off, then got lost on some bike trails and made it back to the car just before dark. I’m looking forward to buying a mountain bike for next summer, because it looks like there’s some great riding to be had.

Begbie Falls after a 30 minute hike

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Revelstoke is an inland rainforest – high precipitation means lots of moss

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And I mean LOTS of moss

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It’s like a big, fluffy, green carpet across most of the forest floor

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An HDR shot of the river feeding Begbie Falls

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Another HDR shot of the river feeding Begbie Falls

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An HDR photo of Revelstoke and the surrounding valley

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Flying V!

Saluting the Salmon at Squilax

Ian Houghton — Wed, 24 Nov 2010 21:07:30 +0000

We took a road trip to Squilax a couple of weeks ago to check out the ‘Salmon Salute’. It’s an event that occurs every year, but increases in magnitude significantly every four years due to the lifecycle of the salmon. Hundreds of thousands of salmon swim upstream to their original spawning grounds to breed, and ultimately die.

Interesting fact: due to railroad construction, the spawning channels were almost blocked, significantly impacting the breeding capabilities of the Sockeye salmon. Man-made spawning channels have since been constructed, allowing the fish to swim upstream with ease.

It was a pretty spectacular sight, and a pretty spectacular smell. Imagine thousands of rotting fish lying in the sun – not very pleasant.

Dead salmon

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More dead salmon (in HDR)

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Plenty of live ones as well

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Sheltering near the bank from the current

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I hope this guy got to spawn!

Submeg Identity

Ian Houghton — Wed, 10 Nov 2010 06:37:51 +0000

I recently completed an identity and business card project for DJ Submeg, a friend and previous colleague who is starting a party DJ business. It was fun developing a theme for his business, and I look forward to hearing his promo mixes. I’ve included a few images from the project below, including some unused concepts.

Identity

The logo for DJ Submeg

The form of the logo is based on the four pillars of Hip-hop culture: MCing, DJing b-boying and graffiti writing. The form is of a vinyl record synonymous with turntablism separated into four segments to represent each of these pillars, as well as to create a stylised S and M when rotated a few degrees in either direction. The G in Submeg is stylised as an arrow to create further mental associations with turntablism and graffiti writing.

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Business cards developed for DJ Submeg

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Promotional t-shirt design based on DJ Submeg’s logo

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Alternate promotional t-shirt design

Unused Concepts

Unused logo concepts and variations

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Unused t-shirt design concept

Revelstoke: Our Arrival

Ian Houghton — Fri, 22 Oct 2010 05:37:33 +0000

After three months in Vancouver, we decided that we’d had enough of city living, and it was time to move to the mountains again. A few frantic weeks of running around, arranging future accommodation, packing and giving notice culminated in an early move to a friend’s place for a couple of nights of couch sleeping due to circumstances beyond our control. It made the move a little more stressful than it could have been, but sitting here in a beautiful suite in Revelstoke, it’s safe to say that it was all worth it.

The move was via Greyhound; after $133 in extra baggage (it’s amazing how much you can accumulate in three months) the only bump in the road was a woman with some kind of volatile tourette’s syndrome sitting behind us for two hours of the nine hour journey.

Safe arrival in Revelstoke!

The weather here has been a perfect BC autumn. Cool, crisp, low cloud over the mountains in the morning, burning off to create balmy sunny afternoons. We’ve taken advantage of temporary unemployment to skate a lot more, and we’re going to take a trip to a provincial park to see the salmon spawning on the Adams river tomorrow.

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The leaves are beautiful here – autumn is setting in

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HDR shot of Lake Revelstoke and the railway bridge

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HDR shot of the mountains across the lake

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HDR panorama of a little bay on the lake – complete with a local fisherman

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Panoramic shot of the lake

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Panoramic shot of the lake

I’ll try and get some photos of the salmon run up in the next few days, but hopefully the next photos after that will be with snow on the ground!