thethinkingphrase

CRCL Icon Set by thethinkingphrase

2010-12-27T03:48:00.000Z

Hey everyone!

Here is the fruits of a little project I've been working on for a few months. It's an icon set that will make your dock look all lovely and circular! They're in .icns format as, for some reason, the .png files didn't work at all as icons. Anyway, it's good practice to use .icns files.

Regardless, to install these icons, I recommend Candybar (for the applications) and LiteIcon (for the system/folder icons). Two amazing pieces of software that make this whole installation process a million times easier. The only problem is iCal, for which I've included specific installation instructions.

So, without further ado, here is what the icons look like! You can click the preview to instantly download the icons, or click the download link below!

Enjoy!

Click here to download!

Full list of icons (as of 27/12/2010):
Address Book, Adobe After Effects, Adobe Bridge, Adobe Dreamweaver, Adobe Fireworks, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Lightroom, Adobe Photoshop, Apps Folder, Audacity, Burn Folder, Desktop Folder, Developer Folder, Dictionary, Documents Folder, Downloads Folder, Dropbox Folder, DVD, Finder, Flickr, Folder, Garageband, Google Chrome, Groups Folder, iCal, iChat, iMovie, iPhoto, iTunes, Library Folder, Mail, Movies Folder, MS Excel, MS Messenger, MS Oulook, MS Powerpoint, MS Word, Music Folder, Open Folder, Pictures Folder, Preview, Public Folder, RSS, Safari, Server Folder, Sharing Folder, Sites Folder, Skype, Smart Folder, System Folder, System Preferences, Time Machine, Torrent, Trash Empty, Trash Full, Twitter, Users Folder, Utilities Folder, Word Processor.

To The Sea

2010-12-22T20:32:00.001Z

To The Sea, originally uploaded by thethinkingphrase.

Isolation

2010-12-14T01:59:00.001Z

Isolation, originally uploaded by thethinkingphrase.

Dem Bugs

2010-12-09T03:51:00.001Z

Dem Bugs, originally uploaded by thethinkingphrase.

Bark

2010-11-29T00:15:00.001Z

Bark, originally uploaded by thethinkingphrase.

Where?

2010-11-27T15:43:00.000Z

Hi there,

I haven't really posted anything in ages. To be honest, I've been properly busy since my last post. It's kind of a weird experience, but it is legitimate. I'm now in the third year of my course, and Honours subjects really take up a lot of time! Though I can't wait until next year when all I have is Honours subjects. There's more work, but you're only in for 2 hours a week, it's great.

So, two of my three courses this semester have finished, leaving me with a five day weekend. I really haven't got an excuse now. Therefore, I plan on blogging more! If I have anything interesting to say, I'll say it!

First and foremost, I've been playing Red Dead Redemption online a lot these days. If you have a Playstation 3 and play Red Dead Redemption online (or any game really, I have more than one game), add me! My PSN ID is 'Edenology'.

Right, that'll do for now. I'll come back soon with more shit to talk about!

-S

Fire Water Burn

2010-11-27T15:41:00.001Z

Fire Water Burn, originally uploaded by thethinkingphrase.

Rotting

2010-11-27T15:36:00.001Z

Rotting, originally uploaded by thethinkingphrase.

Night Light

2010-11-25T05:16:00.001Z

Night Light, originally uploaded by thethinkingphrase.

Allegiances

2010-08-12T20:09:00.000+01:00

Note: I advise you don't read this if you haven't seen Inception yet.

There's one thing that I've noticed these days. In fact, it's not exclusive to the past few years at all when you think about it.

A certain people, or type of people, feel that there must be an allegiance with certain companies or products. I only really noticed this in the build up, and subsequent time after, the release of Christopher Nolan's new movie, Inception. A lot of people believe Christopher Nolan to be one of the greatest storytellers of all time. I love his earlier work, particularly The Prestige and Memento. However, I personally feel that he's become quite akin to Michael Bay, if Michael Bay had any shame. Both directors rely on their action sequences to push their movies forward.

For example, what do you think will be the most memorable scene from Inception? In years to come, what will be the scene that everyone remembers? What will be its The Matrix dodging-bullets moment? Will it be the scene with Eames driving around the Modern Warfare 2 snow level? Or the scene with Cobb and Mal walking around Limbo? Or even the climax of the movie when Fischer meets his father? No, it'll be the scene with Arthur fighting in the corridor while the gravity shifts. It was an awesome scene, that is undeniable, but it is an action scene that must be there, otherwise the plot doesn't move forward.

Take a look on the other hand at The Prestige. In my opinion, the most memorable scenes in that film is the climax. The 'oh shit' moment when you realise that there's one last twist left. That culmination of the entire plot told from a different angle is so well paced and beautifully scripted, no action is needed. The Prestige is a movie in which the plot is furthered by the mystery. The second half of Inception is basically one big action sequence. While yes, very exciting, and hellishly tense at moments; it reeks a bit of the Michael Bay School of Cinema at times.

So, what has all this got to do with allegiances? When The Dark Knight was released, a huge gust of fanboyism spread over many many people, and they felt that it was the best movie ever made. In fact, it made it to the #1 spot on the IMDb Top 250 list. People lapped it up. Only after the dust had settled have we been able to see how The Dark Knight is far from a perfect movie. Unnecessary moral dilemmas, dumb action sequences and questionable acting from the majority of the cast produced a movie that ultimately did not live up to the hype. However, the dest never seemed to settle for some, and they knew that they were going to love Inception from the moment they saw the first teaser trailer. They had a built-in allegiance to it.

Regardless of what you think of my opinions on both The Dark Knight and Inception, you can't ignore that it is currently #3 on the IMDb Top 250, just behind The Godfather and just ahead of The Godfather, Part II. You can't ignore that the same gust of fanboyism that swept over The Dark Knight is also sweeping over Inception. People feel that whatever Christopher Nolan releases turns to gold, when actually it's fool's gold. It looks like gold, and you can want it to be gold all you want, but it just isn't gold. The same thing will happen in a few years' time when the next Batman movie is released. That, I can guarantee.

I never really meant for this to be a review of The Dark Knight or Inception. I think I might actually review them in detail, and perhaps draw comparisons between them, and see how Christopher Nolan is evolving as a director and storyteller. Is he good? Yes, very. Is he amongst the greatest storytellers of all time? No, not yet. He needs to stop dumbing-down his movies. People complained that Inception was difficult to follow, and that I never understood. I was able to follow it from beginning to end without issue. Perhaps it's because I'm a sci-fi fan and have seen this type of thing done before, but I don't think so. I have a friend who said the exact same thing, and he's not big into sci-fi. If you compare Inception to The Prestige or Memento, you can clearly see how Christopher Nolan is much more into holding the audience's hand through the movie.

Also, I think the ending of Inception was cheap. It was made so that people would be talking about it and discussing it. How much better would it have been if the top kept spinning throughout the credits? I tell you, you'd be stuck to your seat. I feel Nolan should have come down on one side of the fence. There was no real reason to have the top spinning, apart from being a stupid ambiguous ending.

Anyway, these feelings are for another day. Let's move on.

Another example of allegiances come from brands. "XBox 360 or PS3? Mac or PC?" Really, all these machines are the same as their counterparts. Are the differences between the XBox 360 and the PS3 so huge that it's worth getting into huge arguments before. I personally own a PS3, but I have no allegiance at all to Sony or the Playstation line. Yes, I have owned a PS and (two) PS2s But those were the best consoles at that time. I preferred the games on the Playstation over the N64 or the Dreamcast, so I got it. The PS2 never really had a rival until the XBox was released, by which time I'd had my PS2 for over a year and was building up a library of games. This, ultimately led to my decision to get a PS3. My PS2 and PS games play on it, so I had a much bigger selection of games to play. Also, I never liked the XBox 360 exclusive titles, so they weren't enough to sway me. I could have easily have got an XBox 360 instead, but I didn't. Will I blindly support Sony and get the PS4 ahead of the next XBox or Nintendo console? No, of course not. If I feel it's a better machine, more worth my money, then I will. If not, then I won't. Simple decision.

Now, my decision to get a Mac stems from a slightly more different line of reasoning. I've used PCs all my life. I wanted a Mac originally because of how they looked, I'll be honest. I didn't get one at that point however, instead I got a Toshiba. After one year, and a startup that took over 5 minutes, I decided I needed a change. My best friend had recently got a Macbook and I'd been using it quite a lot. I loved how quick it was and the OS was really straightforward. I admit that if I want to code a game or something, a Mac isn't the way to go. In fact, at the time I was doing my A-Level ICT coursework which involved creating a database and GUI in Microsoft Access, which you can't get for Mac. To my enjoyment and to the hush of my classmates who were berating me for buying a Mac, I loaded up Parallels and booted Windows XP, with the full Office suite installed. I got 100% in that coursework by the way. Boo-yah, as I believe nobody says these days.

But, do I defend Apple and all their misgivings? Will I go out and buy the next Macbook or Macbook Pro? I might, but not based on a comparing of the facts. My dad would always point out to me how "This Dell laptop has blahdeblah more RAM and blahdeblah more HD space". The fact is that those things don't matter, if the operating system doesn't use them efficiently. Yeah, my Macbook may have only got 2GB of RAM when I could have got a Dell or an HP at the same price with double the RAM. However, they would have been running Windows (7, to be particular). I personally don't like Windows 7. I loved Windows XP, and my last 'PC' ran XP. I've never owned a laptop that ran Vista or 7, and I'm glad. While Vista did improve, I hated how brutally slow it was. My mum has a computer currently running Vista and it's absolutely hateful. Sometimes it boots, sometimes you have to reboot it to get it to boot. However, do I think that Macs are better than 'PCs'? No, because that's not the question. The question is, do I think that OS X Leopard is better than Vista or 7? And the answer is that yes, I do.

I have no allegiance to Apple however. I like their products, but I'd have no hesitation in buying a better one. When it came to getting a new phone, I looked at every phone other than the iPhone, because I felt that it was too expensive for what it was. It just so happened that by a lucky set of circumstances, I was able to get my sister's one, then lower the contract. The fact is that an HTC costs just as much as an iPhone. If you want a phone that is as good as the iPhone, you have to expect to pay the same amount as the iPhone. In which case, why not just get an iPhone? The attraction to the iPhone will always be the App Store. While I know how much more potential it has as I've experienced a jailbroken iPhone, I still think the App Store is the selling point.

Fact is, base your opinions on the current state of affairs, not on past records or achievements. Sure, when deciding if a movie is going to be worth going to see, looking at the director's CV is a good move. But, love it for what it is. Love it for tangible reasons, and recognise it's flaws, as nothing is perfect. Don't make yourself love it because the same director made another movie that you love. I loved The Matrix, but I didn't think that the others in the series were of the same calibre. I recognised that at the time. Don't feel you have an allegiance to a director. If you support them, then you should be searching for flaws in their movie. Point out what is wrong, what works and what doesn't. That way, a director can improve and create better work. Christopher Nolan is a director who wants to create smart movies, and he does. But his recent works are baby steps compared to the leaps his previous works were. In my opinion, Nolan needs to learn how to tone down the dumb action sequences and moral ambiguity which add unnecessary fat to a great movie.

I want to make this clear; I loved Inception. I've not been that tense in a cinema for a long time. I just hate the glowing reviews it is getting that say things like "Can it be any better than The Dark Knight?". I feel like people assume that it is a great movie based on Nolan's resumé. "He's Christopher Nolan, of course it's a masterpiece." That doesn't fly with me, and it shouldn't fly with you.

This was a long one folks, and I appreciate it if you made it this far! I'd really love to hear your opinions on this one, seeing as it seems to be something that is steeped in internet culture. I'm taking a break from blogging over at FringeFX, so I should be back up here for a bit! I'll be posting up a kind of back-catalogue of posts that I posted on FFX, so expect those soon.

Until then, be smart.

-Simon

The Sun Shines

2010-07-30T22:14:00.001+01:00

The Sun Shines, originally uploaded by thethinkingphrase.

Everyday Art: The Album Artwork

2010-07-24T16:25:00.000+01:00

The Everyday Art feature is now going to be fortnightly rather than weekly. This schedule change allows me to put more research into the topics and ultimately produce better articles.

Designing Album Art is one of the most daunting and yet rewarding jobs a graphics designer can do. There are so many aspects to get right that it is very easy to get it wrong. It is effectively a piece of art that could be seen by millions and millions of people. Few mediums of art are as general, widely seen and remembered than that of album artwork. In designing it, it is important to reflect the overall feel and themes of the album as it is just as much a part of the art as the music.

I know that, for me, when I think of my favourite albums I think of the album art. The music and the artwork go hand-in-hand. Forgettable artwork can totally kill the appeal of an album to consumers. It may be 'judging a book by its cover', but sometimes the cover of a book reflects the effort and intention behind the content. If a cover looks like it has been thrown together in about two minutes, the content probably didn't take much longer. Let me give you a couple of examples.

The Climb (Single) - Joe McElderry

Now this album artwork does achieve a few points for a good, if safe, typeface choice. It's rare to see Helvetica used in the artwork for the winner of a reality TV show. But you can see that this artwork took a whole five minutes to put together. Add type, stroke, and gradient overlay to a standard photo of your subject and you're away. Being a graphics designer is easy! At least sometimes the music industry would have you believing that. I reckon Simon Cowell did this himself because he figured it'd be cheaper than hiring a freelancer.

The Time Of Our Lives - Miley Cyrus

Now this, this is just awful. Regardless of what you think of Miley Cyrus' music, you'd think a big star like her would be able to have album artwork that was at least appealing. I have a general rule of graphics design, one that is especially appropriate for album artwork; never use more than two typefaces. Generally, more than two typefaces leads to clutter and confusion. Another rule I have is that one pixel white strokes on text generally looks awful and tacky. Doubly so on a cursive font. Also, look at the wonderful placement of that text. Good lord, we can just tell how much time and effort has been spent to make this 'album' the best it can be.

I'm a bit tired of looking at awful album art though, so let's talk about some examples to the contrary.

London Calling - The Clash

The Clash are often considered to be one of the most influential bands of all time, and their third album "London Calling" is widely accepted as one of the greatest rock albums of all time. The artwork beautifully and simply sums up the themes that are prevalent in the album. It features the bassist, Paul Simonon, smashing his guitar against the ground. It was originally felt that the photo was too out-of-focus, however Joe Strummer (lead vocalist) and the graphics designer Ray Lowry felt that it worked well. It perfectly displays the heart and soul of rock'n'roll. The text is an homage to Elvis Presley's debut album, and London Calling has far surpassed that album in influence. Rolling Stone magazine named it the album of the 80s.

Thriller - Michael Jackson

Now look at that. Jackson just reeks of coolness in that white suit and that pose. The handwriting in the corner just adds to the suave nature of the whole cover. And Thriller is probably Jackson's coolest and slickest album. I envy those who were old enough to go out and buy Thriller when it came out. I can only imagine looking at that artwork while listening to the first track; "Wanna Be Startin' Something'". Spine-tingling, I imagine. Thriller is the single biggest selling album of all time, with an estimated 110 million copies sold. That is over double the second best selling album (AC/DC's Back in Black) which has an estimated 49 million sales. This cover art defines one of the greatest artists who ever existed, and will always be associated with that unwavering funk and soul that Jackson so fervently popularised.

There are some bands who are synonymous with their album art. Two in particular are Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin. When we think of great album art, the discography of these two bands might as well double up as a list of great album art. Here are a few of my favourites:

Wish You Were Here - Pink Floyd

The Dark Side of the Moon - Pink Floyd

Houses of the Holy - Led Zeppelin

Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin

Hopefully from this brief little insight into the importance and influence album art can have, you will have a greater appreciation when walking around your local record store. Or, a greater contempt for album art which is lazy and unenthusiastic. Remember, the first thing that you see from an album is the artwork, and it will be imprinted in your memories if the music has an effect on you. Never underestimate the impact of the visuals that accompany the music.

-S

Everyday Art: The Movie Poster

2010-07-20T20:52:00.000+01:00

What do I mean by 'Everyday Art'? The idea behind it is to bring people's attention to the art and trends in our culture that we may miss, as they have become background noise in our day-to-day lives. It will span from things so basic as fonts and logos, to things as complex as architecture.

So, let's get started shall we? This week's post is all about movie posters. I'll get started by showing you all my favourite movie poster.

And that's not because of the flat stomach, thank you very much.

We see them almost every day of our lives. Whether we're walking past a cinema, billboard or bus shelter, or even just browsing the internet; movie posters penetrate through our culture. If a big-budget movie is being released, you can expect a large chunk of that budget goes into marketing, and getting that poster in front of your eyes. Yet so often we just gloss over when we look at them. Taking a step back, we can see some of the wonderful art that has gone into movie posters, past and present.

These days there is far less focus on the physical marketing campaign for movies. Usually you'll see some kind of viral or online marketing campaign used to drum up some hype. Most people will see the trailer for a movie long before they ever see a poster. Although often, the poster is released as a brief teaser to just give people a taste of what's coming.

One thing that I really love in posters is when we just get an image that is associated with a series. It's like the creators of the movie are saying, "Yeah, we know you know what this represents, that's just how good we are. We don't even need to tell you the name of the movie." Here are a few examples:

While these are all well and good, they don't really tell us a whole lot (if anything) about the story. Before the recent growth of the internet and computers, people relied on posters a lot more. You couldn't simply go onto IMDb or Wikipedia and read a synopsis. Fewer people had televisions, so were less likely to see an advert there (if one was even made). The poster was intended to create the feel of the movie and give the person looking at it an idea of what they're in for. You'll get the idea when I post a few examples:

It's a big fish that eats people. Straightforward enough.

It's a woman. She's 50ft tall. Not too complicated.

Yeah, I think we get the idea.

For even more fun, let's compare the posters of a couple of remakes against their original counterpart!

Wow, a big ape.

Wow, a big ape that's kidnapped a woman and is climbing up buildings in New York and destroying planes! Sweet! (Yes, people in 1933 said "Sweet!". I swear.)

Wow, a house.

Wow, that's messed up! Wes Craven has some serious issues!

The remake of Wes Craven's classic debut "The Last House on the Left" actually brings me on to another big trend in movie posters. Trajan. For those who don't know, Trajan is a typeface, named after the Roman Emperor Trajan. I'm afraid that saying this might change how you look at movie posters, but it must be done. Trajan is everywhere. I mean it, everywhere. Do you recognise the font from the Last House on the Left poster? No?

What about now?

If you want to avoid going insane at all the Trajan, then stay well clear from the Horror aisle at your local video store.

And then there's the ever popular 'floating heads' poster.

On top of that, there's one man in particular who loves having his head floated around.

Morgan Freeman: Fearless of the float.

No discussion about movie posters can be complete without a mention to Drew Struzan. Many of the classic posters that stick in our head have been created by Struzan. He has a way of bringing an entire story to life in one single image. None more so than the Indiana Jones franchise. Struzan's poster work for Temple of Doom, The Last Crusade and Kingdom of the Crystal Skull are synonymous with the explorer/adventurer character we've all grown to love.

Some more of Struzan's work you might recognise:

Back to the Future I, II, and III

Star Wars Episode VI: Revenge of the Jedi

Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace

The Thing

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's/Sorcerer's Stone

I highly recommend you go onto his website and check out his portfolio. The man really is the master of the movie poster. Hey, if you have a spare $450,000.00 then why not buy the original Back to the Future poster!

So, the next time that you see a movie poster, take a second look and see if you recognise it. Perhaps it's a Struzan classic, perhaps it's a comedy with big bold red letters, or a horror with Trajan and some splatter brushes. Or, if you're really lucky, it'll have floating heads, Trajan, and Morgan Freeman all rolled up into one beautiful little ball.

Now that's just not acceptable.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on movie posters. What are your favourites? Any that stick in your mind from childhood? Also, tell me what you think about this feature. It's new, and I'd like to know if you all find it interesting.

Thanks very much for reading!

-Simon

Neglect

2010-07-09T16:26:00.000+01:00

Hey there everyone.

Sorry for the neglect I've been giving this blog recently. I've just been blogging photos really. I do write for the FringeFX Art Blog regularly, and I will eventually post those articles here for you to read. You can read them over there now if you like, or wait for me to post them up here eventually.

So what have I been doing? Well, bits and bobs really. It looks like I'm going to be doing some freelance graphics design work over the next few months, which is really cool. I've also gone back to playing my guitar and my ukelele, which I had kind of ignored since I went back to university last year.

I'm really getting in to Star Trek these days. I'm nearly on Season 4 of The Next Generation and I'm loving it. It's really quite campy at times, but it's so good. I've got a ridiculous amount of TV to watch. Alias, Fringe, X-Files, Battlestar Galactica, Life on Mars, Bones, Star Trek: Enterprise; all of these I own but have not watched yet. It's really quite bad.

My auntie and uncle were here about a week ago and my uncle gave me all this old camera equipment. It's seriously awesome. Even just to take pictures of it is cool, let alone with it. I also found out that all the old SLR filters fit my OWLE Bubo, so I'm able to play around with them a bit more.

I'm probably going to go now and play some Red Dead Redemption online, perhaps try and get my level up a bit more. I usually don't bother with levels, but when it actually means that I will get a better character in the game, it's a bit important.

Hooah and all that. Shall be chatting to you all soon.

Toodle pip.

-S

Lens Light

2010-07-08T01:00:00.001+01:00

Lens Light, originally uploaded by thethinkingphrase.

The Clock Strikes One - Redux

2010-06-30T23:45:00.001+01:00

The Clock Strikes One - Redux, originally uploaded by thethinkingphrase.

Comin' Home

2010-06-22T10:53:00.001+01:00

Comin' Home, originally uploaded by thethinkingphrase.

Erase This

2010-06-15T22:17:00.001+01:00

Erase This, originally uploaded by thethinkingphrase.

Ham Dynamic Range

2010-06-10T06:04:00.001+01:00

Ham Dynamic Range, originally uploaded by thethinkingphrase.

Sorry about that

2010-06-02T18:40:00.000+01:00

Hey everyone.

If you're subscribed to the RSS feed, then things have been a little weird recently from here.

Basically, I've totally re-designed my blog and portfolio pages. They are now A LOT more functional and the blog contains near enough every post I've ever made.

I'm also testing out mobile blogging, let's see how that works out.

Bye bye :)
-S

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

Jetpowered Vampires

2010-05-30T22:09:00.001+01:00

Jetpowered Vampires, originally uploaded by thethinkingphrase.

In Memoriam

2010-05-29T19:52:00.000+01:00

Dennis Hopper
1936-2010

In Memoriam

2010-05-28T20:34:00.000+01:00

Gary Coleman
1968-2010

FlyByNight

2010-05-23T19:58:00.001+01:00

FlyByNight, originally uploaded by thethinkingphrase.

Four Lions

2010-05-23T19:25:00.000+01:00

Aloha.

Yesterday I went to see Four Lions, the feature debut from Chris Morris, the brains behind Brass Eye amongst other things. This isn’t going to be a review or anything, just a recommendation.

Go. See. This. Movie.

Seriously, this is an absolute must-see movie. Hilariously funny, and wonderfully smart. Afterwards there was a Q&A with Chris Morris and a few of the actors which really opened up the whole movie. You can appreciate the thought and research that went into making it.

So yeah, go and see Four Lions.

Also, apparently there are like, 30 people following this RSS feed. This’ll make me sound like an absolute loser, but I think that’s really cool. I didn’t know there were so many people who were interested in the crap I have to say. So thanks a lot :). Why not leave a comment, let me know who you are?

-S