Lucifer's soul crunch

here's another image in the cereal box series.

caustic cereal

hello one and all, work has been on and off this past few weeks which has unfortunately side tracked the design of the new website. though i have been quite busy such as the commission that i had done for  Time Out Magazine London and also other things which is more on the promotional slant, But I am aiming to get back on track with the site and have it live soon.

I have been recently making my own takes cereal boxes after John K featured on his blog about the design that tony the tiger had, the post mostly focused on an old animated advert though, he did mention about the packaging designs, seeing the 50s box designs of tony with his soft edges and subtle colour decisions compared to the more humanoid form of today. to me the 50's design stands out more with the shapes, colours and eye catching design, this version would be easily identifiable from a distance rather than the bland design of the new box which is now lost a sea of similar bland cereal packaging. See for yourself, next time your in a supermarket, look at how jaded the designs are compared to the older more designed packaging from the past. 

I am going to continue making a series of images in the style of cereal boxes which i might make into a book in the future.

you can now get cards & other stuff with my designs at moo.com

Just as it is stated above, some of my designs are now available on moo.com. the good thing about moo is that you can select an image and use it for things like greeting cards, postcards, mini cards and even a stickers. i really like the options that moo offers to its customers and i will be adding some more designs and possibly a design pack such as cards with custom envelopes and so on. 

I will probably see about combining the stickers with something like postcards if that can be done. 

anyway, here is the link to my designs: www.moo.com/designs/designers/scott_balmer 

one more thing, I have also entered a design for a t shirt on a website called how2 t shirts. This site is similar the general idea of threadless in that it uses the scoring system in the aid on selecting the best designs. how2 just like the name suggest revolves around themes that involve these words in them such as i have entered my design in the how to peel a banana section. 

its worth checking out and if all goes well i might just see about entering some designs on threadless.

again here is the link to my design and feel free to any sort of comment good or bad is up to you.

www.how2tshirts.com/score/design/65

a couple of new images & info on new website

two posts in one day. i feel i have to make up for not updating this blog for over a month. 

above are two pieces that are more graphic in style, and for anyone that is interested, these like my other graphic work is made up of paint, cut paper and other things such as pencil lines created by using the ruler to create diamonds? or stars? (or whatever you want to call 'em).

i also want to mention that i have been working on a new website which will include new work as well as most of the work on the site currently. this new website will be possibly easier to navigate while also being easy for me to update regularly. I don't know exactly when i will put this new site up but it will be soon once i have sorted out areas that need sorting and the odd tweak here and there.

i was also hoping to tell some more news but it hasn't been sorted out yet so once it does, both the news section on my site and this blog will be updated so keep an eye on this space.

imaginary friends

Recently, I have been rummaging around in old biscuit tins and photo albums, flicking through old polaroids and other old formats which have now got a nice warm yellow cast to them. You know the images that i have been looking at, the ones with the retro charms, the amazing decor, bad taste in clothing and the unintentional compositions taken as more of a snapshot but offers endless possibilities. 

it was with that notion that i decided to draw some of my favorite family photos and illustrate them further. 

here is the first one that i have produced which was an old polaroid of my brother's birthday party, i have kept the drawing simple while also retaining the line in its pure form. the drawing itself is quite small roughly smaller than A4 in size.

it seems a shame that in this day and age of digital cameras the allure of the slightly dodgy photograph has come to an end. though some folk might of discarded the offending photo back at that time, it is still even easier today with just a press of a button. the creative folk of the future might not have the pleasure of marveling at that picture that was once considered awful. much as when i looked back at the images of me and my brother, decked out in home knitted jumpers, you know the ones. the ones with imagery of shaggy dogs with wool made as hair or something with birds (robins were usually the favorite) at the time, some jumpers were considered 'do i have to wear it?' followed by moaning of some sorts, but now i don't think children are even given home made knitted clothing or at least i haven't seen any wearing them. 

anyway, i will be illustrating some photographs which have said jumpers in them in the not too distant future, so stay posted.  

And also have a Happy new year and i hope that all of you have had a good time around this festive season. 

monkeys (sort of)

not much to say really, their big n hairy, their faces are made up of numbers and they like bananas.

board Games: Buckeroo

ok, i was hoping to have the series finished off at six (still might) but its just finding the right game which would translate well into an illustration. i was working on one piece that would have been the final in the series though i decided to alter it into something completely different. this image above is a take on buckeroo, my brother actually had this though i might be wrong but the version that i remember didn't have that much detail on the horse. in fact i think there was hardly any, unlike the version circulating today.