Labored Themes

Well that title sux. I want to really strive to post on this blog when it is truly relevant or important to something I am experiencing in my career or life in general. I’m not gonna wax prophetic here, but what I want to try to avoid is the 3 line posts that say, “I fed my cat today. An approving meow was heard. Love your pets.”

I did not have anything of interest happen on Friday. I saw The Last Samurai. Not bad. They even kept with some history. It's too bad the man-dresses went out of fashion and, ultimately, never caught on here in the States. Saturday was not of particular greatness either, though I did see the latest Harry Potter. I will have to reread that book as I do not remember Ron having to face the bogart (sp?) in which it turned into an enormous spider. Spiders are horrible blights on the planet that exist to destroy me and all general good in the world. Overall, I liked it very much. The dark tone of the film was quite nice. There was more random acts of magic and just emphasis on things magic in this installment of the series. The faint sound the wands would emit when casting the smallest of spells was a touch that was very thoughtful and much appreciated. Sunday was just Sunday. Telling me with every hour that the weekend was ending and I had done nothing life altering this go around.

So what meaningful topic should this post discuss? Design and how it affects the conversations of society? Perhaps color theory and why a quiet, natural theme is more relevant to the Chancellor’s newsletter than the progressive combinations of urban chic? Or how about the use of type to wrestle a moral from the latest ad craze? I have nothing as inspiring or as intellectual as that. I have yet to even create my first one-off at Designologue. Yes, I am even too lazy to make that a link.

Lately, I have felt my days a bit lack-luster. Not due to my job (or perhaps so, in that I am so exceedingly efficient at it). I have, however, found some spare moments to create, or rather, explore making textures. I have created a couple so far that mimic the faded edge of a wallet sized photo. You know, the kind that has been sweltering in your back pocket and the ink of the photo is rubbed off on the edges. All part of my learning the ways of the weathered.

Speaking of weathered, the boys at RedLabor have, as the first page of their Portfolio section, a website for Static II. This looks to be a documentary of sorts about skaters. RedLabor is real top notch with the antique/grunge look. Their textures are truly one of a kind. There’s t-shirts, logos, DVD inserts. Nice stuff. They also did the intro for the Static II film as well as (I’m assuming by the look of the two being so similar) the trailer.

This last bit, the motion stuff (intro/trailer) is where I think it loses the RedLabor touch (or rather, didn’t need the RL touch). I had no idea what Static was, but from watching the intro alone (which was the first thing I saw even before the site) it felt like a TV show. Then I started to pick up the TV documentary feel. Kinda like what you would see on TLC late night about the underground of skater life or something. There just wasn’t anything very special about the intro. Matter of fact, I caught myself yawning about 2/3rds the way through. The music was dull and didn’t remind me of the xtreme-ness of skateboarding and I felt like I was watching the intro to a horror/mystery show than something dealing with grinds and flip-kicks. Bottom line, from the intro and the trailer, the only thing that said skateboarding for the film was the guys actually on skateboards. Sorry RedLabor, I am just -not- diggin’ it. Visually, it’s not bad. A bit misplaced and awkard, but even lacks the dirty feel that is so characteristically RL. It’s a different dirt. Can’t explain it. I don’t think it promotes the film in the best way. I still don’t know the underlying theme/story of the documentary.

Ok - this is actually a unique arcade up-scroller.