Stuff, Wotsits and Thingies

Free download: My soul

// April 21st, 2010 // 2 Comments » // art, atheism, design

Free download: My soul, originally uploaded by jbraine.

Sitecaddy

// December 8th, 2009 // No Comments » // design, web design

I recently re-designed the company website: www.sitecaddy.com, which has gone live along with a special offer; free hosting, content management and marketing tools for a year. The free offer is worth about €1500. The consultation and design isn’t free; the signing up to the special offer requires a depost of 1k, so if you know anyone looking for a website, here’s a good chance.

More details of the special offer here: http://info.sitecaddy.com/mysitecaddy/site3/offerirla.htm

Print fun

// November 24th, 2009 // 2 Comments » // art, design, photos

I haven’t really done much print design but the Missus had her 40th a couple of weeks ago and I had a bit of fun printing a few things for the party. Got a bit carried away actually, it was almost like a branded event in the end. I did invitations, a kid’s t-shirt, a window decal, stickers and a bib! Mostly via cafepress.

UI design disaster

// February 12th, 2009 // 6 Comments » // design, rant

The worst piece of user interface design that I struggle with on a daily basis; the NTL remote.

It has nine number buttons, so you should be able to press one of them to see one of the first 9 channels, no argument. But no - you have to hit 1-0-1 to get to the first channel.

Why do the numbers on the decoder have to start with 101!? Why can't they start with 1? And if they have to start with 101 why doesn't the remote start with 101!? Surely this is the most basic of common sense?

And why can't I just hold the plus and minus buttons to go up and down? Why do have to press them 50 fucking times to go through 50 fucking channels of shit?

Piece of shit.

Piece of RSI-enducing shit.

onmouseOver="mouseOver()"
onmouseOut="mouseOut()" />

Schizophrenic

// January 3rd, 2009 // 2 Comments » // design, waffle

I saw this logo today and I laughed out loud despite the fact that it perfectly represented one of my pet peeves. It’s a clever logo, yet at the same time I couldn’t believe a company were using a mark that perpetuated the king of misrepresented ailments.

Despite many cultural references that would have you think otherwise, Schizophrenia has nothing to do with split personality. Indeed the word is actually derived from a Greek word meaning split mind but it’s a name that just happened to stick, despite being considerably inappropriate.

Alas my quest to chastise said company was a bit of a wild goose chasing a red herring, or something. When I arrived at the original source of the logo, it turns out it’s not a real company name, just an idea for a logo by a designer. And commenters there have already pointed out that this logo is an exact representation of what schizophrenia isn’t.

Still drawing willys

// April 21st, 2008 // 9 Comments » // art, books, design

Yeay my first published graphic work (well first time in a book anyway). Much bigger news of course is that the first copies of the book have arrived. Congrats again to the Missus. Booyakasha!

I reckon my images would have been a fair bit different had I not read Tufte’s classic Visual Display of Quantitative Information last year.Very worthwhile read.

Gorgeous

// April 11th, 2008 // 1 Comment » // design, multimedia, music, processing

Gorgeous piece of work by Robert Hodgin using processing (music is by Goldfrapp). I’ve used processing a little bit before and have seen a good few other projects – but nothing as visually stunning as this. Read all about the project at www.flight404.com.

100

// February 27th, 2008 // 2 Comments » // art, design

Less because I think my 100th post is a huge milestone and more to do with the fact that I like making images. And this is as good an excuse as any. I’m not sure why it’s made entirely of insects. Slightly inspired by some great typography.

Bananal Antbird

// January 16th, 2008 // 3 Comments » // art, design

I like making images. Was thinking of doing an image-a-week kinda thing. Here’s a good excuse for some image-making. I saw this idea on (the gorgeously designed) Sabrinadent.com recently but Grandad sent out an open invitation to join in. The idea is that you go to three different random link generators to get your band title, album title and album photo, then go makey makey.

Here’s the three random links:
• Go here. The first article title on the page is the name of your band.
• Go here. The last four words of the very last quote is the title of your album.
• Go here. The third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.

I got very lucky landing on that great photo and the title fits in by chance but the album title makes no sense whatsover!

HB Motorcycles

// October 12th, 2007 // No Comments » // css, design, web design

Another Motorbike site I did, hbmotorcycles.com has gone live.

Few new sites gone live:

// September 20th, 2007 // No Comments » // css, design, web design

A few of the dealer sites I did, have eventually gone live. I did these about six
months ago. Offices eh?

Moore’s Garage

http://mooresgarage.ie

Billy Barron Motorcycles

http://www.barronbikes.com

Semi fluid layout, the navigation buttons resize as the browser window is resized.

Dogs box motorcycles

http://www.dogsbox.ie

Another fluid layout, but this time the image on the homepage resizes depending no the size of the browser window.

Lee Motorcycles

www.leemotorcycles.ie

Another fullscreen resizable layout.

Buckley Motorcycles

www.buckleymotorcycles.ie

Hogan Motorcycles

www.hoganmotorcycles.ie

Scotts bikes

http://www.scottsbikes.ie

Mannequin

// July 26th, 2007 // No Comments » // Chirico, Metaphysical, art, design, painting, waffle

This post would probably be more at home on homebug – but I’ll take the conch on this one – every morning I walk by Clerys on O’Connel street and wonder WTF are they thinking!? D’you ever see a big company do something very wrong and you can’t figure out why no one has told them yet? Or even more likely is that every body knows the blunder yet some middle-mismanagement or office politico prevents it from happening. So here’s the thing; they gutted the inside of the shop and got the decoraters in. Grand. Paid a small fortune no doubt. Yet Jo-walking-by-Soap wouldn’t know any different because their shop windows look like they’re still being decorated by the same dusty old window dresser for the last 30 years. They need to take a walk up Grafton street or rent a copy of Mannequin!

I spy with my little eye an opportunity to BIG UP one of my favourite dead artists, Giorgio de Chirico. He had a thing for mannequins you see. De Chirico is one of the few surreal artists who managed to capture the essence of dreams. People say that about Dali but his paintings were way too polished and detailed to vaguely resemble any dream. Chirico was a big influence to Dali, as well as Max Ernst, and Magritte to name a few, and some of them directly copied his Metaphysical style. Every time I see that tower from the LUAS, (somewhere between Windy Arbour and Cowper ), I’m reminded of his Nostalgia of the Infinite (below) even though they’re nothing alike. Actually I think every time I see a tower I’m reminded of it.

PSST! Pass it on.

// July 22nd, 2007 // No Comments » // art, design, films

Love this. Can you remember that childhood game you used to play where you’d fold a piece of paper in three, and one of you would draw the legs, then another the body, another the head? (Child hood game? Pretty sure I played that recently!)Well here’s a video version. PSST! Pass it on is a collaboration between different teams of designers, animators, directors and 3D artists. I love the end of the clip below.

Well worth going to the Pass it on website to see the new batch in hi res.

Wallpaper design

// July 4th, 2007 // 3 Comments » // art, design, wallpaper

Had a go at designing some wallpaper. Was really for a website but I reckon it’d look alright in a living room! Maybe. And works ok as a desktop wallpaper.

Life!

// April 5th, 2007 // No Comments » // css, design, web design

I’ve been working my arse off trying to get this LIFE site finished. It’s probably the best design I’ve done but I’m sick of the sight of it at the moment! There’s a lot of work to it – a member section, and a minisite that’s going to be used as a template for other chemists. I’m looking forward to getting it finished off and getting a full nights sleep!

However I did have a bit of fun earlier (which I’m paying for now because I’m dying to go to bed but have to get this site done). I scanned in a sketch that I did during the week and chucked it into a photo. I wanted to do something better with this – but for now here’s Zippy, the Wonder years.