Saturday 25 February 2012
Horrormoticons
I'd been drawing pictures of monsters all day under the instruction of my niece Molly (she's 4). On the way home and still in the mood for conjuring up images of the undead, after quick search on Google to see if they existed, I decided to add Horrormoticons to my arsenal of horror related work and create this little family of ghastly ghouls. Enjoy!
}:^[ (Vampire)
[ |8~[] (Frankenstein)
<|:^•> (Witch)
( = • ) (Ghost)
WW| ;^ \ (Bride of Frankenstein)
( 8•=] (Skull)
}:•B (Werewolf - a tame one)
(The Invisible man)
Friday 25 November 2011
Horrorgami #4:The Exorcist House Single Sheet Kirigami
I don't think I'll ever experience the anything quite like the effect The Exorcist had on me before I'd even watched it. Growing up in deeply superstitious, Catholic town in Northern Ireland, the film was a hot topic and there was frightened speculation about its contents not only amongst my generation but within entire parishes and communities. The fear it struck in people was something you couldn't make up. And you couldn't rent The Exorcist: it was outlawed, mostly on the advice of local priests.
It became known that a local video shop had a copy of it kept in a plain box hidden under the counter. Only those within a clandestine circle of trust knew of its existence, which, come to think of it now, could have just been a clever marketing campaign on the part of the shop. One evening, it must have been in the early 90s, a few of my friends and I put together our pennies and sent the eldest looking one of us into the shop to see if they could acquire this tape, which had by then acquired something of a mythical status within our community. Later that night, with curtains drawn and sofa pulled up close to the TV, our teenage hearts pounded as I pushed the tape into our the top-loading VHS player.
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Sunday 20 November 2011
Horrorgami #3: Amityville Horror House Single Sheet Kirigami
I was definitely far too young to have watched Amityville Horror when I first did. When my parents would go out for the evening, left in the capable hand of my older brother, I would beg him to let me stay up with his friends to watch the horror movie they'd rented. Typically he'd have to spend the rest of the night consoling me after said film left me somewhat distraught. He never learned and nor did I. Thankfully I've been left with a fascination of horror movies and no deeply embedded scars from the trauma they'd caused. At least not that I'm aware of. This one is dedicated to my bro.
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Tuesday 8 November 2011
Horrorgami #2: Addams Family Mansion Single Sheet Kirigami
This blog post is about my second kirigami paper architecture piece - The Addams Family Mansion.
Okay I admit it; I am obsessed with the Addams Family. From the original Charles Addams single panel cartoons to the silver screen adaptions I will blissfully spend hours on end safely nestled within their macabre little world. But what it is in particular that has constantly enchanted me since I first laid eyes on it, is their home, specifically the imposing incarnation from the first film in 1991. From the lonely and monolithic Second Empire wooden slated exterior to the mishmash of Victorian and Art Nouveau interior, I have what can only be described as an insatiable appetite for that building.
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Wednesday 25 May 2011
Horrorgami #1: Ennis House Single Sheet Kirigami
This blog entry tells the story of a personal project to design a model of the Ennis House.
Designed in 1923 for Charles and Mabel Ennis and completed in 1924, the Ennis House has been a longtime obsession of mine. It is the fourth and largest of Frank Lloyd Wright's 'textile block' houses: so called due to way in which it was constructed with interlocking pre-cast concrete blocks. The Mayan-influenced home is one of the most recognised yet elusive locations in Los Angeles. Famed for its use a location in Blade Runner and The House on the Haunted Hill it has been off-limits to the public for decades. Sadly the house is now crumbling after many years of neglect and decay, due largely to decomposed granite in the concrete and the effects of an earthquake in 1994. The Ennis Foundation formed in 2005 has earnestly poured money and effort into stabilising the structure, but has now put the home on the market for a private owner to carry the torch. The price first standing a $15 million has now dropped to $5.9 million, perhaps due to the many further millions of dollars that would be required by the new owner to restore it.
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Saturday 9 October 2010
The New Sensation
Thinking on a sensory level is always an interesting way to approach any design brief. We are blessed with 6 senses, sight, hearing, touch, smell, taste and kinesthetic (our perception of our own body parts in relation to each other). At the end of the day every exciting, unfathomably traumatic or just plain dull experience you have ever had, has been relayed to you solely through your senses.
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Thursday 5 August 2010
Future Trend: Metropolis
A few months ago I started writing a trend forecast blog entry about Metropolis. I'd seen an image of a
Karl Lagerfeld fashion shoot that was a tribute to Metropolis. By stroke of luck in the same evening I read an
interview in The Metro with Siobhan Fahey, an electronica recording artiste and DJ who stated her new tour and set design was to also be influenced by the film. My mind went into overdrive. Coincidence or could this be the murmur of an emerging future trend?
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Animated Album Art
Everybody loves an old-school gif animation, however this blog takes it to the next level.
Check out the
Animated Albums blog.
Wednesday 28 July 2010
Looking Back, Going Forward
As Fly & Dandy begins its quest into the digital unknown, it only seems right to have a quick look at the internet that proceeds us. Although the web is still a relatively new monster it's easy to forget how we got here. So come on a quick trip with us and let's reminisce upon all things from the internet of old.
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Tuesday 25 May 2010
PacMan / Google
How can you not love Google for creating this to celebrate the anniversary of Señor Pac?
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