The Arrival

About a month ago, I was lucky enough to see Mutation Theatre's 'The Arrival' which won the Fringe Festival's 2010 People's Choice Award. Top notch work guys. It was based on Sean Tan's graphic novel of the same title, one of my all time favorites. What I found most impressive, however, was the set. It was literally an old shed on the Docklands where immigrants first docked back in the 40's.

From that, I wanted to create a homage to both the book, show and Turkish Cypriot Immigrants by means of type. This is also a means of getting back to the roots like I did with the Cyprus Issue. I looked to Wooden Toy's Lyrics and Type exhibition where artists illustrate their favorite lyrics from a song. This one by I Love Dust was my favourite.

ilovedust

"Girl, if you're a seascape, i'm a listing boat, for the thing carries every hope"
by The Shins

It was also relevant becuase I'm dealing with the theme of people leaving their homes. I did a bit of research and found that Australia was handing out Visas like hotcakes back in the 40's so it was pretty easy to get in. So I chose the lyrics 'Start Spreading the News, I'm Leaving Today' from Frank Sinatra's New York, New York.  Those simple lyrics captured the anticipation of breaking out of a daily routine and going to a far off land, not knowing when they would come back home. I decided to translate the lyrics into Turkish to not only add authenticity but place more emphasis on the language of music rather than the language of conversation. This translates to 'Herkesin Haberi Olsun, ben Bugun Gidiyorum'.

Below are some type experiments and developments.

I was thinking of the music from the show as I did this. There was some brilliant stuff from Beirut, West Side Story, possibly Cat Empire (it definately had that feel); I loved how they were all distinctly culturally different. After getting that eclectic, clumsy, happy look, I dragged all the elements into photoshop and created this composition.

My original idea was to print this onto a scrap of wood from the actual dock the show was performed on. Being folio time and living over an hour away from the docks, I felt Mitre 10 was a more suitable option. I've never printed on wood before this but it was a really interesting experience, absolutely nothing like printing on paper. The ink keeps moving around after its on the surface becuase the wood is sealed, creating a tie die look if there's too much; a pretty cool effect but now what I was after for this project. After four runs we got it right though, all I needed to do was sand it down and make it look like a piece of trash picked up from the docks. Definitely one of the folio.

 

 

Good Evening,

Mete.

P.S. If you haven't heard yet, I have a proper website now, www.metedesign.com.au. Don't panic, the blog will be updated even more now than ever with my processes and inspiration.

The Cyprus Issue

This is possibly the most  in-depth project I've done. The Cyprus Issue publication exhibits the Cyprus problem and peoples' opinions about it. I sourced most of the material from news website The Cyprus Mail. Its forums are battlegrounds of opinion, many of which my dad (Turkish Cypriot born) partakes in. By addressing the issue's range of varied opinions, I look to bring this argument to the world stage. Naturally, the majority of the Turk and Greek siders are biased toward themselves, If I could get everyone to read this, perhaps there would be a stronger understanding rather than blind hatred.

I used photos from my own trip to Cyprus in 2008 and applied a halftone effect to simulate a news publication look. A lot of my inspiration for this came from David Pidgeon/Pip&Co's ADGA Publication 'How to find a job' (below)

 

This is the Cyprus Issue,

The content is incredibly interesting and compelling. If you would like a copy, shoot me an email at metster88@hotmail.com.

Cheers,

Mete.

Gorelesque 2 Encore!

The audience couldn't get enough an rightfully so, Gorelesque 2 was a gruesome triumph. So it gives me great pleasure to present to you, the Gorelesque 2 Encore poster. What's the secret to a good Gorelesque poster? To put it simply, a good butt.

Reason being, body language is essential to a great illustration let alone  a brilliant performance and I really wanted to get that across in this one. I took a look at an illustration series by Josh Cooley and Bill Presing who are super talented storyboard artists at Pixar Animation Studios, and their butts had it going on to say the least, have a look at this one:

Round, expressive, perky; Perfect for a Gorelesque Poster. this is my final sketch.

Because of the huge load of positive feedback about the Goreleque girl, we decided to keep her. Plus how could you turn you back on a face as pretty as hers? Here is the final render, juicier, bloodier and sweeter than before.

It was important for me to keep the posters consistent with one another so I kept the layout similar, they work better as a series that way. This is what you should be seeing around South Yarra soon.

Keep Your eyes peeled.

Cheers,

Mete.

Glass Half Full

Hi guys, it's been a busy semester, hence the length of time between this post and my last. I'm going through the last few weeks of my degree so it's great to take a week off and recoup. There's a couple of projects I'd really love to show but haven't been returned from assessment yet. 

Below we have my entry for the Positive Posters competition, this year's theme was 'glass half full'. Unfortunately this didn't get shortlisted but I still think it's worth showing. The concept's simple, take a crappy day and find a glimmer of light within it.

In hindsight, I prefer the sketch to the final product.

This illustration, I feel, would work better for an editorial article rather than a poster.

So I'll hang on to it for a rainy day.

Yeah I went there.

Cheers!

Ice Ice Baby

This month, Monash uni student mag 'esperanto' published another triumphant issue, back to the 90's. When asking how I could be involved, Josh (Art Director) gave me three options. I could do an illustration for the Spice Girls, Captain Planet or Vanilla Ice. For me, Mr. Van Winkle was the obvious choice. Better still, the article itself canned him like crazy. Although I felt a little sympathy for the guy, I felt it was my duty to compliment the insult. Here is the initial sketch I sent in before we went on.

It worked so we went with it. Josh encouraged the use of Red, black and white as those three colours ran consistent through the issue. I respect his thoroughness. So this is the spread.

If you're on campus, be sure to pick one up. Not just for the Van Winkle article but also 'Afternoon Delight', it walks us through some of the most kick ass cartoons of the 90's and another one on how the guys from Oasis are dicks. Good read.

Thanks to 'esperanto' for allowing me to get involved, these guys are always after contributors so be sure to give them a holler.

Lion Pie

24 hours to make a poster that'll represent the image of an entire company's launch party. Sure, why not. Lion Pie is a Sydney based initiative developed by a group of fresh NIDA graduates. Its aim is to bring artists, actors, authors and industry professionals together to showcase their current projects. The poster needed to symbolise the 'work in progress' nature of the event as well as the young energy flying around when new ideas are being created. While being briefed over the phone, I scribbled a few brainstorms and notes. The call was conveniently made when I was just about to rush out the door, this is what it looks like with a nice acid yellow overlay.

I eventually figured that this could be the base of the final design. It's rushed, raw and puts my personal thoughts out there in a gutsy way, god I'm brave. But that's what Lion Pie is all about, being confident and biting off more than you can chew. So here's the final poster,

I wanted to maintain as many hand drawn elements as possible to maintain the rawness. It was also quicker to put together. So from the above design, everything else came more naturally, the invitation and the sponsor document. Luckily, I had an awesome client who was really clear about what she wanted but was open to interpretation. When she said she wanted the invitation text to look like it was stamped in a conveyor belt, I generally got what she meant.

The sponsorship document was slightly more corporate purely for readability reasons but still had the Lion Pie vibe about it. It was a simple double sided folded A4 document handed out to visitors and potential sponsors at the launch party. This was the first time I've seen people take my design home with them, a surreal experience but reaffirming.

Like the violin guy? :P Also, 6 pieces of my work were selected to actually exhibit at the event,

Overall, a hugely positive experience I won't soon forget. Massive thanks to the Lion Pie Crew for allowing me to be a part of it and putting together such a kickass launch party and to my cousin Kemal and his family for their hospitality and support. The Lion Pie website's definitely worth checking out www.lionpie.com as is Kemal's t-shirt brand, Stunna Shade Boyz http://www.facebook.com/pages/Stunna-Shade-Boyz

Peace.

Sky Airways

The challenge, breathe life into a corporate document, an annual report. Choose whatever company you desire and then change their name and style to suit your own. My choice was the Emirates Airline 2009 annual report, I changed the name to Sky Airways. The brief was to create a 21 page document of prefect typesetting and info graphic material (pie charts, graphs, tables etc)

The design style was to reflect the nature of the data so if it was a good year, you'd make somethign with gold medals or something. A bad year, maybe a Gothic cemetery. From my observations, the demand of Emirates' service went down while fuel prices went up (this was during the global financial crisis last year). However, their strongest aspect ever in the history of the company was its customer service. This took me back to the 60's where airline service was at its peak.

Beautiful aren't they? And just look at those pastels. I wanted to create something with three base colours and run them throughout the report, this would tie the whole thing together nicely.

However, no airline wants to appear outdated, so I looked at where this style of art has gone. THe 'Catch me if you Can' opening credits were a perfect place to look.

This animation from Nexus Productions uses collage in such a beautiful way. The textures flicker around the characters gving them een more personality.

The Style was set, now I needed to look at info graphic design. There was tonnes.

This was  a massive leap forward. When I had all these lined up,  I drew up a storyboard

And got cracking. This is a sample of my Sky Airways Annual Report.

Happy flying.