Brand New
This design train is a runaway…
Not satisfied with my previous huge redesign, I’ve decide to push the envelope a little further (and possibly tear it). If you haven’t noticed yet I’ve instituted a faintly Hawaiian pattern in the background, but wait, there’s more… The main logo is now a PNG file which means it can be transparent so it works over my new background. Try resizing your browser window and prepare to be impressed…
“…prepare to be impressed…”
The cool pattern now residing in the background of my site is courtesy of the super-talented Travis Beckham of Squidfingers who is clearly a ninja pixel designer of some note. He has a cool selection of patterns which you can use on your own site. Go there now, the pixels are calling…
First published on the 17th April 2007 | Permanent Link
Copyright © Matthew Gilbert
The Bookyard
So you’ve gone and broken your Apple laptop, well I know a man who can help you…
We’ve all done it… Innocently left our Powerbook on the public highway where it’s been trampled by a marching band… or accidentally dropped it from a moving aeroplane into the jaws of a threshing machine… or… well you get the picture.
“…into the jaws of a threshing machine…”
The reality is when you break your not-so-new-anymore out-of-warranty laptop getting replacement parts or getting it repaired isn’t the easiest thing in the world. So to help you out my friend Nick has started The Book Yard which specialises in getting your Apple laptop going again. Spare parts, repairs, complete refurbished laptops, it’s all there.
Clearly this is a blatant plug (he is my friend after all) but even so it is a very cool service. For more info check out the web site which also offers an online store…
First published on the 3rd March 2007 | Permanent Link
Copyright © Matthew Gilbert
Hogging The Hedge
We must draw hedgehogs, our future depends on it…
I drew this hedgehog for my friend Lizzie. She was drawing hedgehogs today so I decided to draw one and send it to her. There was a whole hedgehog drawing thing going one, it was beautiful…
Drawing by Matthew Gilbert
I drew him in Photoshop (of course), with a mouse no less. Drawing with a mouse is a pain but I’m pretty happy with the way he came out. I am now seriously considering getting myself a Wacom tablet, my fantasy is that it will inspire me to draw more…
First published on the 28th February 2007 | Permanent Link
Copyright © Matthew Gilbert
San-disco
This is a great USB flash drive once you’ve broken it…
I have a new flash disk. The previous one held a whopping 128mb which in these days of expanding data is a bit like having a floppy disk again. It also crashed perfectly stable computers when you plugged it in, not a particularly useful feature.
Photo courtesy of Sandisk
As a digital camera junkie, I own more Sandisk memory cards than you can shake a large bundle of sticks at; so getting a Sandisk flash drive seemed like a no-brainer... Let’s call that mistake number one. I read up about the Cruzer on the Sandisk web site. It features a technology called U3 which if you own (or have access to) a PC, allows you to launch applications from the Cruzer. It’s handy (probably) but of no interest to me as a Mac user. I assumed I could remove the U3 software from the Cruzer without much trouble... We’ll call that mistake number two.
“…let’s call that mistake number one…”
The obvious answer appeared to be a simple reformat using Apple’s disk utility… No, that would have been far to easy. It seems some kind of wicked voodoo technique has been employed to install the U3 nonsense. Fortunately Sandisk have made software available which will remove U3 completely from the cruzer. A prayer answered for non-PC users? No, it only runs on Windows… Geez guys, you’re not being very friendly…
“…geez guys you’re not being very friendly…”
My options were a bit limited. I could find a PC owning friend but that would take time or I could fire up Virtual PC and try my luck… It worked! I ran the U3 exorcism utility under Virtual PC and… okay what actually happened was it went swimmingly until about half-way through the process when the de-installing utility choked claiming it couldn’t see the Cruzer anymore. That was the point at which I figured I may have hosed my new toy… I quit Virtual PC and headed back to the Apple disk utility and there it was… sighs of relief all round. I reformatted and lo and behold U3 was no more…
Post exorcism I’m loving this thing. It’s fast and small and it’s made out of titanium which means it will stop bullets and… okay possibly not the bullet thing, but it is strong… The most ingenious feature is the retracting USB plug. Instead of a cap you simply push the connecter out when you need it and pull it back into the drive when you’re done, cool. The sad thing is I’m more impressed by a simple mechanism than having 4 gigabtyes of storage in a unbreakable minature package…
First published on the 15th February 2007 | Permanent Link
Copyright © Matthew Gilbert
Flying Menace
Look deeply into my eye, now take me to your leader…
Another day another monster. I love that eye, it’s awesome. I can imagine the puny humans cowering in front of it. Inspired by this sketch…
Illustration by Matthew Gilbert
Below is an illustration of the progression from Illustrator linework through basic colour to final shaded Photoshop goodness. Creating everything on layers makes the process very flexible. Of course it also makes it open to endless tweaking…
Illustrations by Matthew Gilbert
First published on the 11th February 2007 | Permanent Link
Copyright © Matthew Gilbert
Major Redesign
Dark grey is the new beige, white is still white…
I’ve redesigned the site… did you notice? That beige had to go, it was too pale and frankly too… beige… The newly instituted grey is working for me. I know it lacking a bit on the colour front but it’s strong, it has impact and it’s not beige.
“…it’s not beige…”
I made sure to retain the reflection of the logo, it adds that all important web-two-point-o credibility which is so very important these days. Perhaps some day I’ll add some web-two fuctionality to go with my web-two logo, just don’t hold your breath…
First published on the 10th February 2007 | Permanent Link
Copyright © Matthew Gilbert
Almost Pac Ghost
Your time is up Mr Pacman, pack your bags and leave…
Nothing says sinister better than one eye and pointy teeth… and hovering above the ground… and that whole being a ghost thing… Actually I’m thinking this guy is going to be eating Pacman, not the other way round…
Illustration by Matthew Gilbert
I drew him on a Wacom Cintiq. What better use of 2100 quids worth of technology is there… none! I love the huge dark circle around the eye, it ups the sinister rating from ‘a lot’ to ‘very’…
First published on the 7th February 2007 | Permanent Link
Copyright © Matthew Gilbert
Pandalicious
Not all pandas are sweet and cuddly…
Who doesn’t love pandas… except possibly other pandas who seem to have some issues (especially when they’re supposed to be mating)…
“…they’re supposed to be mating…”
This one (below) is heavily inspired by Kaws One and in particular the Chomper Bearbrick he did for Medicom. If fact all of them are a bit Kaws Chomper around the teeth area…
Illustration by Matthew Gilbert
They started life a very small sketch which I scanned in and then did the business to it in Illustrator…
Illustrations by Matthew Gilbert
I was going to colour them up but, well, pandas are basically black and white so the job was done already… or perhaps I was just being lazy, who can say for sure…
First published on the 6th February 2007 | Permanent Link
Copyright © Matthew Gilbert
Floating Green Guy
We come in peace, the teeth are only for show…
If you read the previous article (because I know you’re all checking this stuff regularly) you’ll know what the deal with this guy is… if not I’ll recap for those who missed it or are too lazy to follow the link…
“…checking this stuff regularly…”
I did a bunch of these green monsters for a poster which they didn’t make it into. I decided to take one of the originals (which are simple linework) and Photoshop it up… which brings us to this guy…
Illustration by Matthew Gilbert
I like him… no really I do. I like the original a bit more (it’s simple and clean), but he still rocks my world… I made him with Illustrator and Photoshop. He took about an hour(ish)…
First published on the 5th February 2007 | Permanent Link
Copyright © Matthew Gilbert
Green Monsters
A bunch of green monsters who are clearly related…
These guys were supposed to be part of a kids poster but it didn’t quite happen as planned so they never quite made it in. I felt they deserved a bit of an audience so I decided to post them here…
Illustrations by Matthew Gilbert
If they were real they would eat your pets and steal things from you house… You’d come home looking for ‘fluffy’ and find only a slightly embarassed looking green monster with a tail hanging out of it’s mouth and your underwear in it’s pockets…
“…they would eat your pets…”
I made them using Illustrator which allowed me to produce a bunch of variations in a pretty short time period. You can probably see there was some extensive reuse of parts… but hell that’s what the clone tool is for right? My plan is to choose a favourite and photoshop him up…