My first few weeks at Emap were spent creating illustrations of one sort or another. I had a technical illustration background along with reasonable freehand skills so most of my day at Priory Court was spent preparing the templates for the launch of Mean Machines. I was put to work constructing the icons, symbols, score panels and the 'little men' charicatures. We took inspiration from Japanese magazines and game packaging. Famitsu magazine and a host of game manuals and boxes were always strewn across my desk for inspiration. It's also interesting to note that we never had any computers for the design department when Mean Machines began! All layout was created by hand then photocopied and stuck to paper templates using a wax machine. We endured this 'method' for two years before we got our first Macintosh Quadra for the launch of NMS.
7 comments:
I LOVE these icons. Logos and icons are right up there for me when designing, mainly because you get to make a punchy, bold statement with them. You also get to refine them really well because you've only got a few elements to focus on. My faves out of your MM icons were the SD versions of the consoles - I still look at the Megadrive one to this day and think it's such tight design. The SMS one's pretty cool, too.
Oh, just thought of something: some new b&w icons in the style of MM to adorn your blog, according to the labels! Obviously 'chicken' would be... uh, a chicken (roast or otherwise).
Ever thought about illustrating for Viz magazine?
I usually spend my time thinking about how to spend a Eurolottery win rather than more work. Seriously though, whilst picking up the pens again has always interested me I am not sure I could pay my bills! Unless freelance art rates have shot into the stratosphere since I last worked in that field then I best stick to design so my kids don't go hungry. On a related note though, I am currently creating 'images' for a forthcoming project so Harrod artwork will appear once more before the year is out.
Harrod artwork combined with a 'Fru-T Bunn the Baker and his Gingerbread Sex Dolls' esq storyline would be at the cutting edge of comic book hilarity.
Regarding the blog; will there be fond reminiscence for PSW DVD menus? My legendary game footage obviously made them look better than they actually were mind ;)
Call me sick but seeing the original versions of those format/genre images is giving me a full-on chubby.
I have already contacted the necessary institutions and the medication is being prepared for you as we speak... !
Post a Comment