Ghosts

When I was a kid, I really wanted to call the Ghostbusters. I was pretty young and from seeing the movie I couldn't quite work out if they were real or not. I mean, the ghosts looked real, then they had the newspapers and all the publicity on the movie. So I thought that was real. And then, at the end they have them doing a parade through New York with all the people celebrating. All this added up to it being real. One hundred percent real. I just figured that sort of thing didn't happen in our city.

I never worked out the difference between documentary and film when I was young. Cartoons I knew weren't real, but live action film? Who knows? I had the same problem with Degrassi High. Are these actors or are they stalking kids with camera's. Sports films I often thought were real too and I really hoped Doctor Who wasn't real. But at least I knew Wrestling wasn't real. 

Staines; Home of Ali G

To celebrate me doing a wonderful poster for him, Pete McAllen will be supporting some bloke called David Gibb at the Hobgoblin in Staines. The beautiful scenery of the area might be familiar to movie-goers as its the back drop to the thought provoking movie, Ali-G in DaHouse. Should be a good night, unless of course you're deaf or you hate Pete. If either of these are the case, then avoid being at The Hobgolin, in Staines on Sunday the 19th of April.

www.petemcallen.com

More Newish Stuff

Here's some more new stuff. I'm pretty tired, so I'm not gonna write much. If I could I'd love to update this blog daily but I don't have the time or desire to loose anymore sleep. No brief for the above work. I seem to come up with my best stuff that way. I find trying to be creative and also pay the bills similar to an endless spoon and egg race with no finish line.

It's a piece that looks at WWI trench warfare and was inspired by a lot of the history I've read on the subject. It's all pretty sad, realising thousands of people like you and me threw themselves at each other and machine guns and artillery in areas that are now empty fields around Europe. Each person had a real life, ambitions, dreams and a family somewhere and all that came to mainly unrecorded ends miles away from where they actually lived. Sorry to end on such a sombre note, but I think it's actually worth stopping and thinking about that.

Big Wide Space & Itty Bitty Typography

It's a winner every time. Like pancakes on the weekend or a kebab on a late night, it never lets you down. Big, open spaces with very little going on and then there, in a corner somewhere, a little logo or some tiny writing. It always seems to look more sophisticated and stylish. I'm not sure why. It's easy to do, much easier than putting together some classified section in a trashy mag. It seems to say, "look at me, I'm so wealthy I'll take twenty pages to say what you would in one." But, it somehow works. Flick through a nice glossy magazine and then hold it up against your local TV guide and you'll find what I say is true. 

It's with this in mind that I 'll also add it's  always is the best page to design in any of my portfolio's. Above is  the last page of my latest mini-portfolio and some minimal purists out there might rave and rant at me for corrupting the design by adding my little planet halo. But, I think, looking at the design now, it's probably the best page in the folio. Which is good,  unless of  course I want people to like all of the pages in my portfolio. So, what's the solution? I've decided to put together a portfolio of all the last pages of  all my portfolio. Genius, pure genius. I'll let you know how it goes.

Holly

This piece was done a few years back when I first started getting interested in wooden textures, muted tones and ridiculous sized and layered photoshop documents. I took this photo from a young photographer named Caris Bridge and a spent a sleepless night reworking it for some band's promo. Whether or not they used it is still in some doubt, but I still think it stands the test of time a nudges into one of my favourite designs. I've since gotten rid of the bands name and slightly reworked it not so long ago. A link to some more of Caris's work is below.

http://miss-caris.deviantart.com/