Pixel Pimps http://blog.pixelpimps.net designer, illustrator, photographer & art director Fri, 29 May 2009 00:46:12 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.7.1 en hourly 1 Istockphoto Battle Royale http://blog.pixelpimps.net/istockphoto-battle-royale/ http://blog.pixelpimps.net/istockphoto-battle-royale/#comments Thu, 28 May 2009 22:35:07 +0000 Che Mcpherson http://blog.pixelpimps.net/?p=310 But it’s not to late, you all have until the midnight 31st mst to create something new.
Its easy go to istockphoto download the psd file I’ve created above create something new from the design and resubmit it to the competition page.
There’s a bunch of great prizes including 5K usd for first place.

Now to the artwork…
I had the main image bookmarked for a long time.. Its from a good friend of mine Jeremiah (upheaval on istock)
Its a great pic and I was excited as it will work well and really help soften the ruggedness of the design.
I was also excited to introduce some morocan and islamic mosaic tile design into the design and is something im sure your going to see in more of my designs.

I’m also putting together a tutorial over at TUT candy on how to create this design for yourself…

check some of the progess of the design below

seed seed-2 seed-3

]]> http://blog.pixelpimps.net/istockphoto-battle-royale/feed/ MMA Warehouse advert illustration http://blog.pixelpimps.net/mma-warehouse-advert-illustration/ http://blog.pixelpimps.net/mma-warehouse-advert-illustration/#comments Tue, 26 May 2009 05:56:07 +0000 Che Mcpherson http://blog.pixelpimps.net/?p=304 This was a really fun chance to just go wild… Mika at mmawarehouse.com is a very out of the box thinker in a world of desaturation, grunge and cold hard design he goes against the grain… and I think its great… his definately getting seen and remebered and benefitting from his dare to be different attitude… So I was pretty excited when he invited me to work on his next advertising campaign to be released for UFC 100.

Now for the job… Mika contacted me as he had seen a fair bit of my work around the place so he already had a pretty good idea of what he wanted but I was basically given free rain and was basically busting with ideas and was excited to get started… I was really happy with round 1 of my illustration but instructions were to add in a previously designed character from the logo to the center of the design, the big problem is my style didnt match so I needed to put a fair bit of love into the previous illustration to have it tie into my design I also needed to give the previous illustration legs… and if theres anything im more suckier at drawing its gotta be legs closely behind hands hahahahaa

anyway i think in the end it all come together well… I still like my original design better but thats maybe because its 100% me but regardless I think its gonna pop out of the magazine so im happy.

check out the evoloution

graphic11 graphic21 graphic3

]]> http://blog.pixelpimps.net/mma-warehouse-advert-illustration/feed/ Eleventyseven CD cover art http://blog.pixelpimps.net/eleventyseven-cd-cover-art/ http://blog.pixelpimps.net/eleventyseven-cd-cover-art/#comments Tue, 26 May 2009 05:22:39 +0000 Che Mcpherson http://blog.pixelpimps.net/?p=297 I always love the chance to flex my Illustrative muscles and give corel draw and adobe illustrator a good work out…
Im a bit of a fan of corel as I think the shape tools are a tad more intuitive but I definitely cant live life without illustrator…
Matt Langston front man from Eleventyseven had the great idea of the squirrel and robot which was an idea I loved so the design feel together fairly seamlessly all based around the robot. There was supposed to be more carnage to the buildings behind but I decided to really mute the colours and tone them down so the robot could really jump off the design.

Heres a couple of versions along the way so you can see the development…
graphic1 graphic2 eleventy-seven-front-3

]]> http://blog.pixelpimps.net/eleventyseven-cd-cover-art/feed/ iStockphoto $5000 photoshop competition http://blog.pixelpimps.net/istock-5000-photoshop-battle-is-on-again/ http://blog.pixelpimps.net/istock-5000-photoshop-battle-is-on-again/#comments Sat, 16 May 2009 05:01:36 +0000 Che Mcpherson http://blog.pixelpimps.net/?p=292 Yoooo yooo so most of you all know I have a fair bit to do with iStockphoto.com… One of my roles with the company is to look after the steelcage which basically is a way to learn develop and challenge other keen photoshop users and designers… everyone from highend designers to first timers get in there an duke it out all in the name of fun.. well besides the winner gets a nice handfull of istock credits…

So getting to the point once a year a Battle Royale competition is held to find out who is king (or queen) of the cage not only for the recognition but the winner recieves $5000 cold hard US dollars…

Unfortunately for me I cant compete but for you theres not many design related competitions that come close so make sure you go and enter.
The good thing is I still get to flex my design skills in the competition designing the header you see above and soon to be reveled seed photoshop files.

Heres the link to more details over at iStockphoto

and if you have any questions please drop a comment below

br-slight-colouring

]]> http://blog.pixelpimps.net/istock-5000-photoshop-battle-is-on-again/feed/ My NEW design tutorial site http://blog.pixelpimps.net/my-new-design-tutorial-site/ http://blog.pixelpimps.net/my-new-design-tutorial-site/#comments Tue, 07 Apr 2009 07:37:59 +0000 Che Mcpherson http://blog.pixelpimps.net/?p=283 Im still putting the final dress touches on the site and working hard on the content but im to excited to hold it in any longer.
So here’s a informal introduction to TUTcandy a video design tutorial site. Im hoping its well recieved and Im looking forward to flexing my design skills for all to share, I am a little nervous about my voice but im sure ill get over that. Theres not much in the way of content up at the moment but keep your eye out as Ive got plenty lined up.

Anyway jump over to TUTcandy.com and please leave me some feedback… be brutal as I really want to know what I have to improve on.

]]> http://blog.pixelpimps.net/my-new-design-tutorial-site/feed/ Check out The Doors http://blog.pixelpimps.net/check-out-the-doors/ http://blog.pixelpimps.net/check-out-the-doors/#comments Tue, 24 Feb 2009 14:45:30 +0000 Che Mcpherson http://blog.pixelpimps.net/?p=219 Every young man goes through a stage where the Doors just speaks to the soul… I know I went through it and its funny although I don’t listen to them much now the experience still lingers with me. So taking on the project of designing the bands new site was very special and it was something I knew i didn’t have to design as the doors are the doors and already have an established look so in this build I really concentrated on functionality and tying in all the latest technology to make one wicked site.

A light weight phase 1 of the site is up but there’s still a long road ahead of the doors dot com, part of the tactic by the management company was to make the site in phases which is smart for a few reasons the site has a lot of traffic so keeping the site fresh with new additions creates further traffic and allows the site to grow organically rather then pre-empting where to focus their energy.

Client: Doors Management Co.
Agency: Simple Season

So check out the site thedoors.com

doors doors2 doors-amazon

]]> http://blog.pixelpimps.net/check-out-the-doors/feed/ Tyson site is Live http://blog.pixelpimps.net/tyson-site-is-live/ http://blog.pixelpimps.net/tyson-site-is-live/#comments Tue, 24 Feb 2009 14:31:43 +0000 Che Mcpherson http://blog.pixelpimps.net/?p=215 Im a massive fan of Iron Mike so getting to design his site was an honor I really wanted to make this site pop to pay homage to such a great fighter.

The massive problem with this site was there was pretty much no source content, I had 1 small web size picture and that pretty much was it.
Luckily we had video and from an early stage I knew the video was going to have to play a big part in the design of the site. Half way through the build John from SimpleSeason the agency I was working with on the project decided we need to create some fresh new content and commissioned up and coming artist Jeff McMillan to paint a bad ass picture of Tyson featured on the home page.

The site ended up being quite nice in the end, but some features were trimmed from the final build due to time constraints.

Client: Tyson Management Co.
Agency: Simple Season

Also had the privileged to do some design for the trailer for Tyson’s new film which should be released very soon

here’s some screen shots (click to enlarge) and make sure you check out the site officialmiketyson.com

tyson tyson-home

]]> http://blog.pixelpimps.net/tyson-site-is-live/feed/ The Garden http://blog.pixelpimps.net/the-garden/ http://blog.pixelpimps.net/the-garden/#comments Tue, 24 Feb 2009 14:15:13 +0000 Che Mcpherson http://blog.pixelpimps.net/?p=210 I was pleasently surprised when this illustration (one of my personal favorites) was featured on iStockphoto as Image of the week and then to be featured in the hotshots top 8 images from istock and getty images one week later. From the exposure I also picked up a contract to illustrate a monster type family for a British tv station (which is still in develoment but ill post it when its done)

I really enjoy illustrating in this style but very rarely get to do it, I hope to make some more stock images in this style over the coming months and really solidify and define the style to take it to the next level.

Illustration made in CorelDraw and Illustrator

click image to see full size version

art

]]> http://blog.pixelpimps.net/the-garden/feed/ New JellyBarn site http://blog.pixelpimps.net/new-jellybarn-site/ http://blog.pixelpimps.net/new-jellybarn-site/#comments Tue, 24 Feb 2009 13:44:47 +0000 Che Mcpherson http://blog.pixelpimps.net/?p=183 JellyBarn came to me for their previous site but the company since then has come along way and moved from what I think was a fun and interactive site which showed a lot about the personality of JellyBarn but didnt convey any other message then they are fun to a smart intelligent sales tool. Devin CEO at JellyBarn invited me back to work on his new site and new direction for his company and very shortly into the conversation I knew exactly what was needed. The main function of the site was to sell the companies new direction in as few words as possible and with the complex business model they had it was no easy task. The other main part of the site was it was to grow with the company we both agreed wordpress was the best cms solution for there needs.

I really think with JellyBarn’s new direction I can see them being one of the big players in the widget, web app and social media advertising playground over the next couple of years.

The site come together nicely, I was really happy with the developers from the phillipines wedomarkup it was one of the first times I can say the site looks exactly like the photoshop file so I highly recommend those guys for markup and wordpress integration.

here’s some screen shots.. and if you feel like visiting the JellyBarn site they are currently running a $100,000 social media advertising campaign competition

jb-home jb-solutions jb-comp

]]> http://blog.pixelpimps.net/new-jellybarn-site/feed/ Lupe Fiasco http://blog.pixelpimps.net/lupe-fiasco/ http://blog.pixelpimps.net/lupe-fiasco/#comments Tue, 24 Feb 2009 12:49:40 +0000 Che Mcpherson http://blog.pixelpimps.net/?p=192 I was lucky enough to be on Lupe’s guest list for this years big day out festival… For one who doesn’t like free tix but I was totally stokes I finally got to see his show as I missed his show in Seattle due to a flight delay… Anyway after the long wait I definately wasn’t dissapointed lu tore the place down… His a magician at working the crowed and his energy is infectious… I’ll go as far as to say one of the best live performances I’ve seen… I was a bit bummed I didn’t get to catch up with him but hey there’s always next time and hopefully I’ll be working on some stuff for him very shortly…

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