Blog

3D Wire Sculptures

Wed, 11 Apr 2012 22:11:00 GMT

Chinese artist Shi Jindian creates three-dimensional sculptures crafted from steel wire. He starts by wrapping around his subject matter until it creates a 3D mesh. The object is then either carefully removed or destroyed, leaving only its metal shadow behind.

The result, he says, is a kind of fiction, a virtual reality that can be walked around and touched. His Blue CJ750 (2008) is a replica of the Chiangjiang [Yangtze], a military bike based on an early BMW. Beijing Jeep’s Shadow (2007) translates the chassis of an army jeep into an object of pure contemplation, a kind of dream - which a car long was for millions of Chinese. Each of the works is accurate to the smallest detail. They took years to make, but he found serenity in the toil. When people touch his sculptures, he says, they also touch “the state of mind that emerges from the labour of my hands: tranquillity and calm”.

Check out more of Shi Jindian's beautiful work at artnet.

Push Button For Drama

Wed, 11 Apr 2012 21:49:00 GMT

A new Belgium TV station staged an elaborate prank to raise awareness about their new channel, TNT.

"...we placed a big red push button on an average Flemish square of an average Flemish town. A sign with the text "Push to add drama" invited people to use the button. And then we waited..."

While it reminds me of one of those stunt shows at Universal Studios the finale really makes it pop. Read more for the full video.

A Graphic Designer's Electronic Manual

Wed, 11 Apr 2012 21:24:00 GMT

We are pleased to announce that some of our work has been feaured in the Rockport book "The Graphic Designer’s Electronic-Media Manual". It was written by Jason Tselentis and discusses how to apply visual design principles to engage users on desktop, tablet, and mobile websites.

"This comprehensive resource for graphic designers will help you merge traditional print design skills with new technology to create imaginative, informative, and useful online experiences for clients and ultimately the end users. The Graphic Designer’s Electronic-Media Manual focuses on reigning in the specific skills and tools necessary for creating design projects for the web and beyond. You'll also find a rich collection of sound design examples for the web from studios around the world. Unlike other books on web and electronic media, this book is not a technical manual, but a visual resource packed with real-world examples of design for the web."

You can purchase a hard copy or eBook through Qbookshop.

Invisible Mercedes

Tue, 03 Apr 2012 03:06:00 GMT

Can you spot the car? Here's a really smart marketing campaign run by Mercedes to promote their new fuel cell vehicle with zero emissions. This clip highlights the versatility of digital SLR cameras through the clever use of a Canon a 5D Mark II and a panel of LED lights.

Read more for the full video.

L.E.D. Snowboarding

Fri, 30 Mar 2012 06:25:00 GMT

Fashion photographer Jacob Sutton had the interesting idea to shoot a night-time snowboarding video with pro rider William Hughes sporting an LED laiden suit. While it sounds crazy the video is eerily beautiful and breathtaking to watch.

Sutton, who has created work for the likes of Hermès, Burberry and The New York Times, spent three nights on a skidoo with his trusty Red Epic camera at temperatures of -25C to snap Hughes carving effortlessly through the deep snow, even enlisting his own father to help maintain the temperamental suit throughout the demanding shoot. “Filming in the suit was the most surreal thing I’ve done in 20 years of snowboarding,” says Hughes of the charged salopettes. “Luckily there was plenty of vin rouge to keep me warm, and Jacob’s enthusiasm kept everyone going through the cold nights.”

Read more to view the video.

The clip was shot in the Rhône-Alpes region of south-eastern France.

Paiir Classifieds

Fri, 16 Mar 2012 04:41:00 GMT

Paiir is our very own project and the very first we've worked on since starting Twofold. Our mission was simple; to provide a fast, easy and free classifieds website. In doing so, we created a unique and revolutionary system which redefines the way products are bought, sold and shared online.

Help support us by liking our page on Facebook - facebook.com/PaiirAds. Better still, register for an account, list and item or two and share it with your friends. It's fast, easy and best of all, it's free.

Visit Paiir at paiir.com.au.

A Long Overdue Update

Fri, 16 Mar 2012 04:18:00 GMT

It's been a while since we've posted an update but I hope it's worth the wait. If you've checked out our new home page you can probably see we've been busy! Our friends over at local Gold Coast cafe Black Coffee Lyrics have been very popular lately and we put together this holding page design for them until their site is out. If you're in the local area you have to drop by - they do the best coffee on the Gold Coast hands down. Check out their facebook page for more info.

We've also done a full site update and have added a few new jobs and some miscellaneous website and logo designs. There are a few more projects we can't wait to show you but they're still under development so you'll have to wait for them.

New Work! Premium Investors

Thu, 01 Dec 2011 23:35:00 GMT

Well...new, old work. This year has been a blur and we're finally getting back to reality. The reality is that our site has been in desperate need of some new portfolio pieces! We're just waiting on the completion of some huge projects before we can release them on the site so stay tuned for that. In the meantime I've added some older work to keep you satisfied (hopefully). Premium Investors is one of our oldest clients and believe it or not these designs are almost four years old now! You can check out more examples on our work page.

Lost Type Font Foundry

Thu, 01 Dec 2011 22:34:00 GMT

As a designer you sometimes just stumble across photos, fonts or ideas and think "I really wish I found that earlier." We've decided to share some of our inspiration and other great resources to our faithful followers, a lot of whom we've discovered are also graphic designers.

The Lost Type Co-op is one of those examples. They are a font foundry full of unique and high-quality fonts that really help to set your work off. If you can appreciate the amount of time and effort that goes into making a font to this standard, it's almost crazy to think about giving them away for free. But that's what these guys have done and the fonts are shared on a pay-what-you-want model - the first of its kind.

If you're looking for authentic, early 1900's and retro fonts you can't go past Lost Type. Check out their site at www.losttype.com and don't forget to offer a donation if you find their fonts useful.

Have you got any useful resources you'd like to share? Click 'READ MORE' to post a comment.

Where have we been?

Thu, 03 Nov 2011 00:24:00 GMT

If you've been thinking that our web site has been a little quiet as lately I'm truly sorry! Where have we been you ask? We've been working hard on a heap of new and exciting projects! At the start of the year we undertook a little personal web-based project of ours which has turned out to be the biggest job we've worked on to date. At the moment it's still under wraps but we will be unveiling it by end of this year. Apart from that, we've been designing the new range of Afray clothing and their brand new online store which has been a lot of fun.

Recently, we built a site for a friend of ours who is a professional photographer and has launched a fun little calendar respectfully merging digital media, models and the trades. If you're not from Australia, 'tradies' are tradesman and the industry is huge over here. The calendar is being sold online and proceeds are going to support the Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia. I've added this design along with a few of the latest web site designs we've rolled out on our Various Web Sites page so be sure to go and check them out.

That's it for now! We have a huge amount of new work to put on the site and will keep you all updated when it drops.

Steve Jobs Has Passed Away

Thu, 06 Oct 2011 00:48:00 GMT

I was saddened to hear this morning that Steve Jobs has passed away. He was a visionary and his legacy will be left behind in the innovation he brought to the computer industry through Apple. We can truly appreciate the amount of time, forethought and inherent simplicity he instilled in Apple products which, as designers, makes our job so much more enjoyable. RIP Steve.

"Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life.

Don’t be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice.

And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary."

- Steve Jobs
Stanford University Commencement Speech, 2005

New iPhone 4S

Wed, 05 Oct 2011 05:18:00 GMT

Apple have just released details of the brand new iPhone 4S, due to be released in the US on the 14th of October. The 4S appears to be almost identical to the 4, however runs a dual core processor, 8MP camera with 1080p HD video and new 'Siri' - an intelligent voice activated assistant that is able to send text messages for you, schedule and reschedule meetings or just tell you the weather. I think I'm due for an upgrade already... Check out all the details at Apple.

Imitation is the highest form of flattery

Wed, 21 Sep 2011 02:32:00 GMT

One of our kind followers just notified us of a company in India whose web site bears a striking resemblance to ours. I've always been one for doing thorough research for design inspiration and appropriation is a large part of creative industries but I think this just takes it a little too far. Coco Chanel once stated "imitation is the highest form of flattery" and while I don't think their site does our design justice, I guess we've got to take it as a compliment. I'm not so sure about their "appropriation" of our testimonials though. What do you think?

Illustrator & Animator - Liam Brazier

Fri, 09 Sep 2011 00:25:00 GMT

UK-based illustrator and animator Liam Brazier has applied geometric treatments to cartoon imagery in creating these dynamic scenes that really evoke feelings of movement and action. From a design perspective, this would most commonly be achieved through Illustrator with vectors. However what makes Brazier's work interesting is that the illustrations are created in Photoshop by drawing each shape with the polygonal selection tool and filling it in with colour. Despite being an interesting an unorthodox approach he's definitely achieving some fantastic results!

Stunning Wingsuit Footage

Fri, 09 Sep 2011 00:01:00 GMT

Robert Pecnik of Phoenix-Fly carving around the Swiss mountains in his V4 wingsuit to a Sigur Ros soundtrack. Need I say more? Click read more to see the full video.

Mixed Media Art by James Hopkins

Wed, 27 Jul 2011 05:43:00 GMT

James Hopkins is a pronounced artist who has created a series of mixed media pieces in which random objects and furniture are composed to create images or illusions. It makes me think back to Marcel Duchamp's ready made art with a modern spin on it. Either way, I really appreciate the simplicity of the work - I'd love to have one of these in my house!

Cash Doctors - Live!

Wed, 27 Jul 2011 05:22:00 GMT

Cash Doctors are a Gold Coast company and were actually one of our first ever clients. They have been a joy to work for over the last three years as we have helped with their online presence and document branding. Their squeaky clean new web site has just gone live and I thought I'd show it off for you! Check out the full site at www.cashdoctors.com.au.

Unbeleafable - A Girl 3D Skate Film

Tue, 12 Jul 2011 22:42:00 GMT

Girl Skateboards has always pushed the envelope with skateboarding videos since the release of their film 'Yeah Right' which featured high frame rate cameras, CGI graphics and a montage using green screened skateboards to make them appear invisible. Their new release 'Unbeleafable' directed by Ty Evans is the first ever 3D skate film and a forest theme was shot with a Phantom 65-Z3D (a lightweight, high-speed camera capable of shooting 320 frames per second in stereoscopic 3D) and a pair of RED MX cameras.

The crew set up a fantasy forest theme with skate obstacles inside a studio created with tonnes of leaves and fauna. A photo tells a thousand words and a video tells even more so check out the clip below to see what I'm talking about.

Trends: Parallax

Mon, 11 Jul 2011 00:51:00 GMT

par·al·lax

noun /ˈparəˌlaks/
parallaxes, plural

The effect whereby the position or direction of an object appears to differ when viewed from different positions, e.g., through the viewfinder and the lens of a camera.

It's always interesting to see how web trends they develop and evolve. I always loved the idea that a web site can be a 'portal' into the world of the company it represents and back in 2007 we designed a site that toyed with this concept - Ad Media. We weren't the first people to build a site like this but we didn't know how much momentum this style of design would generate. It's funny to look back on this and see that it's now 5 years old!

While the parallax idea isn't really new at all, the advent of HTML5 has made it possible to utilise it really well in dynamic HTML. A parallax site typically has at least 3 'layers' of content that move independently to give the illusion of movement and depth. Web development companies are now jumping on the bandwagon and coming out with some amazing pieces of work. Check out the links below to see what I'm talking about.

Awwwards Site of The Day

Fri, 09 Sep 2011 00:27:00 GMT

We were lucky enough to be awarded "Site of The Day" on awwwards.com on the 24 June 2011. Awwwards are the awards that recognize and promote the talent and effort of the best developers, designers and web agencies in the world. An international jury made up of some of the most important designers, bloggers and Internet agencies evaluate each site by means of a strict system of evaluation; scoring it on a scale of 1 to 10 for its Design, Creativity, Usability and Content. Thanks to everyone for their constructive feedback and support!

Transformers 3 Birdmen

Thu, 23 Jun 2011 01:23:00 GMT

The Transformers movies have been known for their extraordinary computer generated effects and how they integrate them seamlessly into the video footage. For a particular scene in the third movie 'Dark of the Moon', Michael Bay decided to film some wing suit flying the hard way instead of relying on heavy CGI scenery. Read on for more photos from the clip and the full video.

See the full video below.

Transformers 'Dark of the Moon' scene.

Jeb Corliss - An experienced base jumper and wing suit flyer.

Ambigrams

Wed, 15 Jun 2011 22:25:00 GMT

Ambigrams are increasingly becoming more prominent in graphic design today and this follows on from my recent blog about the resurgence in blackletter typography as they are both intertwined. Read more to see some great examples of original and modern day ambigrams.

An ambigram is a typographical design that may be read not only in its form as presented, but also from another viewpoint, direction, or orientation. Most commonly they are read when rotated 180 degrees. The earliest ambigram designs date to 1893 by artist Peter Newell and became more popular recently as a result of Dan Brown incorporating John Langdon's designs into the plot of his bestseller, Angels & Demons.

I would love to give a complex ambigram a try someday but after seeing some of these intricate designs I might leave that until I have a LOT of spare time on my hands.

Beer oh beer.

Wed, 15 Jun 2011 22:23:00 GMT

A clean and elegant design for an organic beer company. Designs like this consistently remind me that less is more...well, most of the time.

The Best Designs

Mon, 27 Jun 2011 06:22:00 GMT

We have to thank the lovely people over at The Best Designs for featuring our site today. For those who don't know, The Best Designs is basically a portal for some of the best-designed websites on the Internet. After using their site for web design inspiration for so long, it's been nice to get some recognition on there. Thanks again guys!

RC Helicopter Aerial Cam

Mon, 06 Jun 2011 00:16:00 GMT

Ever since I was young I've always wanted to try this. An innovative company have combined a specially modified remote control helicopter with a Canon digital SLR to take some amazing video shots. As far as bang for buck goes I don't think you could do much better than this!

Fridays > Mondays

Fri, 03 Jun 2011 01:09:00 GMT

Mondays are always tough. I've often wondered why my week seems to improve each day til Friday at almost a linear rate - so predictable that you could almost graph it.

Rawkes, an online media research company have done some investigation into Twitter and graphing UK-based Twitter online sentiments on a daily basis with interesting (predictable?) results. Rawkes states "Notice how the general trend of the sentiment is more apparent as the week goes on – the happiness drops like a stone on Monday, then slowly picks up again by Saturday."

I'm relieved to see that there is at least some kind of data to alleviate my distress that I may not be the only one who struggles with Monday!

Caracteres Fantaisie

Thu, 02 Jun 2011 01:39:00 GMT

That's not a typo, just the name of this authentic decorative French character set. This typographic style has been widely appropriated (albeit not as successfully) and integrated into popular fashion and design today. Because the characters are so detailed, letterhead fonts such as this are often quite difficult to integrate into designs because they tend to dominate the visual heirachy. I'm not complaining however...

Brisbane News

Thu, 02 Jun 2011 01:38:00 GMT

We were lucky enough to be featured on this week's Brisbane News in an article about twins and the benefits of working together. A big thanks goes to Janet Scott for organising the piece and Justine Walpole for the photography.

You can read the full article here.

Triple Backflip

Tue, 31 May 2011 23:27:00 GMT

After being involved with the BMX industry for a large part of my life I've watched it progress at great lengths over the past few years. Riders have been pushing the envelope past what was even considered possible and this clip is testament to that.

Just a few days ago, New Zealand BMX rider Jed Mildon made a world record by landing the first ever triple backflip on a BMX bike. This video is amazing to watch, but I'm left wondering where BMX can go to from here?

Blackletter is the new black

Thu, 02 Jun 2011 01:38:00 GMT

It's been interesting to see a real resurgence of blackletter typography in both design and fashion recently and we're loving it! There are some great hand-drawn and vector examples of both authentic and modern adaptations - some of which I've posted below.