On the illustration end of things, here’s a wallpaper I created for Conduit Labs’ new site Loudcrowd. This background sits behind the site UI and works in a few of the themes the site is working with - music, hot chicks, gaming elements, and a dash ‘o punk rock (click for full version 150k).

I still can’t give away any more details, but Loudcrowd.com is just a few weeks shy of an alpha release to get some close friends beating on the new architecture.

As usual I haven’t posted in a while due to el Capitan at Conduit Labs keeping things on the down-low a.k.a. Stealth Mode. The product name is set, the domain purchased, and here’s a quick illustration that’s being used in the splash page. It starts to set the mood, silhouetting style and teases out the theme a little.

More concept art to be posted in a bit, some environment concepts that probably won’t make all that much sense.

I designed a cd cover for Troy’s new single ‘Never Walk Away’ which is already out via mp3 download on ITunes, Amazon and a few other sites.  Dead media cd format coming soon. 

The cover design is somewhat of a break from the website’s aesthetic, features some bold colors and knockout effects based off a rockin’ out photo, and fits a little better with the upbeat, almost inspirational tone of the new single.  As always, Troy’s got a legion of loyal fans backing him up over on his site:  www.troymaccubin.com and Troy’s Blog.

Long time no content as usual. I still can’t discuss the details of what we’re creating at Conduit, but here’s a some concept art I worked on last week. We’ve also released our first Facebook app as a quick test of our new rendering tech, if you’re lucky enough to find someone to create you an avatar for it.

Well… it looks like I’m getting a truckload of traffic from Conduit Labs blog, so I’ll chime in here and say hi. I’ve accepted a position as Senior UI/Flash Designer for Conduit. It’s was very good fit for my skillset and experience, and Nabeel is a great guy - very passionate about both the web and gaming spaces, and the up-and-coming hybrids those two parents are busy creating (think Habbo Hotel, Club Penguin).

I can’t get into specifics yet… a lot of things are still under wraps. But for a few hints - my design work will be along similar lines to the work I did for H-Lounge - web design work, user interface design, gaming elements, illustration and probably a bit of 3d.

The crew is top-notch - game designers and developers who worked on Asheron’s Call, Titan Quest, Lord of the Rings Online and Guitar Hero. The’ve already put together some mighty impressive next-gen tech with Flash. Crap I didn’t think was possible.

Stay tuned. I’ll release more artwork, screenshots and stuff as I’m allowed.

I did a two-page interview in Advanced Photoshop magazine (issue 33) that broadly covers the use of Photoshop and Flash in design and illustration work, a few pros and cons of the software (heavy on the pros, it’s a bit of an Adobe promo-piece). I was actually a rather hard article to put together - Adobe is ubiquitous in the design space now, they do it all. The Creative Suite is comprised of Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Dreamweaver, Flash, Acrobat… you can’t really design these days without this software - consequently, it’s hard to make comparisons when there isn’t anything to contrast it to.

A few of my illustrations are featured, the H-Lounge UI layout, and H-Lounge avatars are shown off in a nice light. It’s crazy to see them stacked like so. A few other artists in that graphic/vector style space are also featured.

Thanks again to Adam Smith for the writeup. (Click image for full-size version)

I just finished up this logo and silkscreened poster for Gabriel Lopez - a San Francisco based photographer and designer. He’s doing a 10-year featurette on one completely awesome labrador who’s getting on in years. Silkscreening is a great way to reproduce prints very quickly and cheaply… and the imperfections add to the style.

The logo’s been shipped off in .eps format - expect to be able to buy your own Miles coffe cups from CafePress soon.

Well, it looks like Harmony Line Music has finally closed its doors - it was a good run, and I wish the best of luck to that team. There were a lot of really good people working hard to bring Hyperscore to the masses.

While working with Harmony Line I was responsible for creating a few UI elements for Hyperscore - very cool and innovative music-making software/doodling software, as well as the music-sharing and ringtone community H-Lounge.com. (see previous post).

Consequently, the evolution avatars I was doodling are now up for grabs - feel free to contact me if you’d like to license them. They start off one-celled and follow the major changes in evolution - eventually getting organs, skeletons etc and ending up at the end with mammals. Although admittedly, you’d have to have a pretty specific project to use them.

I’ve been working with Harmony for about two years now - here’s the run-down for those of you not in the music software/social community space.

Hyperscore is music-authoring software originally created in the MIT Media Lab. You create music by drawing lines and adding in a Bach-style harmonization. Hyperscore won a 50k grant from MIT for new businesses, and Harmony Line was established to leverage the software into a business.

A bit of venture capital and key hires later (including myself), Harmony Line’s first project was H-Lounge.com - a website launched off of this Hyperscore, creating a music community for Hyperscore users to show off their music, rate, chat, hold contests and collect and upgrade rockstar-styled avatars.

You could also send your Hypscore music as ringtones to phones for $2, and keep 50% of the fee, and a little bit later mp3 support was added, so that any music artist using any software could upload music (essentially putting H-Lounge into competitive ’sell your music’ space - PureVolume, IndieTunes, CDBaby).

This was a big shift in my opinion. The original users of the site had only been using Hyperscore and midi-format music and established their own rules and community (and worked hard to upgrade their avatars and gain points). Allowing anyone to upload mp3s created in Fruity Loops or Garage Band expanded the potential user base to anyone- not just Hyperscore users, but ended up pushing aside the original community.

Another side project I worked on was hyperscore.com - which spun off a educational-themed Hyperscore as a tool for teachers. It ended up with a different visual style along with another social community, tools and lesson plans for teachers, and evolution-styled avatars.

Another illustration added, this one in a more painterly/shaded style rather than a comic-style shaded one. And now that I notice it, a curiously similar color scheme to the theater one I did a few months ago. Hmm… I’ll have to do something in blue next.