Indiagraphics

Today I'll be looking at other countries, in a non-World Cup-related way. First up, India, a country where things like movie billboards (although not much anymore), trucks, and even political graffiti is elaborately and garishly hand-painted.

My cousin Basil is a graphic designer in Bombay. Here's what he told me recently when I asked him about the influences on design:

"India is almost entirely influenced by Western graphic design and graphic art form. Floral motifs and vine vector patterns seem to have given way to grungy urban textures of dereliction. Rusty metal and concrete are doing really good right now. It's a strange phenomenon 'cause the entire world seems to be hung up on Indian culture. Go figure..."

In 2004 there was a graphic novel called The Moon Of Baroda being serialized in a daily Bombay newspaper called Mid Day. My attempts to find it published in book form was met with blank looks from book store owners. Later on I emailed Rohit Gupta, the author, to ask him about it. He didn't reply.

The Moon Of Baroda, along with two other stories Knife In The Water and Towers Of Silence were collected in Gupta's book Special Officer Savant, which he described as "mainly about a police inspector and Bollywood-style crime-fighting, robbery etc." Incidentally, he described his 2007 comic The Curse Of Pippilika as "a typical science-fiction, mytho-epical tantric sex fantasy" (!).

Anyway, here's a sample strip – the first one I saw. I like how they censored the word 'ass' but left 'bloody', 'shit' and 'bastards' as is. Enjoy!

(©2004 Rohit Gupta/Harsho Mohan Chattoraj)

Site Relaunch

The nonesuchdesign.com website has been redone in a new slimline version. It's basically just an online portfolio now, with a few galleries of images. Most of those images have already been uploaded to my deviantART page.

All the other stuff that was on the old site has been deleted, including the comic stuff. I was going to put some of those in, but Dreamweaver is being an arse as usual so for the time being it's just the galleries.

I'd appreciate anyone letting me know if something on the site doesn't function, is missing, or doesn't display properly.

Wallan

Thought I'd post this, as it's been on my desktop since May. Somewhere out in country Victoria there's a small town called Wallan that has signs like this in several fields. The heart in the sign is made of grass. It shows that the people of Wallan, unlike Melbourne, actually take pride in their small corner of the world.

I have no idea how to pronounce the town's name, which makes it more interesting.

Further north, the border town of Wodonga has a sign facing into New South Wales that says "I Hate Albury". Well, they don't. But they should.

Chalkface

Here's a couple of panels from Chalkface, the 16th chapter in the Airbury Academy series. The story is a series of flashbacks from a teacher's point of view, but it did give me the chance to include some real-life snippets from when I was studying graphic design. The last part takes place in a life drawing class:

The "model" that they're drawing isn't nude at all, so no need to worry. The above lines were overheard pretty regularly in my life drawing classes; I think I said it to the teacher at some point as well.

Erica's line in the above panel is taken directly from something a friend in design class once said to a teacher. I was sitting next to her when she said it, and she said it with such enthusiasm that I was laughing for quite a while. It still makes me laugh, so I just had to put it in.

It's actually funnier here because Erica's life-drawing is so bad.

ComicSpace Site Down

My computer decided to switch itself on (anyone else had this happen?) at 4:15 this morning. Scared the hell out of me.

Anyway, the recent demise of the ComicSpace website means the five galleries I uploaded are no longer online. ComicSpace will probably relaunch in a different format, but I don't have a profile page there. Which means this is now the only place you can see the comic stories as they unfold.

ID Ideas

Now that I need to come up with a new name and logo, let's start brainstorming a few ideas.

Thinking of a business identity can be difficult, especially as it requires a memorable, concise name that describes what you do, and a logo that clearly represents same.

There are many approaches to this. First up is the ultra-corporate look. Clean typeface, no colour, and perhaps a tossy slogan thrown in.

Too clinical. No interesting shapes, boring company name and clichéd slogan. Let's try again with a more interesting name. I still can't think of one so for this example I'll put four random letters together, like those burnt-out hippies The Beatles did with "NUJV":

'Graphic Arts' at least describes the business even if JKPX is totally meaningless. It might mean something if you really think about it but then it might not. One more try. If corporate branding seems too difficult for a one-man band, why not try to develop your own self as a brand, like Big Kev, Dick Smith or, dare I say it, Peter The Possum Man?

So, it's a bit stupid but I reckon you'll remember it and not the other two. Probably not the ideal choice for a serious graphic artist though.

In any case, the search for a new name continues...

My Top 10 Animated Films

I'd never claim to be any sort of authority on animated films (I've only seen one of the 86 Shrek movies, for instance) but I know a good one when I see one, and I've seen quite a few. So here is the list of my Top Ten Animated Films.

All images are copyright their respective owners/creators and no copyright infringement is intended.

10. A Bug's Life

(1998)

The Disney/Pixar output is prolific in recent years but I count this one as the best of the bunch. I saw it when it came out, and not only was the animation amazing but the little touches (such as a water droplet in a rolled-up leaf used as a telescope) drew you into the ants' world more. The rendering of shadows and wind movement was done really well too.

9. Hotaru No Haka

(Grave Of The Fireflies)

(1988)

Teenaged Seita and his young sister Setsuko try to survive in a small village after their mother is killed in a World War II bombing raid. The film is based on a book by Akiyuki Nosaka about a boy and his sister dying of starvation just days before Japan's surrender in 1945. Nosaka wrote the book to come to terms with his sister's death, because he blamed himself for it.

The film depicts a dangerous reality but doesn't overdo the sentimentality, although it has to be said this is an intensely moving film. If it doesn't at least bring a tear to your eye you are not human.

8. Project A-Ko

(1986)

I saw this at the start of my "I'll watch any anime no matter what it's about" period (1998–2001). It inspired me to do comics/graphic novels with unlikely protagonists. It's got plenty of elements that people like about anime: the main character's a girl, it's set in a school, it's got massive robots that explode and some great rubbery animation, with facial expressions you never knew existed. Old-school anime that still matches up to the visually-sophisticated '90s/'00s stuff. The first anime film I saw, and a good introduction to anime, looking back.

7. The Lion King

(1994)

Many consider the 1990s to be a 'gold' era for Disney, and this film had dramatic scenery complemented by its soundtrack. I saw this at the movies when it came out and the "Circle Of Life" sequence had everyone amazed, no one said a word when the film's title came up with that big thumping drum beat sound. Impressive.

6. Ranma ½: Kessen Togenkyou! Hanayome O Tomoridose!!

(Ranma ½ The Movie 2: Nihao My Concubine)

(1992)

I doubt this was shown in theatres as it was a movie-length episode of the anime series. If it had been, I'm sure they would have given it a snappier title. Many fans like this for its beach scenes (I don't think I need to spell that out), but I like it for its tropical setting, colour styling, over-the-top comedy and visual gags. And, get this – the English dub is really funny, and I like the actors' voices a lot.

5. Rupan Sansei: Kariosutoro No Shiro

(Lupin III: The Castle Of Cagliostro)

(1979)

An early Hayao Miyazaki feature, based on a manga by Monkey Punch, with goofy slapstick animation and a freewheeling, melodramatic style. Action mixed with screwball comedy is a genre better suited to animation, as Miyazaki himself said. Visually incredible – check out the auto-gyro in the climax of the second act – but the definite highlight is the car chase near the beginning, where Lupin's Fiat 500 does everything you wouldn't expect a tiny car to do.

4. The Looney Looney Looney Bugs Bunny Movie

(1981)

(1981 only refers to the year this was compiled – the cartoons themselves date back much earlier.)

Now, this is how real cartoons are done. These Warner Bros cartoons had a sense of comic timing, and storyline pacing that just gets more frenzied as it builds to the climax, that 'zany™' 'toons in recent times can't replicate. Friz Freleng had a style that cannot be imitated and his best work is showcased brilliantly here. And if you've seen the shorts in their original form, so much the better.

3. Chicken Run

(2000)

Aardman Animation's classic, which I also saw when it came out, and the work that went into making it is staggering. I remember reading something like the animators would work for a full day and only end up with 3 seconds of footage at the end. I used to use Flash in design class, so I know how they feel. The wide banana-mouths of the characters (an Aardman signature) makes the mouth movements much more realistic. I also like the way the characters interact with other objects, such as sets and props. It's very hard for me to watch this without thinking 'I wonder how they did that' every 2 seconds, but I'll keep trying anyway.

2. Wallace & Gromit in The Wrong Trousers

(1993)

I don't think anyone does 'claymation' better than Aardman and Nick Park, and this is my personal favourite of the Wallace & Gromit short films. Aside from the stunning animation this film also uses sound effects and music to maximum dramatic effect. People always mention that Gromit doesn't talk. Why should he? We know how he feels just by looking at him. If only more people were like that, eh? The train chase scene at the end is one of the most beautiful things to see in animation (in particular Gromit laying down spare track at lightning speed). To be honest, that scene is one of the finest things committed to film, ever.

1. Kurenai No Buta

(Porco Rosso)

(1992)

There are plenty of top Miyazaki films which might be tough for the Studio Ghibli enthusiast to rank. I haven't seen that many, but this is my solid favourite. The scenery is depicted so realistically that the opening pan shot of Porco's secluded bay may fool you into thinking it's live-action. The film's Mediterranean backgrounds are very detailed, with dramatic use of light and shade. The animation of course is of an amazingly high standard and the aerial combat scenes are incredible, the animation and camera angles capture the sense of speed perfectly, not to mention the designs of the planes themselves. The aeroplanes in this film are based on actual 1920s aircraft, when plane designs were more freeform. Miyazaki himself used to sketch WWII fighter planes as a teenager.

As the 20th century turned to the 21st, Studio Ghibli would no doubt go on to produce more groundbreaking work but the visuals in this film blow me away every time – which ensured its no.1 place on this list.

Honourable Mention: Urotsukidoji

(1987)

It's only an OVA and didn't get a theatrical release, so it misses out on the list, but it'll take a couple of hours to watch and it's made of drawings on acetate sheets, so it's an animated movie as far as I'm concerned.

If you were into anime in the early 1990s before every Tom, Dick and Harry started watching Naruto, this was the one that was off-limits to under 18s. The term 'tentacle porn' sums this up admirably. But it has lots more: humour, dark perversions, climactic battles, exploding bodies, and this, possibly the best "let's introduce a major female character with a pervy vertical pan shot" ever done.

Any questions?

The End Of Nonesuch Design

Wow, the previous post racked up a whopping 8 comments! Sure, two of them are mine and the rest are a couple of idiots arguing, but it's still an entertaining read. But enough about that – it's time I posted something for August. And it ain't good.

After using the name Nonesuch Design for two years, the various little Hitlers and tin-gods that make the rules have informed me that I can no longer use the name. Why? Because someone registered the name several years ago, and let it expire. So using it as a legit name is now a no go area. Off-limits. Verboten.

I suppose this blog will still keep its name though (can't change the URL now). It takes me forever to think of names for things. Sometime in the late '90s I originally started using the name Half Baked Productions (because one of the bricks in my driveway was a different colour), but people thought that was amateurish. So I changed it to Starlight Division, but people thought it sounded like Starlight Foundation, which is some childrens' charity. Then in 2006 it became Nonesuch Cartoons before becoming Nonesuch Design in 2008. And no one could fault that because no one knew what 'nonesuch' meant.

Well, I'd better go throw out my 150-odd business cards and trash all my letterhead and self-promo designs which all featured the old logo, and take another two years trying to think of a new name. Suggest a new name for me if you want. Or don't, I don't really give a stuff. Perhaps this photo of protesters in Iceland sums up how I feel at this point.