and now for my next trick

its no secret i love the old timey stuff
as well as old magician posters so when
doing this poster for the wonderful tin sparrows
residency at the oxford arts factory i thought
it would be fun to play with these themes as well
as things that seem to be falling from the sky..
a concept thats been used on their upcoming
ep..

you have something on your.......

natural selection posters are always fun
and this came from a random doodle i did
on the bus..originally it was fox tail mo
and the person had the two opposing foxes tied
behind his head ..but this was hard to pull off
so squirrel's were next in line and seemed to work
a treat...( how old am i using expressions like that)

hold them or fold them

I have always enjoyed my working relationship/
friendship with the amazing sydney singer/sonwriter
jack carty through our work together on his ep and
recent single we share a drive to push ourselves
just that little bit further so i was excited to
see what we could do together for his upcoming album
"one thousand origami birds"



The trick was to have something that related to that very visual title but also not be obvious..this cave world had been an idea i had been trying to get going but never really found the right context until this..it was a case of taking from jacks lyrics about paper birds flying too close to the sun and then , boom, it hit me that the birds could be escaping this world only to sentenced to death for doing so..it was a wonderful and vivid picture that was placed in my head and the world flowed fast after that..
there is in fact atleast 10 other parts to this world that didnt make it to this world that i may blog about after its release









this last image is the back cover as a pure image without
the cave and explorer in front of it..it was a fave of mine
and i just wanted to share it here

go you husky's

this one was a long process going through many ideas
some goodish , some bullshit narnia rip offs and then
going through my old ideas diary i came across an image
when i drew it was just a silly throw away image but when
thinking about the title history's door , the two seemed
destined and melbourne band husky seemed to agree..
this also kicks off a relationship with these guys as i will
be art directing their album and directing and producing an
epic animated video clip in the next few months

good times ahead

patrick james

so i have been a fan of patrick james' music since i saw him
at a natural selection night about 6 months ago so when i was
asked to do a branding of sorts for him i jumped at the chance.
the artwork is for his various media pages as well as this we
did a publicity photo shoot , where i have been experimenting
in hand tinting , on top of this on the day we decided to do
an off the cuff , one take , live version of his song carry on..
my years of training on shoot the player really paid off as this
was a very fun , laid back performance the results of which are
above..

cover me ..im going in

so the other night i received an email asking me
if i could do a cover for a surf/western band called
the tin stars...never one to back down from a challenge
i accepted and here is the result

trapped in amber

So i have known the directors of this show
for a while now..they are very good friends so
i was very excited when they asked me to do a promo
series of photos and poster for their upcoming play..

im so happy for them and tim aka mase is like the
godfather of old time-y to me so to get a hearty thumbs
up on these faux aged photos makes me extra happy

an amazing xmas gift

this is amazing news for me
rage ( a popular music video show)
held their annual top 50 videos of the year
at number 8 was rabbit song
and at number 23 was blood to gold
this is such an honour ..i am so completely
blown away by it

the au news also placed rabbit song as their
number 9 video of the year alongside yeasayer,
kanye west and Mia..

carmen coming soon

this week byron and i headed down along the
southern coast of new south wales to shoot the
video for Canadian Carmen townsend ..its so nice
and such an honour to shoot a video for a visiting
international act..the video is patrly inspired by
wuthering heights and should be up post xmas

campfire of the gods

this is an idea i have been throwing around
for a while but when asked to do a next big
things , artist line up an erupting volcano
came to mind...

the world in the palm of your hand

that curious expression was bouncing
about in my head , so when i was asked to
do a poster for jason collett ( im a big
broken social scene fan ) i was very
excited and thought this seemed apt..
something about going solo and having that
world out there in your grasp..or something
maybe i was bored and thought it look cool..
who knows..

jurassic parking lot

just once i would like to wake up in suburbia
and have this happen..this is my postcard where
the headline should be " wish i was here"...

It's a guy thing!

So here's the cover for guy sebastains retrospective
album twenty ten . i co art directed this with debaser
which was a big thrill , as they have done some of my fave
album covers of recent years..theres a bit of a story attached
to how this became the cover art of what might be a number one
album..wouldnt that be insane..my shit would be every where..


so this city was built just on a whim ..an idea
i had one morning and from the outset it felt right..
so happy with it i just sent it spec to sony and the
recording artist i had in mind..then i get a urgent
phone call asking if the clock city could be used for
guy sebastian , and im no spaz thinking how great the
exposure would be , so i said yes..about a week later
im on the shoot and feeling like a fish that grew big
over night in someone elses pond..it was a great experience
and now..ta da nationwide my clock city will be on shelves
everywhere

below is the back page of the booklet and above is the
under tray image..im so happy with the extent sony has used
my clock city in this

lior has gone to the birds part 2

to add to the bird houses at front of stage
this massive looping projection played behind
him..it shows subirdia at dawn with the little
bird families coming out and greeting the day

lior has gone to the birds

so a few weeks ago i was asked by lior
a much loved australian singer/songwriter
to work on some stage design..after throwing
around some ideas we liked this idea of subirdia..
a town of birds all with their own stories ..
so i got to work hand crafting these doll house/
bird houses filled with little families and cute
bird related in jokes...inspired by wes andersons
mr fox film these took a week or so to make but
after a few breakdowns and tantrums , i think
they came good

in stores now..but not for long

a brisbane store is selling the montpelier
shirt i did recently featuring the upside down
boat , that ties into the upside down world branded
for them..it trips me out no end to see this in a
store window...

hope is for the hopeless

So, im pretty sure this is my
first headshot cd cover but both
jack and i wanted it to have a story
or its own artwork attached to it and
i was keen to do something that looked
like a projected image..it was originally
ladders leading out of suburbia and into the
sky but this bird / freedom image was just
a last minute thing and then all involved felt
it was the right image..
anyways its a great song..head to his myspace
to have a listen

friday night projectile

this is a few weeks old but heres a pic of
the animated projection of lighthouse island
playing on stage amongst the band and out old
lamp lighthouses..

this is where the wild things are

I have known and worked for dead letter
for some years now and was eagre to do a video
and was over the moon when it was run wild
that i got to do the video for..its such a great
song..so we nutted out the idea of this of a where
the wild things are type situation but with a peter
pan style love story..this was my first solo effort
minus byron on camera and after a wobbly start
( footage now lost forever and will stay that way)
i found my footing and grew more and more confident..
in the end im very happy with the result and i find the
love story to be very sweet and touching..if i do say so
myself.

heres some of my fave stills from the vid