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Title Sequence

Terry Pratchett's Soul Music.

My favourite book since I was 14. The Discworld Series (with this book being one of them) is heavily set in Victorian fantasy world, with a satirical take on it. Death, the Grim Reaper, has always played a prominent part in these books AND HE TALKS IN CAPS LIKE THIS. He also loves curry and kittens, so if you plan to smack a naughty kitty while he's next to you- don't do it. Walk away. So in this book, Death's overwhelming curiosity over mortals made him forget his duties- which forced his granddaughter (from an adopted child, long story) to take his role. You know, the whole robes, scythe, hourglasses, bones, riding a horse AND TALKING LIKE THIS.

What the Discworld wasn't expecting was a sort of being, a creature, an entity expressing interest over a young musician named Buddy (who looks Elvish) to spread the universe with Rock and Roll. Susan had to restore the balance of life because Buddy was meant to be dead to begin with.

This book is crazy. I love it.


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Characters
Death / Grim Reaper
Susan Sto Helit / Susan Death
Imp Y Celyn / Buddy / Elvish

Locations
The Discworld (A plate on top of four elephants riding a giant turtle wandering in space)
Death's House

Themes
Cynical, sarcastic, silly, ridiculous... but funny.

Visual Style
Victorian + Rock&Roll

Genre
Fantasy



Reference: Josh Kirby and Paul Kidby's artworks & The Hogfather film.

Visual references:


Mentiras Piadosas


Carnivale


Casino Royale


Cheri


Lemony Snicket - A Series of Unfortunate Events




Visual Directions:

Using Victorian lines and patterns to shift between the soul threads (using Death's scythe to cut from the body)to the string of a lute, then she shape of the lute to hourglass, and to the corset of Susan's Victorian garment. These lines are the main element to direct the audience between what was going in the story.


Song reference:



Jail House Rock - Elvis Presley



Rock around the Clock by Bill Haley (oh the irony!)

Type + Song

Don't hate me, but...I actually picked the music first and scrolled through a series of typeface I own to fit into this song.



Nature Boy by David Bowie & Massive Attack. Listen to the first 30 seconds of this music clip. Lots of minor keys, rhythms that go back and forth hypnotically, it's a static pace that still invokes uncertainty, sadness and mystery. I often ended up with types like Didot and Bodoni, because of it heavy stems and light serifs, but settled on to the type Modern No.20. Oh I am SO stuck with black and white, because I've been spending way too much time messing around with each letters as shapes.

Typeface Animation

One of my favourite pieces based on type, is from film The Kite Runner. I know the letters were in Roman but the design was based on Arabic writing, but the way things flow so organically and seamlessly captures the basic essence and life surrounding Afghanistan. I am jealous of MK12.

MK12 // The Kite Runner: Opening Title Sequence from MK12 on Vimeo.

Torn between types

MrsEavesby Zuzano Licko
(image taken from Emigre Fonts)

One of my random works.

I've been obsessed with this type. I don't know why. Then again I've been obsessed with one type phase at a time, just like my boy phase. It's bad, but it's also good. MrsEaves is like the petite version of Caslon and Baskerville, which speaks in a quiet, but elegant tone. I've left a lot of MrsEaves trails all over my work, but the images I've used most with this type are vintage photographs, postcards and posters. Maybe I molded it that way. Would love to work on this, but I've also another type in mind.

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Georgia by Matthew Carter (image via Web Rulon)

Similar in tone with MrsEaves, but Georgia has her mind on her own. She is an extension to myself, and you can see her all over my website playfully. I love her very much, and I found myself using only this type related to my personal contents (again, self branding). It's easy to work around this type because its various weights (bold, italic, regular) are so different from each other, but speak the same tone. I am contemplating to use her for this assignment, but I am too selfish to share her with anyone else. I'll think about it. I would probably use her faux-pas twin MrsEaves instead. I don't know. I'll get back to you!!!

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Um, I forgot which typeface is this, but I made it for my (roommate's) pet cat, Psyang, which fell out the window last year. I loved Psyang! This was the best picture I took of her, messed around in Photoshop for the LUOMO look (hahahaha) and slapped on this... type. I'll update this post once I remember what type is this!

Edit: IT'S CLARENDON

Mike G Illustration - Updated

Vimeo:




YouTube:

Mike G Illustration

YouTube upload:



Vimeo version: