Client: Unknownworlds Entertainment

Overview: Awww man, this was ace. As you all well know, I am games obsessed, and just love working with all you games companies out there. So when the guys over at Unknownworlds Entertainment got in touch and introduced me to the world of Natural Selection 2, I was salivating! This game is frikken gorgeous! The concept art, the ideas, the in game visuals, everything, it’s just so damn impressive. The project was something of a challenge in the fact that it had a 2 day turnaround from concept to delivery (it was too much fun to pass up so I threw my weekend at it to make it happen), plus the fact that the brand hadn’t been envisioned in full and there was a limited amount of visuals that I could work with (due to marketing restrictions...these guys have LOTS of followers, so it was key to ensure that only certain art was released with the new site), but man, this just made it even more fun and challenging. I worked with the guys to help them develop the brand ready for the new launch, which I have to say, with the artistic finesse of Cory Strader, they visualised the concept BEAUTIFULLY, just watch in action on the trailer, it rocks! Needless to say, with the brand in place and a handful of god damned sexy in game rendered assets, I got to work on crafting a site that felt as though you were in the world of NS2. So the design you see here isn’t just a big render, its a finely crafted collage of various in game elements. Bloody great fun!!

Client: Fishing Cactus

Overview: Ooooooooh this one was bloody good fun!!!! As most of you already know, I love a bit of everything, illustration, design, animation, flash, the lot and this wonderful project encompassed just about everything!!! Fishing Cactus are a broad skilled, fun loving games company based out in Belgium and they required a creative, playful and original angle on both their brand and site. Needless to say an approach like this is rather fun to work with so this project was an absolute blast! Once we had the character signed off I was chomping at the bit to get into the site and flash work as I knew this was going to be fun! As the design started to come together, I soon realised that it was crying out for extra illustrated touches, so I set to work creating lots of quirky bespoke elements to add some really original touches to the site. All in all this was a dream job and one that I really, really enjoyed. You can see some more of the illustrations created in the illustration section. Oh and if you have an iPhone, check out their latest release ‘Shift’ its brilliantly playable!!!

Client: Klei Entertainment

Overview: YEY, website number two for the guys over at Klei Entertainment, and this time it was for the dev blog of their new game, Shank! Once again I got to work with the amazing artwork of Jeff Agala, which let’s face it, is totally awesome!! As they have gone for a very stylised look with Shank, it was imperative that I designed the site in a way to perfectly reflect the rich atmosphere of the game. Pop over and take a look, there is some jaw dropping concept art on there all ready to get your mouths watering for the new game. I love games sites :) Can anyone tell?

Client: Subatomic Studios

Overview: I couldn’t believe my luck when I got contacted by the guys over at Subatomic Studios to see if I’d be interested in the re-design of their new site! Fieldrunners is quite possibly the best iPhone game I have ever laid my hands on (and I have many screens worth of games on my iPhone desktop!) so the chance to design the new site was sooooo exciting! The artwork that these guys have created for the game is so unique and inspirational that designing the new site was always going to be fun. It’s one thing to love what you do, but to then get to a new project that is both in the field that you love (games industry) and then also to be a game that you love, is nothing short of a project miracle. Adam as ever was my technical guru and right hand man, yet again, making another beautiful transition from my PSD’s to a fully working site. It was also a good challenge, as this not only had kick ass online, but also through the iPhone browser, so we had to pull some nifty tricks to make this load quick, look slick and show off Fieldrunners at its very best. Adam, you rock! If you’ve got an iPhone, buy this game as it is aaaaaamazing.

Client: Fully Illustrated - Michael Heald

Overview: I don’t honestly know what brought this sudden urge to create a new digital art piece came from, maybe the recent explosion of HD technology across the world, HD gaming, HD TV, HD Movies etc, but whatever it is just compelled me to create something new. The direction I took was largely inspired by the amazing Adobe Design Centre banners that I saw by 2Advanced, mixed up with the neon effects that seem to be everywhere right now. All I know is that after playing around for the better part of a day, a good few hundred layers and final PSD that tipped 1GB later, it was complete. I’m really pleased with it and thus am having it printed HUGE for the studio wall. It was quite refreshing to do something totally for fun, it’s been too long since I created something totally for yours truly. Hmmm, where next, maybe I’ll create another...

Client: That Game Company

Overview: That Game Company, the makers of the award winning flOw and the highly anticipated Flower for the PS3 have just had the full make over. This was such an exciting one to work on as the brief was so different from the norm. That Game Company’s approach to games and gameplay is literally like no other, their games really do break the traditional mould of video games, which was rather exciting from a creative perspective as it meant that the site couldn’t look ordinary in any way and needed to reflect the calm, open and free feel of their games. Sticking close to their brand values was imperative as the people that follow their games have a close affinity to their thinking and ethos, so the site had to hold a mirror up to the essence of their games. Also a big thanks to Adam again on the build, top work Adam!! Awesome fun.

Client: Mac à Montréal

Overview: This was a great opportunity to be involved with! Mac à Montréal are part of the official Apple Consultants network and thus needed a site that threw the user straight into Apple land! It had to be clean, slick and professional. This was a sizable project overall too, as it was not only a re-design, but, a re-brand and build...but not just a build, a multilingual build!! Once again, a big thanks to Adam for his hard work on the this, as the new Mac à Montréal website is presented in both French, English and is 100% CMS driven, superb! Thanks to Adam and everyone at Mac à Montréal for a fun project!!

Client: Black Jacket Studios

Overview: I know that me sounding off saying ‘Oh my god, I loved this project’ is starting be a rather regular thing, so sorry to say it again, but this was a storming project to have been involved with! The guys at Black Jacket Studio’s are awesome, great fun to work with and boy do they have one HELLUVA game on the way! I was lucky enough to play an ‘in-development’ version of Metal Drift (a kind of kick ass mix between Unreal Tournament and Speedball) and can honestly say that it is brilliant! Anyway I’m getting carried away. So all I’ll say is that this was great to work on and involved the whole process, branding, design, site build and integration (Adam'd done a great job on the build here, great work!). Keep your eyes peeled for the launch of Metal Drift as it is aaaaaaaaawesome!

Client: Studs Up - Chris Toy

Overview: Studs Up is a daily football related comic strip written and illustrated by Chris Toy. This was a really different brief to work with and was really good fun! This design is intended to make the user feel as though they are looking through Chris’s eyes while he creates the daily strip, showing all his pencils, shavings, erasers etc and of course the obligatory coffee and cookie! All the page assets were created as bespoke elements (except the wood) and were all shot for this job, giving the design a unique feel. Chris’s characters can really come to life now as the strip has its new design to live within.

Client: Flash Bang Studios - BLURST

Overview: Another awesome games job! The main reason Fully Illustrated was established was to allow me to work more with my favourite industry, the games industry. So every time another games job comes along I do a little jump for joy. The guys at BLURST personify passion and excitement, the WHOLE point of the site is that it’s a place for them to develop, launch and play experimental, fun and downright crazy games! How cool! So to be asked to create the brand, site, t-shirts and flyers was simply brilliant! The branding had to portray an explosion of fun and quirky playfulness, so it was immensely fun to work on. I HIGHLY recommend playing through some of the games as they are bloody marvellous! My personal faves are Splume and Velociraptor Safari!! Go play!!!

Client: VD

Overview: This was a cool one to work with as the brand is soooo funky. All that old school USA flare, pin striping, motorcycles and amazing insignia. I wanted to portray as much of this as possible in a really gritty, textured way to help pull out the key parts of the brand. Another fun part of this was the flash piece on the ‘Garage’ page, a nice opportunity to inject some movement into the page and introduce even more of the heritage. And to top off a fun project it also picked up a few awards and made it into a number of design features, nice!

Client: DrivePwr

Overview: Green sure is the hot topic right now, it’s great to see! This was a fab little project to cover the design for a new green ‘bio power’ blog site, that covers everything going on the world of green motoring. I wanted to inject this design with something that not only said ‘earth friendly’ but also appealed to the people that just love going out for a drive, so a nice sunny open road was the order of the day. I also decided to try and create an effect that reflected natural energy, so the light movement around the site is supposed to look clean and natural. I really enjoyed this one.

Client: Klei Entertainment

Overview: Ooooh another dream client, Klei Entertainment! I was lucky enough to be contacted by Klei Entertainments Founder to see if I would be interested in re-designing their new site...I almost bit his arm off! I have been a big fan of Klei for a while, especially that of their artwork, pioneered by Jeff Agala , the director of Atomic Betty, so the chance to work with these guys was whole heartedly accepted!! The site had a very tight deadline and is testament to the teamwork of both Klei, Adam (my wonderfully talented developer and friend) and myself. I am also pleased to announce that the new site picked up a WDA too, awesome!!

Client: MAME - Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator

Overview: What more needs to be said...MAME, the one, the only, the original arcade machine emulator! This was a great challenge from a design perspective as it couldn’t be my usual full blown graphical explosion, it needed to be more toned down and streamlined as the site has an immensely functional role to play. The site is used by two pretty distinct groups of people, the developers (very important) and the players (equally as important) so a balance had to be found between appealing to the players/newcomers, and the developers that donate their time and efforts to the project. What this created was a site that has a strong visual impact on the homepage, then followed by a more reserved structure for the subpages, thus saying a big hello to the newcomers and then allowing the regulars to get to what they need to without too many graphics. Fun little job!

Client: .NET Magazine

Overview: This was great fun once again. It’s been a while since the last build off for NET mag, so I was overjoyed to be presented with the chance of doing another one. This time it was for an energy provider. As this is a rather stale subject, I wanted to inject a little politics and passion into the equation, so rather than take the usual approach I created a fictitious company called GEN (Or Green Energy in full) toward the earthy folk of the world and show how a design could house some real personality and appeal to people on a level higher than simply ‘being the cheapest’. I already had a few emails from people regarding the article (thanks everyone...and no its not been to complain about my stupid photo ;) so it looks as though its struck a really positive chord, which is ace, just what I wanted.

Client: DJ TL

Overview: This was an ace project to work on, it really was. This was my first DJ site, and what a joy! LA’s DJ to the stars, with one helluva client list including huge names such as Jennifer Lopez, Ice Cube, Ludacris and Def Jam but to name a few. So with all this in mind and his great work to listen too while creating the site, I was inspired to create a really clean, slick and fresh design to match the nature of his mixes. Great fun indeed!!

Client: Caught Offside

Overview: Caught Offside, the web’s biggest football blog just got itself an all new makeover...and what great fun it was to do! Technically the second blog that I have re-designed, Kickette being the first, Caught Offside was another angle on the world of football (or soccer to the stateside readers ;) So nothing about WAG’s and everything about rumours, transfers and other ‘hot off the press’ football news. I wanted to give Caught Offside a real brand experience and create them something memorable that captured the passion of football and would separate it from the other football blogs on the web. My main source of inspiration for this was the rich and indulgent football promo’s on television when there is build up to a big game...cinematic, rich and powerful. The header explodes with all sorts of football paraphernalia and the wings are spread to reflect a victorious cheer!! Great fun!!

Client: Nabi Studios

Overview: Yey, more games based work and once again its a big thanks to Nabi Studio’s. Nabi Studio’s has a feature in this months issue of Edge and wanted a full page Toribash advert to sit alongside it. The ad had to be punchy, simple and clean and have enough impact to grab the reader. I kinda went a bit mad on this one and created loads of variations for Nabi to pick from, as I just couldn’t stop coming up with new ideas. The advantage to running your own agency...is that when you decide to throw in extra work...you can, its entirely up to you, awesome.

Client: Nabi Studios

Overview: As most of you will know, I’m obsessed with the video games industry, retro, contemporary, mainstream, you name it...but most of all, the Indie Games industry gets me really geared up and this was opportunity number 3, fantastic! Hampus Soderstrom of Nabi Studio’s, the hugely talented creators of Toribash and soon to be Glitch Racer, called me again to work on not only their new site, but the branding too, just what I could have hoped for :) The brand had to be something quite unique and friendly, not too ‘gamey’ not too corporate, but a good mix of both. The branding exercise was great fun and from here, we moved onto the site design. It was a pleasure to see a project through from the branding to the site, it felt very complete and the final package came together really well, take a look.

Client: Israel Idonije

Overview: Man, this was one awesome project, the official site of Israel Idonije, The I-Train, the Chicargo Bears defensive lineman. My motto, is to keep it varied, and boy was this a step away from the norm. I'm not the worlds biggest sportsman, but the idea of working on a site for a player from the NFL seemed so cool...and how right I was. This was more than just the usual site design too, it was a branding exercise, as Israel needed a new brand for the site. Station 71. It was great to work on something so fresh, something that had no existing brand, or current style guide associated to it, allowing me to create something new, from a completely blank canvas. Israel wanted something girtty, raw and that had impact, this was the outcome.

Client: Station 71 - I-Train Trivia

Overview: This was an update to the Station 71 design that I created a while back to tie into a radio trivia campaign. So rather than just create the usual dull run of the mill submission, I decided to go crazy and lavish the page with something a little more visually stimulating...so I took inspiration from some of the ipod adverts, mixed with a couple of ideas that had been brewing in my mind (an explosion of energy and a way of visualising it) and created this ‘fire movement’ image.

Client: Palms

Overview: Oh yeah, now this was great, a big glossy casino in Vegas, I mean come on, it doesn't get a whole lot cooler than that! This place is all about partying, glitz, Playboy Bunnies, money and bright lights. I wanted to make this as visually stimulating as possible, to try and convey the 24/7 party atmosphere of the casino. The top area was a 3D/flash piece, where as you selected a thumbnail from the right, the whole thing collapsed and revealed hundreds of images below whizzing past (further showing the none stop, all action nature of this casino and its buzzing night life) and then suddenly, the one you chose comes flying into focus and fills the space. Great fun!!!!

Client: Ferrari

Overview: What can I say here, this was a dream concept to work on!! Ferrari, Ferrari, really, what else can I say? Actually what I will say is that this concept was slick hybrid, using a silky flash piece to navigate the new car range and good old HTML, CSS, to build in the rest of the site, keeping up the SEO requirement. This actual concept for was a Ferrari dealer in LA. Niiiiiiiiice.

Client: Jeff Garcia

Overview: Awesome, NFL site number two, I am LOVING these jobs. This time, its for NFL four time Pro Bowl selection Jeff Garcia. This site needed to be slick, clean, fresh and dynamic to try and portray the essence of the position that Jeff plays in the game. This was quite a small project, but one that had a good amount of creative freedom which is always welcome :)

Client: Data Realms

Overview: Well, what can I say? Actually, I know what I can say, three words should cover it...Dream...Come...True!! This is pretty much my ideal project. Data Realms asked me to redesign their homepage and to throw in some sexy flash animation too, great. The subject matter is my all time favourite, gaming and even better, retro gaming. Data Realms specialise in old school, pixel graphic, good fun, Indie style gaming...what a subject to work on!! Tough and enjoyable brief...keep it pixel and retro, but make it contemporary...I loved every minute!!

Client: Toribash

Overview: This game rocks!!!!! I was approached by the creators of Toribash to re-design the homepage for Toribash.com which I agreed to whole heartedly!!! This is such a cool boutique game and great to see something out there with some real originality. The best bit about this job was the mix of clean white mixed with the total gore fest of splattered blood…definitely something I’d never played with before. The small flash piece was also great fun as it allowed me to play with some nice little video clips to create an action packed banner.

Client: Mount Kare - Gold Rush

Overview: This site was quite an honour to do, it’s a promotional site to cover Andi Flowers story about the Mount Kare Gold Rush and was a chance to create a site that felt real, texture rich and passionate. I can really recommend reading this book as it’s an amazing insight into what actually happened.

Client: Coeur Silver Mines

Overview: This was lovely to work on a site for a silver mining business, how exciting! I really wanted to inject a rich premium feel into this as let’s face it, you don’t get a whole lot more premium than a precious metals! This was a contract project for Ciplex, where I created the homepage, flash and a subpage design. I really enjoyed this.

Client: Mango Studios

Overview: Mango Studio was a full project brief similar to Nabi Studios, branding and web design. Mango Studio is a cool little agency in Newcastle that works on all manner of projects, I recently worked with them on the Spheremania (see a few entries lower down this page) and they were a great company to work with, so it was with total pleasure that I took on their branding and site design. Great project. Check em out...

Client: Kickette

Overview: My motto is to keep it varied, never too much of any one thing. For that reason alone I jumped at the chance to re-design the Kickette site, what an excellent chance to design something rather different. This site is a gossip blog about the world of footballers and their WAG's, it has a huge international following and was a chance to stray away from my usual 'boy' focused work and to create something light and girlie. The brief was to make it feel personal, as if you were getting a glimpse into someone's personal diary, so I decided to scatter the page with lots of bits of pieces and to include lots of hand written elements, to further add to the diary feel. Great brief, great little job.

Client: The Astrology Room

Overview: This was a fun one, very different as far as topic’s go for me as I haven’t created something ‘horoscope’ based before, so it was a great creative challenge to come up with something fitting. Most of the other horoscope sites around the www are rather cheesy so I wanted to add an air of sophistication and texture to it, rather than the usual star covered sky and pentangles. This small project was comprised of a homepage design and brand creation, the reaction from the team and the astrologers at The Astrology Room was great, they really liked the change of direction. Go on, go and read your horoscope, you know you want to ;)

Client: Kathy Griffin

Overview: Done as a freelance contract for Ciplex.com, this was quite a different brief from the norm for me, an actual real life celebrity! As this was due to be more of a personal site that covered her own personal news it had to be more ‘blog’ like than anything else, so hence the design we have here. It was a fun one to work on!