Avatar’s floating islands compared to Roger Dean’s painting:

Avatar’s arched rock formations compared to Roger Dean’s work:

I went and saw Avatar last night for the first time and really enjoyed the film. Beautiful colors and lovely phosphorescent lighting were peppered throughout the film, and I liked the contrast between the nice jungles and cold steel of the military ships. I won’t go too deeply into a review of the film, because that’s not what this blog is about :)

I would, however, like to point out one element of the film which relates to one of my favorite artists, Roger Dean. I saw a promo poster which featured big floating islands which immediately reminded me of Dean’s work, so I got pretty excited when I saw them appear onscreen. One of my favorite paintings come to life, which is pretty cool. Then another scene featured huge arching rock formations, reminiscent of yet another Roger Dean piece. Awesome.

I enjoy it when filmmakers use traditional works from the past and recreate them “for real” onscreen, and what better artist to gain inspiration from when dealing with alien landscapes?

On a related note, Alex over at ISO50 wrote an article discussing some of the typography choices of Avatar. Check it out.

The kind crew over at Design Informer asked me to participate in their latest installment of Ask the Expert, where Jad Limcaco and I discussed all things art, design, inspiration and technique. The team really did a nice job laying things out and citing examples.

Swing on over to Ask the Expert – Design Discussion with James White to check it out!

Here is some beautiful vintage sci-fi by Japanese illustrator Shusei Nagaoka. I had come across his Electric Light Orchestra work a few times but never looked into the artist behind that colorful spaceship.

Nagaoka’s work is electrifying, to say the least. The soft touch of the airbrush mixed with the hard mechanical precision of the ships and architecture is top-notch. Simply love his blown out colors and everything seems to be glowing. Really inspired by this guy’s work, makes me want to run to my sketchbook.

You can see more of Shusei Nagaoka’s work here and here, as well as his official site. Big thanks to Chris Nutt for the heads up on his work. You rock!

To kick off the new year in form, the kind folks over at the Tuts+ Network asked me to design a commemorative 2010 poster. I am always in support of those people and websites who help out designers and developers on all levels, and the team over at the Tuts+ camp constantly exhaust themselves. They run VectorTuts, NetTuts, AudioTuts, the mighty PsdTuts and a plethora of other art and tech sites. So of course, I jumped at the opportunity to help out such an admirable bunch.

Additionally, Tuts+ are having a giveaway on their site where you could win one of 10 copies of the 2010 poster. Swing over to the Tuts+ 2010 contest post to see all the information. I created a wallpaper set of the design to download for your computer or iPhone, all of which are available on their website.

I love having an open-ended ticket to create a design, which was exactly what the team requested of me so long as it said “2010″ somewhere. After doing some research on sci-fi publications from the 70s and 80s I took some heavy inspiration from Omni magazine covers. Omni had a way of creating interesting yet vague imagery, something that left a lot to the imagination. I wanted to strike that vibe for the Tuts+ crew, I even modeled the type after Omni’s title treatment.

Initially, the design didn’t come together as quickly as I thought it would and the original attempts had me on a completely different course of action. Check out these early type-based versions:

I decided to ditch the entire concept and start from scratch, I wanted to do something more striking than a stylized number. I went back to the sketch phase and started working out another concept, and one involved an ‘exploding astronaut’ which later became the Abduzeedo anniversary poster. A big thanks to Sean Hodge over at the Tuts+ Network for being so cool as I fumbled about with my concepts in my search for the right one. You rule, man!

Swing on over to the post on Tuts+ for your chance to win one of the 2010 commemorative posters, and why not grab some wallpapers while you’re at it. Happy New Year!

Well, 2009 will be drawing to a close this evening in a flurry of fireworks and noisemakers, making way for the start of our brand new decade.

This is inevitably the time of year I think back on the events that happened over the past 12 months, what those events brought about and what they may lead to. Since I started this blog back in 2007 it is a wonderful way of looking back on a personal level to see what new artists I discovered, new pals I made and new collaborations that may happen.

But on a larger scale, I’ve been reflecting back over the past decade. At this moment in 1999 I was in Montreal visiting my friend Lisa and geared up for the big Y2K meltdown. I was listening to a lot of Rob Zombie and Radiohead, still flipping out over Fight Club and working my way as a fledgling designer through the web boom. I visited K10k and Designiskinky everyday, watched what new Flash experiments Joshua Davis was up to, all the while struggling to make a cool website for ‘this Signalnoise thing’ I had going. Man, good times.

I struggled this year to come up with an idea for the year-end wrap up post on Signalnoise, but because of lack of time and focus over the holidays it proved to be a bit difficult. However, here are three main items I would like to include on this last day of the decade:

1. Tuts+ Commemorative 2010 Poster
I was asked by the kind folks over at the Tuts+ Network to design an original poster and wallpaper for their big holiday giveaway that has been happening over the last 11 days. Well, tomorrow is the 12th and final day when they will be announcing and showing off the new Signalnoise poster I created for them. They will be giving away 10 copies so be sure to check it out tomorrow morning.

2. Signalnoise Crystal tutorial
Over the next week or so I will be creating a tutorial for the above poster, showing how I created that crystal. I’ve been wanting to provide you readers with more little tutorials over the past while, something I will be making more time to for in the new year. So stay tuned for that one.

3. You guys!
It wouldn’t be a year-end post if I didn’t give a huge shout-out to everyone who has been following and reading Signalnoise. Whether you hit my blog, follow me on Twitter, say hello on Facebook, highfive via Flickr . . . where ever you are, I wanted to send a huge thanks for the support you have given me and the blog over the last year. I only hope I can match your enthusiasm with posts on inspiration, process and other fun stuff. You all rock, thanks so much.

Have a happy and safe 2010!

I came across these beautiful photos by Gavin Marchio while running around Ffffound last night. These were taken during the big dust storm that hit Sydney, Australia earlier this year. Simply dumbstruck by these photos, the rich orange hue with the bridge, you can’t get any more sci-fi then that.

Swing over to Gavin Marchio’s Flickr stream for more of his work.

There are now wallpaper versions of my 3 Inspiring Years poster designed for the big Abduzeedo 3-year anniversary giveaway. Swing on over to the post on Abduzeedo to grab the files for your desktop or iPhone.

It’s almost that time of year when we all leave our desks and Photoshops to sit around the tree, unwrap gifts and drink some nog. For most of us, it’s a much needed unplugged break so we can recharge our Flux Capacitors for the upcoming year. 2009 has been a busy one for a lot of us, time to relax and play in the snow.

Things will be a bit quieter around the blog over the next week or so as I travel home to visit the parents for the holidays. But my Twitter will be close by :)

So here’s a big Happy Holidays to you and yours from Signalnoise!