ALEX DAKOULAS NEWS/RANTS

For anybody interested in reading more about Dance Party Massacre, the ideas behind it, and checking out the designs, go ahead over to the latest blog I posted on DPM's myspace!

You love Justin Broadbent. Just admit it. Take a look at his photos from his recent trip to India (via his blog Gifted Thoughts) and tell me you don't love them. And then go look at his work and tell me you don't love that.

I e-mailed him once and asked him to be my friend. He said yes and we ended up writing out our lives to each other in no more than 10 sentences. Then things went downhill went I requested to be his friend on myspace and he declined it. Now we don't speak.



I hope he reads this post. It'd be so awkward.

PS-He runs letsdanceparty.com

I finally received word back from Adobe about my semi-finalist pieces in the Adobe Awards. My t-shirts didn't get anything (unless they aren't done sending out news) and The Movie Poster Toolbox wasn't a finalist, or winner, but it did receive an honorable mention.

That's cool, but I'm not gonna pretend I'm not disappointed. Being an honorable mention is like getting 3rd place. And I just wonder if I sent along my process book, which explains evverrrything, if they would have understood it more. Not being there to be able to explain your work is rough. And I'm only disappointed because I feel as though there was one more step I could have taken to raise their interest.

Oh well, any publicity for this thing is good, and it still was one of the top few out of all the pieces sent in to be picked out for recognition. You can't win everything so I guess I should just suck it up and be happy. Blaahh... you learn from your mistakes, your work harder. My friend and I are already working on developing the Toolbox more, so stay tuned for that!

For the past 7 years or so (if I read correctly) Adobe has been asking students to send in their work which was made using mostly Adobe products where it is judged in different categories. The winners get a bunch of money, are flown out to California, and receive free publicity.

Two of my pieces were chosen as semi-finalists! I just sent out the agreement forms and actual work to them so they can be judged more closely and potentially be finalists or winners. The two pieces nominated are The Movie Poster Toolbox and (again I find this amusing) my apparel designs. We'll see what happens!

Check out the list of nominees for this year here, and last year's winners here.

I think I'm going to die and go to heaven.

My mouth is salivating and that's how much I want these posters and wish I made them myself.

I once did a stamp project based around horror film killers and let's just say it sucks a lot compared to these.

Created by Rick Banks and thanks to FormFiftyFive for pointing it out.

Thank you to people that came out last night to Portfolio Night. It was a lot of people checking out some really good work. (My classmates better put up websites so I can blog about them!)

One of the things that I “unveiled” last night was putting my degree project online. Now anyone can check it out!

In a very short summary of my 4 months of research into film advertising and movie marketing, the biggest thing I found is that people want to see something different, something unique or innovative, when it comes to ad campaigns. This not only catches their attention because it's not the same thing they see all the time, it can also create word-of-mouth publicity (a large tool for advertising movies), and it's good for design in general. If ads all look the same for every movie, they aren't being designed very well. They should be tailored to each project and each movie.

I would think this realization would be fairly obvious, but I don't think film companies are taking this into consideration because so many ads look the same! I decided to focus on the film poster as a basis to show just how formulaic film advertising has become by creating a toolbox of cliché advertising parts. Now anyone can be a professional poster designer!

Check it out for yourself at http://www.moviepostertoolbox.com.

I don't know what this movie is about, but I love these posters.

http://www.impawards.com/2007/summer_rain_ver3.html

Thank you to everyone that came out to my final All School Show! This was definitely the best one I've been a part of, and I'm sure one of the best GD shows in recent years. Big thanks for Johnny Mags and Shane Patton for putting a lot of work into it.

Ironically, us GD kids were talking about how we never hear about any of us winning the All School Show awards. Then a bunch of us actually received them this year, and I was one of them!

Second irony, I won them for my t-shirts! Just, seriously. I do these things outside of school, on the side, to get AWAY from my schoolwork. These are the things I tried to do an independent study for and got shot down. I make posters, design books, create interfaces, and THIS is what I get recognized for.

I'm still happy, I just find it funny. I suppose it's another good sign that maybe these could go somewhere.

Because I won an award, my work will be on display again with all the other people who won them! The opening/award ceremony will be in the Doran Gallery (600 Rear Huntington Ave, Boston) on Wednesday, April 11th from 6-9 PM. Come say Hi!

( pictures from the show )

The future as they said it would be is starting to come true. Looking at this is like seeing something they only made up for the movies. Now where's my flying car?

I never understood, nor do I still, understand the interest in plush or plastic designer toys. WTF are you going to do with them except leave them on a shelf to do nothing, or play with them and ultimately destroy something expensive?

It's mostly those oddly shaped plastic character ones. At least the plush toys you can cuddle with.


http://www.myplasticheart.com/