Underwater Dogs

Photographer Seth Casteel spent hours underwater in Los Angeles taking pictures of dogs chasing balls. As a result, he captured these fun, energetic and somewhat comical images. Action photography alone is a challenge, adding an animal to the equation is a pretty impressive feat. In this case, Casteel knew best to ignore the saying ‘never work with children or animals’ but perhaps in the sunny weather of LA, it was more of a pleasure than work.

To see all of the images click here

Hero, Miguel Endara

Truly breathtaking technique. The amount of patience and skill required for this is mind-boggling. The video is also shot and handled nicely so it's a winner on both fronts. Enjoy.

Hero from Miguel Endara on Vimeo.

It's a bird, it's a plane...

One of our designers here at Glow was asked to paint a small mural of Superman to brighten up a bedroom belonging to a young man called Dan who is a resident at Easterbrook Farm. Based in the heart of Devon, Easterbrook Farm is a fantastic residential development offering an active learning environment for people with learning disabilities. This final picture was around 4 foot square in dimension and we think it looks great.

This is England 88

Amongst the many Christmas specials now packing our TV schedules this is an absolute gem. It must be said though, this is no sugary sweet festive treat. We are dealing with some very dark subjects here.

Shane Meadows continues with his surprisingly enduring story following a group of Mods and Skinheads living in a bleak northern housing estate. Most viewers will have first met these characters in his 2006 film This Is England which was then followed by a harrowing series of hour long episodes last year.

The performances are uniformly excellent again as each character deals with their individual heartbreaks and although the pacing is slow at times I think this allows the emotion to emanate from the screen and also allows us to appreciate the sparse, bleak, beautifully framed shots of the landscape which the characters inhabit. Meadows also manages to intersperse the very emotive scenes with flashes of humour and some remarkably realistic portrayals of human interaction. It seems more awards could be on the way.

Working 9 till 5

Having had a few projects with relatively quick turnarounds in the last few months, doing the odd bit of extra work after hours is something I know a little about. Here at Glow we really believe in a work/life balance though and I'm happy to say that it is rare for me to stay much longer than our normal working day. With this in mind I stumbled upon this great article by Edward Hann.

What a way to make a living

Edward Hann

Before I start, I would like to note that I love the work I do and wouldn’t want to do anything else. At times It doesn’t even feel like a job, but when I sit down to think about it, graphic design is still exactly that, a job. It involves hard work and frequent long hours. Sitting in front of a computer screen for 14 hours a day does not make for a healthy lifestyle; a creatively driven career is great but being expected to switch it on at 9pm every night of the week for the last week, less so. I have been working in design for around 5 years, give or take, and in this time have worked at a range of studios of varying sizes, each totally different from each other. My time at these studios has been exciting, challenging, incredibly rewarding although at times utterly frustrating. For the most part my career has been a positive and vibrant experience, but I have come across a worrying trend, a culture of late nights and long hours that are openly encouraged. I would even go so far to say that a macho culture has arisen, which one might expect from the finance or banking industry but not in the creative one. To me there is nothing creative or satisfying about trying to see who can stay awake the longest after a 24 hour stint. In other professions this could be considered dangerous, clear and simple, but in design culture it seems to be becoming more and more routine.....

Read the whole article here

Rory Sutherland: The wiki man

The festive season is fast approaching again and I may have found an early Christmas present for myself. Rory Sutherland, vice-chairman of the Ogilvy Group UK and regular columnist for the Spectator, has a new book out. A champion of behavioural economics and a quick adopter of new technologies, Rory is a very talented man and this book Rory Sutherland: The Wiki Man should be a very interesting read. It acts as an introduction for those uninitiated with his key ideas and includes snippets from his many blogs, tweets and articles. However, if you just can't wait until Christmas why not check out some of the videos of his talks available online. Below is a hilarious insite involving Shreddies cereal.

Design and compromise

Good design requires compromise. Simple. I have learnt a lot of things throughout my creative life but this is a lesson which is only just starting to sink in. Any designer working commercially will tell you about the time and budget constraints which they face on a daily basis and how this means they have to make compromises with their big, sparkling, fantastic design concepts. This can't be avoided though and therefore it seems silly to devote some time complaining about it.

The compromise I think is worthy of our time is best described by the differences between Apple and Microsoft. Apple have become elevated to some higher level in recent years due to the aesthetic appeal and fantastic usability of their products. The really interesting thing is that this great design and usability has sometimes been the result of removing features that some people consider essential. In contrast Microsoft will cram in every feature any customer could ever want, but this results in products that are complicated or suffer poor usability. In both cases , compromises are being made. It is a fine balance to create an object that is both beautiful and true to it's purpose. Apple have been closer to the mark though in my opinion. This old but still comical video proves the point pretty well.

Being a designer I want things to look their very best and a certain amount of white space is essential to this, think of me as Apple, but from a marketing point of view we naturally want to make sure the message is clear. Like with Microsoft, this often involves a good amount of extra copy, making sure each point is made well. The struggle begins. Copy vs space, design vs message it's the eternal battle that designers face and the only answer is to use that word we started with, compromise. A good designer is not stubborn, they roll with the punches and adapt. I'm not saying you shouldn't stand up for yourself if you strongly believe in your work but I am saying you should pick your battles.