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Goodness gracious - great balls of fire, and foam! shoutOut on 14/8/12 by travis.lyle1 in peeps |
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KABOOM! Yes folks, we’re putting jets under your creative derrieres to inspire you to submit mind-blowing designs for our Biz Bang contest, which is on now and awaits your most creative design! As any kid with a box of matches and a string of firecrackers knows, explosions can be great fun. Hell, not just for kids either – surely you’ve heard of the almighty viral Mentos + Diet Coke experiment? The one that went on to spawn a viral explosion of its own kind? No? Oh dear lord, you haven’t lived until you’ve seen the power of what’s arguably the most creative way to waste chewy breath mints and brown carbonated diet soda! And hey, even if you have, it’s always worth another viewing, right? Right – check it out:
Oh the humanity, it'll take them ages to get that stuff off. OK, let’s take it up a notch and look into fireworks – which are after all probably the prettiest way to blow loads of chemicals sky high. Trivia alert - here come some amazing facts about fireworks: -the record for the largest firework display consisted of 66,326 fireworks and was achieved by Macedo Pirotecnia Lda. in Funchal, Madeira, Portugal, on December 31, 2006. Respect!
- Fireworks were invented by the Chinese over a thousand years ago. People haven’t stopped going ‘Ooohhh!’ since. - Fireworks have gone on to become a major part of festivals the world over, including for the Indian Festival of Lights, Diwali, Guy Fawkes in England, Independence Day celebrations in the USA and for a range of Japanese festivals throughout the summer - here in the Western Cape, South Africa, we have a family of plants (the Proteas) who have been described as 'nature's fireworks' - looking at this pic, you can see why!
Alright - you've had the inspiration, now it's over to you, our community of designers. Bring us your biggest, brightest explosions of creativity to show us how you’d help Bizcommunity celebrate their 11 years of explosive growth in our Biz Bang 2012 contest! HEADS UP: BIZ BANG HAS BEEN EXTENDED! SUBMISSIONS NOW CLOSE ON SEPTEMBER 30TH! |
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SHAZAM! KAPOW! KABLAM! Explosions? Right this way... shoutOut on 7/8/12 by travis.lyle1 in peeps |
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So there you are, you’re itching to enter our Biz Bang contest, but you have no idea of where to start. You know you could ace it – hell, maybe even take first prize! – but inspiration just hasn’t come knock, knock, knocking on your door yet. Sound familiar? Well wait no longer! Inspiration is here and it’s ready to knock you flat on your designing derriere with some TUTORIAL POWER! It’s kinda like those teenage mutant turtles, only…graphic. OK, crap joke, but moving on – here for your graphic edification (big words? Must be the coffee) are two great, remarkable and outstanding explosion tutorials to set you on the path of the righteous design.
First up – a vector cartoon-style explosion, a la Looney Tunes or any other cartoon series that makes gratuitous use of bombs and other convenient ways to remind a foe of who's boss. This one is by the almighty Chris Hildenburg over at VectorTuts, that home of all thing good and instructive. Ready to plot the light graftastic? GO! Next up? Evan Almighty! Who? The almighty Evan Eckard, who takes you on a whiplash ride through his lightning fast Photoshop skillset to provide you with one of the best explosion tutorials around. The end result on this is ultra-contemporary and super slick.
Maybe you’re after a nuclear explosion, or perhaps you want something a little less massive and a bit more defined? Whichever you’re after, get creative, get busy and get submitting – our Biz Bang contest awaits! HEADS UP: BIZ BANG HAS BEEN EXTENDED! SUBMISSIONS NOW CLOSE ON SEPTEMBER 30TH! |
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BIZ BANG 2001 – 2012 : CELEBRATING BIZCOMMUNITY’S 11TH BIRTHDAY ! shoutOut on 1/8/12 by travis.lyle1 in wordUp |
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EXPLOSIVE NEWS: BIZ BANG HAS BEEN EXTENDED! That's right folks - you now have until September 30th to submit your explosive designs! Bizcommunity - it’s the ever-expanding hub that provides daily marketing and media news to a community of millions across Africa. It’s the business-to-business site of choice, and pretty much the place to go for all things related to advertising, marketing, media, retail and related sectors. Who are they? They’re the mighty, mighty BizCommunity, and you have a shot at helping them celebrate eleven years of awesome with your best t-shirt design! In August this year, BizCommunity celebrate their 11th birthday. Since its inception in 2001, Bizcommunity has expanded from a single marketing and media portal with a South Africa focus to a total of 35 industry-specific portals, each with various categories of defined interest. In line with this, the winning t-shirt design needs to illustrate and celebrate the explosive growth of one of the most diverse, creative and dynamic online communities in Africa.
THE BRIEF: You can interpret the theme of growth/expansion/explosion of BizCommunity in any illustration style of your choice, and designs may be on black, red, white or grey background. Your design should ideally be in one of the following: a) one colour b) a combination of the Bizcommunity.com corporate colours (red, grey, black and white) c) spot metallics
DO’s & DON’TS: - Designs submitted must feature the Bizcommunity.com 9-dot logo [supplied] in some form. - The font is the Serpentine family (but your design need not be limited to this font.) Whatever your design, just remember – BizCommunity are looking for a design that visually portrays the explosive growth of the creative, dynamic and entrepreneurial nature of Bizcommunity’s online communities in Africa over the last 11 years! Need to know more about Bizcommunity? No problem – check out the site itself, poke your nose around, get an idea of what all the fuss is about and why it’s the leading business hub in Africa: Need some inspiration? Have a coffee! But seriously - here are some stats to get your mind racing: Since 2001, 25 000 industry events and training workshops have been listed on Bizcommunity, 105 000 jobs have been offered, 20 000 CVs have been uploaded, 60 000 news articles distributed, 400 000 daily newsletters have been subscribed, 103 million newsletters have been sent and 300 000 lines of code have been written, which would stretch 34km!
PRIZES: $2700 / R20 000 The winning designs will scoop the following cash prizes: 1st - US$ 2000 (R15000) 2nd - US$ 400 (R 3 000) 3rd - US$ 300 (R 2 000)
DATES: Submission period - now extended! 01 August 2021 – 30 September 2021 Winner announced: 08 October 2012 NOTE: All dates and times are based on GMT+2 and deadlines end at midnight GMT+2 on the given dates.
READY TO BE AWESOME? 1. Download this > Springleap Design Submission Kit (contains T-shirt templates) 2. Click this Submit button
3. Choose your contest and download the Design Pack 4. Enter your design!
RULES: 1. No obscenities or hate speech. 2. Only original works will be accepted. 3. Designs should incorporate the Bizcommunity logo. 4. Designs must be suitable for a white, grey or black background. 5. Each designer may submit up to five (5) designs. 6. Final winners will be chosen by the Springleap design panel, in conjunction with Bizcommunity. Voting will only be used as an indication. 7. Standard Springleap and Bizcommunity Terms & Conditions apply over and above. 8. Bizcommunity operates independently from Springleap.com and all commercial transactions completed through Springleap are in no way linked to Bizcommunity. All queries relating to this contest and the website should be directed through Springleap.com 9. Bizcommunity and Springleap reserve the right to request the high-resolution artwork of any entry submitted into the “BIZ BANG 2012” design contest for non-commercial benefit, such as media covering the process. 10. The contest will run from 01 August 2021 to 30 September 2012. Winners will be chosen by a panel from 03 September to 30 September 2012. Final winners will be chosen and announced on 08 October 2021 via the Springleap.com website, Facebook page and Twitter account, as well as the Bizcommunity website and Facebook page. The winning designs are final and no correspondence will be entered into. 11. Prizes are not transferable. 12. All designs submitted outside office hours, over weekends and on (South African) public holidays, will take longer to approve 13. All dates and times presented are based on GMT+2 times.
Confused or uncertain about anything? Post your questions about “BIZ BANG 2012” theme contest below or click our online support button to the left of our header.
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Woodstock Walls III: This Is Our Hood shoutOut on 19/9/12 by travis.lyle1 in peeps |
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Living and working in Cape Town can be a journey of discovery for people who love design, illustration and graffiti. Our trains are regularly painted, by undercover artists so gifted I often wonder why the hell Metro Rail (the train company) doesn't just hip the hell up and employ these cats to just get on with the job of decorating their trains legitimately. Sure, some of the tags are scruffy, but the guys who hit the yards in stealth mode often throw up pieces that are really well executed, and add a dash of colour to otherwise pretty dreary carriages.
('Adrenalin' by DALEast, image ©DALEast) Obviously there's a whole moral discussion which often pits those who think there's room for this kind of street art against those who believe graffiti to be a crime against private property, but that's a debate for another time and place. This post isn't about justifying or criticising 'illegal' graffiti; it's about legal street art, which we here in the Woodstock area of Cape Town are fortunate enough to have brightening otherwise grey and tumbledown corners of our city.
Since we've moved into the Woodstock Exchange (which in itself is a buzzing hive of breakneck construction), we here at The Leap have had the good fortune of being located literally within spitting distance of some of the best wall art the city has to offer. Tucked away in the most pokey corners are pieces by names recognised the world over as being amongst the best out there: Makatron, Faith47, DALEast and many more.
Many of these pieces are thanks to the great work being done by the good people over at /A Word Of Art, who're located on the ground floor of the Exchange. Thanks to their artist exchange program (which we touched on in a previous post), some of the world's finest street artists get the opportunity to ply their trade on some of Cape Town, and Woodstock's, most neglected walls. The results are always a pleasant surprise, and often transform a nosy dawdle amongst the charming backstreets into a journey of discovery, with each corner turned unearthing a dazzling piece that sits brightening its little part of the world.
If you're in the area, take a walk around our new hood - and hey, it is a hood, so be watchful. Woodstock has been the focus of gentrification for some time, but before the charming soul of the place is entirely scrubbed clean by the hipster dollar, poke your nose around the back streets that lie between Albert and Victoria roads - there's a world of art just waiting to be discovered. |
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Tutorial Tuesday: Halftone Like Lichtenstein shoutOut on 18/9/12 by travis.lyle1 in peeps |
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A long, long time ago in a galaxy far, far a...actually it was right here, on planet Earth, and it wasn't that long ago - it was 1873, and the technology of print was playing catch-up to the newly developed art of photography. The place? Manhattan. The problem? How to print a photograph without losing the tonal detail. The solution? A new way of recreating photos using many small dots of varying sizes: the halftone! Creating a new way to show shading and tone, the halftone went on to become a mainstay in the printing of newspapers the world over. Following in the footsteps of halftones, and using the same technique only expanding their use to the use the four base colours of printing (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Key/black) to recreate the tone and colour of just about any shade or texture, Ben-Day dots were invented by Benjamin Henry Day Jr, the son of a newspaperman. These dots differing from halftone dots in that the Ben-Day dots are always of equal size and distribution in a specific area. In the process, these little dots have come to be used by a range of artists in creating some of the most iconic artworks of the 20th century.
One such artists is the legendary Pop Art figurehead Roy Lichtenstein, whose oversized paintings expanded the halftone dot size to massive proportions, in the process making an artform out of an otherwise industrial process. OK - so let's leave the history lessons aside for one moment and concentrate on our Tutorial Tuesday: how to get the best halftone or Ben-Day dot effect out of your imagery? Here at Springleap we search high and low online to bring you the finest in tuts, and today's no exception. Ladies and gents, please click your mice on over to two of the greatest halftone / Lichtenstein tutorials out there! First up: for a really good, thorough, step-by-step Lichtenstein halftone tutorial, click the image of the pretty lady below - it's from the great folks over at Abduzeedo who know tutorial like grandma knows baking: Next up: a great video tutorial from the great designcredo, where you'll find more info available on how to make your halftones useful in more than just a Pop Art way. Sink your teeth into these, get crazy with the technique and stay creative - the reason we're giving you tips on this technique is that, when you enter designs into our contests here on The Leap, you make use of the halftone. It's a mainstay of the screenprinting process whioch we use a lot here, and it creates really nice effects from a limited number of colours. Thanks for reading our Tutorial Tuesday post!
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Video Friday #2: Dali + Disney = Destino shoutOut on 14/9/12 by travis.lyle1 in peeps |
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Happy Friday to you, wherever you are, and welcome to the second ever Video Friday here on Springleap. Today we bring you a piece of animation so rare and so beautiful that it's earned the title of being one of the greatest pieces of animation of all time. It's a creation started in 1945 as the result of a collaboration between the godfather of Surrealism, the legendary Salvador Dali, and the godfather of animation, Walter E Disney. Due to various factors (including financial issues at Walt Disney Studios in the post-war era), the project was shelved in 1946, and lay in the Disney archive until 1999, when Walt's nephew Roy E. Disney unearthed the original and formed a team to resurrect the short film, which was finally released in 2003, 58 years after its inception. The result? Destino - the love story of Chronos, the personification of time, and a mortal woman falling in love. As a testament to the imagination of Dali and the skill of the Disney animators, this stands as one of the greatest creative enterprises of all time. Sit back, relax and prepare to be blown away:
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Jorgensen Craft Spirits: Distilled Design shoutOut on 12/9/12 by travis.lyle1 in peeps |
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Heads up to all those who like their tipple crafted according to time-honoured recipes with a dash of design flair: today on The Leap we're pouring you a glass of style, on the rocks, with a shot of craft as a chaser. Pull up to the bar - it's time to savour the unique flavours of Jorgensen's Distillery and their unique range of well-designed products.
Firstly, as an appetiser, some background: Jorgensen's is driven by the formidable husband and wife team of Roger and Dawn Jorgensen, who live their busy lives out on their historic family farm, Versailles, in the heart of Wellington here in the Western Cape, South Africa. Having been a career farmer and winemaker, Roger turned his interest in fine handcrafted spirits into a burgeoning career, in the process creating a range of products that feature packaging design that's simple, distinctive and with clean lines as tasteful as their contents. Now that we've whet your appetite, on to the main serving: as he's ventured down the road less travelled, Roger has picked up some expert advice from luminaries in the distilling field such as Cognac mentors Robert Leaute of Remy Martin and Buks Venter of KWV. The result has seen Roger develop his Savingnac brandy, an award-winning fiery spirit which can stand proudly amongst Cognacs the world over. Following his heart down this path of fine spirits, the Jorgensen bouquet has expanded to take in a range of celebrated liquor: Primitiv Vodka, Field of Dreams Absinthe, Naked Lemon Limoncello, Naked Lime Liqueur and now their most recent addition to the stable, the very special Jorgensen’s Gin.
With each product's bottle having a design that's complimentary to its contents, the result is a range that stands out from the crowd both visually and in terms of taste - one sip of their Field Of Dreams Absinthe and the difference is obvious: these are spirits that put the art into artisan. The secret to their design sense? It turns out, like the Sly & The Family Stone song, it's a family affair: Roger himself designed the Savingnac label, daughter Jess created the clean lines on their Absinthe, Gin and Vodka, whilst Dawn has adapted photos she took to create the Limoncello labels.
Having taken off with such gusto, you can only imagine what the future holds for such an enterprising company. Cheers!
Photos: Francois Pistorius.
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Spotlight On: Giampaolo Miraglia shoutOut on 13/9/12 by travis.lyle1 in peeps |
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It’s Thursday, and you know what that means – it’s time to put the Spotlight On. This week, we have the pleasure of interviewing a distinguished Italian designer whose illustrations are in a class of their own, and recently won praise during the London Olympics. It’s true – today we’re getting the lowdown from Giampaolo Miraglia, who you may remember from our artist showcase a couple of months ago. On with the interview! SL: Did you study to become an artist/illustrator/designer? GM: First of all thank you so much for inviting me to join Springleap! Yes I did, at college I started with traditional arts, studying Sculpture and Jewelry at the Institute of Art in Rome, then Graphic Design at the Istituto Europeo di Design. But I did a lot of tutorials and research over the Internet myself. SL: What’s your preferred medium? GM: I have to say paper; the satisfaction to have the work in my hands is always rewarding for me. SL: What other designers or illustrators have influenced your work? GM: I don't have another artist who influenced me overall, or maybe is better to say that they are so many I can't come up with only one name, for sure one of my favourite artist since I was a child is a Dutch painter called Karel Thole, best known for his amazing covers for the Italian periodic SciFi books series 'Urania'. SL: Name your favourite artwork of all time. GM: Is very difficult to name only one artwork, there are so many talented people doing amazing stuff out there. SL: What music are you listening to at the moment? GM: To be honest I’m not listening any music at the moment, if I’m in my studio with other people I like to listen music on the radio, but if I’m alone I prefer to put a movie in the background, mostly older ones I’ve seen many times (Argento, Cronenberg, Carpenter, Fulci, only to name few of my favourite directors) many of them have great soundtracks so I can't ask for more. There you have it folks - sci-fi novels and film soundtracks, more than enough inspiration to fuel your imagination! Enjoy the interview? Check out Springleap's other interviews in the Spotlight On series here. |
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Coders Get Creative @ BandwidthBarn! shoutOut on 11/9/12 by travis.lyle1 in peeps |
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If you’ve been following us over on our Facebook page you would have seen that there have been some changes at The Leap, among them being that we recently moved premises. Not very far – basically about a kilometer down the road, but we’re now shacked up at the Bandwidth Barn in the Woodstock Exchange, which is currently a hive of activity as contractors rush to get the place looking shipshape. And damn, how grand it will be once it’s finished, because the Exchange is where it’s all happening. (And yes, above is the view from our desks!) We’ll feed you more on developments at the fantastic Exchange in a post next week, but for today we’re going to put the focus on Bandwidth Barn and the CITI (Cape Town Information Technology Initiative). With a vision that’s firmly focussed on stimulating social and economic prosperity, the Barn provides an incubator space for start up companies to make their first mark in the world. So, think of it is a launch pad, where great ideas meet opportunity, and take off into the business world. With a focus on companies in the science, technology, design and social innovation sectors, there’s an interesting mix of people already hooked up and getting busy on the top floors of the Exchange.
Beyond the cool mix of companies in the creative and tech sectors, there’s also a great initiative happening this weekend – the Bandwidth Barn is hosting ‘Coders Get Creative’, an intiative designed to show that software developers and techies (backend and frontend/digital design in) are creative people.
Coders Get Creative – What is it? It’s art, made from old computer and mobile phone parts. Each person gets a deep frame board of the same size and a limited colour palette. The goal is to make art that can be auctioned to raise funding for this initiative to be exhibited during WorldDesignCapital 2014. Where, and when is it? It’s this weekend (Saturday 15 September from 10h00 – 15h00) on the opening day of Cape Town Creative Week, and will be held at the Cape IT Initiative’s BandwidthBarn, 3rd floor, Block B, Woodstock Exchange, 66 Albert Road, Woodstock, Cape Town Who’ll take part? 10 Software Coders/Software Developers and 10 Digital Creatives (Participants may bring a teenage child or a friend or colleague with them who shares their enthusiasm for code or design, but can work alone if preferred) Cost: R 550 per pack if you want to keep your art OR R 250 per pack if you want to have a fun day making green art of out recycled computers and mobile phones but are willing to donate your completed artwork to CITi to auction to raise funds for the Creative Coders initiative. The cost includes a pre-selected colour palette of paint and a mounted board of size 450 x 450 within which the artwork will be produced. No previous artistic training is required. Support and facilitation will be provided by Studio41 - artist Roscoe Reid Masters and two art assistants What to bring: Participants should bring tools, pliers, a hammer and a drill with them. There will be some tools available for use as well. Please also collect and bring old, broken, unusable computer and mobile phone parts for yourself and to share with others if you have more. We will supply some as well. RSVP: Register and pay online at www.quicket.co.za/events/1026-coders-get-creative. Pleasure ensure that you purchase the correct ticket depending on whether you are a digital designer or software developer NEED TO KNOW MORE? Go: Coders Get Creative on CITI OK, one more crazy circuitboard pic, just for laughs!
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Tuesday Tutorials #2: Colour Separation shoutOut on 11/9/12 by travis.lyle1 in peeps |
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OK, so you've got this great idea for a T-shirt, and it looks great in your mind - hell, it even looks great on your monitor, but will it look as great once you get it down on a tee? That's a crucial question, and the difference between a concept that looks great when you're designing it, or a design that falls flat when it gets screened onto a tee. There are a few important tips which can help you make your designs look amazing on a t-shirt, and here at The Leap we've rounded up some of the best tuts to help you take your tee from lowbrow to oh, wow!
OK, let's rack 'em and stack 'em - number 1: separation. In order for your design to look great, everything should be, just like a fantastic song by Radiohead, in its right place. That means colour separation - one of the most important areas that novice designers overlook in their pursuit of design excellence. Here's a great tut on spot colour separation by Jimmy Breen for you to chew on:
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