Recycled Skateboard Art

19 Thursday Jan 2012

Tags

Haroshi, HUF/Haroshi/DLX Distribution Collaboration, mosaics, sculpture, skateboard deck, X Hypebeast - Haroshi interview

Anyone that has met me will know about my passion for three things in life, art, motor sport (bikes, cars and anything with a motor and wheels) and skateboarding. To date I have been able to combine some of my favorite pass times together in one blog post. Last year I blogged about tyre sculptures by Yong Ho Ji and Wim Delvoye. Now some genius called Haroshi has created sculptures and mosaics by utilising recycled skateboards.

I have heard very little about Haroshi up until now other than he is a talented artist and a skater from Tokyo, Japan. In fact in my haste to blog about his art I haven’t been able to find out the artists first name. So we have established I’m not in the know and have never heard of the lad before. All of this said I think these are the coolest sculptures and I would seriously like to have one in my home.

Extracts taken from haroshi.com: “Haroshi makes his art pieces recycling old used skateboards. His creations are born through styles such as wooden mosaic, dots, and pixels; where each element, either cut out in different shapes or kept in their original form, are connected in different styles, and shaven into the form of the final art piece.“

“In order to make a sculpture out of a thin skateboard deck, one must stack many layers. But skate decks are already processed products, and not flat like a piece of wood freshly cut out from a tree. Moreover, skateboards may seem like they’re all in the same shape, but actually, their structure varies according to the factory, brand, and popular skaters’ signature models. With his experience and almost crazy knowledge of skateboards, Haroshi is able to differentiate from thousands of used deck stocks, which deck fits with which when stacked. After the decks are chosen and stacked, they are cut, shaven, and polished with his favorite tools.”

Ok, less talk and more visuals, enjoy:

Here you will find an array of links to interviews, videos and more information about the artwork of Haroshi:
Haroshi’s website
Haroshi Facebook Fanpage
Interview on Hypebeast
HUF – Haroshi – DLX Distribution Collaboration Microsite

Title Sequence

09 Wednesday Nov 2011

Posted by Galvanize Blog in Animation

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Tags

Iginio Lardani, Jamie Caliri, Kuntzel + Deygas, Kyle Cooper, Miki Kato, Momoco, Saul Bass

Is it geeky that I like title sequences to films and television shows? Perhaps, but the creativity and thought that goes into these short animation sequences is fascinating. In some cases the titles have shown more creative flair than the actual film they precede.

The Bond title sequence for ‘Live And Let Die’ from the 70′s has to be the earliest memory I have of animated graphics at the beginning of a film. The build up to the Bond movies always kept me captivated and glued to the screen.

There have been many great sequences created over the years. Saul Bass‘s ‘The Man With The Golden Arm‘ or ‘North By North West‘ are a few of the obvious choices. Or Iginio Lardani‘s ‘A Fist Full of Dollars‘ and ‘The Good, The Bad And The Ugly‘ will go down in history as classics. Kyle Cooper‘s titles for the movie ‘Seven‘, was a landmark for visual culture in the 90′s and one that influenced many designers that followed.

I’d like to pick out a few of my favourite modern animated title sequences. ‘Catch Me If You Can‘ by Kuntzel + Deygas has to be one of my favourites and one of the most notable sequences created in the last ten years. This sequence has a modern and simple feel with a Saul Bass-esque sixties twist.

Momoco, a design studio from Soho, just keep delivering the most fantastic sequences. Think of the television shows Misfits and Luther. Their work has a distinct style that captures the attention of the viewer. Momoco always seems to be spot on with their choice in sound track to accompany their work. The choice of music for any sequence is very important. This sets the mood for both the title sequence and the film/show that follows.

This sequence for Misfits was nominated in 2010 for a BAFTA in the ‘Best Titles’ category. The titles designer, Miki Kato, created the branding and rushes the audience though an edgy weathered world, subtly showing the characters’ superpowers via their shadows. The sequence also recaps their supernatural origins as a dysfunctional superhero ‘team’.

The next sequence is a painterly, fragmented portrait of the main character of the BBC show, Luther. Momoco painted 20 scenes before compositing and animating them in After Effects with production images of the actor Idris Elba. The credits are also hand made – imperfect, stamped lettering. This ticks all three crucial boxes for me; great television show, highly creative title sequence and an amazing sound track to match.

The Channel 4 show Fresh Meat is another sequence by Momoco, but this time using filmed footage with animation added afterwards to bring the rooms to life.

What better way to end the sequences by changing things up a bit with an enchanting and highly creative end sequence by Jamie Caliri. Caliri created this sequence for the dark Hollywood fairytale ‘Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events‘. Enjoy