Cutting Corners.

Interrupted.

+/- Composite.

Memory of a Dream

Main Title Design: Lesson 3.

For this assignment, we were tasked with creating six narrative frames with typography using only a limited set of 40 images. The film is a documentary about the Apollo mission. I used only 6 of those images, in my effort to create a set of modern minimal titles.

Instead of going for the sepia-faded, old-film look, I really wanted everything to have a strong black level, to make it feel more modern, (perhaps more like how the movie Gravity made me feel about outer space). However, I didn't want to completely do away with a nod to the past, to the "Golden Age" of space exploration, so the opening frames are very warm as the sun breaks around the edge of a hidden planet. It evokes a more mysterious energy, more like a sci-fi movie, speaking to discovery and unknown worlds.

As we begin to pan across the planet, we see the Command Module hanging in orbit around the planet. It's moving towards us slightly, even as we pan further to the left of it. As it grows larger in our field of vision, preparing to pass by on the right side of the screen, the camera pulls back through a window, and we realize we are in the Lunar Module, seeing through the eyes of one of the astronauts.

The camera pans away from the first window, settling on the smaller "approach" window. At first the view through that portal is blurred, focusing instead on the numbers on the glass. But once we move beyond that glass, the moon is passing by, filling our vision, until finally, we settle on the final frame. This last shot mirrors and inverts the first frame, contrasting the warm glow of exploration and expectations of 1960s space exploration with the colder, harsher reality that is outer space.

As for why I chose the "side" view of the moon, instead of putting it at the bottom of the shot... simply put, it's not a view we see as much in film and other media. And the truth is, there is no up or down in space, so the views aren't grounded in the planet's surface being beneath your feet.

The font is "Impact Label Regular." I chose it in an attempt to replicate the old-style label machines that created the raised labels for technical systems and buttons back in the 60s and 70s. The font also evokes the feel of classified documents, riddled with black redaction marks. The Apollo missions were all part of the space race and NASA's battle with the Soviet Union (not to mention the strong undercurrents of the Cold War). The science and research documents behind the rockets and computer systems were highly classified materials, and so I wanted to make sure to include an homage to this atmosphere.

(via Homework - 3. A Controlled Experiment)

@ashthorp

Rift.

(Or Chopstick.)

There's Still Lettuce - A Short Story

Short fiction is something I don't play around with as often as the novel writing, but there are times when a phrase or story idea gets its hooks into me and demands expansion and exploration. The above flash fiction is one of those stories.

Been working to figure out how to format this kind of story for posting online, without it being a PDF download or anything. Pretty pleased with this final layout, as it breaks up the text a little while hearkening back to newspapers and print media publications. (And it translates well to reading on mobile, which is great!)

Hope you enjoy There's Still Lettuce, just a little something from beyond the universe of COLOR OF A MIRROR that shares a similar view of the shadows that lurk in the future.

Just a short excerpt teaser, trying not to give anything away from one of my favorite parts of the book.

(Also. The Kickstarter pre-campaign page is active. You can save the page or get notified when the campaign goes live on Nov. 01!)

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/artificelux/color-of-a-mirror-dark-science-fiction-novel-and-soundtrack

It feels more and more real at each step of the way, and I’m so excited for people to finally get to join me in this dark future.

-N7 Day 2022-

As mentioned yesterday, here’s my new minimalist Mass Effect title card!

I’m a big fan of title sequences (and main menus in games) as the choice of art and music really sets the tone for the whole experience from that initial moment. This is one of the many things Mass Effect does so successfully, and I love playing with these moments as it allows me to do fanart of a favorite series, while still hanging out in my typography/graphic design happy place.

For this year, I wanted to explore a more alien design, maybe a strange new world we could visit in a new Mass Effect. I love doing minimal, restricted color palettes with different textures providing the details and variations. This idea was born from the classic N7 red for the text, which then spread to the planetary surface in the background.

And then these mysterious obsidian orbs hovering over these impact craters. Or maybe scorch marks... One of my favorite things in ME1 was discovering those weird ruins on random worlds, often with the single chrome sphere hovering over the surface. I wanted these orbs to hearken back to those moments, but also be different.

That’s all I’ve got. Thanks as always to Bioware for creating these games, and I look forward to new adventures in the future!

For now, though, I should go.

Can’t think of a much better way to celebrate one year of this project, than by getting to see a review for COLOR OF A MIRROR in print for the first time! And in the indie section of Publishers Weekly no less!

Written, designed, published, and sold by me.

Thanks to BookLife for the review, and thank you always to the Kickstarter backers who helped make this possible (and to everyone who’s picked up the book since then).

colorofamirror.net

// Launch Day // Welcome to The Dive //

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A few days ago, I launched my debut novel COLOR OF A MIRROR. Written, designed, and published by me, it’s my vision of a dark, cyberpunk future. No galactic stakes, no one person saving the human race… it’s a cerebral story of very human characters trying to carve out an existence in a near future city that will crush them without a second thought. If you like Blade Runner or the writing of William Gibson, I think you’ll find something to love in this book.

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And I’m so excited to announce that the softcover novel is now available exclusively on my website! (Please note, I absolutely will ship internationally! If you’re having trouble with an order, just send me a message through the site and I’ll work to fix it.)

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So if you’re looking for something a little different this Black Friday/Cyber(punk) Monday, here’s the link again, in case you didn’t click the one above: colorofamirror.net and I hope to see you all in The Dive!

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(And be sure to check out the soundtrack for the book on Spotify and other streaming services.)