The guys from DKNG shared the workflow of the creation of their new poster: The Black Keys. Every step of the process is shown in this video. Nothing but props for Dan Kuhlken and Nathan Goldman for giving us some insight into their workflow!

This limited edition poster is for sale and be sure to check out more DKNG work after the jump.

Concept artist Dermot Power created this beautiful concept art for Batman Begins. He also created concept art for V For Vendetta, Alice in Wonderland and Star Wars episode II.

Read more about his work at interview link 1 or interview link 2.

Mexican graffiti artist Sego Y Ovbal shared a workflow video of one of his latest creations made in Mexico City back in 2010. He creates unique insect like creatures. Check out more of his work on his Flickr or read his (Spanish) blog. While googling I also came across this interview by Art Asylum Boston that gives more background information about this talented artist. 

Link via Steven Spavento.

Sucker Punch workflow: Concept Art

In case you need introduction:

“Sucker Punch” is an epic action fantasy that follows a young girl through her vivid imagination to provide an escape from her dark reality. Unrestrained by the boundaries of time and place, she is free to go where her mind takes her, blurring the lines between what’s reality and what is imaginary. 

Director Zack Snyder said that he wants Sucker Punch to appeal to those looking for hidden meanings, as well as those fans who just want “crazy shit” in the movie. 

I honestly think you can do both. I love crazy shit in a movie, don’t get me wrong. By the way, there is crazy shit in my movie. There is nutty, crazy shit in it but I’d like you to be able to have your cake and eat it too. I want you to be able to just go nuts and then also be able to sit with your friends afterwards and go, “No way, dude. You don’t get the socio-implications of this fuckin’ movie.” And the other guy going, “I don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about!”

Knowing this, without even seeing the movie, I can really appreciate the concept art. Having worked together with concept artists like the creative geniuses from KARAKTER Concept from Berlin and our own Monster illustrator Joeri Lefévre, I know that concept artists love creative freedom (not unlike any other designer). And reading Snyder’s quote I can only conclude that the creative workflow for Sucker Punch must have been a blast! Can’t wait to see the result on the big screen, IMAX of course.

Read the entire interview with Zack Snyder at Screenjunkies. More about the concept art (gallery image 1-8) on Jerad S Marantz’s blog. The posters (gallery image 9 & 10) are created by designer Ken Taylor for Mondo.

A peek into the design workflow of Wim Crouwel, the Dutch Graphic Designer

“For me it is always a question of thinking before sketching,” explains Wim Crouwel, the Dutch graphic designer. “A design ripens in my head, and then I see it more or less in front of me, before I take a pencil and do it on paper”.

Wim Crouwel started his design career over 60 years ago as a design student at Academy Minerva (Dutch site). After moving to Amsterdam he joined the Gerrit Rietveld Academy where his career really took off. Crouwel was part of the founders of Total Identity (1963), an Amsterdam based corporate identity studio set out to change Dutch design. He was responsible for the graphic design at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. And he designed the Dutch expo at the 1970s World’s Fair at Osaka, Japan. In other words a designer I think we should know and listen to. 

Interested? Check out Wim Crouwel: A Graphic Odyssey at the Design Museum London from 30 March - 3 July. The exhibition explores Crouwel’s innovative use of grid-based layouts and typographic systems to produce consistently striking asymmetric visuals.

Batman the Animated series title sequence storyboard.

Maybe you remember Batman the Animated Series which ran from 1992 till 1995. Up to this day the highly illustrated intro scene is still one of my favorites, really taking the viewer into the dark Batman world. Check out this title sequence storyboard drawn by Bruce Timm and colored by Eric Radomski back in 1992. The level of details used in the simplified illustrations is just astonishing, resulting in a successful combination of the style used in the  1940s Superman cartoon and the Batman created by Tim Burton. 

Check out the end result after the jump, Batman the Animated Series intro.

The official opening film for TED2011. The video is created by Amsterdam based creative production studio +1 (located only a couple of blocks away from our new Monsters office) who also did last years opening film of TEDxAmsterdam. As stated on their website Chris Anderson, the international TED curator, was impressed and asked them to create the film for their flagship conference TED2011 hosted at Long Beach CA. I think it’s great to see a Dutch company create such a beautiful video for a client like TED, loads of kudos! 

All credits after the jump.

Check out this video from 1999 showing the workflow of the designers at IDEO (Palo Alto, CA). ABC News asked them to create a new supermarket shopping cart in only five days.  We get to see a glimpse of the creative process of one of the, if not the, most innovative company around. 

“Enlightened trial and error succeeds over the planning of the lone genius” - Peter Skillman

The video above is part one of two and three.

Craig Mundie (Microsoft’s Chief Research & Strategy Officer) speaks about what he calls one of the biggest shifts in computer evolution ever: a shift from the graphical user interface (GUI) to the natural user interface (NUI) or rather a combination of both. Very interesting to say the least, can’t wait to really see this mature over the next couple of years. Seems to me a better strategy than blindly copying Apple’s strategy and create average tablet computers. 

Check out the workflow of this amazing The Legend Of Zelda artwork created by Japanese artist AG+. The illustration is created to celebrate the 25th anniversary of The Legend Of Zelda (February 21, 1986 on the Famicon in Japan, NES 1987).

A high resolution image of the illustration is available right after the jump. In case you need help figuring out who all the characters are check out this post on a Dutch Nintendo blog (Google translated to English).