OnelargeprawnWe like illustrated alphabets, be it a rather odd one, an A to Z of Star Wars, or a look into Japanese culture and customs.
It’s not often that one comes across an alphabet dedicated to the gaming world. Illustrator Fabian Gonzalez has taken a sampling from the vast range of characters in classic video games and represented them as letters of the alphabet. Find the image in all its glory after the jump.
Popular South African band Goldfish shows love for all things retro in the music video for the single, We Come Together taken off their album, Get Busy Living.
We Come Together was created by Mike Scott with contributions by some 20+ artists from every continent in the world (except for Antarctica, because who the hell would willingly live there?) The music video features lovable characters and scenes from your favourite retro arcade games. It has Angry Birds, Darth Vader, Hello Kitty, and Keyboard Cat. It has fatalities, giblets, and katamaris. It’s got voxel art, claymation, and chiptunes. All in all, it is made of WIN.
If you’re interested, find the “making of” video after the jump.
The month of April sees the release of the ninth installment of the popular series, Mortal Kombat. While fans look forward to inflicting all manner of brutal harm upon their enemies using their favourite MK characters, Machinima has uncovered footage of some fighters who auditioned for roles in the game but didn’t quite make the cut.
From a cannibalistic Pac-Man to a road-raging Toad, Machinima’s Mortal Kombat Secret Character Tryouts shows the fatalities of these retro, 8-bit characters. Check it out below.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZwO5I4QXmuc
[via Kotaku]
Dan Hipp, or MISTERHIPP, is an American comic book artist and illustrator whose works have appeared in DC Comics, Dark Horse, and Tokyopop. Using a great selection of colours, gradients, and Hipp humour, he creates fantastic character portraits of popular heroes and villains from comic books and movies. Have a look at some of his amazing illustrations after the jump.
In an effort to promote safe sex amongst horny teenagers, the “Leicestershire Teenage Pregnancy Partnership” in the United Kingdom has commissioned a cute 8-bit public service advertisement.
In the style of Super Mario Bros and Mega Man, our hero wants to get his “game on” but his princess will not let him into her castle without the prerequisite special item. This video follows his attempts to procure said item. See how it turns out below.
So there you have it. Have fun, play safe, and stay away from the mushrooms.
[via IdeaBounty on Twitter]
If you liked Cliff Chiang’s fantastic Star Wars propaganda posters you may love this series of travel-themed posters by graphic designer Steve Thomas.
Inspired by vintage travel posters from the early 20th century his works make a holiday to a galaxy far, far away look so very enticing.
There are eight travel posters in Thomas’ set. Have a look at them after the jump.
You’ve seen super heroes re-imagined as Mr. Men, gender-swapped to freakishly sexy women; you’ve seen them as depressive emos and even as cats.
Now they get a touch of retro care of Los Angeles-based artist Alex Gross who takes vintage portraits and turns them into super hero portraits. The results are grand, have a look at some of them after the jump.
After many hours of gaming, Niel Bekker over at News 24 Games has learned a lot about the minefield that relationships can be. For example, the virtual world is not as full of slappers as 32-year-old Nico Bellic from Grand Theft Auto IV would have thought. Oh no, he had to wine and dine, learn his lady’s preferences, and endure awkward moments before he got down to the good stuff. We hope he had protection on him, specifically the rad rubbers by designer Ben Marsh.
Although not a real product, his Game Boy themed pack of condoms caters for all tastes and sizes:
Have a look at his set of playable prophylactics after the hump.
Given what we know now, I wonder how many of us would love to go back in time and change a couple of things to the betterment of our lives and that of our families? If there’s one thing you wouldn’t want to do, it’s to kill your grandfather, for you then wouldn’t have been born, and consequently would not have been able to go back in time to kill your grandfather. I believe this sticky point is called the grandfather paradox.
Anyways, it seems digital artist Alex Varanese from San Francisco has pondered about time travel and decided he’d grab all the modern 21st century tech around us and zap back to the late 70s, where he’d re-design all the gear, sell it, and make a bazillion dollars. He took four popular consumer products – an MP3 player, a laptop, a mobile phone, and a handheld game console – and created a set of spectacularly retro print ads to advertise them as if they had been designed in the late 70s. The set is called ALT/1977: WE ARE NOT TIME TRAVELERS, see it after the jump.
Laptron 64
Pocket Hi-Fi
MobileVoxx
Microcade 3000
See more of Varanese’s work on www.alexvaranese.com.
BONUS: You may also like MY DESK IS 8-BIT, Varanese’s vision of what video game might look like if it was a stop motion animation.
[via Behance]
Graphic designer Laz Marquez was chatting to a co-worker about horror films and set out to create an alternative, modern set of posters for some of his favourite Alfred Hitchcock films. He initially started with “The Birds”, and then moved onto “Rear Window” where he played around with the typography. His choice for the third poster was decided by his Twitter and Facebook followers, and in “Vertigo” he pays homage to the iconic original poster created by Saul Bass. The series was completed with a bloody tribute to “Psycho”.
Marquez says this about his body of work:
Since I’ve started this project, I’ve had such an amazing time taking each piece of cinematic history and re-imagining it on my own terms. It’s been spontaneous, challenging and overall fulfilling. In addition, it’s been amazing to put some of the process in the hands of my followers and see what they’ve wanted the project to evolve into. Overall, I couldn’t be happier!
See Marquez’s amazing set of “Hitchcock Re-Envisioned” movie posters after the jump.
