goodbye blogspot, hello wordpress

hey gang,
I moved my blog my own webspace and I hope you all come along. the new place to be is www.alexandergellner.de for old wine in new tubes and more german idioms directly translated to english.

blogspot has been fun but i guess i am more a my own webspace kind of guy. also, i fear, now that there are those possibilities, i will never stop tweeking...

How i am I

When you go out in my barrio, there is at least two schmocks in every cafe or diner playing with their iPhone or showing off their new apps. I like the iPhone and I like apps and there is probably not much not to like about iPhonery aside from the rediculus price, T-Mobile contract and the annoyingly fetishising community. But when they came up with the iPad I had to giggle. It is not only what the ladies tell you, size does matter again. When deciding, Pad or Pod or Phone, it only comes down to the following: Either you like the free hand for bevarage, self pleasuring or making gang signs or yo go the extra mile with a supersize that nobody can ever overlook again. I fear, nobody will care much for the googlePhone, so could not be bothered to render it. drawn with my right hand btw...

Pictoplasma Festival 2010

If you know me, you know that I am a big fan of the pictoplasma events. They are not only about my favorite subjects like characters, animation and playful design but also amongst the most pleasant, friendliest and well organised fairs you can attend. Dany and I already got our tickets, and you can come, too. Get tickets here. I am already looking forward to a weekend of watching movies, lectures, meeting people and getting inspired.

Pixel me

Yeah, I just finished my four weeks freeelance gig for a rather big client and the weekend off has been awesome so far. The job had been hairy at times but I had a great team and it was much fun overall. I am just about finished recharging my batteries and jumping into the next adventure just now!
We visited Prenzlauer Berg's Steakhouse the Bird with some friends to celebrate the project and Dany and I had a great, juicy steak. Very good. The hamburgers I would not recommend, they were average, according to our company. For burgers, you should try Burgers Berlin here in Friedrichshain's Sonntagstraße. A small joint but very to our liking.

But I digress...

The picture shows me in my favorite track suit - for I will hopefully get my ass to work out more now. I have a small collection of those for running and workout but also for leasure time at home. They are so comfi :)

Pixel Snikt

In kindergarden, I was always Wolverine. My friend was Gambit, running away from my deadly claws and throwing energy poker cards at me. One day he threw a box at me. I woke up in the hospital where they stitched my upper lip. The scar, that would have been a fatal wound sans my mutant healing powers, is now idly concealed under my manly manly beard.
In other news, I have been working a freelance job as AD / Compositing Artist that will last up until March and recently I have been a little sick which resulted in a lack of Gym time. Damn you, Christmas eating sprees, 15 Kilos to go.

Yes we Pixel

Man, Big Barack is getting alot of heat these days. At the state of the union addresse, he was throwing hooks and punches left and right. Politics apart, which I am not fit to judge anyhow, I think he is a very gifted person. I also would like to hang out with him one day and through some hoops. In other news, the awesome Amazing, incredible, wonderful, beautiful, phenomenal iPad

Angela Pixel

Less a fanart than a portrait of our beloved She-Chancellor Angela Merkel. I like the eery posture. She always does this thing with her hands that is supposed to underline a centered warm, maybe even loving personality. I like this one even more than the hellboy. Here are two more cool Merkel-themed things I like. Merkel and Burns & Ms Steffi's illu with a nice explanation of the 2009 campaign poster and the german viral sensation called "und alle so: yeah!"
Have a good one.

Hellboy Pixel

As I wrote in my last post, pixelart is new to me. To get more adept and to figure out a style for me, I decided to do more practice pieces. It is also a fun and fast way to do fanart, which I also have been craving for awhile. And fanart is a good way to learn new techniques or solve design problems because you don't have to invent new things, you can immediately skip to the interpretation and figure out aesthetics. It turns out, doing pixel art is a pretty delicate endaevor, more like building stuff with Lego bricks, where every brick you add or subtract makes the a huge change in the overall message. Stay tuned for more.

Pixel Art: Sheer elegance in its simplicity

You need to watch this show if you did not get the reference.
My current project has me embarked on a sail through the realms of the pixel art. Something I have never done before and did not fancy all that much. Plus, after all that 3D- and compositing work, I am starving for some honest pen drawing. Being the clever schmock, I pitched the style for the project as 8bit retro game art but executed as a hand drawing. I figured, not many have done this kind of high concept approach and at the time it seemed like a clever idea, like this here sketch.
But the ass-for-a-face client liks my preliminary sketches in "real" pixel art more so I unwillingly am pushed to do an all out pixel art project without any real pen work. But as I dig into it a little bit I grow to like it more and handling the new rules makes one come up with new ideas all of a sudden. I come to appreciate all the cool things pixel artists have given us so far. From the original 8-bit veterans who handled technical restrictions and build a style out of necessity to the current designers who self impose pixel art rules either because their monkey brains are stuck on super mario land or they just can't draw.
Either era bred tons of cool designs and styles. My project is not going to be released until April so bear with me and have fun checking those links:

Eboy - I don't really have to explain the guys who made pixel art cool again 10 years ago. Mostly poster art, but also lots of toys and designy stuff.
Flairs - Truckers Delight I love this Music Video. Its retro but it's cool too.
Cave Story A very cool freeware game. Very famous too as I just found out. Super gameplay, nice story and lots of cool artwork. They are working on a Wii portation.
Super Brothers They make illustration and animations and I think something for the Iphone. And this is currently my desktop picture. I love their stuff. I don't really understand it, but I guess that is part of the appeal.
Architecture in Helsinki Do the Whirlwind - nice Music Video. I love their music, too.
Kings of Power 4 Billion % by Paul Robertson. Sick sick sick Animation reminiscent of videogame titles like Metal Slug and streets of rage.
Meatboy very cool game by indie developer Ed McMillen

For some reason, I am starting to hate on all that 8bit style music that has to many high pitched sounds, blips and squeeks in it. It is exhausting. If you are the twittering type, follow me on twitter - there I am even more boring (and german!)

Kick Daimler to Reparations

Medico International asked me to make a flyer for two events on the fight for reparations by victims of South Africa's Apartheid-Government. Daimler, amongst many other big corporations, benefited big time from their collaboration with this regime and I was fixing to go all Bob Geldorf on their asses.

This year, Mercedes-Benz will sponsor the German national soccer team in the South African World Cup with millions of dollars while neglecting to take responsibility for their involvement with a brutal and racist regime in this very same country.

Medico's overall style of communication is more keen on showing the positive side of people's actions rather than relying on imagery that is supposed to make you feel sad and guilty, ultimately exploiting the suffering for financial gain. That's how I came up with the motive, that reminds one of a soccer themed festivity or a joyful uprising. My buddy Michael did the typography and the layout of the flyer's text on the back.

There are going to be two events that you can attent to get educated this month.

Mo. 25.1.2010, Frankfurt: 19 Uhr
Ort: medico international, 1.Stock
Burgstr.106


Fr. 29.1.2010, Berlin: 19 Uhr
Ort: Bildungswerk Berlin der Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung, 5. Stock
Kottbusser Damm 72