It's funny how things work out in Hollywood some times. Alternately, I imagine that hole in the wall belonging to the Fox Broadcasting executive boardroom...

So, from August of 2010 to about June of 2011 I worked full time with a company called WOWIO, an e-book publisher and distributor with larger media aspirations. One of these aspirations was a site called DrunkDuck.com, one of the largest webcomics-hosting sites (about 100,000 users, about 25,000 comics. I say was, because it has since been re-branded to simply The Duck Webcomics. I did a lot of work on this project, from redesigning the original Drunk Duck logo to completely overhauling the site design from the ground up (as lead designer and art director, with other people doing the actual coding, just to be clear about that – I'm no programmer but I did dabble in my youth, so I interface well with them).

The old site needed to be rebuilt with a new codebase, new databse structure, etc., to modernize it and improve performance and scalability. WOWIO wants to really grow the community there and improve the overall user experience for the long haul. I did a lot of differ≠it's good to post here now.

Lead Designer and Art Director: Me. My boss and WOWIO Creative Director: Zach Pennington. Programmers: Lawrence Leach and Dan Kram.

Over the last 14 years or so I have had the great fortune to have worked with one of the great logo and type designers of the last 40 years, mister Michael Manoogian (go and visit his site at michaelmanoogian.com and take a look; I'll wait til you get back), and it's fair to say I wouldn't be much of a designer at all if it wasn't for this association. I certainly wouldn't have developed the respect and taste I have for type if it weren't for him. The countless hours of having him art direct me—with all his little changes and nudges and OHMYGOD-what-is-the-point-of-that insistence on detail—drove me up the wall. But those hours and all that wall-driving were a better education in design fundamentals than you'd get from most universities, and it's fair to say I know what I know about type because of Mike.

Working on his roughs is always a lot of fun, and he gives me wide reign to just "make it look spectacular"—my favorite brief.

So, this post is just a taste of some recent work we've done together. He came to me with a rough line drawing and a description of what he wanted and pretty much turned me loose.

Above: The original rough, hand-drawn by Michael Manoogian. Very classic typography, very traditional proportions. A study in old-school, hand-crafted logo design.

Below, the final render, done by me. Of course, we went through a couple dozen iterations before finalizing it, but it's all worth it in the end. It's all Illustrator and Photoshop, by the way, no 3D modeling, and the size here doesn't really do the detail justice, but you get the idea.

Really should have posted this some time back, but there you go. Did a bunch of work for a game design company in 2010 (and may yet do more). Interesting project, they're developing a game system using open source tools and engines, online and off, all with a steampunk flavor. So they wanted a really elaborate flying machine kind of thing, which I have to say was a lot of fun to do. I wish more clients wanted fictional victorian flying machines in their logos.

Anyway, three logos here and a couple of site designs to go with. The top version is the overall project logo and site design, below that a version called AIR: Maelstrom, which is for a particular project within the greater one, and then the logo for the company itself, Hatboy Studios.

Redhead Revisited art print. A more portrait-like adaptation of the recent commission, now available as an archival print from my store.

A very recent commission to revisit the older redhead sketch. With more detail, and of course, more limbs. Seems the client had inhereted a small plane and is in the middle of a project to rebuild it, complete with the addition of some good old-fashioned nose art. Well, not SO old-fashioned, really, but a fairly classic take on a pinup nevertheless. She'll be about twenty-two inches tall on the engine cowling when printed and mounted. All of the additional details—type of shoes, stockings, bows, etc—are to the clients specifications.

I've been seeing a lot of this "it's just a big iPod Touch" comment being thrown around, but I don't think it's the criticism people think it is. It's like saying a garage door is just a larger front door, and I already have one of those in my living room – it completely misses the point.

The iPhone/Touch is a fantastic device for doing what it does and the genius of the interface is pretty clear, but there are whole classes of activities it doesn't do that well and that is entirely because of the screen size. As a graphic designer, I know from experience that size alone creates document and navigation opportunities that don't exist otherwise. The larger size of the iPad opens entire categories of media - books, newspapers, magazines, comics, reference books, textbooks, MUCH improved web browsing, video, etc. - for which the iPhone is usable but hardly optimal (and for which laptops are far from optimal in many situations as well). The tablet device form opens this category of media up in a way that no other device does or can.

I worked at WOWIO (via my time at Platinum Studios), an online pdf book store, as a graphic designer. I was a big fan of getting their content onto the iPhone when it came out, going so far as to create a rudimentary interface proposal for an app (download comics to your iPhone, browse them offline, etc.) so I did some usability tests. It works, but it's a lot of squeezing and scrolling to get comic pages to read well on the iPhone's small screen.

iPad (or something similar) solves that entire problem and in a way that is head and shoulders above using a laptop for the same purpose. Expand this to the other items in the category and tablets are a publishing paradigm shift waiting to happen (assuming the market turns up, assuming there are customers for these kinds of publications en masse). If the iPad means anything, it means a real fighting chance to popularize this kind of tablet and give publishers someone to publish to.

Yes, hardware-wise, it's not really anything special (although the estimated battery life of ten hours would be very impressive if true). But I think the app store and iBook publishing are the real firepower here and Apple's uncanny ability to get people's attention is the secret weapon. Buyers will take this whole category more seriously now that they're leading the charge.

I've owed my friend Cathy a portrait of some kind for a long time now and I finally got around to getting around to it. I need to do more of this sort of thing. It's a lot of fun!

What's a hunter without his pet? I've had Jinxi for a LONG time. I know it's counterintuitive to develop a sentimental attachment to a virtual pet, but Jinxi was one of my first pets and I just cannot bring myself to trade her in, no matter how many sparky lightning wolfs Blizzard tempts me with.

Also: BACKGROUND!

Just wanted to drop a quick line to let you know that I have started a new site that's dedicated solely to my artwork and illustration stuff. It's kind of bare-bones at the moment, but the look is there and I should be developing it into a larger platform for more in the future.

The name? CharlesAllenHarris.com, of course :)

So this looks like it's going to be my second Blizzcon, and the second one where I wouldn't have a prayer of going if not for my guild, the Pod People. Last year Blizzard's attempt at ticket sales could only charitably be described as a complete disaster – servers melted down, their whole shopping cart system broke, everything about the process was like pulling your own teeth with a pair of red hot tongs for two solid days.

Let it not be said Blizzard does not learn from their mistakes: this year was a joy and a pleasure by comparison. In fact, the system was so robust and so effecient, they sold out the entire convention in 30 seconds. Well, they sold the first half of the tickets in 30 seconds (though it took about 20 minutes for people to find out that they hadn't been quick enough, as they watched the "available inventory" tick down by about 4 per cent per minute) one day, and then two weeks later, they sold the other half in another 30 seconds. So, a minute total, give or take.

On the minus side, I didn't get tickets on either day. On the plus side, it didn't take 2 days of clicking the refresh button on my browser to find that out. Turns out I needn't have worried, because my guild was there to back me up, as usual. A couple of them had gotten extra tickets and I wound up the beneficiary of one of them. So, yay, another Blizzcon for Scruffi ]:)

Hopefully Blizzard will have learned from the agony that was the 5-hour merchandise line last year as well, but I don't want to get into that here.

No, all I really wanted to do was set up the fact that as a big, sloppy thank to the guys I worked up a new guild logo and some t-shirt designs for Blizzcon 2009. And here they are. I just wanted to improve on every aspect of last year's designs (see further down the page) and I'm happy with the results. Bit of design-geek trivia: the main typeface is Duc de Berry, with a number of custom mods, including the extensions and underlines, all made out of the type itself.

Some World of Warcraft-related artwork. Actually my own character, Scruffi, on Whisperwind. Huntard for the win.

I figured while I was posting I might as well make it a three-fer for the day. Tangentially-related to the Warcraft guild (see below) are a couple of podcasts – Taverncast, which in its original incarnation years ago led to the formation of the guild in question; and The Shadow Council, which was most recently started by guild members to become a more or less official Pod podcast since Taverncast long-ago steered away from being a WoW-centric endeavor.

Anyway, I'd recently been asked to sketch up some logo update concepts only to sort of find out after the fact that someone else had already come up with something that they were going to use instead. Ah well, such is life. I figured I could finally put them to work as a bit of self-promotion at least, so here they are.

The Taverncast treatment is clearly inspired by the Guinness label as well as other old-world ales and such – Taverncast has always included various beers and other alcoholic concoctions as part of their theme so I wanted to carry that over into the logo without being too beholden to their fantasy gaming roots. And I really like Guinness.

I did a series of options, three of which are here.

For the Shadow Council treatment I just wanted to come up with something that would read well at many sizes, not too busy, that could be applied to many uses (web, print, screen printing, etc.) without losing the legibility, and that would look good on either light or dark backgrounds. I tried to consider as many different applications as possible so I wound up with a number of arrangements to fill various spaces and uses.

I couldn't decide if I preferred the blue or red (click to see the full spread) so I'm posting both sets.

And no wall of text this time. I really should learn to edit...

No, this time I'm just posting a couple of recent logo designs I did for my World of Warcraft guild, the Pod People (originally born out of a group of podcasters who got together to play). It's no secret that I play World of Warcraft (80 Huntar easy mode for the win) and that I am occassionally called upon by my guild to contribute graphics for various projects. In this case it was a t-shirt design for the recent Blizzcon, as a bunch of us had coordinated to attend and gather for some proverbial hanging out. Some twenty or more current and past Pods were in attendance and a grand ol' time was had (when I wasn't living in the line for merchandise, but this isn't the place to grouse about having to spend over 5 hours standing for the priviledge of spending money on toys and books).

Anyway, here are the shirt designs.

I've mentioned Axiotron's ModBook before – I've wanted a tablet Mac for years for art and design work and, while I had high hopes for their current model/design, I always had a consideration or two keeping me from making the investment. Primary among these is the idea that, for the price, it would need to be a primary machine, capable of primary-level performance (I'm just not in the position to be able to drop 3 grand on a peripheral if it doesn't replace a lot of other hardware - my $300 Wacom tablet does its job well enough) and, for my uses, the MacBook (on which the ModBook is based) was never quite up to specs.

My major gripes? The screen wasn't big enough and the graphics weren't fast enough. Neither of which is valid if you're buying a tablet to complement an existing system to add portable drawing capability, but if you need a single machine to do everything (including play WoW reasonably well) the MacBook just wasn't up to my requirements (this is the white plastic MacBook, to be clear - the new aluminum ones are a different matter). As for the screen size, thirteen inches is normally completely fine for a laptop screen, but when you end up covering part of it with your hand and pen, every bit counts (a conclusion I came to only after using the ModBook at a convention).

Well, Axiotron's handled the hell out of those two considerations with the Macworld-announced ModBook Pro. When Apple released their new aluminum "unibody" laptops I wondered how long it would be before Axiotron caught up with a mod for one or the other and, frankly, just how the hell they were going to pull it off. The ModBook is essentially a kit that replaces the screen and keyboard half of the plastic MacBook with a pressure-sensitive Wacom screen and the bezel to hold it in place. Neat solution. But the new Mac enclosures are practically defined by exactly that part (the "unibody" in question), using it for most of their structural integrity. I got very curious to see exactly how Axiotron was going to solve their way around having to get rid of it.

Well instead of trying to find some way to retain it and mod around it, they seem to have decided to get rid of it entirely. Along with the rest of the enclosure. Now I haven't seen one in person yet (and from what I understand the units they're showing at Macworld this week aren't much more than non-functioning design mockups anyway) but I've seen the same pictures everyone else has and I don't see much of the original MBP left in their design. From what I can tell, they essentially scooped the internals out of the MBP and built their own case around it more or less from scratch (in fact they seem to have modified it somewhat more than that - looking at the side shot I can see they have clearly moved the power plug on the machine in relation to the other slots - which all look intact). Clearly they've been much more adventurous with their engineering this time around (which also hints at reasons behind the high price for this mod).

And speaking of the price, I understand if a person's initial reaction is, "WHAT??!!! $5,000 for that?! Who in their right mind would pay five grand for a tablet?" But that person would be missing the point entirely. This machine is aimed squarely at the guy who buys Wacom Cintiqs, which is a screen on which you can draw directly, with pressure-sensitivity and everything. They can run a couple of grand or more all by themselves; toss a decent computer in to drive it and you're pretty well in the $4-5,000 range anyway. These people are animators, digital artists, designers, etc. Professionals who have a professional use for such an investment, not someone who just wants to surf the web on the couch without a keyboard getting in the way. People like me, in other words.

This is the machine I've been waiting for. Maybe. Probably. This is the machine I'd wished they had made from the outset, though I do hope it benefits from the rough first couple of years Axiotron's put their initial models (and customers) through. A combination of manufacturing delays, slow order fulfillment, and technical issues (Bluetooth is pretty well borked on the current ModBooks, for example) took a lot of the initial wind out of Axiotron's PR sails. I want the new machine to be a home run, I want it to fulfill its promise. If it works out, if they deliver reasonably on time and in volume and without major issues (and after I try one out for myself, of course) I'll likely gladly spend the money.

UPDATE: Further hands-on details can be found at animation artist Louis Del Carmen's Modbook blog here. Not only has Louis been a proponent of the ModBook in it's current incarnation (he carries it with him to conventions; he let me play on it for a few minutes at San Diego Comic-con) but he seems well impressed with the Pro. Turns out I was right: Axiotron's build a custom enclosure for the MBP's internals to occupy, apparently made from several pieces of aluminum (painted black – I kind of wish they'd painted it to match Apple's gray; I think it would wind up looking more Mac-like, but it's probably a mostly academic issue when using it).

Bye darlin'.

This and the Indiana Jones (down the page, below) were drawn for a Drawing Board thread about heroes from the 1930s. I haven't participated in any of those jams in a long, long time, and now here's two for the same one. This is fun, and I hope to find the wherewithal to keep paricipating in these. Anyway, here's The Shadow.

Yes, I could not resist the siren song of the shiny, new "unibody" notebooks released by Apple on Tuesday. I had gone for just about four and a half years without a machine upgrade, running on my very dependable but increasingly not-state-of-the-art 12-inch PowerBook G4. Without an external screen might I add.

Yes, nearly everything I've done, including this website and all of the artwork on it, was built on that small screen with that small processor, in spite of the fact that much of the work was intended to be produced and seen at much larger sizes. Sparky (so named to extend the "lightning" theme, you understand) has been an absolute trooper and, frankly, runs as well as the day I bought it (better, in fact, since I swapped out the original 60GB drive for a 7200 rpm 100GB drive about a year and a half ago). I have no intention of retiring the machine, or selling it, or packing it away. I now consider it to be a Mac Ultraportable and a very capable music server, or emergency backup or whatever. Apple did not skimp on its capabilities back in 2004 and it still stacks up well to new machines in its size category.

So Sparky will be around for quite some time, I think.

(I should let you know that at this point the fawning really starts, so if you keep reading don't say I didn't warn you.)

To say that the new MacBook Pro is an upgrade for me is to understate the matter by an order of magnitude or two. It could well be argued that the last design generation (as opposed to performance generation) of Apple aluminum portables was the most successful notebook design in the history of computers. That stamped aluminum case, that shape, that look, that grainy silver finish, has been around and looking sharp for over 5 years (going back, virtually unchanged, all the way to the PowerBook G4 days as it did), an unheard-of eon in computer design years. But at no point was it ever considered dated. In fact I think one of the reasons it was so successful for so long is that no one could imagine how one would go about improving on such a clean, workable design. It just kept looking better than anything else year after year. And recently that very design was still outselling just about everything else on the market.

And so now we come to the new machine. If the "current" one still looks modern and effective, the "new" one looks like it's been transported to our time from the future. A future where things just hold themselves together without seams or screws or latches, and the lines and curves are so clean you just think, "Well, that looks good, but no one will ever really build that."

And when you actually see one, and you hold it and turn it and weigh it in your hands the thing feels like a single, solid piece of ... something. If design was a substance and could be alloyed with technology to produce an actual material, that's what Apple has used to pour the new MacBook Pro into existence (see the fawning? I did warn you).

Now, I understand the person who says that this is all a bit overkill. It's nice that Apple puts this much thought into design and all, but is it really that big of a deal? Wouldn't it be good just to have a good-looking machine that did more things, or that did them faster?

But this complaint is as old as Apple itself. The modern era of this kind of grousing goes back to the original iMac – all translucent Bondi Blue plastic, USB ports and no floppy drive. And it's just as valid or invalid now as it was then. I'm not dismissing the criticism, but I am saying that Apple has always considered the look and feel to be as important a feature as the raw functionality, because it has everything to do with how a human interfaces with the machine. Apple takes a very holistic approach to design; they don't see it as just "making something look good." It's the way it allows a person to reach the function of that machine as well, and the overall impression that machine makes on its owner, the affinity it engenders.

This new "unibody" production process is not just about making a better-looking machine. It's also about cleaning up and streamlining the insides and the overall structure. Air moves better through the interior. The overall body is stiffer and more solid. Fewer movable parts means better dependability and fewer bits to worry about. The overall impression is one of a device that will do what you need it to do for a long time without having to worry about it much, an impression that is very much the sort of thing Apple is all about.

There are plenty of people who don't care a whit about such things, and fair enough. Clearly this is the sort of thing that impresses a guy like me, but partly because I think I understand what Apple is shooting for and why. Maybe it's because I am a designer, but I appreciate the fact that this "innovation" is really in service of increased function, even if that function isn't expressible as a higher megahertz or framerate.

My favorite Buckminster Fuller quote is, “When I'm working on a problem, I never think about beauty. I think only how to solve the problem. But when I have finished, if the solution is not beautiful, I know it is wrong.”

Alright, so much for the fit and finish; let's talk practicality.

I'm apt to gloss over the speed and performance of the machine in favor of more usability-oriented concerns. It's fast. Just about everything it does seems instantaneous to me. Launching apps is fast, saving files is fast, loading Web pages is fast. But I will be the first to admit that mine may not be the most discerning opinion where all this is concerned; my upgrade delta is pretty steep, so the difference is pretty striking to me. I don't time my processes. I don't clock how long it takes to launch Photoshop or save a 400 MB file, I don't run framerate tests in a battery of games. The numbers don't concern me, per se. Suffice to say everything feels super snappy and I'm damn impressed with the way World of Warcraft looks and how solid it runs, even fullscreen on my 24" external monitor.

There was a time, not too long ago, that I could find a valid use for every last ounce of megahertz and byte, but I'm no longer a bleeding edge power user. I'm not editing HD video or doing heavy CGI animations. Large Photoshop files and some games are my upper limit.

The question I ask is, "Am I happy with how the machine works while I'm using it?" The answer is a resounding, nearly-unqualfied, yes.

Over the years of using the PowerBook, I developed a couple of habits. I use a tablet much of the time, so I always have to take the computer+tablet setup into account. I've always preferred to push my tablet up against the right side of the notebook so the two are square with each other; the tablet stays oriented correctly and the arrangement is easier to manage. One of the problems I've had with every other Pro model Apple's put out in recent years was the fact that some important ports were arranged on the right, interfering with my setup. So, a simple thing like having all the ports on the left now is one of my favorite things about the new MacBook Pro. It's a bit of a trade-off, I know. It probably means that there must be fewer port options (especially on the MacBook, the loss of FireWire has caused a lot of dust to be kicked up; people aren't happy being corralled into change by fewer options even if, in the long run, it might be a better set of options for most people (and for Apple)).

For me, these attenuated options are far less problematic than they might be for others. I don't need a port for every occasion. I have FireWire 800 drives for backups, a FW400 pocketdrive (which a simple change of cable makes usable). My scanner and printer and other peripherals are all USB. I've been seeing the writing on the wall for FireWire as a consumer-level protocol for several years now (once they pulled it from the iPod, I knew something was up), so although I'm a little surprised to see even a FW400 option gone from the MB, I kind of figured it would happen sooner or later.

Another controversial change has been the new trackpad. Some people are complaining that it clicks too loudly, or that it doesn't register clicks sometimes, or that it's just odd having a trackpad without a button. Though it did take a bit of getting used to, it's now one of my favorite things about the machine. Mine registers clicks perfectly well most of the time (as well as any of the previous-gen MBPs I've used – in fact the only thing I've used that's got a more reliable button is Sparky) and my click sound is no louder than any other button I've ever used. Mileage may vary, of course, but I simply haven't noticed anything to grouse about regarding the trackpad.

The glass screen, however, is a different matter. As has been noted, it's glossy. Very glossy. Reflective. Under most circumstances, this isn't problematic, but there are times... I don't like reflections on my screens. They're distracting and they get in the way of seeing what's on the display. The glass probably increases the contrast (and it certainly gives it that "shiny, new" look) but that's much less important to me than displaying accurate color. I don't expect any built-in display to match my calibrated LaCie screen, but one of the things I really like about matte screens is that they seem to better represent print on paper by being slightly more diffuse. The other thing I like about them is the lack of reflections. When I first bought the MBP I didn't consider the glossy display was going to be very problematic, but I have come to the conclusion that it's more of a flaw than a benefit and I really wish I'd had the option of a matte screen. It's no game-breaker, by any stretch (as I say, under most conidtions, it's a non-issue) but matte would be better, hands-down.

I may wind up trying out one or more of the matte-finish screen overlays once companies that make such things catch up to the new screen size and shape. I'll report back if I find anything useful.

At any rate, the short of it is that the new MacBook Pro is just about the (nearly) perfect machine for me. Power and portability in a ridiculously good-looking package.

First off, I think they're brilliant.

There are things I'd like to see, or think I will miss (I fully intend to acquire one of the Pros - it will complement my new LaCie 324 monitor nicely).

First off, just to get it out of the way, the glossy-only option I find rather suspect. I'm willing to be convinced, but for design and illustration work, I'm inclined to expect the non-glare screens to be less fatiguing for close work simply because they inherently lack the distracting reflections of glass. It would be very nice to have a non-glare glass option.

I can see the argument for keeping more FireWire options, too (the new Pro only has a single FW 800 port). Personally, the port options closely resemble the set I'm used to (on my beloved but now rather venerable 12" PowerBook G4) – two USBs and a FireWire (though mine's a 400), but I'd think that two FW ports (each on their own bus) would be far more advantageous for some pros, especially ones who work with video.

My expectation is that Apple will likely add more ports when they update the 17" MacBook Pro. Right now, considering where they had to put the battery and drive (along the whole front of the machine), which moved the optical drive to the right side, they had to stack all the ports on the left (which, to my mind is a far superior arrangement anyway - I use my Wacom tablet pushed up against the right side of my PowerBook constantly) and just ran out of room on the 15.

An an obliquely-related note, I wonder how long before Axiotron formulates a response to these new MacBooks. I could seriously develop some lust for a ModBook based on the new hardware. Maybe they could even get the Bluetooth to work :)

This year has not gone exactly according to my original plan, art-wise. I'm busy as hell with work, though, which is exactly what I wanted, so I'm surviving well with some breathing room for a change. The last month has been particularly insane; the Thunderbird finally made too convincing an argument to be replaced so I had to buy a car. While at the same time looking for and moving into a new apartment. One or the other would have been enough, but woof. On the other hand I now have a very comfortable car that's in great shape and will last forever, and a new apartment on the Westside of LA (smallish and pricey, but very well-placed, and enough room to get have a little art space).

In general, things are quite looking up. Nice change after this summer.

Mostly what I'm doing at work is designing and laying out comic books, doing logos for comic/movie properties, and other production-y things. So, that's good :)

As to the title of this post – I've been working my way through Warcraft III again this week, in a sort of post-Blizzcon daze. I'm impressed at how much my appreciation of the lore and characters in World of Warcraft has deepened since I started playing through it again. I'm such a noob.

Okay. So. Been a while. Inexcusable, I know. Except that I have an excuse.

When I got back from Atlanta in January I did some catching up on freelance work (including the lovely wedding portrait, below) then I got really busy. I'd signed up with an agency and they got me a regular gig for two months. Then that ended.

And then, I started a whole new kind of gig: doing design and production for Platinum Studios here in Los Angeles. Platinum makes comics and movies.

I'll say that again so it sinks in. Platinum makes comics. And movies.

So, this is a whole new sandbox for me to play in. Right now I'm being the colorist on my first comic book (about which more later) and that's keeping me very happily busy for a couple of weeks. BUT, the very first thing they had me do was Photoshop up a little teaser poster for a movie (still in pre-production) of a little comic book you may have heard of called Witchblade!

And here it is (best viewed with Safari):

Actually, this is a special full-size standee; there's also a normal poster version that's cropped differently.Since it's still in pre-production there's not much to tell, details-wise, but you can go to the website and sign up for updates.

So yeah, that was my first assignment. I'm very much looking forward to seeing what else these guys have up their sleeves for me to work on!

From this week, a commissioned portrait. Just in time for Valentine's Day!

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