I got a little mention on the NavyBlue website a little while ago because of this little guy. His name is Hermes (in reference to one of NavyBlue’s clients) and of course is knitted in a deep rich navy blue. And dazzling green moustache.

Fame and fortune awaits.

So I posted a cryptic looking Yeti last week and mentioned there would be more on the way soon. That day’s arrived now they’re at their final home.

Inspired by Mexican Wrestling aka Lucha Libre these two yetis named Princessa Chikita and La Malveda are a special one off set complete with Lucha Libre costumes including one winners wrestling belt (obviously both of them have to duke it out to be crowned the winner first) and a gringo moustache inspired by Perdo from Napoleon Dynamite. They took a lot of time and effort to make but in the end it was worth it—researching Lucha Libre costumes and designs was a lot of fun as is making anything out of felt. The super bright colours, easy to work with and stitching details always reminds of working with vector graphics—probably why I find it so rewarding and enjoyable.  

You can see more of them in detail on the Lucha Libre Flickr set along with images of a lot of the other yetis I’ve made over the years. I’ll be uploading more shots of these Lucha Libre inspired ones over the coming days so keep checking back. Finally if you’re wanting to get your hands on a Yeti yourself or commissions a special creation email me directly at made [at] sansgil.com or pop in to SMUG in Angel where they’re available to buy as well.

I’ve been working with Long Lunch for a little while now and recently I was asked by one of the founding members Brian Copeland of Graphic Clinic to produce a short motion graphic advert. In some of the more popular tube station CBS Outdoor have installed huge video projectors that loop 20s adverts whilst passengers wait for the next train where the advert will be shown. Inspired by the iconic flip depature boards and those flip-dot mechanisms, I just sent off the final render to the media space company so expect to see it in a tube station near you very soon.

On another related note, if you’re interested in graphic design and you’ve never come across Long Lunch before then I highly recommend buying a ticket and going along to one of their talks as they have some brilliant speakers in. You might just bump into me at one of the London venues. For a list of their up and coming talks watch the advert or check the Long Lunch website for full listings.

I feel like I’ve been drowning in yetis over the last couple of weeks. One of the most exciting and challenging creations though has been this Mexican inspired Yeti for a commission. I’m not going to say too much now but here’s a sneak peek and there’ll be more details about La Malvada soon.

I made this giant yeti as part of Helen Frik’s Difficult exhibition on at Chapter in Cardiff earlier in the year. Unfortunately didn’t get the time to make the trip to see it in situ but it he was a hell of a lot of fun to make. At roughly 75cm standing tall and easily that again for his arm span, he dwarfed the regular sized. Although he’s not officially available to buy I’d be interested in making this sort of size to commission.

For my next project a life sized yeti?

Hitching a ride on the previous article about CarneMag and digital magazines which I posted over at FFF, I want to briefly mention a new web app I’ve been trying out over the last couple of days. It’s called Subfolio and is developed by Area17. They say,

Subfolio provides an elegant, practical and customizable web interface to your file system. Super fast to set-up and use, you’ll be up and running in minutes. Flexible and feature-rich, you’ll soon be inventing new ways to use it.

On the crux of it, it’s a convenient way for studios to quickly share work with clients, users and fans be it work in progress of the finished article. It’s still in private beta but the thought of a quick way to show a client how things are progressing or a way to share work that never quite made it because one reason or another was something that I’ve always thought many agencies could benefit from.

So to gauge Subfolio’s potential I thought I’d integrate it into our workflow. For the time being the only work that’ll be up there is content for blog posts that although interest us at first doesn’t make it into the final post. This usually happens a lot, were a handful or so of images will get selected but only three or so will make the final edit.

After a couple of days using Subfolio it seems pretty easy to setup, needing no database and only PHP5. You simply drag and drop your files the exact same file structure as on your Mac via FTP and hey presto Subfolio takes care of the rest. You can even setup a WebDAV folder to keep things synced which a nice feature even if our hosting company doesn’t provide it. However there’s still a few things that need sorting out such as being able to install Subfolio into a folder is a big bug bear. We’ve still yet to give it a little TLC in term’s of look and feel so bear with us if access is patchy over the next few days but I’m sure it’s something I’ll be recommending to others if the situation is right.

Back to CarneMag though, there was a lot of great spreads so they’ve all been put up in Subfolio under FormFiftyFive/CarneMag.

I just received a very sweet email from a happy new friend and owner of Emmanuel. I’m sure they’re both so fresh faced to know they’re friends at the moment but in the passing months and years I’m sure they’ll never learn to live without the other in close proximity.

As it’s been another cold and snowy few days here in the UK, I decided to spend some of Sunday gone, indoors finishing off another yeti. Appropriately named to match his pencil mustache, Sebastian or Seb for short, is extremely furry and warm with his bright green mustache looking very dashing.

I just put this little guy in the post yesterday bound for Scotland. His name is Emmanuel. I think it fits him well.

As it was my brothers birthday last Saturday, I made him a couple of new covers for his HTC Hero which he recently upgraded to.

I’m as pleased with the result as he is with his presents and they fit pretty well considering I didn’t have the exact phone to work with and only a couple of photos. They’re made of felt with black felt inside to protect the phone as well as some soft silk lining along the inside top and a button closure.

As much as I’d love to take full credit for the design they’re actually based on some cases by Chocolate Mint Crafts which I had seen on Etsy so she deserves full credit even though mine as for the HTC Hero rather than the iPhone. As well the Elmo and Cookie monster creations by Chocolate Mint Crafts, she has also produced a very cute Oscar one which this time I didn’t have chance to make. Maybe for later in the year around Christmas?