My Opeth design


Only just noticed the website ... yeah, really good stuff you've been doing. Mind you, I'm a "user", not a designer myself. But I showed it also to a colleague who is more of a designer. However, we both agree that the welcome page of your website does not look that good. The cd's, the posters, the fonts, all great. But that welcome page ... dunno what it is, but it doesn't work with me. Maybe the blur doesn't work. Maybe too crowded on the left. Maybe the colors don't exactly fit ... I think it's mainly the blur. (Hope you can make anything of this comment. Was trying to be constructive. :oops:)
 
Your work on your website, did you do all the illustrations yourself? Like the ones on Sohodolls design, are all the illustrations your own? If so, how did you do them if you don't mind me asking?

Great work, love it!

Yeah all the illustrations are mine. Most of them are copiled of large amounts of different photos. Like the sohodolls, that was put together from about a 100 photos of London. For most of the pics the perspectives, angles and colors are all different but at the end a few tweeks and touch ups and I bring them together.

Thank you for the feedback!!
 
Only just noticed the website ... yeah, really good stuff you've been doing. Mind you, I'm a "user", not a designer myself. But I showed it also to a colleague who is more of a designer. However, we both agree that the welcome page of your website does not look that good. The cd's, the posters, the fonts, all great. But that welcome page ... dunno what it is, but it doesn't work with me. Maybe the blur doesn't work. Maybe too crowded on the left. Maybe the colors don't exactly fit ... I think it's mainly the blur. (Hope you can make anything of this comment. Was trying to be constructive. :oops:)

All the feedback is much appreciated!!! :)
 
I like how the "O" on the poster looks like its coming out of the frame at you. I would buy one if you end up making a few copies. It will fit the black and white theme of my house and my girlfriend would dig it too. BTW, I pre-ordered the Ulver package.
 
Yeah all the illustrations are mine. Most of them are copiled of large amounts of different photos. Like the sohodolls, that was put together from about a 100 photos of London. For most of the pics the perspectives, angles and colors are all different but at the end a few tweeks and touch ups and I bring them together.

Thank you for the feedback!!

So how did you make them look cartoon-like, like paintings kinda.
 
as i said in your ulver thread, too, there's some phenomenal work there...very modern and flashy but matches opeth's music all the same.

and as to why mikael isnt responding to your messages...maybe this is only one of the tens (maybe hundreds) of messages he receives from graphic designers from all over the globe?
 
Hah.. i doubt designers with true talent like this guy would be worthy of Mike's accomplishments.

outerone- your site intro image is fine. Ive got quite a bit of design behind me, graphic and built. BEAUTIFUL work you have on your site. Are you still in school? Where do/did you attend? I dont do a whole lot of art based work, as my field is mainly in architecture, but I would like to be able to create such detailed illustrations as you. Keep that up!
 
I think the reason that Mike/Opeth/RR aren't responding to you about your design is that they're in a dilemma. If they say they don't like your design they would a) disappoint you b) piss off many people on this forum and c) lie. (Really, I'ld bet some bucks that they really do like your design.) On the other hand, if they said they like it then there is a certain chance/danger that the news spreads that your design is approved by Opeth and if you really would sell more than a few items people would get confused over what is the official look of the band.

I had this idea of a possible deal to solve these problems which incorporates three things:
a) a clearly visible logo stating "approved FAN ART" on every item you sell
b) you have to auction every single item on ebay (or another online auctioning platform)
c) you pay some small percentage of the income to Opeth. (Say, something between 1 and 10 percent, perhaps at least 1 EUR per item sold)

I don't really know about the issues behind all this. So maybe that is all total bullshit. But then again ... maybe not ;) ... just my 2 cents.
 
"approved fan art"??? what the hell is that?

Well, the problem isn't new. What about people writing their own Harry Potter short story (or even novel), or filming their own (amateur) Star Wars Video or similar? What if those people don't keep the stuff in their drawers but release it to the public? Over the internet? Do have the right to do so? What if they would like to get a little money for it? Just to cover their expenses? Is this allowed?

Generally, the authors/creators of the original works don't say a thing about it as long as you are not crossing certain borders. The most important border is certainly making money from your derivative work. So, as long as you don't hear from anybody claiming copyright infringement or similar, your fan art is silently approved.

Now my suggestion is simply to make this approval explicit. This means that the authors/creators of the original work grant you the right to distribute a piece of fan art (to a certain extent) and also guarantee that they will not sue you for breaking some copyrights or personal rights (as long as you stick to the rules, that is).

In Germany, Ellis Kaut, the author and inventor of "Pumuckl" (children's books about a little gnome) sued the original illustrator because she (the illustrator) did a contest among children to paint a girlfriend for "Pumuckl". Kaut said that Pumuckl had no sex whatsoever and therefor can't have a girlfriend and that this contest infringes upon her rights as the author and inventor of Pumuckl. Kaut lost the lawsuit, but that's not the point. --- I know this example doesn't exactly match the situation I was talking about but it still shows what kind of trouble fan art could get into if it actually isn't approved.
 
^Well Opeth shouldnt worry about my project at all. The intentions that went into making these designs came from having inspiration and wanting to make something for myself and that I could share with other people. I have and had no intentions to sell any of the work to anyone (well unless the band was actually interested, but thats a far fetch). It wouldnt even be worth it to produce those pieces to a little money cause comping each one of those pieces was a lot of time spent. The manager of the band knows about the work and he never even came close to notifying me of any copyright infringement or anything of that matter. To me the piece I designed has served its purpose, it has been shown to the fans of the music and maybe even the band and thats all I care about really. Well and maybe by showing the piece to people someone somewhere might want to hire me for a project and that has nothing to do with Opeth.

And then about the part of fans cofusing this to be the new look of the band. I believe that the people on this forum that have seen it are only a fraction of the Opeth fans across the globe and everyone here who has seen it clearly know that this is not official band material.

So no harm done... Glad everyone really liked it, and I hope to share more work with you guys in the future :)
 
That's some spectacular work! I'm very impressed with the detail. If that was in the stores I would definitely buy it. It looks so professional.

I wish Opeth would release a book similar to what you created, with photos and lyrics designed to accompany the music. Would be awesome!

Well done!