It has been sometime since my last confession..
In my last blogpost, we were still at a very early stage in the development of the 8-bitscapes project. Since then I've completed the initial 8 pieces and we've exhibited them in various locations around the globe; including London, [at the London Design Festival in Sept 2010, where we launched the project], in Brighton [as part of the Brighton Festival & Fringe in May 2011], and in Cologne [as part of the Platine Festival in Aug 2011]. Details of which can be found on the 8-bitscapes website [www.8-bitscapes.com].
So what else has happened over the last year or so since my last post? Well, one highpoint would be on the evening of January 25th 2011, when we received a massive number of hits to the site, all due to this blogpost from the legend that is Rampaged Reality. After Justin's original post, we were picked up by lots of gaming, art and cultural websites, and we we went viral. We begin appearing everywhere, including but not exclusive to:
LaughingSquid.com/8-bitscapes
Kotaku.com/8-bitscapes
Gotahamist.com/8-bitscapes
Shortlist.com/8-bitscapes
Geek-art.net/8-bitscapes
The list goes on, and on.. in fact a google search for 8-bitscapes brings up countless blogs about the project, many of which I've read, and all of which flatter us. This was a very exciting evening and eventually led to over 16,000 hits in that one night alone and over 41,500 hits in Q1 of 2011! I cannot put into words how this made me feel. To independently come up with an idea [I hadn't seen Patrick Jeans 'Pixel' at the time of concept] and for so many people to get it and like it was something of an epiphany for me. It drove me forward and made me want to develop the project further.
Well, it's taken bloody ages and lots of work. But I'm delighted to be able to say that we are now teetering on the edge of a much anticipated stage 2 launch.. This next stage includes 3 new pieces and a brand new website.. Finding the necessary time to spend on this project is difficult, I'm a freelance illustrator and daddy to a 3 year old, so time is a very valuable commodity. Anyway, I digress. If you haven't guessed by now, from the teasers etc that I've been rolling up and flicking around the web, the new pieces are all based on our little blue friend, Sonic the Hedgehog. It is after all his 20 year anniversary. The new pieces were all shot on location in Cologne [Köln], Germany, during the Platine Festival in August this year, and they will all be available to hang on your naked walls, very soon..
But it doesn't stop there.. We are also in the process of developing a whole new series of images [after all, content is king] loosely based on and around the working title of The Coming.. The idea of The Coming, is to create a series of images, set in the late 70's and early 80's, a time when these little pixels first started appearing on screens, and in arcades all over the world.
The process is simple, myself and Kev will just jump into our time machine, ping ourselves back to 1978, where we will release a carefully considered collection of pixels from behind their flickering glass screens. All we have to do then is sit and wait in the bushes with Kev's Canon and record those moments of triumphant mayhem that will surely ensue.. You think I'm joking? No. That's how we do it. You all thought it was 3D software, with a bit of Illustrator & a lot of Photoshop. Well no, it isn't. It's much easier than that. It just takes a loooooong time.
