Hello reader - I think that’s a generic and diplomatic way to start a post - I also think it probably wont last - not because I’m rude, but because it’s the first post and it’s a whole bag of awkward, like the first show on the tour when you’re still getting used to playing the songs and things are a bit messy and not tight.
So here it goes…
Quick June Recap
Hot - it’s currently 38C/100F - it’s too hot. I’ve realised that 25C/77F is optimal temperature for pure pleasantness. I can wear any colour t-shirt without worrying about looking like I’m wearing some weird camouflage pattern t-shirt when it’s actually patches of sweat at different intensities.
Travelling - I’m currently in Chișinău (Kishi-now), Moldova visiting my partner’s relatives for the week. I always love coming back here, especially as the city is full of trees and shade and makes being outside in this heat bearable unlike Bucharest where you would just burn in hell under this bastard sun.
Busy - lot’s of work happening - personal and client stuff - more on that below.
Disappointing - Liverpool lost the Champions League Final *sob*
Surprising - Wales qualified for the World Cup for the first time since 1958, so for the first time in my lifetime I have both my countries to support in a major footie tournament. Literally no one cares about this but me.
Fulfilling - My son, Nikita turned 7 months old and each day he does something new and surprising. He’s changing into a new character all the time, sometimes it’s so fast that you don’t have a chance to say goodbye to the previous character you got acquainted with *double sob*
Now onto the main course.
Studio Stuff
In the last two months I’ve started going back to work at my studio in central Bucharest three times a week. Since my son was born I’ve kind of been sporadically going, and instead working from home, so it’s nice to get back into a routine. I share the space with my friend Matei Monoranu. Here are some pics - after almost two years it’s still a work in progress.
I’ve been working on a bunch of loop ideas (if you don’t follow me on social media you can see all the ones I’ve made up until now over on my instagram feed). I’m trying to flesh them out a bit more and play with narrative and transitions so I gave myself a little challenge last week to tell a simple story using designs based on UI icons. I saw Markus Magnusson do this once - in my case, they went from being UI icons to objects with faces on them because that’s a thing I apparently do now. It was all done in After Effects - I don’t think you can always tell with my stuff what’s done in what. I’d normally do this hand drawn in Animate but I wanted to try out a bunch of new stuff in AE to improve on my software skills and it’s kinda cool to try and solve a problem in a different way. I had loads of fun doing it - Here’s the result
Below are some pages from the last few months of my sketchbook done using a mixture of stuff from mechanical pencil, microns, brush pen and Rotring isograph pens. Disclaimer - As I’m away and don’t have my scanner with me, I scanned these using the scan feature on the Notes app on my iPhone - it’s surpsingly good. I didn’t have time to crop it all nicely but I’ll make make sure to make future scans tidier.
Also - I’ve been taking pictures of the little flags on the number plates of Ukrainian cars I see around Bucharest as a personal way to document the war next door. It’s interesting how over time the focus shifts away from one thing to the next and everything starts to feel normal. I notice them on my walks to my studio, every day a different car, a subtle a daily reminder that there’s still a war going on and how lucky I am to be on the other side of the border. I have a habit of putting textures and patterns I find and photograph into sequences so here’s my document so far.
Lastly - I’ve been working on an idea for a children’s book on and off for the best part of a year. It’s based around a poem I wrote about a tiny man who goes to work in a factory and makes pianos which are then used to write music which brings joy to everyone. I don’t want to give too much away yet but here are some of the work in progress thumbnail sketches. I’ve been working on post-it notes as I find it quite intuitive to move things about if needed.
Life Stuff
As mentioned earlier, I’m currently in Chișinău for the week. We arrived a few days ago by car - It’s about a 7 hour drive from Bucharest - Like Romania, Moldova neighbours Ukraine, unlike Romania, Moldova used to be part of the Soviet Union so there’s quite a strong Russian presence here from things like products, television, politics and people. Sometimes you’ll speak Romanian to a person in a store and they’ll respond in Russian. Despite Moldova also once being part of Romania until as recently as 1940, and it’s main language Romanian, you get a sense that they as a people have more in common culturally - music, films, stories, food etc…with the other nations of the former Soviet Union than Romania. It’s a small and quite fascinating place.
Cool Stuff
I’ve been listening to Dry Cleaning quite a bit - I actually studied at the RCA with a couple of the members 10 years ago so not only am I biased but it’s also pretty cool to see them all over the place doing this. They just played Glastonbury and released a new single directed by my good friend Peter Millard and it’s a belter.
Final Note
This is getting really long so I’m going to stop there. I’ll try and keep it more brief going forward. Hope you enjoyed it and thanks for reading and all your support!
Luiz x
All good stuff 😍