Still "Emergency on planet earth"

This is my interpretation of a 2017 version of the 1993 Jamiroquai album "Emergency on planet Earth"

On May 17, 1993. 24 years ago, something epic and magic happened on my musical world map. For many years I had been into jazz, funk and soul and I had been chasing rare vinyl albums in strange record stores since my early teens. Suddenly this album "Emergency on planet Earth" landed on my turntable and a lot of dots connected. Suddenly the music I loved for it's groovy ear catching quality carried a message of purpose. Not just the usual text subjects but danceable music that actually at the same time made you think. In the middle of this small revolution (in my book) stood the amazing Jay Kay who in some way managed to merge funk with a purpose. He displayed the coolest style in a mix of sporty, hippie and funky, and he could dance like never seen before. I was blown away and many years later when I first sketched the idea to my story universe Rebel Nature, it was actually to the sound of Jamiroquai.
Jamiroquai and Jay Kay represents the perfect picture of the situation our civilisation is facing right now. They amplify the knowledge about our planet and environment and the epic challenges we face yet at the same time they have a party and dance the worries away. Living the dream with fast cars, private jets and models in bikinis.
When raising kids they do what you do, not what you say, so in this case we tent to hear the music, have the party, dream about the star life and then forget the purpose.

If this post ever reached Jay Kay, I would beg Jamiroquai to reissue "Emergency on planet Earth" in a 2017 version or 2018 making it a 25 years anniversary, and have Jay Kay drive a electric supercar.

Here is a link for the video that is still depressingly relevant here in 2017.
Jamiroquai/Emergency on Planet Earth(1993)

Sketches from Turaga Beach - Tribute to the fans

Dear longtime fans of a certain biological chronicle. This video is an attempt to do a Turaga Beach tribute to the real heroes of this story and that is all the fans who joined and build the adventure through all those years. Your imagination and creativity is what it has been about since the beginning. I've used an unreleased version of an old #Cryoshell tune.
I came upon an early mix of "Closer to the truth" and for some reason it fits really nicely. It has a melancholic and fragile tone that is broken up by raw guitar riffs. The text also has some of the good references to the ending of G2 and then there is the alternative ending that has a nice "Kick" to it.

Now everybody is Turaga and it is time to move on from the beach wether you sail out or move inland to find new stories, pause a while, turn your head and look behind you a last time before you leave. You have everything you need in your memories and all the fuel you need in your imagination to go on new adventures. Go, go, go I'll see you on another beach someday.


Link to the memories

Flashback to a battered and discontinued Factory

Early "Pixar - The Incredibles" inspired Hero Factory concept poster 

Flashback to Brazil

Back in 2003 after coming home from 10 days vacation in RIO to the cold winter in Copenhagen, I was desperately seeking the iconic softdrink that is an important part of everyday life on the beach.

At that time Guarana was not imported to Denmark but by strange coincidence I met the guy who was planing to independently import the brand. I spottet a logo streamer in the back of his car and stopped him to ask if he knew about the brand in DK. I ended up helping him make a small campaign for the launch in DK. I did some posters and postcards, got them printet and delivered them to the bars and cafe's around Copenhagen. It never went as big as it was/is in Brazil but you can still get the brand in Denmark and soon all eyes will be on Rio so here is a little taste.

The Guarana effect, showing Denmark as a tropical island

A poster inside a poster showing the famous sidewalk of Ipanema

4 faces from the past

Fire Slizer/Throwbot

Sub Slizer/Throwbot

Jungle Slizer

Judge Slizer

Cleaning up some old files these 4 faces suddenly stared at me from a distant past (1998)
This is the original illustrations that went on the faceplates of 4 of the Slizer/Throwbots. It was important to make the face asymmetrical and chaotic with reference to the different environments to give them a unique personal look. #Slizer #Throwbots

Flashback to Hero Factory episode 11 concept. Shrineroom

A quick flashback to 3 years ago when we worked hard on creating the world behind Hero Factory episode 11 "Invasion from below".

The basalt Shrineroom underneath Antropolis created in ancient times. Warning the future not to enter the underground

Concept sheet describing the look of the Shrine room and Big drop

Much has been said about Hero Factory and episode 11. But given all the compromises and budget issues, voice talent that wasn't available... - bottom line I think this episode produced entirely by Ghost and Advance, actually turned out very adventurous and actionpacked.
It was definitely ment to be continued because Heroes do not leave a half done mission. But HF was abandoned and the rest is history.
A fun fact behind episode 11 is that it is seen more than 5 million times on different Youtube profiles.

Hero Factory concept boards

Flashback - The LEGO and Star Wars collaboration - part 4

Here you see the final result of the first SW assignment I worked on at Advance back in '98. 

The 5 first packages of the LEGO Star Wars line. 

We ended up with a simple new design that has been repeated many times since. Inspired by the widescreen format of the featurefilm we put a black border top and bottom and this worked as framing of the illustration as well as the background of the logos with star pattern on. On the top panel the LEGO System logo and the Star Wars mining logo were connected by a blue/white laser line to mark this important collaboration.

The LEGO Star Wars models would be placed in the real movie sets to get as much realism to the play scenario. So we got to make background paintings made directly from the mattepaintings of the real movie. A mix of real painting and photoshop (a very early version) was used to make the box art as true to the movie as possible.

Copenhagen based master photographer Jesper Jørgen (http://jesperjorgen.com) that we have used for numerous LEGO shoots, was put in charge of photo and he created the perfect match of the light of the illustrated background.

Below you see the full box illustrations of the 5 boxes.

On the backside and sidepanels we chose to create the special hangar setting that appears in many Star Wars movies. We wanted to give the feeling that this was the place where you would build or rebuild your model.
A fantastic set piece was build by model and prop building, Joachim Zacho Weylandt (http://www.jzw-model.dk)
It was more than 2X2 meter and rigged with lights and platforms with the right amount of runway tracks and ware painted on. A lot of LEGO parts was used for detailing the set piece.  It was the perfect packdrop for any Star Wars model and if I knew where it was now I would put it on the wall as decoration.

 

Flashback - The LEGO and Star Wars collaboration - part 3

Preparing the launch of the new LEGO Star Wars line back in '98 was a massive job. This was the first time LEGO worked with a mayor franchise so a totally new process had to be developed. At Advance one of the first tasks we got was to design the package.

This is the first design test. It had a massive golden Star Wars logo at the top of the box with the mini figure lineup on the right and the LEGO System logo down at the bottom left. At that point in time we didn't know what the logo hierarchy would be so I tried with the movie logo on top.
In the meeting room in Billund, I took a low res snapshot on my old digital Sony camera and used that photo to mock up a box with the prototype Millennium Falcon in the middle of the asteroid field. One of the most iconic scenes from the The Empire strikes back. I wanted the asteroids to go all around the box so the film scene was as big as possible. This file shows both front and side panels of the box. As you probably know this model wasn't released until much later and the design would get another spin. To be continued...

Flashback - The LEGO and Star Wars collaboration - part 2

Right from the first meeting I attended at Lucas in 1998 it was clear that LEGO would get a different role than the other partners Lucas had earlier worked with. LEGO would actually give kids and adults the power to change the vehicles and the story. The creative possibilities that LEGO gave to the Star Wars universe would be a great new communication platform.
As a first concept idea I did this sketch of a LEGO tent workshop with a rusty LEGO sign placed on Tatooine where everybody could come and get their vehicle build, rebuild or customised. The idea was that the brick was a new interpretation of the Force. A force of creativity. So if you wanted 8 engines on your X-wing, now it was possible.

Flashback - The LEGO and Star Wars collaboration - part 1

A color layout of the minifigs behind the Star Wars logo

Back in late 1997 I got one of those phone calls that you can only dream about. 

At that time we at ADVANCE only dared to dream about what would happen if LEGO started to work together with some of the big film IP’s of the world like Star Wars, Indiana Jones, any of the Superheroes or others. But that was only wild fantasy.

Working at ADVANCE I had been doing many different LEGO launches until then and was heading the Art Direction of LEGO Technic . I had done some concept development on different new projects including my own test project “Cybots”. 

But then one morning this call came through!. I can’t remember the exact words but it was something like “Would you like to start working on the design for a new project we are starting up? It includes travling to San Francisco to have the first meeting with Lucas arts at The Skywalker Ranch to have design discussions and see the first glimpse of the new film “Episode 1”. 

“Wh-wh-What….YES!!! of cause” was my prompt answer.

As this was the first collaboration with a major IP we needed to make a clear connection between the 2 brands LEGO and Star Wars. I suggested to make a mini figure logo where the 2 sides of the conflict meet behind the Star Wars logo. That would blend the 2 brands perfectly. My good friend Jan Kjær who was then my assistent made the final version of the logo.

I might have forgotten the details but the approval process went extremely easy and both Lucas and LEGO were happy with the layouts. So it was just to go and put it on paper and cardboard (the web was not up and running yet). 

One thing is certain. My experience with Star Wars gave me a lot of inspiration for what came later in the form of Bionicle.

The very early logo sketch together with
my treasured Skywalker Ranch mug:).

The final box front design of the 1999 LEGO X-Wing Fighter
with the minifig logo in the upper right corner