Bus restoration - let's break some rules

Bus restoration - something I can honestly say I never would have thought I'd get involved with but has become so much fun. The biggest part is remembering that when these pieces were done there were no design rules. Everything was hand lettered, screen printed or drawn on with a soldering iron! I've found the fun is in finding the best modern equivalent then bastardising it until it is visually the most accurate.  

Me and Shug at Bridgeton

Functional design can be some of the most rewarding as you get to see your work in use, in three dimensions, interacting with the world. I imagine it's how product and packaging designers must feel (I saw a job working for Hasbro as a packaging designer. I soooooooooo wanted it. But it was in the states).

So, when my mate Shug, a bus enthusiast, asked me help with some artwork to restore a gear plate on one of his busses I was like, 'Meh. Sure. I'll see what I can do.'

Bus gear plate

Bus gear plate:
It was great fun. I felt like a proper restoration specialist but instead of brushes and exacto blades I was using pixels and cursors to recreate a piece of automotive history. And what turned out in the end (a decal laser printed onto vinyl that was laid over the original plate) looked incredible! Most of the numbers I had to redraw in illustrator by hand in order to get it to look as close to the original as possible. My only woe is the colour. But, I can thankfully blame the printer for that! lol

After and before

New plate in situ

Electric Scots advert:
Well, now you've got your vintage bus all gussied up and ready to go. But what better way to make a period piece more authentic than to have some advertising splashed on?

Well, when our train driver-bus enthusiast saw an example of a train advert for busses it all just meant to be. All we had to go on was this wee image from yester-year. Thankfully, there's not much to the ad besides text, but the 'Electric Scots' logo was a pivotal part of the ad. After he searched and scanned various things that had the logo on it, Shug stumbled across a library that could do a high-res scan for us.

c/o Science & Society Picture Library

Add caption

The fun bit then became recreating the original artwork (which was probably a screen print) as a vector image that could then be blown up to bus size.

It turned out fantastic! And fortunately we had the 'British Rail' font from another project which was/is the standard font for all British Rail adverts and signs. The final product looks authentic (to these eyes at least). Again, I had to break a lot of what I was taught as a trainee designer to make it look as accurate as possible.

Our only reference point

The final (remastered) product

Thankfully I can sleep at night. I helped bring back something that is a bit of history and was a huge challenge. And, as far as the rules go, my instructor all those years ago, Henk van Assen, did always tell us that rules are there as a foundation, something to fall back on. And only once you've learned them can break them intelligently.

Enjoy!
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Tattoos with meaning

So, I've finally settled on a design for my latest tattoo.

Mucha's daisy

As with all my tattoos the 'Mucha's daisy' design has a special meaning and significance to me. It's a two part homage.

Firstly, gerbera daisies always make me think of my best mate, Ryan, who passed away last year. I tried to think of ways to design a daisy that weren't too plain, but I certainly didn't want just a realistic inking of a daisy. But, mostly, I wanted something that wasn't too limp.

Finally, after a few months inspiration struck.

The second homage is to one of my favourite artists, Alphonse Mucha. My dissertation for my masters was based around the flower series by Mucha. So I drew inspiration for the tattoo from his print 'Woman with daisies'.

'Woman with daisies' - Alphonse Mucha

Once this epiphany hit the connection for me became even stronger as Ryan was very proud of her Czech heritage and loved visiting Prague. A love of Mucha's work is one of the few convergences in our very different tastes (in everything from music to art) that we bonded over. 

So, once I had my mind set on this the rest of the design fell together. It's still quite different from the others but I want it to be. It's meant to remind me of a the friendship and love and confidence that Ryan's friendship gave me. It's supposed to be gentle and florid compared to the very heavy 'masculine' lines of my other tatts. It will blossom over my heart when I need a reminder of all the love I have in my life.

The other tattoos

My very first tattoo is a glyph of a phoenix. 

It's a simple symbolic tattoo. I created a stylised image of a bird rising above of a triangle, the alchemical symbol for 'fire' (also the mathemetical symbol for 'change'). (Double nerd alert: It's also inspired by the phoenix tattoo Rachel Summers had burned into her skin when the Shi'ar attempted to wipe out the whole Grey family bloodline.) It reminds me that life comes in cycles. It rests on my shoulder and bursts to life like fiery wings when I need to burn white hot to get through a challenging time and reminds me to rest and recoup at the end.

My second tattoo is a series of Adinkra Symbols: 'Ananse Ntontan' - wisdom, creativity, 'Nea Onnim no sua a, ohu' - Life long education and 'Wawa aba' - perseverance. 

When I'm feeling discouraged they remind me of my philosophy for success: perseverance and proliferation! You've got to keep creating and learning and doing new things in order to get where you want to be. There will always be set backs. But, as long as you keep going, you'll keep growing. It's embedded on my arm to give me strength from day to day.

Enjoy!
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