James Bull - Media Dude » Design

Finally Got My Foot In The Door…

James — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 17:15:15 +0000

I’ve got some great news people, I have officially started my new job at WAX Partnership, here in Calgary, AB. WAX is an amazing award-winning design agency that is looking to expand into the digital realm and have hired me as their first digital developer.

I’m incredibly lucky to be able to work with this amazingly talented group of people, and I can’t wait to work on some amazing projects. Thanks to everyone for helping me get here, the teachers at SAIT, everybody at Snowboarder Magazine, and finally all my friends and family. You can read a great article about WAX in an back-dated issue of Applied Arts.

Click to visit WAX's website

Return to Thunderdome

James — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 22:21:26 +0000

With all the kids starting back at school, the summer has finally come to a close. If it weren’t for the numerous snowboard video premieres coming in the next few weeks, I’d probably be bummed. But I’m not. Soon the sky’s will turn grey and the clouds will unleash that beautiful white fluffy powder, and snowboard season will be here.

I’m really looking forward to a good winter. Having completed my internship with Snowboarder Magazine, I am back from California. It was an incredible opportunity to redesign and rebuild Snowboarder’s website from scratch. I learnt an incredible amount in the 8 weeks of design and development, and am looking forward to continuing development on their site! The guys at the mag are a great group of people, and so HUGE shoutouts to everybody back there in Cali!

Since being back for almost 3 weeks, I’ve only spent 2 nights in my own bed. For some reason, I’ve decided to travel throughout the interior of British Columbia and elsewhere. I kind of feel like Mad Max, hence the post title. I’ve also been spending some time in Vancouver and have really taken to this city. I’m going to do my best to actually move out here and spend at least a year on the coast. The fact that the ocean and the mountains are so close is incredible, and I don’t want to miss the opportunity to experience the city. And speaking of ocean’s I leave you with a pic of me learning to Wake-Surf. It’s not really an ocean, its just Shuswap Lake, but enjoy nonetheless.

3rd Day Wakesurfing

Snowboarder Magazine Website

James — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 04:34:50 +0000

Well after almost 8 weeks, I finally finished what I came to California to do. I rebuilt Snowboarder Magazine’s website using Wordpress from the ground up.

New SnowboarderMag.com!

It was a daunting task, to say the least, because the magazine has an incredibly large archive of features, photos, and videos dating back quite a few years. Luckily I had the help of a few other interns to backdate posts and media, which worked out great.

The largest complaint about the old site, was its user interface. Most people found it extremely hard to navigate, and they just couldn’t find what they were looking for. So I cleaned up the front page, added tabs for quick access to top stories, and greatly improved the commenting system.

Here is an example of the FEATURES landing page on the OLD site:

Ugh.

Few problems here! Whats the deal with the blank space under the ad on the left? The articles that are features are tucked away on the side! Instead of being showcased like they should! Also not much care was given to ad placement, sometimes they would fall right into the middle of a article or paragraph or sometimes cutting off someones comment!

This was all taken into account for the redesign, and I hope you enjoy it. So take a peek and let me know what you think!

Snowboarder Magazine

DubsBrothersFilms.com

James — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 07:26:38 +0000

Just wrapped up a new project! Dubs Brothers Films is a production company based out of Fernie, BC and and currently Stirling, Ontario. The company was founded in 2006 by Matt Westcott and is a reflection of his love for film, sport and his roots in East Kootenay mountain culture. The company run by two very good friends of mine, Matt and Thommy Westcott, and I’m extremely proud of their work and super stoked to have the opportunity to collaborate on their site with them.

Everybody needs to check out Extra.Ordinary. An HD insight into the overlooked shred habits of everyday riders. The film is currently in production and will be available in September. Pre order your copy today, just send the boys a message! You can also watch the trailer for Extra.Ordinary!

Check out their site, they’ve got some sick footy!

The 99% Conference Summary

James — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 21:54:13 +0000

I recently visited New York City for a conference about “Making Ideas Happen”. The 99% Conference, stressed that their conference wasn’t about ideas, but about making them happen. There were some amazing speakers and I wanted to share what they wanted to teach us. NoDejaVu.com has some amazing summaries and here is just a tid-bit, go ahead and read more about all the 99% Conference coverage.

“The Obama campaign, was the first to fully integrate web and print design as a whole for more consistency. The process was an ongoing work and as he explain: “We were truly making an airplane while on flight.” The website changed a lot since the first launch, but they really needed to get it up and running. It was in constant evolution. During this campaign, it was very important to deliver a clear and consice message and keep sending the message of hope. The team gave the feeling like Obama was already President.”

- from Meet Scott Thomas, NoDejaVu.com

NYC Day 1 – Inspiring Ideas

James — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 03:02:53 +0000

Today marked Day 1 of the Behance’s 99% Conference, and included talks from 10 extremely influential new media professionals. I’ll go into detail of the talks in the near future, but I just wanted to post some photos that I took of today, enjoy!

Looking at Times Square!

Scott from Behance talks about ideas in the workplace

Josh from CoolHunting.com introduces the conference

The back of the New York Public Library

GoMediaZine Tutorial – Composition

James — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 19:03:24 +0000

I just wanted to share something with everyone! I finished reading a great tutorial on design composition earlier, and it was a great and honest read. It was written by the good folks over at GoMediaZine and you can check it out here:

Rule Seven: Composition: Putting It All Together

Ghostrider Interiors Business Cards

James — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 00:22:44 +0000

I recently finished these business cards for a painting company based in Fernie, BC. The photo on the front of the card actually contains a shadow called the “ghostrider” is visible during the summer months on Mt. Hosmer in Fernie itself. There is a neat story and a lot of great history regarding this neat little shadow. Fernie.com explains the shadow and the history of The Ghostrider.

Under The Banner Of Heaven

James — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 16:30:37 +0000

Yesturday I had to complete an assignment for class that involved me creating a book cover. I recently read an interesting book entitled Under the Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakauer. It was a great read, so I decided to do a typographical rendition of its cover.

Click to view full-size!

Fluid Snowboarding

James — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 15:23:25 +0000

Hello everybody! Just wanted to upload a new piece that I’ve been working on. This incredible photo was taken by my good friend Gustav Ohlsson and features a greasy snowboarder, Chris Bradley, ollieing over a slow sign at a ski hill. The photo was taken at night and features some really creative lighting. Nice work Gustav!

I wanted to over-emphasize the movement of the snowboarder and the fluidity that snowboarding can feel and look like. Sometimes it feels like nirvana because its an incredible feeling when everything comes together and tricks and moves are painless and require minimal effort. Your snowboard almost becomes just an extension of your own body and you can do almost anything with it. That’s what this photo looked and felt like to me, so I wanted to exaggerate that.

Click to view full-size!