a twisted letter or two

This is my first attempt at an ambigram, this is a typographical design in which a word can be read in at least two ways usually when rotated 180º. Hopefully you should be able to read the word written here, I would really appreciate it if you would let me know in the comments. I was first initiated to the complexity of ambigrams by the novel Angels & Demons by Dan Brown (of Da Vinci Code fame) the protagonist is the character Robert Langdon whose named after the man who designed all ambigrams within the two books. John Langdon is designer with a strong philosophical approach; he was inspired to do them after seeing the famous yin yang symbol.

singular thought

A singular thought or idea can start revolutions turn the tides of war, be the seeds of evolutionary breakthroughs in fields from quantum physics to relationships between people. Our ability to conceive abstract ideas is what has allowed us to rule over all other beings on this rock we call Earth (yeah ok so the cats think of us as mere underlings but you get the idea).

hiding away in the shadows

I’ve been hiding away in the shadows for awhile; I wanted to design something I liked not that just required getting done by the end of the week. This is an adjustment of a self-portrait done awhile ago which I wanted to morph to be more fitting to my style and personality. I’m not truly a dark person; I’m generally jovial by nature, however I have a dark side that is always relishing a chance to be released.
I have been posting some designs on deviant art which is an awesome site for artists and designers. This was my id follow the click on the image to view it.

Dream Scape

I have been intrigued of late by the other realm in to which we delve when the light abandons us. What our mind is truly doing while we sleep is still a mystery to us, sure there are many theories and these have changed exponentially over the ages but still today we can not say for sure. We all dream, every night, you would go mad if you did not, however some of us are not as fortunate as to remember them.
Dreams have had a profound meaning in many religions and cultures though out time. This is easy to understand since we generally spend a third of our lives lying unconscious completely oblivious to our surroundings and enveloped in a world custom made by our own minds.

Bleeding Eye

Design of a female face, with the seemingly essence of darkness eminating from her eye. This design was entertaining to make as you can see it is highly layered with intertwining images.
I was inspired by an old email I recieved with this old Cherokee story:
Two Wolves
One evening an old Cherokee told his grandson about a battle that goes on inside people. He said, "My son, the battle is between 2 "wolves" inside us all.
One is Evil. It is anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.
The other is Good. It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith.
"The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather:"Which wolf wins?"
The old Cherokee simply replied, "The one you feed."
- Author Unknown -

Red Lady

Sorry for my apparent sabbatical from my blog, the creativity neurons roaming the chasm of my mind have been beaten into submission by the stampede of thoughts souring through my scull lately. It is strange how that happens, you reach in your cookie jar of inspiration only to find that fingers grasp only lone crumbs. Well as is obvious by the fact that you’re reading a new post, those neurons seem to have been released from ICU, so here we are: I hope you like.

Beneath the silk

What lies below the surface... what thoughts flicker behind the missleading eyes. What are the true emotions that tingle along our nerves but are kept at bay by social conforms. Here is the original image from which this graphic came, it was given by milo to both design from please visit her sight and see her version.

Seduction

Here is another collaboration between Milo from Munich and I of the exquisite Monica Bellucci. The previous design was fun, so we thought it would be a good idea to do it again within the same week no less. Here is the image from Milo which I started with:

Stranger in the Light

This is a design that I rebuilt for a designer named Milo who lives in Munich. Here is her site please check it out she's learning Photoshop and is very talented. This is what the graphic looked like when I first received it from her:

Last gasp of passionate fury

This design is inspired by my young niece who is the personification of stubborn resilience. Life can slip away so fast, we all must grab it with both hands and give it our all till our last gasp of passionate fury.

Draconian playground

In the mist of a quagmire of emotion I always notice aggression seething beneath the edges of my skin, revealing themselves in a dark tint to my vision of the world.

What is Eden

We each find completely different views of the perfect world. Mostly brought about by our personalities and experience, some love the outdoors some the city and so on. My niece I’m sure would love nothing more to run through the proverbial field of daisies letting the wind flow through her hair and all that, I on the other hand I am not exactly the type that does that. I would rather be walking through the streets of Rotterdam listening to mp3’s discovering new innovations in design. One of you might like clubbing the night away in New York (not completely against that idea either) but you get the point. I asked a while ago what your version of paradise is and received some interesting comments. In the world in which we live today what you would alter if you could change the laws of physics, tell me that not having gravity won’t be fun to try for a bit. What if we had two suns how this would affect us. What if we could assimilate information the same way we did when we were infants, what if we see the thoughts of others. What if…

The house

I moved into my new place on the weekend. It rocks! Have tons still to do of course but that will take time. Obviously the priorities are done like hooking up the HiFi, TV, Computers etc. Want to get adsl running soon but Telkom will take 4 to 6 weeks (they say). In the mean time there is fun to be had and house warming to be done.

Do vertical lines suit me

This is a pic I made of myself using my new Sony Ericsson W900i, an incredible phone by the way, recommend to anyone. I then played with in Photoshop CS a bit and tadda... Well ok so there was a point to me taking the picture of myself, I assure you I'm not usually this narcissistic it was designed as part of a card for my grand mother who requested a personalised card from each of her grandchildren.
I like this style when taking portraits, Black and White (with Curves, Levels and Contrast of course) is always the best way to go and the vertical strokes give a little character and encase my name nicely I thought.

Sorry about taking so long to post I have been a touch busy with work and moving house and all that. But on the upside I brought you all a present on the right of the screen you will see my new tenant Mandy's blog it is awesome. Click by and take a look but don't you dare do the quiz those credits are mine ;-)

sitting by the lake

sitting by the lake, thinking life

Blink

in the darkness they wait for a moment...merely a moment....

Thought I'd make a scarier one today hope you like.

Beauty

Beauty is found beneath the eyes

Paradise is relative

What do you see as paradise?

Secrets

Secrets...are they not powerful. From relationships to countries they have an integral part in our world. We each have them and keep them from those who we think should not know for whatever reason. We keep them from loved ones, employers, friends and even our children. The complication comes in when you have to compartmentalize information to people depending on what they are aware of so that you can keep the cat in the proverbial bag. How much do you tell that person...how do I structure the words as to only divulge what I need to...this is something we all deal with. This post is dedicated to a blog called postsecret that reveals them on a weekly basis, well at least in some sense.

Exquisite Pain

I have such a headache. It feels like blades in my scull. Thus no insightful thoughts on... well at this point I couldn't tell you how many wheels are on a tricycle. All my neurons are dedicated to informing me that they are pissed off. I tried to negotiate with them and get food and had long sleep; I even tried bribing them with drugs. Alas these efforts were in vain for they are still enjoying painting the inside of my scull with paint made of sulphuric acid. Excuse me for a sec I'm not sure but think the bastards are going to start the broad strokes with a carefully chosen iron brush....

the inevitable chaos

One can not help but be amazed how the majority of people in the world who seem to, at least on average, cope rather well with the continuous morphing of their environment. Outside of the exponential increase of technology, the political and economical fluctuations, what I find to be most curious is how social interactions are always fluid depending upon situations, environments, our current emotional state in respect to who we are interacting with. People adapt to their internal (emotional) as well as external (work, home etc) environment and act accordingly. This is all done primarily without any conscience effort. Human minds are very comfortable dealing with chaos we just don't notice.

The Vision Of Da Vinci

This was inspired by the new craze for all things Da Vinci since the Dan Brown book. Leonardo was one of those people that changed the world dramatically because of their minds, a truely visionary man.
I have to admit I do enjoy reading his books, Angels and Demons being my favourite. His books are very easy to read but all have a similar structure in that there is a conspiracy and a higher authority: church (in 'The Da Vinci Code' and 'Angels and Demons) or government (in 'Deception Point' and 'Digital Fortress') keeping the truth from the public.
I was very interested in cryptography after reading Digital Fortress. An effect that always makes me like a book, is it not a great achievement of a book if it drives you to learn more.

Tenebrous typography

Felt like doing some typography. It means dark and gloomy by the way. As times can be.

contemplation of light

This post is dedicated to a friend of mine who lost someone dear to her.

birth

How simplistic and fragile is life. Weather you believe God breathed into the creatures of this world or that a massive electric storm was the initial catalyst. We can all agree that it is amazing this glimpse we have. This design was originally so vastly different from the result that I am truly surprised it ended up so clean but then with a title such as ‘birth’ the canvas should be at its beginning.

the Eternal Blink

LIFE DEATH
Originally uploaded by martijnvreugde.

The eternal blink of an angel's eye between life and death.

how much do you show the world

show the world
Originally uploaded by martijnvreugde.

This concept of how we mask our true selves to the world till what they see is but a mere fraction of who we are has been represented in a thousand ways. We all have our masks for the different worlds we live in from the workplace to the family scene. But what happens if we start to believe it and forget that we are more than who we display.

Multiverse Thoughts

Inward Thoughts
Originally uploaded by ghostbones.

This is not by me, its a design I came across while strolling as I do through Flickr and I just absolutely loved it, the eye, the graphs, the hidden details it’s just brilliant it was designed by “ghostbones” you can see more of his work by clicking the image.
Anyway I’ve been so absolutely busy this week it was wild, culminating on Thursday with pure chaos running supreme. That being my main excuse for not posting one of my own designs this week, I hope you’ll forgive me.
I’ve started reading a very interesting book called “The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant” by Steven Donaldson which explores the concept of living in two realities which I find fascinating. Did you know that mathematically the multiverse theory has been proven possible. By the way this is not the science fiction one where for every choice made there are two separate universes, trust me the universe could care less about weather Paris Hilton chooses the pink or ultra pink lipgloss. No, the theory works on the quantum level of weather a particle moves to the left of right when hit with another particle (put veerrry simply).
Before I bore you to death with my weird interests I’m going to sign off, enjoy your weekend everyone

martijn vreugde

martijn_vreugde
Originally uploaded by martijnvreugde.

This is a new logo I designed, what do you guys think. give me the truth no holding back. On seperate news I saw blogexplotion is selling it's site as well as all it's related sites and features, I really hope whom ever buys it keeps it up or improves it since it has become such a well known presence on the blogosphere. On the other hand BlogMad has been launched and is doing well looking very slick and running with alot of momentum.

Barren life

Barren life
Originally uploaded by martijnvreugde.

What is life? We as humans have tried to quantify it over the ages but we have yet to nail it down. If we say life is something that breaths that consumes carbon then fire would have to qualify. If we take the poetic view then life is when someone is living their life to the full and not just killing time till their bored heart falls asleep on the job. Our world is plagued by people who give no value to life, it might be ethnocentric to say this but in my view anyone who takes a life from another simply because they don’t like what they believe in or what they have to say or publish then they are a truly lost human. There has been much debate on the reaction to the Mohammed cartoons, the last I checked somewhere around 22 people have been murdered over these cartoons. I can understand that in their faith it is disrespectful to depict their prophet and I can understand outrage that someone has indirectly disrespected a follower by doing so however it is absolutely unforgivable to take lives of these people for such an offence. There are thousands of depections of God, Jesus, Budda and many others that have been portrayed in a far more mocking and disrespectful ways in which many followers were hurt and outraged but they don’t resort to killing people because of it. These people have no respect for life or understanding how truly precious it is.

Urban Female

Originally uploaded by martijnvreugde.

I designed this about two weeks ago on my laptop but I only got around to uploading it to my flickr gallery yesterday. It is a stereotypical view of a streetwise woman one who is comfortable prowling the city. When you look at her do you relate and understand her? Her confidence, her readiness? Is it a survival façade or built in experience?

seduction of chaos

seduction of chaos, originally uploaded by martijnvreugde.

I wanted to illustrate how we as a species are enticed by what has yet to be explored. We are intrigued by the chaos of the unknown, from the inconceivable aspects of the universe to the complexities of String Theory within the infinite possibilities of quantum physics.

because i feel like it

because i feel like it, originally uploaded by _rebekka.

This image is perfection in light and shadow. I am posting this with my good friend Hush who is a proffesional photographer and he is sweating ;-). follow the link to see who to find out that this image is actually takin by the model you see.

in the eyes of a child

Star.....
Originally uploaded by Girl flyer.

I found this image in my stroll through flicker and it's endless supply of memories and snap shots of human life. The exquisitely beautiful and the weird aspects of homosapiens that make us human. I have a young baby niece who stares at our world with such wonder that I feel a loss to think I have grown to take it for granted.

Flicker

I have just found flicker an awesome online photo hosting and sharing site. I know, I know, most of you bloggers knew this already but I only now made an account to post (read: humbly show off) my designs. I've made a link from this image to my gallery as well as a link on my side bar under the creativity oozing title of: Gallery. So go over and make a comment on any of the designs. I'll be loading more but so far I have uploaded 12 designs. It flows well with Blogger and you can even post via email or from your cellphone. Hope you like my designs.

BlogMad

Register at Blogmad right now, they are the new blog traffic site to enter the blogosphere however this one is not one of the regulars. These guys are going to be massive competeing with the likes of blogexplosion and getting them nervous as hell. They will be launching soon so register now and be one of the initial members. It's very quick and simple less than a couple of seconds to enter your email and password. . . Your still here??? move!

Time - the chaos between tic and tock

I posted the last image just to see how well Picasa worked. However I have to say the pic was a little dull, it comes from a brochure I did for Cartier while at varsity. Anyway I did some work on it, to spice it up and make it interesting (got a tad carried away) and thus here is the updated design. You can barely see the remnants of the initial canvas but then who cares. Named it Time after the image of the watch. The line at the bottom reads "tic...tock...tic..." which is the last line from a favourite poem of mine in which Death is a friend patiently waiting reminding you that he is in no rush, but urges you to be in a rush to Life.

Picasa

I have just found Picasa in the new google pack and may I say DAMN is it cool. It searches all your images and displays them in neat thumnails that are zoomable. It is freakishly fast, and smooth the interface is soft and userfriendly. I truelly recommend it to anyone especially bloggers since it has a cool 'Blog this' function but I think it only works with Blogger for now. chow guys I'm off to play... 

HAUNTED HOUSE

Hi guys this awesome design by Morten Bak is just one of the reasons to visit the Haunted House the new blog renting space on my blog. It is the official site of the writer Jeremy C Shipp who has a very surrealistic style. Check it out just below my links tag on the right.
In other news blogexplotion has developed there own hosting site which will share advertising payments with all who host with them. Since Adsense only gives you a very small percentage of the advertising profit this is a great new way for us bloggers to get cash for what we do. Ok, ok so most of us don't do it for money but I think we all would like to have a little extra at the end of the month.

The seductive lick of the flame

Here is me exploiting Images to express an emotion, any guesses as to what that could be. Going off to sip some Jack Daniels soon, my ambrosia. Hope you like the design.

Unicorn child

I'm sorry to anyone else who bid to rent my blog but Unicorn Child is a fellow designer so...you know... we gotta keep together, you understand. Anyway she’s cool apart from being a designer she likes to help others and consult women on various issues. Oh yeah and she hates Mondays and is a workaholic so she's definitely one of us. So click on her site thumbnail on the right of my blog under links, do not click the post pick that won’t get me any credit for being an awesome landlord/bloglord.
By the way Dreamweaver 8 (as in the new studio 8) is brilliant it is much smoother the work flow is awesome and the new features are cool, things like you can zoom in on a site, as a designer that really helps. Small features like that make such a difference. Obvious needed improvements like being able to continue working while it is uploading are great.
Well we have survived another Monday congrats to all. Well those of us nearing the end of the day anyway, good luck to you guys in the states.

Dancing along my neurons

I woke up with a headache today, it has been with me since yesterday afternoon and it is beginning to vex me quite a bit. It’s a sharp pain behind my left eye (if that helps any of you who might know where it comes from) I’m assuming it is from starring at a computer all day but why only yesterday I do this everyday. Here is an image from the awesome Worth1000.com guys that perfectly expresses the exquisite feeling that is dancing along my neurons.
Well let us get back to the actual post instead of me complaining. I just got Macromedia Studio 8, nice set of toys I might say. The Freehand 8 seems to have no real new features from the Freehand MX however the Flash 8 and Dreamweaver 8 are quite cool however I need to play more before I can really say anything, will let you know.

chiseled perfection

I love this design, the icon in the middle I made a while ago and have used in many designs since the Breath design. Hope you like.