The Blog of Studio Fuse » Sidetracked

Do You Roller Derby?

Jessica — Fri, 08 Jun 2012 22:18:20 +0000

Last week, Jenn revealed her out-of-office alter ego and now it’s my turn to share. Four and a half years ago, I answered a Craigslist ad and showed up at a nondescript warehouse near downtown Los Angeles. Shady as this scene may seem, it was the beginning of my after-hours career as a member of the L.A. Derby Dolls. As a DIY endeavor, everyone has to pitch in and help the league function and I was able to lend my 9-to-5 talents to my 6-to-11-and-weekend hobby as the head of the Art Department. Over the course of two and a half years, I wrangled artists, sent files to print, soothed flustered department heads and massaged production schedules. I even managed to sneak in some of my own flyer art.

If you’d like to see actual real life roller derby, you’re in luck! Saturday, June 16, in an inter-league all-star event, the L.A. Ri-Ettes will take on the Rat City Roller Girls from Seattle, while on Sunday, June 17, our newest recruits get their turn on the track with a “Baby Doll Brawl”, featuring an exhibition Junior Derby Doll game during halftime. Get tickets here. @jes_fuse

Take a look at the flyers, and let me know what you think. >>

Tags: design flyer

Melon Land-Fill Lips and Other Diseases

Scott — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 19:55:09 +0000

While researching dolphin melons for a Natural History Museum project, I stumbled across the illustration of a woman with dripping, watermelon lips. Naturally, I put aside paid work and followed the image to its origin. The magic of hyperlinks brought me to the blog Dr. Alan’s Placebology: “Alternative Medicine for Alternative Illnesses for Alternative Bodies Using Alternative Words. By Dr A. A. Alan.”

There I found pun-filled satire of UK politics and media—in this case, aimed squarely at conservative journalist Melanie Phillips (Melon Land-Fill Lips):

“The lips take on the appearance of a melon. Usually this is watermelon but can be honeydew. It is thought that this is the result of the alternative body trying to protect itself from others reacting to the controversial opinions it is spouting with violence. After all, it is difficult to take someone seriously if they [have] melons for lips; no matter how much garbage they are producing.”

Don’t let the puns fool you, though; the writing and satire can be pretty sharp, even for those who may be unfamiliar with its British targets. In the article with my favorite illustration, Chapter 8: Parasite, out of mind: A Dreadful Attack of the Fainting McKeiths, Dr. Alan takes a shot at nutritionist and TV personality, Gillian McKeith:

“The fainting mckeith in its adult form spends most of its time hanging around in the environment looking at faeces. Once it has looked at enough faeces it transfers what it has learned about those faeces into a nest made out of toilet paper in the shape of a book. This is technically known as the mckeith pile of harassed defaecation (PhD). The purpose of the PhD is to interest another fainting mckeith with which to half-heartedly reproduce.”

To give it some context: According to a quick Google, Ms. McKeith’s PhD is from a “non-accredited correspondence course college” and she faked fainting on “I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here.”

Okay, so it’s probably not relevant to those outside the UK (or judging by the year-long hiatus of the blog, those inside the UK), but the articles are a fun read and the illustrations have made it into my inspiration folder. @scottfuse

Gymnastics of the Soul

Jenn — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 03:14:04 +0000

Project research always turns up some interesting finds, but this one was a bit grotesque. I was hunting for facial expressions to inspire a new take on comedy tragedy masks. No I’m not designing a trite theatre icon… little trust here people. It’s for an upcoming First Fridays at the Natural History Museum. A little bizarre, but if you’ve seen the preceding creative in the campaign the idea won’t seem quite so odd.

Anyway, I got completely sucked into Guillaume Duchenne’s electrophysiolgy research from the 1840′s. He believed that expressions were the gateway to the human soul, and that the way muscles work to create them could be codified. How you ask? Localized faradization — he electrocuted people. Using electricity he was able to map the muscle groups used to form different expressions and capture the results with photography (new at the time). Documentation of his torture…I mean work are in Duchenne de Boulogne’s Le Mécanisme de la Physionomie Humaine (ca 1876). See images from the index here. @jennfuse

 It’s been said that at least one of Duchenne’s patients (the man pictured above) had no feeling in his face so the procedure was painless. What about the rest of them? Ouch.