Sometimes life just needs to be embraced. This has been happening. Will be back soon, better and badder than ever.

Richard.

I think the development of the medium as a story teller, and it's ability to tell as story through it's various means and genres in my own mind has been the key. You grow up, you take photos as well as feature in them, you look at them as lasting memories and moments in time that are frozen for prosperity and smiles. But as a story teller myself, really becoming aware of the facility to capture and tell a story in a single shot, a single moment in time is facinating to me, and my growth as a story teller feeds on the medium daily.

As said, the sheer volume of amazing photography that comes through the web is impossible to keep up with, but one man that has stood out for me, and acts as a continual inspiration in terms of highlighting the possibilities of the medium as well as generally coming across as supremely cool is Clayton Cubitt. His tumblr is full of all sorts of goodies on a daily basis and his portfolio site has a lot of his work as well.

Personally, the visceral nature of Clayton's images are amazing, and his facility to tell a story in one shot is what keeps drawing me back to his work.

Some of his work below, but be sure to follow his tumble blog as well as twitter.

There's a lot out there at the moment, the Behance network is a trove of awesome design and illustration, but as with every creative genre, there's always people that stick out and impress you, to the point that you need to shout about them. Hence the post.

I first came across Olly Moss's work at the very start of the Operation Concrete project when I was looking for a cover designer. Olly's work has gone viral many times over, and by that I mean the sheer genius of his illustrations have touch and influenced the online illustration and design zeitgiest. I have seen his work and ideas copied and replicated a dozen times over, I'm sure there's no greater accolade.

Then there's Brandon, another one that just sticks out. I think a combination of Brandon and Olly's ideas and creativity are more than enough to get anyone in a creative slump motivated and smiling again and I think this is why I've come to enjoy the illustration genre so much. Quick, wonderfully rendered ideas and creativity, it's perfect for your daily shot of awesomeness. Below is just a tiny sample of some of Olly's and Brandon's work, you need to get on their flickr accounts (Brandon - Olly) right this second to absorb more.

So below is a gallery of some I've picked up on. My recent favourite that stood out by a mile was the one that Bobby at Kitsune Noir also enjoyed, and even Mr Ellis posted about it. As a medium, infographics are meant to tell you as much about the subject as quickly as possible, however, the subject of this particular one, the sailing stones of Death Valley, there's only so much information you can provide before you still have to question, just how does it happen? Interesting and entertaining and produced by Danny Jones of the great YASLY blog.

Susannah since has moved to her eponymous blog that contains her daily scribbles as well as her ever evolving insight into her progress of writing a novel.

Now having been down this road, I know what it can be like. Susannah, just before moving over to her own blog, she self published her story / essay / photo essay about the adult movie industry and the recession 'They Shoot Porn Stars Don't They?'. Now, the writing is great, the story is again, moving, interesting, funny, harrowing, etc, the photos are clever and it received a very positive, very wide reception.

What is interesting for me personally however, is the fact that Susannah is a widely read, highly respected journalist / blogger. She has won countless awards and accolades, she clearly know's her subject, and in a weird way, it's niche, at least her style of writing about the industry is niche. But for all this, she couldn't find someone to publish the essay so she self published, and in recent months has decided to go down the same road with her first novel. In other words, if someone like Susannah is self publishing because she feel's it is the best way to reach her audience and do what she want's to do creatively, then that's a great thing for all other self publishers / independent publishers out there.

One artist that simply blew my mind however was, Chiharu Shiota, as the exhibition site says, 'remembrance and oblivion, dreaming and sleeping, resonate in Shiota's performances and installations'. Personally, I'm a fan, if not addict, of lucid dreaming, I can induce lucid dreams and wake up inside my dreams most nights / mornings. That combined with recurring dreams about apocalypse and doom, Shiota's work definitely hit home.

Images of the all encompassing physical, visual and mental experience are below, it blew me away, making me feel unsettled and at peace at the same time. Completely unnerving and unhinged, epic on a micro scale, tens of thousands of lines all interjecting and making a whole, powerful stuff. If you get chance, go to an exhibition and absorb the feeling.

I can see why people are taken by his creations, I'm particularly drawn to the switching surfaces of his pieces, between the drilled holes and completely smooth with interjecting lines. There is an immediate cross between modern space exploration equipment, some of the pieces look like they've fallen straight off the space shuttle, and the barnacle coated underneath of a sea faring vessle. I love the idea of space crustaceans collecting on the hulls of spaceships, which is what his work connotes to me.

Hiroyuki has his own blog where you can keep up to date with his latest pieces and exhibitions.

The work is by Tavis Coburn and is for The BAFTA Awards. In a great call, and clearly knowing what the fans and internet like, they commissioned Tavis, of Dutch Uncle design studios, to create a poster for each of the nominees for best film.

I've come across Tavis's work before, he's an illustrative artist of the highest caliber. Educated at California's Art Centre College of Design his work is inspired by, in his own words, "1940's comic book art, the Russian avant-garde movement and printed materials from the 1950's & 1960's," and you can tell.

It inspired me this morning, the colour, the strong lines across the faces of the subjects and the imagery surrounding as well, the contrast that is typical of the 40's comic book art that inspires him. Love it, made me smile first thing and is great to start things off with. The image for Hurt Locker is below, and the others are in a gallery.

Cementum - Iteration 1 - Past - Me talking about my experiences novel writing

Cementum - Iteration 2 - Present - Me talking about my own experiences on a creative journey with Operation Concrete

Cementum - Iteration 3 - Future - Me talking about my own on going creative journey with ditto and Rawstone Media as well as other peoples

Essentially, one of my favourite blogs online is that of Bobby Solomon, he's a creative designer dude and his blog, Kitsune Noir is full, like completely choc-a-block with awesomeness. His weekly / bi-monthly guest based 'desktop background' content is awesome, his mixtapes are usually worth a good listen and he find some of the best creative stuff online. I'm going to steal his model a little and start doing some similar things.

1 - I plan on stepping up the content, so it's no longer just about what I'm up to, but it's a lot about others as well, I feel with what I achieved with Operation Concrete next year, I've got a legitimate voice and opinion on creativity now, I'm credible (whatever that means) to a degree, so I'm going to talk about others

2 - I'll keep on about what I'm doing, when and where I get chance, things with Rawstone Media, I've got loads of short story and photography personal micro projects I want to get done and with other people

3 - Repeating content in the form of interviews and guest posts, I want to profile at least one creative person a week, and hopefully, have them answer the question, 'What does being creative mean to you?' Which hopefully will bring in some interesting answers and a nice catalogue of content that I might turn into a little book on the subject or something

That's it really, other people, me and repeating, and we'll see how things go from here.

This is going to be a big round-up post of what 2009 was, and what 2010 will be in terms of my personal life, my professional life, my creative life, my project based life, my novel writing and everything in between.

This post might seem a little involved, but it’s just me congealing things and solidifying a few ideas I’ve had in my head and on paper for a while.

2009:

Just over a year ago I posted what I wanted to achieve in 2009 and with my future in general, it was a gigantic list of bullet points that listed everything from novel writing to art, sculpture and life. A lot of it has gone undiscovered thus far, for example, learning the basics of architecture and designing my own house. However, I did achieve a lot of what was on the list in the last 12 months, and I plan on doing a lot more. Here’s 2009 in a nutshell.

• I applied for and successfully received a English Arts Council grant to the amount of £5,000

• I revised and edited away at my first novel, Concrete Operational, to the point where I felt happy I was ready to independently publish it

• I created the collaborative media project, Operation Concrete, in which I brought together five bands and five artists around five themes of the novel to produce an album of original music and an art book of original art coupled to extracts from the novel exploring human emotions including; Love, jealousy, madness, anger, desire

• I created a bespoke, handmade made package called The Collection, that includes the novel, art book and album together, in a limited number of 200

• I created a short film based around a monologue from the novel, with the amazing E T Cook at the camera and editing helm

• I held a launch night for the novel, art book and album, and short film at which the bands played, the film was shown, readings from the book were read and a seven day exhibition of art was kicked off

• I have now set up, and with this post will be officially recognising for the first time, my second entrepreneurial venture, Rawstone Media Industries, a micro-independent-publishing-house.

• I lived my first full year in the Big Smoke, London, working as a social media strategist and digital creative which has been an awesome third year in this industry

• I advised on, consulted with, talked to, built and initiated digital and social creative engagement for companies ranging from Sony Computer Entertainment Europe through to Universal Studios.

So, all in all, it was an extremely busy and successful year, other notes of awesomeness include hitting the two year mark with my amazing girlfriend, city hopping a little and hitting Madrid, Berlin, Marrakech and Edinburgh, hitting the ripe old age of 26 and no longer being able to apply for a young person’s rail card, and meeting all the amazing new people that I have met over the last 12 months.

2010:

I’ve still got the big list of challenges and goals that I want to achieve over the coming years, but they will remain where they are at the moment whilst I congeal the foreground and concentrate on a few new things over the coming 12 months.

• I am going to officially launch Rawstone Media Industries with a huge promotional push for the business, the first project, Operation Concrete, and the second project for the business and myself.

• I am aiming to do at least two projects this year, that currently seems like an absolutely massive goal, but we’ll see how the year goes

• First project of 2010? Loosely titled: ‘A reason to live’ is going to be about the exploration of the human condition and the reason people struggle to survive against the terror of reality, based around my second novel ‘Tastes Like Copper’

• I aim to bring together artists, musicians, photographers, cinematographers, animators, graphic novelists, and anyone else I can convince to join in around the general theme of, ‘Reasons to live’ such as; joy, revenge, beauty, family, sex, etc

• I am starting a new job as senior editor at the collaborative media agency Ditto, they are: “A UK based collective of multimedia artists and producers. With our online communities we are global in reach and work and collaborate with international artists entertaining audiences around the world.”

• My first project for Ditto is currently under NDA, but it is for one of the worlds biggest media companies and global in reach, split between New York, London and Tokyo. I’ve got an amazing opportunity here and I’m going to put absolutely everything I have into it.

Possible third and fourth possible projects involve:

• Champ the Bean Dragon – A series of children’s books about a dragon that breathes beans instead of fire and his adventures with various companions. Collaborating with musicians, artists and animators to bring together an immersive experience for adults and children alike

• CartoonCore – A series of 80’s styled cartoon introductions. Collaborating with animators, cinematographers and musicians to produce a series of 60-90 second long cartoon introductions in the truly awesome style of 80’s and early 90’s cartoons such as Transformers, Thundercats and Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors.

Other smaller things I aim to pick up this year:

• Photography – Put my SRL to better use and get out and get to the places I want to photograph around London and elsewhere and possibly do a few small projects

• Short Stories – Try to get out a few short sci-fi stories based around the ideas I’ve been noting down for ages now

• More online content – I’m drawing up a weekly schedule that I’m going to stick to for as long as I can of blog posts for here, for Rawstone Media, online video, and all the other gubbins like Twitter, Digg, Facebook, etc, etc, etc.

Anyway, this post is getting a little out of control now, so I’m going to stop. 2010 is going to be a great start to what I predict to be an intense and exhilarating next decade, wonder where I’ll be in 2020? I can’t wait to find out!

See you on the other side.