ITC 16. Extra mile
Plus new vamps, Character Name Generator and more
First Spring issue of this year! Finally, we’re moving towards light, and super soft, gentle temperatures of not less than 35ºC.
→ Reflections
Tobias van Schneider has been particularly sharp with his personal articles lately. It must be that we're from the same generation, and for better or worse, we share many common views. I recently came across a tweet of his that I definitely agree with:
I understand why no one wants to do great, unique work with soul anymore. Short attention spans combined with our algorithmic feeds mean that whatever you make is only relevant for 48h (if you’re lucky) and then swallowed by the abyss. Why waste the time.
I think this is why there will be less designers and artists in the future, but many more marketers instead who’re willing to play the game.
This might seem like a cynical take, but the best and most optimistic part of all this is that those who will do the opposite will be able to build something special. Those who will go the extra mile, take the risk and pour their heart into their work. It will be noticed.
You can read the whole post (+responses) here
I feel there's a sense of hopelessness out there for those who love craftsmanship, in any form. A couple of decades ago, people's limited criteria was due to a lack of information. Now, it's perhaps due to excess. We've taken exceptional audiovisual content so much for granted that it no longer means anything to most people.
For this reason, many artists are ceasing to offer their services to third parties and instead focusing all their time and effort on creating personal artwork or intellectual property that can sustain them in the medium and long term.
For now, my only (self)advice is: value the form and cherish it as much as you can, but create with meaning and purpose. Mere aesthetics were never important, but now they are less so than ever. Make sure each piece is part of something bigger and remember that extra mile.
More vamps!
Do you remember last Halloween when I introduced you four vampires from Fangtastic, the dating app for human-vampire relationships*? Well, here are four more! Pick a vampire to spend time with during Easter this year! 🦇🩸
Monseñor Larroca (Spain, 183yo, embraced at 59)
A former Catholic priest turned into a vampire by a bloodsucker with a sense of humor. He couldn't escape a dawn in time, and more than a century later, his burns are still healing. They're so severe he can barely see, and for fifty years he's mistaken a liquor store for a local chapel where he preaches every night. His perfect date involves a thoughtful study of the poetry of San Juan de la Cruz.Robert Johnson (USA, 38yo, embraced at 36)
A tech entrepreneur who, after being transformed into a selfish, greedy, and purposeless beast by a vampire, came to the conclusion that he was still the same, after all. Except that he can no longer enjoy the sun on his personal island. He'd be happy to talk to you about his new AI-focused startup.Ima Hofmann (Germany, 52yo, embraced at 24)
She's spent decades making money by undergoing all kinds of clinical trials for pharma companies. Being immune to any adverse effects, she's amassed a small fortune and a wealth of knowledge about current pharmaceutical developments. This has also led to inconsistent results in these studies, though, with unknown effects on the population. Her perfect date would involve an extensive tasting of blood under the effect of high-powered painkillers.James Thompson (England, 127yo, embraced at 11)
His vampirism at an early age prevented him from enjoying his favourite rides and cut short his dream future of pubs and beers. All of this turned him into one of the most spiteful, aggressive, and destructive vampires you'll find out there. He's willing to control his impulses if you accompany him to a Manchester United game.
Let me know your election in the comments section 🦇
*This app doesn’t exist. Don’t look for it.
→ A case study
Character Name Generator
I think my interest in fiction portraits actually comes from videogames from the 80s and 90s. Very specially Capcom games. They were so good with pixel art… And even if their in-game characters had faces of 20x20 pixels, they always managed to include wonderful portraits at the selection screens of their beat’em-ups.
I always hated the time limits on those screens, because they didn't allow me to fully appreciate the artists' incredible work (after all, arcades were full of people eager to spend a few coins after you).
So when the opportunity arose to revamp the artwork for Reedsy's Character Name Generator, I felt right at home.
The update has already been released, and I invite you to visit the generator whenever you need names for your characters, whether they're based on location, medieval origin, fantasy, divine, or archetypal.
You can find it here!
I’ve prepared a short case study on my web to talk about the goals, process and values around the project. I hope you like it.
Portfolio mini-update
Another one of those mini-updates. The main change has been updating to Semplice 7, the last version of Tobias Van Schneider’s famous portfolio tool. I have to say the jump to the latest version hasn’t been as fast and simple as I expected (many changes from version 5!), but it’s an impressive tool. I have:
Updated the home page a little bit.
Created a Playground section, to upload there all kinds of doodles, experiments, concepts, old stuff and/or non-commercial work. It’s pretty empty right now, but it will grow little by little.
Updated some details on the existing projects.
Added the Name Generator project to the home page.
→ Ads can be cool
Geralt, Vin, and friends…
We've recently been working on some ads with short animated introductions. They’re connected to relevant literary works, linked to some of the professionals who are part of the Reedsy marketplace.
The last two, around Cover Design for The Witcher (Andrzej Sapkowski) and Editing for Mistborn (Brandon Sanderson). Here are a couple of stills:
My secret (perhaps selfish?) hope with these pieces is that there's someone, somewhere, who's eager to stumble across another one of these ads, so they can spend a couple of seconds enjoying the work we're doing and thinking ‘who did this?’ (and getting them to stop long enough to click on the ads!).
You might have come across these short ads on social media, beautifully animated and edited by my friend Julian Kunchev.
Have fun!
Try to find the 6 differences between these 2 images from a Reedsy article on Cozy Fantasy. Extra hard on mobile. You’re warned!
Thank you for reading In the Cave. Currently, I’m using social media just to promote this newsletter, share other people’s work or send memes to friends. Nothing else. So if you like this newsletter, please share it and recommend it. You can also find me on my website.
See you soon in a Recommendations-only issue!
Read a previous story:
My favorite vamp tonight is Ima Hofmann, but is Robert Johnson really creeps me out. Great updates, by the way.
Capcom's arcade pixel art was brilliant. So much personality crammed into so few pixels.