Caramblogage

…with a bit of help from all its other grains of rice friends. Not being able to do decent research into nutrition forced me to get a bit creative with this one. And do actual maths. Thanks to Ugur & Silke for their help in this. Extra Info: this is what a single grain of rice looks like close up: from  AMagill  on flickr I wonder if a series of single grain infographics would be would be interesting?

These are warmup sketches for a commission by a dear friend of mine.  Yep, I do kids now.  Ahh, I missed being able to do this.

As this is a diary, I will allow myself a small rant. This concerns me, who have gotten too used to working in a certain way, and computers, which have accustomed me to working that way. If the term prosthetic memory means nothing to you, here is a short explanation: it is a device you use to extend the recollective function of your brain. In the past, this would have been a dictaphone, a piece of paper, an elephant you keep under your desk to remember things for you. I also have a grey beast lurking under mine. Not only is it a prosthetic to my memory, it also extends my abilities in other areas. About a month ago, this useful monster took ill, as some of those who read me on Facebook may have come to realise. After a few shops, we finally found a group of benevolent witch- doctkrs willing and able to heal the ailing animal. Their price is of course exhorbitant, but their services, once rendered will prove invaluable. Will prove, as the winter snow has done more than disrupt t

A week later, I am sitting at home, sifting through about ten hours worth of interviews. Turns out my interviewees have a lot to say on topics I'm interested in. First off, let me disappoint you: anyone expecting graphic prejudice or explicitly stated dislike of Arabs on principle here will only find some general opinions that are held by society, but I am glad to be able to report at this point that even three years of Islamic Studies do not induce fear or hatered in those that study it. In stead, we are faced with a broad variety of views in different hues of gray. Bear in mind also that the object of this research is not to examine opinions about Arab society in all its depth. Center stage: language and writing, combinations of Latin and Arabic type and the amazing Branding Question. Of course, to get there, the culture those symbols represent should not be neglected. Without a background, these symbols are just that. Heiroglyphs that might as well be left alone if not for a

And مع السلامة as the course ends. I meet my two volunteers, two young ladies who are prepared to brave me. It's not all that hard. Selecting a third member of the class, we leave the room to a quiet place where we might talk for half an hour without too much noise in the background. We end up in one of thr noisier student- run cafés that grace the FU (and open at nine, remember that.). This turns out not to matter too much, as the recorder slept in today. Lucky you. I am lucky in that the three interviewees come from different backgrounds. The ones who have already travelled to Arab countries, those who grew up with a mixed background, those who grew up in the local background… For now their identities must be withheld. As I try to keep up with furious notes, they introduce themselves. At this stage, there is not much more I can ask of them. In preparation for these interviews I have prepared a sheet of type for them, showing Arabic and Latin script in various constellations

All hail Zarathustra! I am transformed from a paleolithical fossil to an evolved creature within seconds by something black. Coffee. All references to monolyths are purely intentional. Having done homework and drunk coffee, I finally make it into an introductory session, to be ushered into class soon thereafter. The first object related to the class is a trolley, which returns five minutes later with a stack of Hans Wehrs, collosal when compared to the person pushing the trolley. On her insistance on shoving it into the classroom herself, we move on to the next section of the programme. The classroom is familiar, I may have spent time in it myself, learning Spanish, in a previous life. A few students are waiting for the clas to begin, for their classmates to arrive. They do, it begins. Repetition and sentences. This is the third level, Intermediate to advanced, these students have spent a minimum of three semesters infusing themselves whith knowledge of Arab culture. Arab culture

My first contact with the actual Arabic classes comes in form of a young lady, who having had her class cancelled, is very early for her next course. She reveals to me that the class doea not take a break, allowing the students to immerse themselves in the language and culture for an hour and a half, four times a week. In combination with her next informatiom bit, makes me wonder once again at the teaching methods employed here. She confirms to me the fact that the excersise of turning the theory of caffeine into a practical cup of coffee only begins at nine within these hallowed halls. Having done so, she produces a multitude of notebooks, notepads and vocabluary notes, spreading them in a wide half- circle in front of her. Soon, her look begins to flit between grammar, vocabluary and half- formed sentences, forming homework out of seemingly random associations. I begin to get an idea that this series may be more interesting than anticpated. At this point, One may ask why these cl

I've been spending a lot of time in language classes recently. Asking myself whether eight or eight thirty in the morning is the best time to inflict the linguistic convolution that is Arabic on the willing, yet sleepy brain, I am late. I also have ample opportunity to refresh my memory of the Freie Universities corridors. They remain badly lit and carpeted with red. Which, in the green light, looks like it might just about come alive and swallow an unsuspecting student at any given moment. I am currently squating on one of those carniverous carpets, preparing questions that will be asked of students learning Arabic at a slighlty later date. These questions pertain to culture, cultural expectations, cultural paralells and differences. These very cultural questions are being prepared in hope of obtaining answers that will illuminate the Franks view on a people that have been an integral part of European history for more than a housand years: the Arabs. It has, unfortunately, b

Welcome to a new semester of fun and games! Today, we have a football infographic, commissioned by the course on and in infographics. This is going to be quite an arcane semester, in which I plan to explore a couple of subjects that have been interesting to me for a while now.  Note that football is not one of those things. 

"He sat on his island, alone and overlooking the ruins of a past. Slowly, his being dissolved, crumbling into something new. This was an end. It was also a beginning." I may return to this one later and refine it a bit, but for now, this mawkish and sentimental sketch must stand for what it is. 

Welcome to this installment of wondersome walls. This is the stickers week. Always remember: Thursday is temporary.

It's good to know that the cold war is still alive and well. Three spots for Farmerjohn Hotdogs with a political twist. You will have to click on the pictures to get to the video part of this post. Producer: Kara Fromhart Associate Producer: Alison McMahon Senior Copywriter: Shelley Chidley Senior Art Director: Laura Lebel Copywriter: Brian Jones Art Director: Aaron Sanchez Business Manager: Bridget Merrill Design & VFX Company: Radium/Reel FX, Santa Monica/Dallas Executive Producer: Dan Bryant Producer: Linda Jackson Creative Director: Limbert Fabian Designer/Animator: Arpine Aleksanyan Animator: Kyle McCauley NOTE: Hot-Dog wrapped in bacon? Recall The Itis. via: adsoftheworld

Foregoing traditional media, they chose to hire street painters to target their customers directly. Explanations within.

Walking through Kreuzberg, I can't help but keep my eyes glued to the walls, much to my co-pedestrians chagrin. The other day, I came across the above. Now, this is a huge wall, which spans most of a building. It's by Blu– (Streetfiles Archive ), who has already brought me much photographic joy with other works of his, which the link above will take you to. This wall is also in an awkward location from a photographic point of view. Short of climbing onto the roof of the building opposite, there was no way to capture it all in one take. So, enlisting the help of my father, who has done more stitches than I care to think of (see this for an example) , we set out to create a more complete view of this particular wall. It goes something like this: I still consider this as something of a work in progress, but we're getting there.  Thunderous Thursday!

It has been a while since I shot anything but walls with my Camera. So I headed out to the anti-nuclear demonstration, more out of the democratic principle that Germany is not ruled by a lobby, money or an oligarchy, than to protest against nuclear. And Camera came along. Be warned: what you are about to see is extremely subjective.  On the way to, all were beaming with excitement. "We're on a tractor. From a farm. We got flags." Bliss. The latest in personal energy generation.  Greenpeace gets all the best floats. And closer up.  This particular demos balloon symbol. At least someone came equipped. The Masses. There were masses of masses. You can't have this kind of party without inviting Mr. Burns … and voicing your discontent. Cans! Serene sunday!

There you go, that's the shot I'm going with. Crowdsourcing be damned!

A couple of background plates for an Infomercial I made last year…

"That's how I found him when I got back from the club""Was his left eye always a button?"

Today, we're going to try something a bit different. You shall be confronted with two rough shots of the same thing. You get to choose which one makes it to the final cut. The shot is the introduction of the hideous Frogstrosity that plagues The City. Keep in mind that both shots are not finalised, so there may still be some errrors within. 1 CC: Monster Zoom 1 from Caram Kapp on Vimeo . 2 CC: Monster Zoom 2 from Caram Kapp on Vimeo . Now that you've watched the clips, go ahead and exercise your basic democratic right and decide: Which shot makes it to the final cut? Thank you! Tuesday for all!

It took a while and quite a bit of paper, but Celestine finally has an antagonist. Let the games begin!

Friggday looms upon us once again, a clear and present threat to the week, which it is about to end. Before this happens, have some Berlin Walls. Above, find depicted an easy way to dispose of you beer bottle. Easy for you because you don't have to aim for the tiny hole of the trash can. Easy for those collecting bottles, and slightly more dignified, as they don't have to rummage though the refuse to amass their wealth of glass.

… more like half a dragon. This would be a truly imposing dragon if he wasn't doing the Macarena in my mind.

Codename Celestine- The zoom from Caram Kapp on Vimeo . Now, in previous segments, we have established that she has the ability to jump pretty high and pretty fast… this segment establishes her ability to do so against a backdrop of cartoonish rays.

Inspired by a recent conversation about all things Alien. We realised that the fact that the basis for the Alien movies was an example of Swiss precision in all things is often overlooked.  Hans Rudolf Giger   is Swiss(ish) after all… This is a V1, more may come from this. I'm not quite happy with the hole in the paper yet, and quite a few interesting Xenomorph options have materialised since I started. The current Alien picture is from: http://www.ikoncollectables.com.au

Today is going to be a Vespering day.  Depicted above is the setup for the sequence, in an attempt to completely demystify the process.  Four lights, a bunch of lamps. The city encircles the protagonist. The protagonist, followed by a particle cloud of smoke puffs. Wind. Gravity. Vectors. This is the world of Vespa.  TBC

This took a while longer than expected… The strip will make more sense if you listen to the Mad Men intro while reading it.  The lighter is, by the way, a reduced version of the Braun "cylindric", and while less anachronistic than the Ikea chair, would not have existed in 1962. And Klapp needs a Girl to let him into his living room. More is, as per usual, on the way.

The management is sorry to inform you that due to a defect in the colour blue, it shall have to be patient and work just a few hours more before posting. There will be cufflinks.

Guess who's preparing for an evening appearance? Happy Mondaying!

One of those quick and monumental sketches that I may return to later for consolation and correction. For some reason, Raven is on holiday and has been replaced by… Shao-Lee?

Step Three for Celestine from Caram Kapp on Vimeo . I have a firm belief that most home-made animation movies get forgotten in the process of being made. On show here: Motion test following the Lighting test. More tests to follow.

For clues and possible solutions to the brainteaser posed in the last post, look no further than this representation of Celestine (she needs a new name, I'm using up the e's on my keyboard). And more riddles to be posed and solved. Eventually. 

What have we here? A frogesque monster with horns for a chin in the middle of an epiphany? Retribution for snitching? A case of drunken frog nasty?  Stay tuned to find out…

Usually, this kind of sketch would happen on a train. Today, it happened during a walk. While I was sitting. 

Celestine takes the second step. from Caram Kapp on Vimeo . Celestine begged for animation from the moment I first laid lines on her… She had a Vespa and wanted to ride it and I was more than happy to oblige. I will be having more fun with this in the near future.

A very longnecked girl rides her Vespa against the backdrop of a failed project, inserted with more knowledge than before…  And yes. She doesn't have the sunset yet.