I’ve just got back from a Christmas visit to Devon to spend time with family. It was good to get out of London for a short while, and enjoy some home comforts. The thing I love about visiting Devon the most is the fresh air, either from Dartmoor or the coast, it really helps clear out the cobwebs.

See more shots from my trip here.

McCann Melbourne recently launched an animated campaign for Metro Trains Melbourne entitled Dumb Ways to Die. The campaign is headed up with a music video of the same title, written by McCann, with the intention to raise awareness and reduce the number of serious and fatal accidents on the rail network.

It is probably the most fun and catchy safety campaign I have seen. An instant hit! 

Executive Creative Director: John Mescall
Creative Team: John Mescall, Pat Baron
Animation: Julian Frost
Digital Team: Huey Groves, Christian Stocker
Group Account Director: Adrian Mills
Account Director: Alec Hussain
Senior Account Manager: Tamara Broman
Senior Producer: Mark Bradley
Producer: Cinnamon Darvall
Composer and producer: Oliver McGill
Metro Trains
General Manager, Corporate Relations: Leah Waymark
Marketing Manager: Chloe Alsop

I recently took a trip to Amsterdam to visit some good friends. 

You can view the rest of the set here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/alexepidemic/sets/72157631583071245/ 

Wieden and Kennedy London have teamed up with Patrick Boivin of Aardman to produce this awesome ad for the new Nike CTR360 Maestri III football boot, using the line ‘Take Control’. 

Crystal CG have created an animation to help build hype before each event at the Velodrome at London’s Olympics this year. Incredibly Tron inspired and with a custom track from the Chemical Brothers, this animation certainly adds a level of excitement to an already incredibly entertaining sport! Read more here. 

Jalan is a Japanese website that helps you book hotels and hostels in Japan. Simple.

How do you advertise a Japanese website that helps you book hotels and hostels in Japan? 

With cats! Simple. 

Recently uploaded to Nasa’s Johnson Space Center Flickr page was a set entitled ‘ISS Star trails’. 

ISS Star Trails is a collection of long exposure shots taken by Expedition 31 flight engineer Don Pettit.

Don took a number of 30 second exposures, then stacked them to produce one shot which totalled between a 10-15 minute exposure.

The final outcomes are some of the best images of Earth from space I have ever seen.

Fuck Shit Stack - Reggie Watts.

New York based musician and comedian Reggie Watts released a track aimed at generic mainstream rap, highlighting the excessive swearing, sexism, violence and consumption of drugs and alcohol, in the incredibly humorous way Reggie knows best.

As a fan of independent hip-hop, I found this a brilliant ‘laugh out loud’ dig at the kind of music you may find disruptive teens playing loudly on their mobile phones at the back of the top deck of the bus.

I have a real love for illustration. I’d quite often rather watch an episode of Ren and Stimpy or South Park over a film any day.
I think mainly for the bizarre worlds the illustrators and animators are able to create, anything goes.

Now, combine a love for illustration, and an obvious love for cats (who doesn’t love cats?!), and you are on to a winner!

Norwich based freelance illustrator Gemma Correll has really struck a chord with me. Her quirky humor, paired with a love for cats, combines to create these fantastically funny illustrations. 
Why wouldn’t cats wear make-up? And maybe cats do enjoy planking! All I know is that I really enjoy Gemma’s bizarre insights into the thoughts of our furry little feline friends.

By the way… she doesn’t just draw cats. Gemma draws lots of different brilliant things. Go take a look! 

Happy Food - Yum Yum.

Here is the second brilliant instalment from London based animation and character design studio, Yum Yum.

You may remember ‘Parallel Parking’, which was released last year. Well, the second animation from Yum Yum is similar to the first in the sense that it introduces you to what would be a seemingly normal scene to most, but after a delayed period of watching this typically mundane task, the most surreal of events takes place.

Always unexpected, and always hilarious. A very enjoyable animation, and the characteristics of the various characters is fantastic.