I've moved to Tumblr, see you there: http://shadowjackmusic.tumblr.com/
Tuesday, November 3, 2015
Sunday, October 6, 2013
New and Improved!
New improved CD package design for First Bloom soundtrack album: http://be.net/gallery/First-Bloom-New-CD-Design/11301827
Saturday, September 28, 2013
AMNION Remix
I have no idea why I didn't post this earlier. This is a dnb remix I did for Amnion's Slow Calm remix CD. I also mastered the album. Listen to the whole thing, it's awesome!
Saturday, September 21, 2013
Flatten All The Things!
I'm not thrilled with this make-everything-flat design trend. I don't like flat iOS 7 or flat Windows 8. They don't utilize good usability principles. They both fail. It's poor design and bad UX practice. It's a trend, a fad, it's not good UI development. It actually makes things more difficult to separate visually. Things like drop shadows make it easier to identify an active window. Gradients help identify buttons. These severely flat interfaces aren't even particularly attractive. And realism isn't skeuomorphism. Skeuomorphism is when an interface functions like a real world counterpart. Apple's old leatherette Calendar, Contacts and torn-paper Notes were visually realistic but not skeuomorphic. They didn't behave like actual paper objects, and ugly aside, that was their real usability problem.
Flat works if it's high contrast, like Valve's game UIs. Light grey icons on white, like iOS 7 Safari is not how to do it. Valve has been doing flat, minimalist UIs for well over a decade and they do it right. Half-Life 2 for example present options and information clearly. Affordance is high, you know what to click on to interact with and what is simply information. It's clean, flat and easy to use.
Another example, those cool infographics have high information density but are easy to read and follow. I cant say the same of Windows 8 start screen or iOS icon mess. The start screen squares blink and dance around like a punch to monkey internet ad. The iOS main screen is a dense grid of squares and if you have sub-folders, you get white squares with little blobs of pixels that tell you nothing. It reminds me of those people who cover their desktops with so many icons they are constantly trying to find where they downloaded a document or application or even start a browser.
Yet another particularly unpleasant aspect of this UI flattening is that it seems to go hand-in-hand with anorexic text. Thin text and lines are bad for accessibility. The new icons in Safari are difficult for me to see and I'm not vision impaired. Microsoft and Apple, please note: low contrast, tiny text in large field of white is not minimalism and it's not good for readability.
Personally, I'll take highly realistic, shiny button over a tiny, thin stick drawing; at least I know what I'm looking at and will have a better clue as to what it does.
Flat works if it's high contrast, like Valve's game UIs. Light grey icons on white, like iOS 7 Safari is not how to do it. Valve has been doing flat, minimalist UIs for well over a decade and they do it right. Half-Life 2 for example present options and information clearly. Affordance is high, you know what to click on to interact with and what is simply information. It's clean, flat and easy to use.
Another example, those cool infographics have high information density but are easy to read and follow. I cant say the same of Windows 8 start screen or iOS icon mess. The start screen squares blink and dance around like a punch to monkey internet ad. The iOS main screen is a dense grid of squares and if you have sub-folders, you get white squares with little blobs of pixels that tell you nothing. It reminds me of those people who cover their desktops with so many icons they are constantly trying to find where they downloaded a document or application or even start a browser.
Yet another particularly unpleasant aspect of this UI flattening is that it seems to go hand-in-hand with anorexic text. Thin text and lines are bad for accessibility. The new icons in Safari are difficult for me to see and I'm not vision impaired. Microsoft and Apple, please note: low contrast, tiny text in large field of white is not minimalism and it's not good for readability.
Personally, I'll take highly realistic, shiny button over a tiny, thin stick drawing; at least I know what I'm looking at and will have a better clue as to what it does.
Sunday, September 1, 2013
Tuesday, August 20, 2013
Front Page!
Check it out, I'm on the front page of Bottle Imp Productions website! http://www.bottle-imp.com/
Wednesday, August 14, 2013
Pay-what-you-want
All Shadowjack releases on Bandcamp are now pay-what-you-want! http://shadowjack.bandcamp.com/
Sunday, August 11, 2013
Return to Zlythy
I am officially restarting development of Zlythy. This will be the black and white version. Consequently, the next Shadowjack album will likely be the soundtrack for Zlythy. You heard it here first!
Thursday, August 8, 2013
Gyossait: Deluxe Edition
Good friend Amon26 is selling a deluxe edition of his acclaimed Gyossait. I contributed a piece of art to it, my first fan art since 2005! Go buy it and find out what other goodies are lurking within: http://sbx.sk/Aki3
Wednesday, July 31, 2013
Sunday, June 30, 2013
$5 USD Albums!
I realised my pricing on Bandcamp was all over the place so I fixed it (should have done this before I sent out the June newsletter). All prices are now in USD. Albums are $5, singles and individual tracks are $1. Physical CDs are now $10 +shipping. There are also a lot of free tracks available as well. Go get 'em! http://shadowjack.bandcamp.com/
Friday, June 28, 2013
Shadowjack Newsletter EXTRA!
I just sent out a Shadowjack Newsletter Extra because I forgot to include the rerelease of a track I recorded 2 years ago, Alien Infection. Check it out here: http://mad.ly/8a2bd3
Wednesday, June 26, 2013
Friday, May 31, 2013
Alien Worlds Explorer
I just released music and ambient soundscapes for a game that was never released. You can check it out on Bandcamp or below:
Tuesday, May 28, 2013
MCM London News!
I sold all but 4 books. I'm keeping one for myself and the last 3 are going up on Bandcamp. The physical CD is also available there. You can them both on the Shadowjack Bandcamp page!
Also Comic Book Cast did a short interview with me (starts at 3m38s) at MCM London Comic Con!
Also Comic Book Cast did a short interview with me (starts at 3m38s) at MCM London Comic Con!
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