A Bunch of Work from 2013

I did less work than I would have liked in 2013. Various factors led to this, but mostly I spent the year either chasing client work that never came through, planning & putting work into personal projects that have yet to be realised (ahem, the webcomic, mostly), or actually enjoying myself with extended family. There were a bunch of duds, things I wasn’t proud of, but here is all the stuff fit to remember.

allVishal new logo 2013
First and foremost, I finally created a proper logo for myself. It’s a strange thing for a graphic designer to not have a personal logo for himself — my brother has had his own logo for nearly fifteen years now — but somehow I never quite stuck to one. There was a grungy graffiti-like thing once, in the corner of a website; several standard type treatments; and my art signature has not changed for half my life; but I finally decided that enough was enough & I should design one. I quite like it.

cola - black & white food photography by vishal k bharadwaj allvishal.com
Late last year I finally got a smart phone & since it came with a decent camera I joined instagram. I use it sporadically — posting once or twice a week — and most of my posts are the expected mix of food photos and strange signs or misspelling I come across. I do try now & then to test the limits of what I can do in that format.

viva la resolucion logo by vishal k bharadwaj allvishal.com
I actually designed the basic bit of this logo back in ’10, but this year it finally went on the site itself. Speaking of which, VLR is stagnant at the moment, but stay tuned: we’re figuring out what to do with it going forward that fulfills us creatively.

feather - photograph by vishal k bharadwaj allvishal.com
More instagramming. A return to the kind of things I used to take when I first got a digital camera, albeit with none of the super macro stuff I could pull off.

post atomic horror podcast supplemental cover 'zufra' by vishal k bharadwaj allvishal.com
I was really happy with this. I was even happier that I got to make an entire cover out of an obscure language style of an alien race that appeared on only one (albeit noteworthy) episode of Star Trek.

comic konga logo by vishal k bharadwaj allvishal.com
I had this domain sitting around for a webcomic at some point, but decided the domain name wasn’t strong enough. So I set up a throwaway blog on comic art for it, which I have since let gather dust. A bit of a pattern for this year past… 🙂

'landscape' macro photograph by vishal k bharadwaj allvishal.com
I don’t take a lot of selfies, but when I do, they’re abstract shots of my arm hair.

fuck-a-two sarcastic voyage podcast cover by vishal k bharadwaj allvishal.com
I had a three word brief on this sarcastic voyage podcast cover: “Fuck a Two” — that’s all, just the title. Where this illustration came from, who knows, but it sprang nearly fully-formed in my head, and I managed not to completely mess it up in execution.

dubai skyline photo by vishal k bharadwaj allvishal.com
You have to take a picture of the Dubai skyline when you get on instagram.

dubai street photo by vishal k bharadwaj allvishal.com
Actually you have to take a picture of an empty street, too. It’s the law.

fantasy sketch by vishal k bharadwaj allvishal.com
Today’s Doodle over on publiksquare is also languishing as we try to get the engines running on the rest of the projects we have planned on the domain, so I only did one sketch there this year. Actually I did one and ruined it in the inks, so this is the second try at that topic, which I’m happy with.

nonrandomclicks logo header by vishal k bharadwaj allvishal.com
The site that this is supposed to be on does not currently have it displayed. Consider this a not-so-subtle hint. 🙂

chai reflections food photo by vishal k bharadwaj allvishal.com
I drink a lot of chai. And I get reflective and philosophical when I do.

seahorse tea party sketch by vishal k bharadwaj allvishal.com
I did a couple of Sketch-a-thons this year to keep my game up, and this was one of the drawings I liked. Pretty straightforward…

sandman sketch by vishal k bharadwaj allvishal.com
…even the ones where the subject matter itself was surreal (Llama Del Rey!)…

robocop burger sketch by vishal k bharadwaj allvishal.com
…or when the surrealism came purely from me and me alone.

golden age sarcastic voyage podcast cover by vishal k bharadwaj allvishal.com
I have mixed feelings about this one: I like all the elements but I don’t think I did a good job putting them together. One day I may go back and rework this so it looks better.

dubai towers photo by vishal k bharadwaj allvishal.com
This photo got a staggering number of likes on instagram & facebook, for reasons I still can’t fathom.

post atomic horror podcast star trek into darkness cover by vishal k bharadwaj allvishal.com
I intensely disliked Star Trek Into Darkness, but the one good thing I got out of it was this Post Atomic Horror podcast cover. Silver lining, eh?

foliage photo by vishal k bharadwaj allvishal.com
I can take hipster pictures of trees too, y’know…

fork photo by vishal k bharadwaj allvishal.com
…and dinnerware.

microwave mug cake food photo by vishal k bharadwaj allvishal.com
Of course, I used instagram to document a lot of food I actually made myself, including this experiment that turned out quite well.

pasta food photo by vishal k bharadwaj allvishal.com
And then I took umpteen pictures of pasta…

pasta food photo 2 by vishal k bharadwaj allvishal.com
…and more pasta…

pilaf food photo by vishal k bharadwaj allvishal.com
…and some rice on a fancy platter.

warlockageddon 2013 sarcastic voyage podcast cover by vishal k bharadwaj allvishal.com
I had such plans for this one, but time & energy ran short, so I knocked it together in inkscape. At the time I was very angry at myself and hated this, but in retrospect it isn’t as bad as all that.

yeomanity fair post atomic horror podcast cover by vishal k bharadwaj allvishal.com
This, on the other hand, I was happy with. Wish I’d been able to put more time into the colouring of it, and some of the typography, but it was good for a laugh.

tiger t-shirt illustration by vishal k bharadwaj allvishal.com
I did this illustration for a single t-shirt; a birthday present for my cousin. He loved it. I thought it was fine. The t-shirt faded in one wash. 😐

dubai street black & white photo by vishal k bharadwaj allvishal.com
dubai street black & white photo 2 by vishal k bharadwaj allvishal.com
I also returned to posting photos not taken with a cameraphone, on this blog, in the form of a couple of photo essays. This was a series taken mostly from the footbridge between the Dubai Mall metro station and the mall itself. I used my beloved cheap compact camera.

raindrops photo by vishal k bharadwaj allvishal.com
I miss the 2cm macro feature of my first digital camera, but with the right approach you can take something artful with a cameraphone.

dubai beach photo by vishal k bharadwaj allvishal.com
dubai beach photo 2 by vishal k bharadwaj allvishal.com
I visited the beach a couple of times this year, which was good for a few photos, both with the SLR…

dubai beach photo 3 by vishal k bharadwaj allvishal.com
…and instagram.

selfie by vishal k bharadwaj allvishal.com
This is the only proper selfie I took in 2013. I was being fondled by a tree. This is not ‘good’ work, just here to show you that I too am shallow & narcissistic.

…As if the fact that this site is called ‘ALLVISHAL’ was not indication enough.

crane and origami crane sketch by vishal k bharadwaj allvishal.com
Last week of the year: I decided to do one last sketch-a-thon, and promptly got two dozen very good sketch topics. I’ve completed eight so far, leaving the rest for weekends this new year…

kaiju sea serpent sketch by vishal k bharadwaj allvishal.com
…I found more reasons to draw #SoManyScales…

reclining nude sketch by vishal k bharadwaj allvishal.com
…and even had some fun.

post atomic horror drunken time travel crossover cover A by vishal k bharadwaj allvishal.com
The Post Atomic Horror & Drunken Time Travel podcasts decided to do another crossover, so I naturally shoved people aside and demanded to do the cover. Any excuse to draw more cleavage…

post atomic horror drunken time travel crossover cover B by vishal k bharadwaj allvishal.com
…or more monsters doing sexy, dirty things.

That was it. The last drawing I did in 2013, literally finished on the last day of the year. Honestly, I should have done what I did in the year in a quarter or even a month. But like I said, real life had other ideas. Here’s hoping 2014 is more kind of both my portfolio & my wallet.

Happy New Year!

V