Samantha Oehley is a 20 year old undergraduate at the Wanganui School of Design in New Zealand. Her interests include the 1960s and 1910s, the Beatles, politics, reading, music and drawing. She has a thing for Priests and Authority figures, and has the habit of always exaggerating things to a more dramatic scale read more_
The 4 Power’s is finally out in New Zealand and Australia! Depending on its success it may appear in other countries. Who knows? But it deserves the chance for the world to know it. It’s such a great book. But as the author’s sister, I have to argue why it’s such a good book.
So I will!
Please bear in mind that it has been 7 years in the making, and this is the first time I am allowed to say anything about the story to the public. Which is weird!
REASONS WHY THE 4 POWERS DESERVES YOUR ATTENTION
The plot is original—Someone tell me a story of an advanced race of people stuck on a starship with no destination and no idea where they are from, and a boy who manages to travel back in time because of a strange jewel to an age where their race is still on their planet and have elemental powers? No?
The entire story is intriguing—the above comment was about the first book. (No more comment about that!) Nah, I like the world better than Harry Potter (which seems really unoriginal in comparison to be honest. Despite it being such an addictive series itself)
The characters are loveable—all stories should have this quality, and the 4 Powers nails it. You have to be able to want to be the main character, despite their failures and also you have to ‘love to hate’ the bad guy, not just hate him.
The back story is extensive—Michael has actually created this entire race of people, the world, the language and stories behind all the characters. It’s not a piece of fluff. He takes this story very seriously and most of it hasn’t even been shown … yet
It’s addictive—It actually is. I’m 20 years old and despite the level of reading, I love it.
It’s a smart and funny book—if the extensive amount of work behind the creation of the story’s world wasn’t enough for you, and least I can argue that the Robot Toy Superia the Magnificent is a hoot. And I suppose Sir Asutab in brain form too ha ha
The writing—I thought I should throw this in, despite my lack of knowledge on the subject. I think it’s well written. It has twists, unpredictable outcomes and a way of really making you wish you were from that world instead of Earth
Boron Delaxid—there I’ve said it. I love Boron Delaxid. Now the world knows. (Yes this counts as a point. You know it’s great when you have sad fangirls crushing on a ficticious character [the difference however, between me and say, a Twilight fangirl? I love the character platonically]).
I know I shouldn’t have been hinting about a sequel when there is no chance yet of it being published. But I just really want this series to run through (because Michael has barely told me 5% of what happens and I am dying to know!)
Oh yeah, and that thing called Semi-Permanent I went to? Amazing. I haven’t enough photos for a blog update yet, but one day! I particularly want to mention how I was in a STORM THORGERSON photo [called F*** Avatar]. For those who don’t know, Storm is a famous graphic designer known for the album cover design The Darker Side of the Moon (and other Pink Floyd album covers), Muse’s album designs and many more. It was an honourable experience.
Buuut…my bro’s book takes priority now anyway. For those interested in buying a copy but don’t have it at their local book dealer, visit Michael’s website.
I’m very busy getting into my final degree project [sneak peeks will be coming in over the next 10-12 weeks] and sorting out my 21st but this coming weekend is going to be pretty epic for me. Here’s why…
August 20 + 21st Aotea Center, Auckland
Semi-Permanent Design Conference 2010!
August 22nd, Aotea Center, Auckland (same location as above)
My brother’s first book launch at Storylines Festival!
Talk about coincidence. And I only found out this week that the design conference and book launch were on same weekend and same location! Bonus, because I could BE THERE for my brother, instead of being stuck 6 hours drive south, in a town that nobody cares about.
Anyway, it’s all very exciting—Semi Permanent is going to be AMAZING and if any NZ readers are going to be going, let me know! I’m also very very very excited for the release of The 4 Powers of Daren Saner, which is creeping up fast! It’s all still so surreal. I mean, I didn’t write the story, that’s all my brothers creation (although I like to claim that I helped in some small ways) but it’s been such a big part of my life and I’m so happy for him. He’s going to go far (not that he hasn’t already!). :)
I should have posted this aaages ago. When I first saw these images (via Mugglenet) I was so excited I started squealing out loud. Actually.
These book cover designs were designed for the Harry Potter movies. What got me so excited was how, instead of going for the cliched brown/tattered/boring text, they thought about the design and made it look amazing. Perhaps wizards can be designers too? I must say—in the days before computers, magic WOULD come in handy.
Advanced Potion Making This is VERY 50s. For a school text book, it’s rather fitting. Having one of those as a student would make me FEEL like I’ve stepped into a 50s boarding school story.
A History of Magic One of the most famous books in the Harry Potter series comes to life with a beautiful art deco design and detail. I wouldn’t have thought of using white for a magical book, but I suppose this works?
The Secrets of the Darkest Art This one is so beautiful. Whoever designed it should get an award. The texture! The moody colour! The patterns of the form AND typography!
The Life and Lies of Albus Dumbedore This made me laugh so so much. Look how elaborate the design is! It totally captures Rita Skeeter. With the foiling and crocodile-skin embossing, I sure wouldn’t mind having a copy myself—just for the jacket!
The Harry Potter films do design justice. The fantastic old school playbill-style newspaper designs—similar to the Azkaban Wanted posters… If only I could have had the chance to play a role in the designing of props in this movie! How much FUN would that have been? Forget costume design, PROP design should be the new design focus in cinema!
Can’t wait for the movie! I’ll probably be seeing it in America, actually!
My friend, who has just completed her Honours, has allowed me to showcase her project (which I had the honour of being involved in) here. I think it’s really fantastic—and hope that her idea soon becomes a reality for more people around the globe. We need more companies thinking like her!
So, Anna’s thesis abstract:
In today’s society we are bombarded with T-shirt designs (walking billboards) that have no other purpose than to look cool. This implementation is based on the voice of New Zealand’s 14-25 year olds; everything from the design style, the T-shirt messages, right through to the colour/neck shape of the T-shirt.
FTSOO means ‘For the Sake of Others’. The clothing label places importance on PEOPLE, GIVING, JUSTICE, and HOPE. This will be launched within the next year or two.
And her work, in short:
Promo Poster
Zine: Created to be a update/promo item for FTSOO; covering what fair trade is, what the label is about etc.
Inside Zine: Shows new range of T-shirt designs
The promo video:
To see further, and more detailed versions of her illustrations and photographs, visit her portfolio at Behance!
Hey everyone. I haven’t been slacking—I promise! Just been neck deep in assignments for the end of the semester. Not all of them I can show you right now, but here’s a few I’ve added to my portfolio (apologies for the small format):
Firstly, my type poster. The second half of semester one required us to design a typeface (at least just the uppercase or lowercase). I chose to be quite formal: Having noticed a lack of (non slab) serif typefaces with monowidth strokes, I decided to create my own. I also added embellishments to the serifs that could be seen at display sizes. The whole typeface was based on Gill Sans, (despite my project on it last time) with a few minor changes (including changing the humanist strokes to monowidth—what a pain!). Considering we had 8 weeks to plan, sketch, create the typeface THEN make the poster, I did an okay job. It is called Jane Grey after Lady Jane Grey, who was Queen for nine days.
The book jacket was part of my illustration class, in which we were to design a new cover for a particular fictional novel. I chose Daddy-long-legs by Jean Webster, illustrating and designing it in a modernised vintage style.
I didn’t manage to scan in four ink illustrations I did for illustration class—I will try do that sometime next semester, and I haven’t put up my abstract stop motion yet—I’ll put that up sometime too.
Otherwise, I am on holiday for four weeks before heading into my final semester! These 3 years have gone by so slowly but so quickly too. Hope everyone’s having a good winter or summer!
I’m currently designing a book jacket for my illustration class, and basing it mainly around illustrative type, so I thought it appropriate to post a blog on my long-time inspiration, Kate Forrester.
I’ve often gone to Kate’s website for inspiration, her illustration and type designs are bold and feminine. I’m usually for vintage and delicate, but her modern style is still appealing—it’s such a fresh breath from regularities.
You can visit Kate’s blog, while her website is under construction here.
Kate usually does magazine and book-based work, and is known for her paper-cut out designs. I’m thrilled to see some wedding invitation designs there too!
In a couple of weeks I’ll post my book jacket design, once it’s finished!
If you’re crazy about paper and cute vintage visuals, Mae Mae Paperie is the place for you! I stumbled upon Megan Knight Gonzalez’s website while searching for inspiration, and I just fell in love. Her work is so gorgeous, and despite its obvious inspiration from hand drawn art, vintage graphics and the latest style in wedding design, it is really unique and stands out as her signature style. You can visit her blog here
I’m quite predictable in the design style I like. Most of my friends can see something and say “That is so Samantha” and often they’re right. I’m so glad that the pastel colours and vintage style is in. It IS so me. Do you know what else I love? Letterpress printing! Letterpress looks so, so beautiful. I don’t care how expensive it is—when I get married I am having my invitations custom made by letterpress. I can wait to get married though. Ha ha.
Next week I’m having my very first giveaway! Stick around for it
As a class assignment we had to research a typeface or typeface designer. I chose Gill Sans by Eric Gill. After researching for a bit I came across this article on the failures of Gill Sans and then another article on the shocking secrets of Eric Gill himself. From this, I thought it’d be an interesting focus point for a research presentation and when it came to the designing of an A2 poster I extended on this by creating a parody E! poster about the shocking stories, faults and exploitations of Gill. I focused mainly on the “ultra bold” weight of gill sans—with it’s shocking form that doesn’t relate to the other weights—particularly the lowercase ‘g’—which gill sans has a beautiful cut of, and ultra bold completely bastardizes. It was simply a humourous analogy. I still like Gill sans, despite it’s faults and the personal stories of it’s creator. Check more work out in the design section.
So besides the million things I do each day that are not design related (like, getting excited for Obama), what have I been doing? School work, that’s what! And I have a lot of it. Not all of it fun either.
However, it’s time I shared some work with you. For my CGD3 class, we were given the job to design answers to random Proust Questionnaire questions. Here are two of the total six:
The aim of this project was to answer personal (and random) questions about yourself in an original and versatile way. I decided to emulate fifties/sixties style illustrations and design it as though it was in a book. So, my answers were extracts with supporting illustration. I was honest in answering the questions, but rather exaggerating and taking the mickey out of me to make myself seem more interesting.
I’ve also added to the illustration page my threadless tshirt design, a humourous shirt that probably only typographers and designers would understand:
Hey guys! Vote for my shirt at Threadless! Click the image below to see and vote!
This design was part of my Illustration class. It was a fun project! Crossing fingers for print acceptance, but I’d be really really lucky if that happened :/
Samantha Oehley is a 20 year old undergraduate at the Wanganui School of Design in New Zealand. Her interests include the 1960s and 1910s, the Beatles, politics, reading, music and drawing. She has a thing for Priests and Authority figures, and has the habit of always exaggerating things to a more dramatic scale 
