konstantino

I was asked by TIFF Nexus to create some pixel art of the TIFF Bell Lightbox (located on King & John St in Toronto) for their Chiptunes Orchestra project at Nuit Blanche 2011. The piece was used for some of the event’s promotional material, including online posters and a promo video. You can see the details of their project here.

Technically, the piece you see above (the same one I handed to TIFF Nexus) is unfinished. There are a lot of details on the east side of the building that I was unable to complete in time, but they gladly took what I had without any questions. The posters they produced with this art are a lot flashier, featuring some glowing neon typography and a large building-sized Game Boy in the empty space behind the building. I actually created the Game Boy for them as well (it was a later request), but much prefer the version you see above.

I noticed some fun tidbits after the project was finished. First of all, you can see an early iteration of the piece featured on the official TIFF Nexus Twitter account. Also, on the night of the event there was a “thank you” loop running onscreen throughout the evening – you can see my name in the thumbnail of this documentation video.

Last but not least, I have a lingering theory that might be of some interest to you. While I was working on this piece, the TIFF Nexus initiative was just starting up and was without any sort of official branding. After showing them the isometric direction I was going with this piece, I noticed their branding also started to take on a very isometric look. Take a look at the TIFF Nexus website to see for yourself.

The piece was lovingly created in Photoshop over a few nights of staring at isometric grids and reference photos of the building. My neck was sharply tilted downwards for many of those hours staring at details, so I may need some chiropractic attention.

Above: the promo video they produced using the pixel art.