what the?
What's a bran?
A bran is a template. A canvas if you like. Think back to when you were a kid - remember he-man figures? Each one essentially the same piece of plastic with a different paint job? bran is a bit like that.
Hopefully you can see bran as a creative outlet, a bit of a playground where you can try out your illustration and design skills within the confines of a simple object.
If anyone would like to link to back to us, we've now got a banner - click here to download...
How do I design a bran ?
See the link at the top? Design a bran? Click it. In there you'll find downloads of the files you'll need to make a bran. After that it's up to you - kick open your design package of choice and get creative. If you need a few ideas have a look at what's already been done, or have a look at some of our links for inspiration.
Anything goes - as long as you keep to the basic bran template, have some fun, use an existing design, do something new, try a homage, whatever. Just make sure to email your finished design to us and we'll put it on the site with a link to your site for your trouble.
Why should I bother?
Chill out - nobody's making you. This is meant to be a fun exercise - it gives you as an artist or designer the opportunity to put your individual stamp on a generic object. You retain full copyright of your design and we'll link back to you, put your contact details up, add a bio, whatever you want.
Where's my bran?
We're getting a lot of bran at the moment - this means we can't reply to every individual email (though we'd like to).
If you can't see your bran on the site, don't be offended - it could be for one of many reasons. It's possible we just haven't put it up yet. There's also the possibility that it's not going up - this doesn't mean we don't like it, there's a lot more to it than that.
To give you some idea of how we make the decisions, heres a list covering some of the main things we look for in a bran. So, the things we like in a bran are...
A high level of artisitic skill, for example:
An idea that is super-original, for instance:
A really creative, original use of the template:
A bran that makes us laugh (sometimes that's all it takes), like these:
And some of the things that make us go "meh"...
- Character based brans - we'd much rather see some sort of crazy Jackson Pollocked bran than yet another one with a smiley face
- Badly put together brans - dodgy exporting, the wrong size, too much compression, sloppy colouring - all negative points
- Changing the original template too far
- Using an idea we've already seen
Not that anything on that list is going to disqualify you, but it's worth taking into account.
If your bran doesn't make the site, don't take offence, just have another go - if you have a strong idea and can execute it well, then you're bound to get a bran on the site. Good luck, and enjoy!
Who's bran-man?
Bran-man was the first bran. He's pretty plain, but we like him.