Sunday, November 13, 2011

CB750 Cafe Racer

WOW. I'm really liking this, really really liking this.

Japanese custom motorcycle builders Whitehouse have made this stunning Honda CB750 Cafe racer - nice!!!

70′s styling together with the twin bug eye headlights make for some excellent style. Underneath that fairing sits an original carbureted, air-cooled, four-cylinder engine that delivers 20hp more than the original [65+20 i think!] production version after being tuned and getting a new exhaust.



The bad news is that the bike/parts are difficult for anyone outside of Japan to order, i would love to fit that front fairing on my CB400.

me drool, drool, droooool,...

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Monday, June 1, 2009

Protect thy master, oh little minion!

My movie replica of Bumble Bee is just kick ass. I was just blown away by the intricate details of this 15 cm collectible. Waiting for the new transformer movie to release nxt year.

Sunday, May 31, 2009

MAKING OF THE CENTENARY PRO-GUITAR

3rd semester - August 2008, and I had a chance to do what I always wanted to. Build myself a fully functional electric guitar!

The course & the project: Computer Aided Product Design [CAPD], To design a product using computer tools for reverse engineering geometry and intent, design evaluation, modification and prototyping, in my case an electric guitar. This was clearly my favorite course so far and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

The course is spread over 5 months and requires a working prototype to be made as a testament to the design effectiveness. The idea of making an electric guitar initially didn’t go well as a course topic, since it was a complex and technically multifaceted project. It took three weeks and three presentations for the project to be approved by my faculty, to whom I’m really grateful.

3D rendering showing the direction of the project [helped a lot in terms of geting aproval for the project]. Shown below - Graphic details on the body of the guitar.

Machining the body was my favorite part of the project, CNC mill on the wood was just awesome to look at. A big thanx to Prof. Ananth Suresh, Balaji and Ravi from Advanced prototyping lab.

Below: Assembly and testing of electronics, Neel was a great help with the new circuit.

Thanx to Urvesh for his sublime skills in photography, he positioned the guitar and created an environment as close to the CAD rendering as possible, Looks great, doesn't it?

My fav' artist - Jim Lee

Bio: Lee attended Princeton University and majored in psychology with the intention of becoming a medical doctor. An elective course in Fine Arts reawakened his love for drawing. Jim, decided to try his hand at comic book art. This was a good decision, for in 1986, while working for Marvel Comics, Jim created "Alpha Flight". This series regarded Jim as a critical success, and quickly put his name on the comic book map.
But by no means could "Alpha Flight" compare to the success Jim garnered with the "X-Men", a series which today remains as the best-selling comic of all time.

Saturday, May 30, 2009

SKETCHBOOK DE FRANCIS

Put together some of my old sketches in a sketch book format, enjoy.

WORK FEATURES IN MANY A WEBSITE

Sometimes, the designs we create get reviews beyond our wildest imagination. So is the case with my "sexy" bookshelf which I designed for Saleem Sir's class. The idea was to create something sensational, but i didn’t expect it to be this sensational. Some people like it, some downright hate it,

My work has been published in the following websites [so far], do chk it out.

http://www.core77.com/blog/object_culture/arun_kumar_francis_study_on_sensational_designs_13068.asp
[15 Coolest Bookshelves]: http://oddee.com/item_96613.aspx
http://thejailbreak.com/2009/03/18/sexy-bookshelf/
http://www.2dayblog.com/2009/03/19/sexy-bookshelf-by-arun-kumar-francis/?lang=en
http://reader.feedshow.com/show_items-feed=d94a88eb009a364a2ea4d1638ac6ed1f
http://www.thefindbuzz.com/entertainment/Innovative-Bookshelf--Boldness-Pinned-on-Your-Wall/
http://theawesomer.com/sex-bookshelf/11033/
http://www.propeller.com/story/2009/03/23/modern-bookshelf-design/
http://www.idea-cool.cn/?p=3268
http://gadgets.blogs2k.com/2009/03/19/sexy-bookshelf-by-arun-kumar-francis/
http://dabonbb.tumblr.com/page/3
http://en.my7475.com/382.html
http://literaryobama.com/2009/03/24/a-sexy-bookshelf-for-obama/
http://www.geekgaz.com/goto/conceptual-gadgets/sexiest-bookshelf-in-the-word/
http://blog.thepowertoprovoke.com/2009/03/subliminal-sexon-shelf.html
http://acceptnoless.com/2009/03/20/sexagainst-your-walls/
http://209.85.175.132/search?q=cache:e-IEX0ITbssJ:www.flylyf.com/sexy-innovative-bookshelf/+arunkumar+francis&cd=61&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=in&client=firefox-a
http://decorfair.com/living-room/bookshelf-with-character/
http://dropular.net/user/Skiipp
http://propertyqube.com/blogs/Freshome/23264/
http://cribcandy.com/all/842e9b92f74b2755fcee62d540c6e477&pageoffset=0
http://maipiusenza.tumblr.com/
http://bbq.lv/jaunumi/sexigais_gramatu_plaukts
http://www.cida.org.tw/htdocs/modules/planet/view.article.php/857/b16
http://freshome.com/2009/03/20/innovative-bookshelf-boldness-pinned-on-your-wall/
http://www.instablogs.com/arun-kumar-francis/
http://www.hometone.org/entry/sexy-bookshelf-artistically-genius/
http://www.freshhousevision.com/2009/03/modern-bookshelf-design/
http://www.woohome.com/furniture/sex-bookshelf
http://netallica.yahoo.co.jp/news/71211
http://hem.feber.se/art/153119/bokhyllan_sexy/
http://www.meralalabaz.com/2009/03/20/seksi-kitaplik/
http://www.phistyle.com/archives/2182

actually, now if i Google my name, 100's of website open with my work in it,
Thanx to these websites, my coroflot visits are off the hook [~350 per day], see here
http://www.coroflot.com/public/individual_file.asp?individual_id=252063&portfolio_id=2030128&

STUDY ON SENSATIONAL DESIGNS

Design outcome can be sensible, sensual, sentimental, senseless or downright Sensational. I took up a study on sensational designs by its attributes to understand why some designs are absolutely sensational. To design a SHELF was the focus here, a single line flowing through the shelf to make out an expression, a shelf that makes the observer go 'wow', in this case plain 'sexy ;)

See here for more info:

http://www.behance.net/Gallery/Study-on-Sensational-Designs/181756


THE GAME - GANGLAND WARS!

Happen to find some of my old sketching recently. I dotingly remember making these sketches sitting at the back row of the class during my engineering days. What fun Sugu, Cithapu, Magee & myself used to have [2004].
“The Game” character is a retired ex-operative of the Indian intelligence faction [IIF]. A Government sector so secretive and small, whose sole purpose of existence was to exterminate all anti-national ideologies or elements. The operations of this department effectively dealt with terrorism during the 80’s & 90’s. Well, when IIF started operations on corruption within India; some serious shit started happening. Orders were given left and right for mass extermination of faulty candidates. Alarm raisers within/outside the organization were silenced [Ragiv Gandhi – at one point]. Top officials within IIF were corrupt. Disassembly of IIF is what happened next and all operations of IIF was closed [i.e. means covert operative members –terminated]. Some of them escaped and live among us now with false identities.
One such escapee is” the Game” [real name unknown]. IIF’s “shadow” program artificially enhanced the brain n body of the soldiers for effective use in covert missions. Game was one of the first voluntary test participants of Shadow. Now an aging survivor of the program, he lives a nomadic life.
This small comic strip of 7 pages explores the mystery life of Game and his primary source of income, underground gangland fighting competitions. Huge bucks are on bet every other weekend on such fight to death mêlée, which perfectly suits Games secretive past. The strips are all “no dialogue” boxes and produced here as raw scans, but still I try to convey a story. A story called The Game – Gangland wars

STYLISH BARCELONA TAKE UNITED’S CROWN

FC Barcelona were crowned European champions for a third time and the second in four seasons as a vibrant display of pass and move, capped by goals in either half from Samuel Eto'o and Lionel Messi, defeated Manchester United FC in Rome.
After ten minutes, Eto'o put the Spanish champions ahead and they never looked back. Xavi Hernández struck a post early in the second period and, though the clinching second goal did not arrive until the 70th minute – via, unusually, the head of Messi – Josep Guardiola's side were worthy winners.