The debate that wasn't there?

As a visual designer, you innately take notice of how others practice the same craft. That's why I was so taken aback when I saw this online ad today.
















Let's zoom in on Walnuts' face there:

Sure, Bams' pic looks like a high school photo, but Mc-Caine is death warmed over. Very crypt-keeper. Further proof of the accursed MSM!

Lower Hater Group show

For this group show on June 6th, we were tasked with using old LPs as canvas and creating something in the theme of "vinyl apocalypse." I really struggled with this for awhile, and in retrospect I can pinpoint the challenges this specific project presented.

I knew I was going to do something stencil oriented, because I wanted multiple prints; I also wanted to do something that would really utilize the circular canvas. I played around for a time with trying to base the image around the center hole in the record, but in the end it wasn't a big cosmetic issue at all and quite trivial. Another issue with vinyl as canvas was the size- a 12 inch disk doesn't provide too much room for painting, so I needed something tight and detailed within that small space.



Thematically, I started with the whole biblical vision of apocalypse and I experimented with some imagery from Albrecht Durer and other renaissance artists. For some reason, I tend to combine religious and commercial imagery quite often in my miscellaneous work, and this was no different. But it was also no good. And probably dangerously cliche, as I imagine plenty of artists will be doing the whole "four horsemen" bit just like I was thinking.




I proceeded from one cliche to another by playing around with a nuclear apocalypse theme... maybe because I had recently finished Cormac McCarthy's The Road and still had thoughts of that lingering in my head. I had this idea for imagery of a missile silo, but I had some concerns about whether it would be recognizable. In retrospect, it's kind of hard to tell what it is.


And then it popped in my head.

Weapon of Mass Destruction? Something detailed and circular? Something totally badass?



Ah yes. The Deathstar. A logical choice, really. And they came out Hott.

University District Streetfair bag

I've been granted the task of creating the poster and identity for this year's University District Streetfair here in Seattle, and the organizers recently asked me to design a quick image for their bags.

I like the design because of the implied lines and use of space. The image will be printed in the regular dimensions of 8.5x11," but it doesn't look so standard; The overspray in the center suggests the print is wider than it actually is, and the balloon top right plays with the notion of where a border should be. While it's certainly not the uber-cool offset printing that all the kids are into nowadays, it's the next best thing, and will fool some lazy eyes.

Stencil: Visit Sunny Seattle

A quick couple of images I took the other day while testing a new shirt design on canvas.










Looks totally 80's, doesn't it?

Flyer design

I've got a number of shows coming up in the beginning of 2008, so it's definitely time I make some promotional material. Here's a quick evolution of my attempts.

First we have an image I created rather late at night and probably under the influence of something. Not very good. Bad colors, poor source material (I was foolishly working with pictures of my canvases instead of the original digital files), and a rather clumsy execution. As you can see by the text, I still haven't committed to a palette, and nothing looks set.



Still, this is why we have first drafts of everything. My mentor always instilled walking away and coming back to your work after a break. You see things you didn't before.



So there are many elements that I carried on here, but some I needed to drastically alter. Changing the background from black and brown to white and blue really made the whole thing lighter and tighter. And refocusing on the boombox (as opposed to the face) brings a better balance to the composition (and makes more sense). I kept the thematic element of ciphers, but did a better job of positioning and weighting them.



Some color adjustments, and dirtying up the image with a few splatter brushes. Thing looks like it could be a goddamn rave flyer. Whatever the case, miles better than my first attempt.

Update:
Just ordered 500 of them from a stoner printing company in Portland. We'll see how that turns out. Should have them in my hands by the end of the week, though.