Fire, Then Rain

(front cover, back cover – click to enlarge)

Years ago, my friend Jason Upright linked me up with a band he knew called The Shape of the Earth and we've worked together on their debut full-length, a digital EP, and now their second full-length, Fire, Then Rain. Working with these guys is always a treat as the band and I are aesthetically in sync with each other. To honestly ridiculous levels, really. This time around, we went bolder and more colorful while maintaining an air of sophistication and refinement and keeping with the theme of nature that permeates all of our work together.

For starters, since the moment I heard the title, I knew I had to put "Fire," on the front and "Then Rain" on the back. It just felt right and the band were totally receptive to both the idea and the reasoning I had behind the move. I also knew I wanted to have crude, organic shapes of fireballs and rain drops to be the source of color on the package. Instead of using something lame like the pen tool, I roughly sketched and cut with scissors the forms and, with obscure but relevant water- and fire-related imagery intact, I treated these shapes to a heavy does of halftones. I had all of the pieces and the colors in the layout for a couple days but couldn't find a composition I was happy with. That is, until I cranked up the volume of the type – and that, for me, was that.

All in all, I very much look forward to getting the printed piece in my hands to photograph and post on my design portfolio. As always, working with these guys was a treat.


(crude forms – click to enlarge)

Vintage Advertising (Of My Kind)

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While preparing materials for a client meeting several weeks ago, I stumbled upon this flyer I created for Stan's Record Bar in Lancaster, PA. Likely drawn up in 1984 or 1985, I'm not sure why I would have drawn this – outside of my love for this store.

If you've read High Fidelity, well, Stan's was my brother and I's very own Championship Vinyl. Inhabited daily by Mark & Harris, Stan's sold – just like the flyer says – imports, rarities, oldies, punk, new wave, and metal vinyl that we spent our allowance and job money on every few weeks.

We'd hang in Stan's for hours, talking with Mark & Harris about all things music while naturally playing new releases, new bands, b-sides, live tapes, and checking out the latest Kerrang! magazine in from England. All told, Stan's – along with Sam Goody, BBC Records, Record Revolution, and Kim's West – played a major part in my life that's combined music and design. Much respect.

Draw On! (2012)

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Dorothy Frey and the fine art department have been putting on the Draw On! for a couple years now, and this was the first time I had the pleasure of joining in. A great showing of students, adults, and faculty alike worked on figure drawing, mono prints, and still life work – all without the worry of being graded!

I went straight to the sparsely-populated still life room and sunk my teeth into meshing a tea pot, a corn cob, and some beautiful drift wood with my pencil, pen, and ink styling. Normally I don't draw objects that actually exist but after I shook off a little rust (and a few nerves resulting from drawing in public once again), I had a lot of fun hanging out with my fellow roommates. Not until I got home did I realize just how much I was channeling Georgia O'Keeffe and her male counterpart (pun intended) that day! Wow.

Great conversation, pure passion for the craft, and an incredible turnout fueled by pizza and snacks – I left feeling like I better spend a lot more time sharpening my skills (pun intended) for next year's event.

The "Contain Us" Stop Motion Video

(For best results, click on the "Vimeo" logo to watch in HD)

In celebration of the Devin Townsend Project's Contain Us deluxe package being released just in time for the holidays, I created a stop motion video for both my archives and for promotional use by the record label. I shot it on-site in the photography section of PCA&D and had a blast doing it.

Over 3,400 views in just 2 days and another 1,600 over the next week for 5,000+ in the first 10 days out there. It's a lot of fun to share something I did on my own one afternoon with Devin's fans around the world. When this was posted on Blabbermouth on December 22nd, the first comment made me smile: "awesome... reminds me of classic Sesame Street." Indeed.

During the actual shooting, I came up with a few impromptu ideas while, in hindsight, I have several more I wish I integrated as well. Not surprising, of course, seeing as how this was my first-ever attempt at stop motion. Oh well, life and design are always works in progress, right? Right.



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Modern Vintage (Banners)

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Every 18 months or so, Jennifer asks my assistance in designing new banners and buttons for her Sally Jane Vintage blog and Etsy shop. For the 2012 (and beyond) version, the only request I received was to have the imagery complete itself while going to white around the edges. Thus giving the graphic a free-floating feeling, as opposed to a cropped look.

I wanted to create something that didn't look like any other vintage fashion site. There are many stylish blogs out there and after checking out a few of them, I dove back into my world. In the end, I'm only ever successful at what I do if I'm doing what feels right to me. With that said, Jennifer loved it and went live with it on January 1st.

Notes: I used the same beautiful font I used for the look book that I both shot and designed for Sally Jane Vintage late in 2011. That brought some consistency along with fresh new colors that can work year round.


(the 2012 color palette, including typography [l, r])

Contain(ing) My Excitement!

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For more images from the package, go here.

I had the immense pleasure of creating a very deluxe package for the Devin Townsend Project which is now being shipped to fans around the world. What a treat to work on a project of this levity and intensity, for sure. The package's features include a 12" x 12" charcoal linen slipcase, a 64-page book, a 45.5" x 11.75" gatefold centerpiece, 6xCD, 2xDVD, and more.

Throughout the process, I received nothing but the fullest support for my concept from everyone involved – most notably Devin and the almighty Steve Joh. Much respect and many thanks to two of them and so many others. Now that it's made it through production, I'm beyond excited for fans to pick up a copy, dig in, and have fun experiencing everything for the first time.

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My quotes from the press release:

Upon getting the call to work on what would become the "Contain Us" collection, I saw this as a chance to bring everything – both released and unreleased, seen and unseen – together in one clean, elegant, and utterly deluxe package.

I immediately began the process of developing a plan to bring that vision to fruition. As we all know, Devin is anything but cliché so eliminating dripping blood and the "none more black" approach was easy. Instead, I leaned away from all things metal and turned my aesthetics toward that of fine art, museums, and high-end printing methods. From the texture of the book and its slipcase to the feeling of the paper itself, I wanted everything to exude "class."

Devin & Co. were touring the states this past summer and I joined him in Philadelphia to both review my plans and to make sure we're on the same page. From the get-go, Devin & I were 100% in sync. To put it simply; the meeting could not have gone any smoother. For instance, the DTP albums and their concept inspired several aspects of my design concept and seeing those musical and lyrical ideas shift into the visual realm excited us both.

Hanging with Devin that day also gave me an opportunity to photograph both himself and the band behind the scenes. Several of those photographs can be found inside the album-sized book that contains approximately 250 rare or never-seen-before images culled from the band's personal archives, professional photographers from around the world, Devin's hand-written lyrics and studio notes, tour laminates, and pretty much everything in between.

"Contain Us" was no small task to coordinate, for any of us involved. However, seeing it all come together made it all worth it. Especially for me when I received an email from Devin saying: "Beyond cool. Seriously, way to knock it the FUCK out of the park bro!" Worth it, indeed.

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The "Modern/Vintage" Look Book

Open publication - Free publishing - More fashion

Note: To view properly, click to "expand."

Recently, I had the opportunity to photograph a vacant building in the Financial District of Manhattan, NYC. Known simply by its address, 5 Beekman, the building had me wanting to not only capture my own photographic work but also to shoot something special for Sally Jane Vintage. Upon doing so, I put together a "look book" with a focus on the fashion and photography.

THE HISTORY: Designed in April 1881 as The Kelly Building (after builder, Eugene Kelly), christened Temple Court in March 1882, and built to completion in 1883 of brick and terra cotta, Temple Court was 165,000 square feet featuring 212 office suites, a vault of safe-deposit boxes, an atrium topped with a glass pyramid, and much more. It was the first-ever fireproof building in the city of New York and the third with an elevator. Due to (of all things) fire code violations, the atrium was boarded up in 1940. Hidden behind the drywall, tenants from that point on would never even know of the atrium's existence. This drywall, despite its sad aesthetic, served to help preserve the railings and their character for future use. Vacant for the last decade and obscured in the New York skyline until 2010, the (likely) future hotel is now in the midst of finalizing its ownership and subsequent plans for redevelopment.

The Process Behind: Gone Forever

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Back in 1999, upon receiving a freshly-mastered copy of the band's Reject the Sickness album from long-time friend, Alan Douches, I began the process of signing God Forbid to Century Media Records – where I was then Director of North American A&R.

Three years later, for their sophomore effort, I put together a futuristic/apocalyptic concept based on the original ideas set forth by guitarist Dallas Coyle for the "Better Days" single artwork.

As art director and designer for the project, I brought in Travis Smith to illustrate my ideas. I wanted a tri-fold front cover for the booklet that, when folded inside the jewel case, would display only one of the panels but when opened up would reveal the entire 3-panel landscape. On the back cover, we move forward slightly in time as the raven flies into the distance towards the ruined city.

In order to aid Travis in my vision, I created some seriously non-epic sketches in which he turned into several ridiculously epic illustrations! However, the sketches were a major part of the process and therefore set the tone for the final packaging.

THE ART OF THE MUSIC POSTER

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I was asked to submit art for a book titled Classic Rock Posters 1952-2012 which "aims to cover all the key musical genres, graphic artists and performers during the last 60 years in poster form." It's worth noting that it's being written by Mick Farren (Underground Press, NME) along with Dennis Loren (artist, former art director for Creem magazine).

When push came to shove, however, I found that designing posters is something I haven't done a ton of to-date. Well, that's not entirely true, I did a lot of designs for record labels that were very product-driven and not gallery-ready. I've also worked on so many catalog projects that never required a poster or I was Project Manager for the bands and hired out collateral designs. In-between all of that, I found some time to create a few posters I was proud of.

Regardless, in digging through the archives, I dug up a few of my favorites to submit (several of which have been seen here). I may even dig into the rolls and rolls of music posters I've kept since the 1980s and see what I find! Ah, a trip down memory lane…

Immerse Yourself In The Floyd

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In the season of Pink Floyd that my summer has been, I was called upon to quickly create a 4-page series of new release book pages for several upcoming Pink Floyd collections. These are very sales-oriented pages but I try to never approach them in that dry of a sense. Instead, I also hope to treat them more editorially, or book-like.

To sit back, crank up non-single classic Floyd tracks like "Summer '68," "A Pillow of Winds," "San Tropez," "The Gold It's In The…," and "Childhood's End" while working on these "rush job" pages is something to embrace. For full details (of which there are many), click on the images to enlarge, and go pre-order them from your local record store or Amazon.com.

It's worth noting that the Immersion sets for the legendary Wish You Were Here album hits stores on November 8 while The Wall sees the light on February 28, 2012. It's also worth noting that I'm creating the sales pages for these titles as well.

The Process Behind: Admissions Poster

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Every year I have the pleasure of working with Natalie and the outstanding Admissions department at PCA&D. Every other year I get to redesign the look for their office, which is also coincidentally the best year! This year was of the "every other" kind so I dug in and began the process of tackling the first piece we dive into every year; the poster.


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STAGE 1: You've got to start somewhere, and for one reason or another, I often start conservative. However, the color scheme, fonts, partial obscuring of imagery and general guidelines of the final piece appeared instantly in the process.


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STAGE 2: I'm all about type-driven design so I busted the type out of the box and began to arrange it flush-left then flush-right and scaling it up and down all the while. I wanted to create a grid but then smash it, while also respecting it. No small feat.


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STAGE 3: The break-through stage, for sure. Back came the horizontal strip, now with a friend, and a healthy dose of a -11.75º angular tilt. I pictured this on the walls of schools and offices, knowing the tilt will demand attention and cause it to leap off the wall. Also, my goal now was focused on creating the sense that this poster captured merely a small segment of an otherwise on-going, ever-growing massive world of student artwork created at PCA&D. The poster, unlike previous years, was not about a few pieces – but the student work as a collective.


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STAGE 4: Naturally, I had to try the positive 11.75º angle as well. Unlike the -11.75º attempt, where I was all about it and attempting every logical type alignment I could muster, it didn't take me long to know this was not the better solution of the two.


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STAGE 5: And finally, instead of angling the bars and type, what about angling the artwork? This brought an all-new feeling to the poster, while utilizing something I was gravitating towards all along with the tilt. It came down to a matter of playing with the composition of type over top the imagery and the removal of specific artwork for reasons such as theme, content, and redundancy. The changing out of imagery was trickier than in previous years, of course, and often times I wanted to kick myself for painting myself into a corner with this approach. Regardless, I was very excited that they picked this version while, honestly, I also would have been very happy if they selected Stage 3 (far right). A good position to be in, for sure.

And with the final approval, the poster set the tone of typography, color and composition for the rest of the Admissions materials to follow. I truly do love this project.

For Your In-Flight Pleasure.

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For the first time in my life, I created an ad for the legendary magazine of extreme in-flight consumerism; SkyMall. Psyched. Thousands of people bored to tears whilst stuck in an over-crowded tin can at 30,000 feet will be able to check out just how precisely and artfully I squeezed a headline, 5 pack-shots, 486 words via 2,284 characters into a 7.375" x 10.5" ad (minus the SkyMall footer, as required by the publication). Lucky bastards, all of 'em.

I'm actually very excited to have something in the magazine but, all kidding aside, Tom Recchion & Co. are delivering some beautiful special editions. I had a great time this past May sitting with Tom in his office in Los Angeles, exploring many of his present and future projects. Much respect.

Man Alive Creative: The Portfolio

(click images to link to the portfolio site)

I'm excited and proud to have created a portfolio site that, for the first time ever, sees my design and photography together in an easy to navigate, beautiful fashion. It's a thrill for me to see all of this work together under the moniker "Man Alive Creative." I welcome you to stop on by and tour the new portfolio. Feel free to share it with your friends, your family and (without hesitation) utterly complete strangers. I do love having good company stop by. Enjoy!

The Great Gig In The (Summer) Sky

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This summer has been filled with lots of great work; be it creative or production design. Some projects have been both.

Case in point; I was hired to design a series of merchandise boxes for one of my Top 5 all-time favorite bands, Pink Floyd. At first, due to the major rush status of the job, taking the straightforward "flat color, no playing around" route was looking like the best option. However, as I explored the artwork – I simply couldn't help myself. With approval from my contact, I began to play with texture, album imagery, and more until the series quickly came together. Look for these shirts on an end-rack in Target stores soon.

Not unlike getting approvals from Apple Records before, receiving the band's management's approval brought both my life and musical journey full circle.

P.S. After catching the most incredible live production I, or anyone else, has ever seen with Roger Waters The Wall tour – I beg of you to watch this historic event unfold.

The Summer Is Heating Up!

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Some projects are at the printers, some have just been given the green light, and others that have been in the works for quite some time are now peeking their head up on the horizon. With 3 book designs coming together between now and the fall (and another before year's end) and tons of creative marketing materials on the plate right now – this summer is going to be one of my favorite design seasons in a long, long time. Until I can post more on these works, enjoy the…

Communication Arts Photography Annual 2011 online gallery, here. Also, I've been posting new photography taken on my latest visit to Detroit here.

An Education For All Seasons.

(click image to enlarge) *

As part of the 2011 marketing material redesign campaign between myself and the design college, the Continuing Education department was looking for a new look for their quarterly catalog. By representing each of the seasons on the cover, while spotlighting the current, the school is able to let everyone know that classes run year round – a crucial message to the education of the potential student.

The original design was more muted and linear but after we all agreed it was overly corporate looking for the program as a whole, I adjusted the color palette to be more vibrant as well as adding an organic, artistic mark to loosen up the crisp lines. This resulted in something that was more approachable, fun, and attention-grabbing.

A sampling of an interior spread is below, featuring page folios that continue the theme of artistic marks throughout.



* All designs contain "for placement only" images.

The Process Behind: The War Within

(Above: The final cover. Click to enlarge.)

While new designs are being created (but not yet finalized), I dug through the archives to – for the first time ever – compile and post the "process" behind one of my favorite album cover projects, Shadows Fall's The War Within.

Prior to this album, I had both signed the band and created the artwork for their first Century Media album, Of One Blood. This time around, I worked exclusively with singer Brian Fair – having him send me both the lyrics and his thoughts on the album followed by my diving into both naming the record and conceptualizing the visuals for it. I recall that we originally agreed upon another title I had suggested but, due to a band (whose name I can't recall for the life of me) coincidentally announcing their upcoming release of the same name, we moved towards The War Within.

The idea for The War Within turned to one man – any man, mind you – and the chaos and beauty that surrounds each of us here on earth. Birth, death, love, hate, riots, pollution, power, religion, nature, corruption of the mind, the soul, and so on. By simply living, we are open and susceptible to them all – to confront each of them, from within.


(Above: The process of building the cover's box. Click to enlarge.)

I wanted to create this without the help of the computer and without looking like every other metal album cover in that era. The first idea that struck me was to create a box that would be hung by screw eyes and metal wire, photographed, and then compiled into a cover design. Beyond that, I grabbed public images that reflected the forces of the world around us, selected a couple key photographs from my archives, dug up some found objects, and – most importantly – bought an antique Topp Cola soda crate to house everything in.

I spray painted the interior crate black, wet tinted the background imagery for an aged look, compiled the central imagery, mounted them on the backs of broken row dividers from the crate, and sent it off to Justin Borucki to be photographed in macro detail (back cover, interiors) as well as in full (front cover).

Released September 21, 2004, and reaching #20 on the Billboard charts, The War Within sold over 350,000 copies for Century Media – then the label's best seller ever and three times as many as the band's previous release. They also received a Grammy Award nomination for Best Metal Performance for this album. To this day, The War Within remains one of the great albums from the New Wave of American Heavy Metal movement of the 2000s and I'm proud to say I played a part in it.


(Above: Detail photography by Justin Borucki. Click to enlarge.)

When Designs Become Reality

(above: T-shirts and hats, featuring our team's
designs on sale at the museum's gift shop.)

As part of 2011's Designathon, two of our many designs went immediately into production in order to arrive in time for their new exhibit, The Grid, opening at the Quilt & Textile Museum on March 15th. Recently, team member Josh Yinger & I met up with Executive Director at The Heritage Center of Lancaster County, Wendy Nagle, to pick up a couple samples, take a few photos, and view the original (and ridiculously beautiful) weather vane that inspired our design. What a great moment for Josh to see the work we labored over during those 24 hours come to life, for sure. I tell you, holding your work once it gets printed never, ever gets old.


(above: Josh Yinger wearing and holding printed
merchandise in front of the Heritage Center's
weather vane that inspired the hat's design.)

Self-Promoting (The Heck Out Of Yourself)

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Earlier this year, I worked with a friend/client's husband to help him promote himself out of the freelance consultancy business and into the realm of full-time employment.

First, I photographed him for the better part of an hour against a neutral background. All the while, I held a conversation with him so his form, figure, and gestures would feel more natural. Second, I chose my favorite image and based on the design on its composition and tone.

In the end, he chose to go with another, more light-hearted photograph from the session that represented the voice he wanted to project on the card. The design itself adjusted accordingly but remained intact, which I was happy about as well.

Dirty, Dirty Bobbins

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As part of my aptly-named, extremely naive, and I'm-far-too-busy-for-all-of-this-and-yet-here-I-go Photographers for Architectural Preservation organization, this Saturday sees the first of 4 weekly events at the former General Textile Mill in Western Maryland. In order to make this more of an event instead of a simple money-for-access fundraiser, I designed a commemorative t-shirt (above) for each participant that was inspired by a 1950s-era note still inside the mill (below).

FYI: If you're a serious photographer and are either interested or feeling spontaneous, I have a few spots available for the morning of March 19th and the afternoon of March 26th. Otherwise, it's a sell-out! Just drop me an email ASAP if you'd like to join the event.