The Great Gig In The (Summer) Sky

(click image to enlarge)

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.

Art Imitating The Lives Of Heroic Women

(click on image to enlarge)

Vintage war posters have always been a favorite of mine. They're truly the result of true artisans; rich in high typographical and design aesthetic. And although I, like many, tend to drift towards the striking imagery of war and political intrigue – I recently found myself enamored with the imagery of the woman's role in World War II. Imagery that sought not only to attract women to get involved in the country's efforts but to reflect their importance to the men on the front lines. To take things further, I wanted to connect the dots between the artistic styling of the posters and the photography of women actually performing these tasks. The result is imagery that is often equally as striking in reality as it is in fiction. Those were exceptional times for both the U.S. and the world, and exceptional times make for exceptional efforts. To unveil their full detail, please click on the images to enlarge both the manufacturing and nurse collages.


(click on image to enlarge)

What's New Is What's Old

(click image to enlarge)

With packaging on my mind more than ever right now, I found my way over to Dieline where I found their 2011 Dieline Awards gallery. While there's many styles to be found, I find myself wrestling with the fact that many of today's most lauded pieces (be it Dieline, Print, CommArts, etc.) are simply rehashes of 19th & 20th century design works.

While I age or distress much of my work in addition to occasionally reaching back to utilize vintage imagery – I maintain a goal of achieving a feeling via select elements, not an overall replication. How disappointing it will be one day to have someone review much-heralded work from these times – only to discover that the innovation behind the work was done 100 years prior, by hand no less.

With great reason these early 20th century works resonate with today's designers. Their innovation and craft launched themselves within the wave of the industrial revolution, and changed the shape of the applied arts forever. But now, more than ever, I'm conscious of allowing only inspiration – not imitation – to enter into my works.

The Summer Is Heating Up!

(click image to enlarge)

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.

The Art Of Printing: Tree Of Codes

Jonathan Safran Foer, author of Everything Is Illuminated and Eating Animals, created Tree Of Codes – a book that utilizes the entirety of Bruno Schulz's The Street of Crocodiles. The unique manner of the book's creation rests on the shoulders of its innovative printing, as illustrated beautifully in these short videos. Note: Please view them in order, from top to bottom.

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 In Rome…

(click image to enlarge)

While I lived in Los Angeles for 7 years, I foolishly never stopped by the former Neutra offices on Glendale Blvd. in Silver Lake. However, I made sure to stop by when we were visiting the City of Angels last week. I wonder if the building is still on the market? Seriously, I need to win Mega Millions ASAP. And by "win", I mean actually play! Speaking of spending some quality cash viewing some superior architecture in LA, go here.

Overall, the trip out west was filled with great friends, excellent food, old (and new) haunts, clients, and Joshua Tree. Great stuff, to say the least. For select images from my trip, I'll be posting them on my Tumblr page as the days and weeks pass. And now I'm back home, working on freelance projects, and getting back to business for the summer.


(Note: Bottom photo by Jennifer Martin.)

Good Cover, Bad Cover

(click image to enlarge)

THE (REALLY) GOOD:
This is what classic, balanced, and yet challenging typography can do over top (pun intended) the right imagery. If only I had more opportunities to work with indie bands who allow for such minimalism, right? Anyway, this is utterly gorgeous and striking on all levels. Love it. And while I heard this image was used in Cosmopolitan for an article titled "Is This The Most Satisfying Sex Position" (and no, I'm not kidding), I'm still a big fan. Just be careful what you license art directors and designers, is all.


(click image to enlarge)

THE BAD:
I'm sure the rabid Radiohead fanbase will cry foul at my labeling this as "bad" but… well, it just plain is. In fact, it's the worst artwork featured on any Radiohead, or Radiohead-related, album or single since the regretful 1993 Pablo Honey album itself. While art, like music, is subjective – whoever might claim this as good is simply exercising their right to be wrong.


(click image to enlarge)

THE (REALLY) UGLY:
Like hipsters walking around in Iron Maiden shirts, believing their pseudo-love of metal and hard rock to be as painfully ironic as their headbands and mustaches, this cover is a joke that has no laugh track. Even for someone like Lady Gaga who's far more relevant to ridiculous dresses than great music, I hope this is simply a bad April Fool's joke or something.

All Quiet (On The Surface)

(click image to enlarge)

It may be quiet these days on the blog, and I sincerely apologize for that, but that doesn't mean that I haven't been very busy working on several projects that will see the light in both 2011 and 2012. In fact, between the final days of the spring semester's classes, the mighty, year-end faculty vs. student softball grudge match, and freelance projects in the book, CD, logo, and marketing/promotion realms – it's been an extremely busy season so far.

More to come from these projects as they mature throughout the year, for sure. In the meantime, here's an inspiring video I found whilst researching materials for inclusion in my Typography 1 syllabus this coming Fall. Enjoy!