Resolutions Holiday Cards
In: artists| interesting
23 Jan 2010
I really like these unique holiday cards sent out by Andy Babb as an alternative to traditional holiday cards. With a focus on the new year and vintage images pulled from public domain sources they really stand out and have a nice dose of humor. For Print Only runs through the process. Now I have another source to check when I want to find some vintage artwork, the Library of Congress online archives.
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- Tags: design, holidays, interesting, new years
Double Daily Blogs
11 Jan 2010
As part of my New Year’s resolutions, I began a daily design blog to keep me working on something every day. The goal is to make something small while still getting a bit of practice with a design technique or program trick. Ten days in and it’s going great. I haven’t had trouble finding the time to whip up something, anything, and while the designs are simple I’m proud of how they’ve come out. The blog is part of my flickr account, found here.
It’s been going so well that yesterday I decided to start up a second daily blog, this one for quick sketches. Again, the idea is not to produce a masterpiece every day but to get a basic sketch done every day without fail. While I still aim to do more complex and complete designs and illustrations, even if I did just these blogs that’s over 700 pieces of work, however small, in one year. That’s a lot of practice and it adds up. The sketch blog can be found on a new, simple tumblr page.
I would recommend a daily project to anyone that is looking to improve a creative pursuit. I have started these blogs along with some members of a forum and the public nature creates a sense of obligation that is a lot harder to shrug off than private projects.
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- Tags: 365, chatter, design, illustration, projects
Happy Holidays from the Ink Asylum
29 Dec 2009
Happy Belated Holidays!
The festive image above was done for my day job’s holiday card, well received by my coworkers. It was a fun bit of creative design to cap off my first full year on the job. The background is an interpretation of Times Square here in NYC. It was a challenge coming up with enough non-denominational holiday images, and I had to stretch the definition to fill enough signs.
Now that I have my blog up and running I have a few New Year’s Resolutions:
1. Post a new entry on the blog at least once a week.
2. Redesign the blog theme to something more reflective of my design style.
3. Post a new quick design every day on a new flickr photostream.
That’s a good start for next year that should help me push my design abilities and establish a better online identity. All of which can be found here.
- (2) Comments
- Tags: chatter, design, holidays
Ok Go – WTF?
In: chatter| interesting| music| video
6 Dec 2009OK Go – WTF? from OK Go on Vimeo.
I don’t watch music videos that often, but I’m always glad to see one this creative, especially when it’s for one of my favorite bands. Ok Go’s previous videos have focused on one-shot, elaborate dance routines, and they’ve combined that with a simple but striking visual effect to produce a colorful, entertaining performance.
I used to work as a video game tester, so the trailing effect in the video reminds me of a common bug I used to encounter. When the game had nothing to render it would just leave up whatever was last on screen, leading to visuals much like those in this video, though much less artistic.
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- Tags: interesting, music, ok go, video, wtf?
moon living
4 Dec 2009
I sometimes think that I fall back on vintage designs too much, but it’s hard to resist the temptation when the result usually looks so fun and colorful. The above mock ad was done for a short story anthology collecting pulp stories. The project has stalled somewhat, but I’m glad that it inspired me to work on this piece, as I think it turned out well. Who wouldn’t want to have a second home on the moon, after all?
As if I haven’t worked on enough vintage designs these days, I’ve been putting a lot of thought into redoing the theme for this blog and am naturally gravitating in that direction. With any luck I’ll settle on an idea in the next week or two and begin sketching and putting together graphics by the new year. It’d be great to have the new design launch on the first, but before then I have a few gifts to work on. The holidays approach faster than expected.
the district
In: projects
1 Nov 2009
I recently had the pleasure of working again with Molly Crabapple’s ever lovely artwork, this time on a set of perfume and room scent labels. The company making the scents is Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab, and they share the vintage aesthetic that both Molly and I enjoy working with, so the project was a lot of fun for all involved. Proceeds from sales of this line of aromas will go towards a great cause as well, Habitat for Humanity. They’re working to fix up New Orleans, and because of that the perfume line uses the city for inspiration.
The biggest challenge was working with such small labels. Each one is around 2″ on each side, so I had to balance legibility with the complexity of the fonts and graphics. There was a bit more room to work with on the room labels, but in the end it was nice to get some practice fitting a design into such a small area.
It was also necessary to come up with multiple designs using just one drawing. Thankfully, I was able to play around with the colors in Molly’s work to allow for a unique feel for each label.
(Molly Crabapple, Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab, Habitat for Humanity)
scott johnson’s extra life
19 Aug 2009
Scott Johnson is one of those people that somehow seems to fit 28 hours of work into a 24 hour day. He is a husband, father, and webcomic illustrator who still managed to build a geek media empire in his free time. He keeps all of that in the air with a consistency of quality and a bright spirit. Not content to rest on his laurels, he keeps launching new podcasts, creating new art projects, and engaging his growing network of fans in new ways.
It was with this admiration for what he has accomplished that I decided to put together a piece of gift art for him. Scott’s Extra Life Radio podcast is a rich slice of geek culture, so I took the bold text style of his logo and built it out of as many references and topics as I could fit. I sent it to him and, to my delight, he posted it on his site and got a strong enough reaction from his fans that he’s going to turn the basic design into a t-shirt. I couldn’t be more honored.
dr. sketchy’s anti-art school
In: projects
9 Aug 2009
Most of my posts so far have been Molly Crabapple related, but that’s been where much of my art focus has been the past month or two. She’s at the center of a pretty impressive network of artists, talent, projects, and workshops, so as I’ve done more work for her I’ve been drawn into some of it myself.
Perhaps the most enjoyable aspect I’ve become involved in is Dr. Sketchy’s Anti-Art School. At its core it’s a life drawing class, but one that’s made more interesting and fun by holding it in a bar, using burlesque dancers as models, and adding themes and contests. With chapters all around the world the idea brings in artists of all levels and each chapter has a dedicated following. I’ve only been attending for a couple months but it has certainly become one of my favorite activities and has boosted my art output.
I did the piece above for Molly at the request of the week’s model. It was another chance for me to play around with a common style, the tabloid. As always, Molly’s projects continue to be both fun and challenging, so if most of my blog ends up being work for her I can hardly complain.
limited edition Molly Crabapple posters
In: chatter
31 Jul 2009Molly Crabapple has a limited number of the Amanda Palmer/Vermillion Lies posters I designed with her artwork. She started with 100 but from what I hear they are going fast. You can buy one from her store for $10 plus shipping.
bringing home the dots
In: artists
30 Jul 2009
This brilliantly vintage take on Pac-Man caught my eye in my feed and I had to check out the rest of the artist’s work. I think it’s the ghost cookies that really make me smile. Dave Perillo’s blog is filled with similarly clever, crisp, and gorgeous art in the same retro style that hearkens back to old Hanna Barbera cartoons, advertisements and packaging from the 50’s. I’m always impressed when an artist can maintain an old look without having it restrain their ideas.
This piece is going to be part of an upcoming video game art show in Philadelphia put on by The Autumn Society of Pennsylvania. I wish I could check it out, but I’ll have to wait for a New York show to tackle gaming.
what this is
Pictures, drawings, design and ramblings from a New York City dwelling artist.
what I do
- Ink Asylum: Thanks! It's great to get comments from fellow designers and look forward to seeing what else you pu [...]
- Chris: You've got some really interesting work here and I love your vintage style illustrations (living on [...]
- Marsha: I love your use of textures and negative spaces! [...]