Ricoh Copies?

Keyboard Characters Set.

Four years ago I created a unique self-promotional product I called Keyboard Characters. It was a fun set to create and worked really well as a self promotion for my business.

I still give them out at speaking engagements even though Apple has changed the modus operandi on keyboards so you can't insert stuff like your use to be able too. And I still have about five boxes of them sitting in my closet at home. ;-P


"Pet Monster" Keyboard Character.

Since I have them posted on my web site I periodically get email from art directors or creative directors who request a set. When I get a request like this I always send them one and include a few tear sheets as well. So in that respect it's still serving as a promotional item for me.

Around September, 2008 I received a phone call from an ad agency in New York. The person asked if I could send them two sets of the Keyboard Characters. I did and included some tear sheets. Nothing ever came from it and soon I forgot all about that brief interaction.


Ricoh Ad showing artwork in question.

Around February, 2009 I received an email from another designer asking me:

"Did you do some illustration for Ricoh?"

I told them I hadn't and they responded "Well I saw this ad in a magazine and it looks just like your character."

When I saw this ad I got that sinking feeling in my stomach, you know the one that happens when you look in your rear view mirror and a police car is right on your bumper.

It turns out that the agency (I'm purposely not naming names) I had sent two sets of Keyboard Characters too was the same agency that handled the Ricoh campaign for the C900 in September, 2008.

They didn't simply copy (pardon my pun) my art and use it, that would be easy enough to deal with. What they did is borrow the concept and equity (segmented multi-colored monster) of my art and exploited it for their own work. And they didn't even do a good job at that.


Ricoh "Scary!" campaign for C900.

I've talked to my copyright attorney about this and he agrees that it was definitely derived from my work but I have no way to prove it. In other words if I would have sent the Keyboard Characters via UPS with a tracking number and receipt that would have sufficed to prove it.

Since I posted this I've been contacted by a lawyer explaining my opinions and I'm now pursuing that course of action. Thank you for helping me understand how I can address this through official circles, I appreciate it.

I think anyone with an ounce of common sense can discern the source however, so I'll leave it in the court of public opinion.


Hostage quality photo of Ricoh brochure.

This summer I got another email from someone containing this image of a Ricoh brochure showcasing this character art again. Every time I think about this it pisses me off. I know someone, some where had to reference my design in order to create their own B movie version of it.

I debated whether to even post about this or not. But over the last year I've had numerous other people email me who have seen the original ad and thought I had done the monster art. Its like having a scab that just begins to heal and than gets snagged on something and ripped off again exposing the original wound.

So I decided to post about it, and see what others thought.

Surreal Email

Over the years I've had all kinds of illustrative requests. Tonight I was up late working on a deadline due tomorrow morning, and the following email showed up in my inbox:


Strange but true illustration request.

At first I thought it was spam, followed closely by my suspicion that a friend was joking around with me, and ending with the thought of "How can anyone think this is a good idea or an appropriate solution?"

Needless to say I wasn't interested in doing these illustrations (Despite the very tempting $150 budget) and turned it down with a reply email that read:

Sarah,

This project wouldn't stimulate my interest.

Thanks.

Von

Call me a creative prude I guess.

Graphic Heists

The original "Tribal Face" illustration.

Recently I've had a handful of infringements take place regarding my tribal artwork shown above. These types of situations tend to happen in clusters for some reason?


My tribal art hacked and sold on Shutterstock.com.

This is now the second time shutterstock.com has been caught selling my artwork on their site without permission. Last year the same thing happened with my hawk illustration and it turned out to be some design weasel in Serbia.

At least this time shutterstock.com removed the art pretty fast. But it makes you wonder what their vetting process is.

If you're curious what if any recourse there is, there isn't. This is due to the inadequate and weak DMCA. Corporations like shutterstock.com can hide behind it and as long as they remove the content when notified, they don't have to reimburse the copyright owner. (Thank you very little President Clinton)


Tribal art tattooed on some dudes arm.

Most of this arts infringements come via tattoo applications. The majority of these type of usages never get my permission, but thankfully some do.


Tribal art tattooed on some persons calf muscle.

I'm often asked "How do you locate these?" Well, most of the time I don't. For example with this specific tattoo my fellow design friend in Portland spotted this tattoo on a guy in the same store he was shopping at and asked if he could take a picture of it with his iPhone. He then emailed it to me.

Talk about walking portfolios.


Tribal art ripped and bedazzled by Diamante Transfer.

I've seen this art stolen in almost every way imaginable in the last five years but this was the first time any of my art has been bedazzled. When it's a company infringing I have to send out an official DMCA Infringement Letter. This usually does the trick without any further followup.

If some of these companies would just approach me I'd be willing to work out a fair licensing agreement with them. And the price I charge for tattoo usage is very reasonable.

In 2009 I had to deal with a total of "72" individual infringements. It got old quick. Thankfully 2010 hasn't been quite as bad, but it's still higher than I'd like at "33" infringements to date.

The Designers of Summer

"Hard Ball" Back print on white shirts.

Being a hired gun (creative pinch hitter if you will) means I do a lot of exploratory work that will never be used and tends to serve the purpose of helping an agency focus in on final solution. I'm not complaining, that's just the reality of the game.

Recently I was hired by Red Jacket Clothing to create a tribal tattoo themed baseball design. I love baseball, I think it has a lot of great metaphors that one can play off for all kinds of various concepts.

My client gave me full control of this project so of course I picked my favorite team, the Boston Red Sox to use in my design.


"Hard Ball" Back print on colored shirts.

I decided since this had a tribal tattoo look I'd play off of that theme with the term "Hard Ball." I also created a modular design that could be adapted for any of the MLB teams. This way the design would have a broader potential for the marketability and be relatively easy to customize by merely shifting ink and shirt colors either dark or light.

The hardest part of this design though was creating the baseball. The first one I did looked horrible. It didn't read as a baseball, it read more like a Klingon jig-saw puzzle instead. So I had to re-draw it a few times before I struck the right balance.


Logo front print on colored shirts.

The main design is a back print and this is the front center chest print. The team logo would be dropped into the middle of the tribal ring for each team.

It took roughly two months for the design to make it through MLB licensing circles and ultimately got benched. No reason was really given? But I've dealt with MLB licenses before and they are somewhat finicky IMO.

I'd be curious what others think regarding this designs marketability, so I created a simple poll you can vote in here.

Personally I like the design, it was fun to create so I'm just bummed it got put on waivers before it even had it's first at bat.

Maybe I should buy a steroid plugin for Adobe Illustrator? Hmmmm.

Drawsigner

"Drawsigner" Logo Mark.

I've been calling myself an Illustrative Designer for about six years now. It fits the type of work I do on a daily basis the best. A good mix of design oriented projects needing to be leveraged with an illustrative flair.

But over the last year I've condensed the term "Illustrative Designer" down to an even more simpler term of "Drawsigner." Once again it defines what I do on a daily basis. (Yes, I've secured the domain name)

I first revealed this new definition when I spoke at the AdFed group in Acadiana. My topic was named "Drawsigner" and I created the above logo of myself for it.


Tight refined sketches of ornament designs.

Earlier this year I posted about the new book I'm creating for HOW Books, now officially titled "Flourish.Banner.Frame."

I've spent the last year creating over 400 pieces of artwork for this volume of ornaments, borders, frames etc. My creative process for the creation of this content is all about being a drawsigner.


Frame motif design.

I draw out all my ornament designs, scan them in and build them out in vector form. I've spent a lot of late nights finessing bezier curves and wrestling with anchor point handles in order to create artwork that is precise and beautiful.


Ornament design.

Like my other two books, this new one will include artist features showcasing some of our industries best talent utilizing a piece of art from the book in their own unique way. It's been a blast seeing how incredibly creative the approaches have been from the featured artists.


Graphic ring design.

Those who follow me on Twitter are well aware of my rants regarding Adobe Illustrator at times.

I really can't complain though. On a project like this I'm essentially getting paid to create what ever I want. Of course I've been art directing myself along the way and I'm creating more content than what I need so I can isolate the very best for the book.

So enjoy the summer, and as the days roll along I'll continue to get frilly with it.

Vonster Tattoos

The original "Tribal Face" illustration.

Over the last six years I've had a lot of interesting things happen surrounding my tribal artwork. Some of it has been flattering copyright infringement which over time has created a rogues' gallery of those using my artwork without permission.

Most of the time it's just individuals who want to use my tribal art for a tattoo, so last year I did a simple post asking people to please ask permission first and it's paid off.


My "Tribal Face" on Mark Charles, UK.

Over the last year on average a couple people every month have requested permission to get my art tattooed. My terms of usage are simple:

- I grant usage rights for a tattoo application for a flat rate of $40
- I provide a hi-res PDF of artwork so they can scale it to size
- PDF includes thermography version for transferring tattoo

Over twenty individuals have officially and legally purchased the rights to get my tribal art tattooed over this last year. So I was chuffed when a purchaser of my tribal face art out of the UK, emailed me a picture of his new calf tattoo.


Vonster Tattoos Flash Sheet.

I have a total of "8" tribal designs available for purchase.

- Tribal Face
- Tribal Bat
- Tribal Lion
- Tribal Bear
- Tribal Phoenix
- Tribal Heart
- Tribal Sun
- Tribal Ring

I can also create a custom tribal design for you. So if you'd like to become a walking portfolio and get one of my stock tribal designs tattooed just send me an email and I'll give you all the information you'll need.

If you'd like a custom designed tribal tattoo I can also give you a quote for that as well. Thank you for all those who've asked permission first.

Lost Ideas

Tonight I was skimming through some old archived files and stumbled upon a lot of what I call "Lost Ideas." Most are design options presented to clients but never used, and some are ideas I played around with during the creative process but never presented.

All of them sit lonely amongst the 0's and 1's, in long forgotten files collecting dust on my HD.

I've been working digitally since 1991 so my archives are filled with graphic elements like this. I probably have thousands of things I can't even remember and I'm not sure if I could open some of them anymore? (FreeHand version 2.0) If I was smart I'd go back through everything and catalog all the art. I'll get to that Someday. (Yeah right.)

Perusing through these lost ideas from both the recent and long past was cathartic and nostalgic. So being a fair graphic warden I decided to let a handful of my designed captives out of their solitary confinement so they could see the light of day once again.


Collection of Lost Ideas.

Creating 5ive-Alarm Concepts

"Creating 5ive-Alarm Concepts" Presentation.

Over the last three years I've had the privilege of speaking at the HOW Design Conference.

My two previous presentations were:
- HOW 2008, Boston: "Illustrative Design"
- HOW 2009, Austin: "Living a Creatively Curious Life"

And this year I'll be doing a presentation called "Creating 5ive-Alarm Concepts" which goes into how designers should think and always be expanding their knowledge base in order to facilitate original ideas.


Lots of notes, writing, and re-writing to refine the message.

Because of my trip to Africa I started my presentation production about a month late. I've been cramming non-stop for the last three weeks straight pulling all the information and research together I've collected into a coherent narrative. (At least I think I have?)

I take a lot of notes and over the last ten months or so I've been jotting down my thoughts and interviewing others about the whole realm of idea generation. How one goes about conceptualizing an effective design solution.

The end result is a folder jam packed full of chicken scratch notes and marked up print outs.


Frazzled.

I'm not sure why, but my mind as I work on a project like this often fluxuates between thoughts of "I think this is coming out pretty good." and "You're going to clear the room, or put everyone to sleep." In other words a lot of doubt pops up. These self-inflicted head games make the whole process harder. I suppose it's fear of failure?

A long time ago someone gave me some very wise advice when it comes to relaying information to others. They said:

"If it doesn't challenge and compel yourself, don't expect it to resonate with or compel others."

That has proven to be very true in many areas of my life.

In previous years I've had the audio supplied to me after the fact. The first time it worked out OK, the second time it was hostage quality and I just couldn't use it. I'm done relying on others for my content.

Whether you were able to make it to the HOW Conference or not, you can experience the presentation now. Download everything listed below, go through it at your own pace and hopefully glean something you can integrate into your own creative pursuits. (If I manage to get an audio recording I'll update the download but at this point no audio exists)

Files included in download:
- "Creating 5ive-Alarm Concepts" Presentation (PDF Format)
- Conceptual Method Diagrams (PDF Format)
- Complete outline notes of presentation (PDF Format)

Download "Creating 5ive-Alarm Concepts" Package (76 MB)

If you'd like me to speak at your local AIGA group, AdFed group, design event, school, in house art department, or side show circus just shoot me an email and lets talk.

Drawing Conclusions

One memory from the Mathare Valley Slums I'll never forget is the day I took about 60 kids and did a drawing exercise with them.

I had packed a bunch of small blank sketch pads and a box of pens in my suitcase. We headed to a small grass field in the slums so we'd have room for everyone.


David Theuri drawing a taxi van.

To help them get into it I started to draw a few pictures as they swarmed around me. (A friendly dogpile if you will) They laughed as I drew out funny faces and characters.


Ndanu Musill drawing of a church.

Once I was done drawing I began handing the sketch pads to kids along with a pen and they'd take it and go off and sit down and draw a picture. It was fun to watch them draw and even better when they got excited to show me what they had created.

If there is a universal creative attribute it's drawing. All kids love to do it. It's only as they get old and fear sets in that they give it up. It's the fear of what others may think of their work that causes many to stop drawing as they get older. No one was timid in this group, they had a lot of fun and no fear.


A little girl draws a person.

Watching some of them draw reminded me how much my own daughters love to draw, and how much I love to look at their artwork. It struck me that none of these kids have a refrigerator to hang a drawing on, or paper or a pen for that matter.


Cliff's airplane drawing and Elizabeth Njeri's girl drawing.

These kids may live in a slum but they have the same childlike fascinations that any other kid would have. That much was evident in the drawings I collected.

Cliff has probably never flown in a plane, but he could sure draw one pretty well. He's obviously seen them fly high above in the sky and remembered what they looked like.


Denis and his sports car drawing.

It doesn't matter where in the world you live, or what community or culture you're part of, there is always someone with an artistic bent. A raw talent if you will. And I had hoped to discover one such kid within the Mathare Valley Slums and along came Denis.

He was eager to get a pad and pen and quickly started drawing. When he brought the drawing back I looked at his sports car drawing and just smiled saying "Wow!" bumped fists with him and said "Good job Denis! This is awesome!"


Drawing by Denis. Sports car and a dragon.

Denis didn't stop with a sports car he also drew a dragon, a caricature of Kelsey Timmerman, a cartoon man, and myself.

I wanted to encourage him to keep drawing so I gave Denis a few pads of paper and a couple pens and told him to keep drawing cool pictures. I hope he does.


Young boy observing other kids.

While shooting in another slum location for the documentary I spotted this young boy watching something through the hole in the fence. He sat there for a good ten minutes before he noticed me watching and moved along.


Kids in a slum school.

I walked over and looked through the same hole and spotted what had captivated his attention. It was a slum school and he was watching the kids in the school yard playing.

Not all kids in the slums can afford these private slum schools, many don't have any schooling. Not because they wouldn't want to learn, but rather their parents either can't afford it or don't enroll them or teach them any schooling.

This of course compounds the problem they'll face in the future.


Slum kids playing in an abandoned van.

After I finished the drawing exercise with the kids, they made their way over to a gutted out old van sitting in the field and it instantly became a playground. Fun is fun no matter if you're in the slums or not.


Wire Bike sculpture created by a slum artist. (Click picture for larger image)

While driving out of downtown Nairobi one afternoon there was a slum artist selling wire sculptures he created on the street. I bought this cool motorcycle for five dollars, and others in our crew bought the rest of his work. I'm amazed at the level of detail and ingenuity that obviously went into creating this art. Amazing!

I enjoyed my time in Kenya, but you don't have to go to Africa in order to help others out. Look for things you can do locally to improve the lives of others and share your time by investing in their well being. It's fun and you'll never be the same again.

Thanks for taking the time to read my posts over the last several days. The experience in the Nairobi slums has forever changed me and when the final version of the documentary is released I'll be posting about the premiere locations.

I'm sure the documentary will be a powerful film and it was a privilege to be part of it's production.

Safari Day

Attack of the Killer Monkey!

While in Africa we did manage to take one day off from working in the slums and drove about two hours northwest of Nairobi to the Lake Nakuru National Park for a Safari.

When we pulled into the parking lot of the park we spotted a handful of monkeys hanging around. I've never seen a monkey face to face, but never in person.

So like an idiot I decided to get a close up video of one monkey. At the time I thought it would be a good idea to make chirping noises at the little dude while I was filming.

Well, I must have said something offensive in Monkey talk because he turned and started chasing me and I ran like a little girl as shown in the video above.


Our safari vehicle.

Like a clown car we packed 12 people into this small van. The road we traveled wasn't smooth either. If you didn't watch yourself one good pothole could easily bruise a kidney.


Baboons among us.

There were several baboons walking around the parking area at the safari also. Knowing these creatures could easily tear off a scrotal sack, or suck out one of my eyeballs if provoked, I made sure to keep Justin Ahrens between me and the roving beasts.


Stereotypical Africa Tree.

I captured a lot of texture images in Africa and will be releasing that to the design world as a new set of design resources later this summer.

Rule29 and Glitschka Studios will be teaming up on a cool design project inspired by our time in the Nairobi slums, but more about that later.


Waterfall in safari.

As we drove the safari we came upon this cool waterfall that spilled out and flooded over the road we had to drive through.

Staring at this waterfall I thought it looked like chocolate milk and I envisioned large Oreo cookies bobbing in the water below it. (These are the type of thoughts I usually never tell anyone about, and for good reason.)


Strange plant and bug.

As I was heading back to the vehicle I spotted this plant with a colorful bug on it. I set my camera to macro and got in really close to capture a good picture. (1 inch or so) That's when our guide leaned over and said pointing to what I was shooting "That is poisonous."

I wasn't sure if he meant the plant or the bug, but that was all I needed to hear and skidaddled.


Zebra butt.

I would have liked to get a better picture of a Zebra but this was the best I could do. Shooting pictures with several pro photographers means they get the best angles, and for good reason I suppose.

During the safari I did manage to see a Monkey, Wild Boar, Flamingo, Ostrich, Giraffe, Rhino, Water Buffalo, Impala, Gazelle, Millions of Butterflies, and even a Lion sleeping in a tree.

So why am I not posting pictures of these animals? Well the fore mentioned shutter bugs all got great pictures of most of these because they had sniper quality lens, and my point in shoot is good for textures and up close like the lethal plant I shot, but not so hot on the zoom.

Seriously though, how many times have you seen a good photo of a Zebra butt? Bet you didn't realize all the stripes pointed to the pooper did you? See, it's educational.


Traffic in Nakuru.

Whether you're in Nairobi or in this case Nakuru, traffic is absolutely chaotic.

Lets put it this way, if you owned a company that painted road lines you'd go out of business fast. No one cares about lanes, right of way, or paint jobs for that matter.

Come to think of it I don't think I ever saw a speed limit sign the whole time there?


My travel hat.

I've worn this hat all around the world now. Took it with me when I went to Israel and Jordon and now it's been to Kenya as well.

When we were leaving and heading back to Nairobi we stopped to get something to drink. I was in the passenger seat and a street vendor was trying to sell me some home burned CD's of African pop music. (I'm a sucker for African pop and bought two) That's when a younger street urchin walked up to our vehicle reached in through the window and nabbed my hat sitting on the dash board and took off running.

I was too tired to respond. I just kind of shrugged my shoulders and thought "I guess he needs it more than I do." But our driver within seconds, put the car in park, set the emergency brake and exited the vehicle in a blur.

All of a sudden I felt like I was watching an African episode of Cops. He caught the kid, hog tied him, retrieved my hat and the whole van applauded. (OK, he didn't hog tie him, that was writers embellishment)

It was an entertaining way to end the day.

Slum Kids

A happy little girl.

The kids in the Mathare Valley Slums probably gave me more than I was able to give to them.

Wherever we'd go in the slums groups of kids would inevitably gather around us watching, laughing, talking to us and asking me to take their picture. The kids loved to see themselves in these pictures and a local worker for Life in Abundance told me it's because many of them rarely get to see themselves in a mirror on a daily basis.


Big sister and little brother.

A common sight in the slums is kids taking care of kids. Many parents are single parent families and most of the parents time is either outside the slums working in the city or just trying to take care of the essentials and the kids are the ones left to fend for themselves.


A little girl.

I enjoyed interacting with the kids in the slums. They made me laugh and I was able to make them laugh. But it was hard not thinking of my own daughters when I'd meet a little girl like this. It would just make me well up with tears if I dwelled on it.


A boy and his wire toy.

Despite their living conditions the slum kids are very resourceful and creative. This boy created a toy car out of wire. This became a common sight in the slums among the kids. Hand built toys, many of them out of mere junk.


A wireframe ford bronco?

I was so impressed with this wire toy built by one of the young boys. The details and proportion was incredible, it even had a steering mechanism you controlled with a steering wheel at the end of the long extended wire. The recycled bottle caps as the tires was brilliant.


Childhood friends.

When we first arrived at the slums the kids would come up to me point and say "Muzungu." This is the swahili name for "White Person."

After a few days of this, I pointed to my t-shirt design which had white ink in the design and put my skin up to it and said "White?" shook my head and said "No. Pink!" then pointed to a little girls shirt with pink on it. They thought that was pretty funny.


Marble eyed.

This boy hung around one of our shot locations for a few days. He didn't speak a whole lot and I did most of the talking. Unfortunately I lost the paper I wrote his name on but the day we left he came up to me and showed me two marbles he had brought with him and wanted me to take his picture.

He then grabbed my hand and put one of the marbles in it and closed it saying "For you." I thought that was precious and knowing these kids have next to nothing it meant a lot to me. It now sits on the shelf in my office.


A young boy with his juice box toy.

We've all heard the idiom "One man's trash is another man's treasure." Well that saying really came to life in the slums. Empty cooking oil containers became water pitchers, discarded water bottles became shoes, and in the photo above a small boy found a used juice box in the garbage and turned into a toy for himself.

When I saw the toy he had created I called it "The Mango Mobile!"


The Mango Mobile in Action.

The moment I saw this kid having fun playing with junk it crushed me. I also knew the next time my own kids complained about not having something I was going to tell them the story of "The Mango Mobile."

This whole scene made me think of a quote by Chuck Swindoll.

"Life is 10 percent what happens to us and 90 percent how we respond to it.”


Scooby-Doo in the slums.

One day we were shooting by a railroad track and one of the kids in the crowd had a Scooby-Doo shirt on. I pointed at his shirt and said "Scooby Dooby Doo!" in my best Scooby-Doo voice. He along with the group of kids started laughing.

I noticed later that day that someone had painted Scooby-Doo on the side of a slum house. I'm not sure how much if any of the actual TV program anyone in the slums had seen since a TV is a very rare commodity for most living in the slums.


A sick young girl.

Many of the kids I'd talk too were obviously sick. Much of this is facilitated by the poor living conditions and diet. Most of the kids we found out only have one meal a day and that is pretty meager in and of itself.

This little girl came up to me and smiled and wanted to bump fists which I had been doing with all the kids. And when I looked into her eyes I lost it. We talked to the local group and a pastor to see if we could get her into a clinic and find out what the problem was.

In the slums resources are tight and this was one of the reasons why we were filming the documentary to help Life in Abundance reach out to these local communities and help people like this little girl through a wholistic approach.


A slum coffin builder.

Unfortunately the reality of the slums is that infant mortality is very high. One of the days were shooting in Kibera we spotted this local man building a child coffin.

It was a grim reminder of what kids living in the slums face.