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.

Leaving My Comfort Zone

"Comfort Zone" design. (View Larger Image Here)

In a few weeks I head out of town, out of country, and out of my comfort zone.

As I shared in a previous post, I'll be headed to the Kibera Slums in Nairobi, Kenya.

My friend Justin Ahrens invited me to help in the filming of a documentary about the work "Life in Abundance" (LIA) is doing in that area.

It's a lot easier to just write a check to help a cause like this. I've done that before. But the more Justin told me about what they were doing and after talking to their founder I knew I wanted to do more than that.

As I thought about everything today a thought crossed my mind and it inspired the above design.

"Adventure never happens when you're comfortable."

So even though It stretches my comfort zone I look forward to the experience that lays before me and I want to thank those of you who have helped to support this cause because without that it wouldn't happen.

If you'd like a t-shirt of the above click here.

If you'd like to help the LIA team you can donate via paypal by sending your payment to: liasupport@liaint.org
Include in your notes "Von Africa Trip May 2010."

Thanks.

Von

No Way

Original concept drawn on a creative brief.

Creativity is kind of strange. I never know when an idea is going to spawn, I've just learned to act on it. Such was the case here.

I sat through a two hour meeting at a local design firm going over a new branding project and someone voiced an opinion about something and the term "No Way" popped into my head. So I just kind of doodled what came to mind and the above is the end result.


"No Way" design on yellow and black background.

Of course later that same night I couldn't help myself and decided to flesh out the idea. Still don't really understand what it means, but that doesn't stop me from liking it. I find that odd. I suppose it can mean what ever you'd like it to mean and there is "No Way" of convincing me otherwise! ;-P


"No Way" T-Shirt design.

There is also "No Way" I'm not going to put this design on a t-shirt either! (Stop rolling your eyes)

"No Way" T-Shirt Designs
- View / Order Black Shirt Here
- View / Order Yellow Shirt Here


"No Way" Sign mocked up.

One of the commenters below suggested that "No Way" would work for a sign too. I agree. If I ever built my own house on some property I'd get this sign made to be on the street leading to our house. Very cool. Thanks Brian.

H1N1

H1N1 design.

You can become a host to this infectious design and carry the graphic contagion wide and far transmitting this wonderful creative virus on a t-shirt.

Doodle Creatures

"Turn the Worm" doodle creature.

When I doodle in the wee hours of the night my art is infused with heavy amounts of late night logic.

What emerges is strange doodle creatures like you see in this post.


"Noobitoid" doodle creature.


The past three weeks I've been drawing a lot of bizarre and fanciful characters and have wondered what a psycho therapist might read into some of these images?

So if any of you know someone who might be willing to look at 5-6 drawing and share what things they'd glean from them I'd like to talk to them. (Email link in sidebar at right)

As always you can get these designs on t-shirts.

- "Turn the Worm" Tee: View / Order Here.
- "Noobitoid" Tee: View / Order Here.

Circular Reasoning

"Circular Reasoning" design. (Click Image to View Larger)

A while back I was listening to a political talking head who was using circular reasoning to bolster his argument. This seems to be a very popular fallacy in todays media regardless of what political ideology you align with.

When something irritates me I tend to vent my frustration via doodling. So when I heard this doofus using circular reasoning I thought of the term "talking in circles" and this design idea came to mind. I quickly scribbled it out knowing I'd get to it at a later date.


"Circular Reasoning" doodle via Paper Mate® Flair Pen.

The core basis of this design was hand drawn. I knew I'd then scan it in and build out the remaining motif digitally via Photoshop. The idea was to make his tongue morph into his neck and spawn a new head.

I suppose this design could be an iconic representation of politicians in general. Frankly I'm sick of all the suited weasels in Washington. Enough R&D IMO. Maybe someday we'll get a real Mr. Smith to go to Washington and truly knock some heads together and exercise some common sense in a not so common time. But I won't hold my breath.


"Circular Reasoning" t-shirt design.

In the meantime you can always forward this link to your local politician and remind them of what not to do. After all they do play with their laptops during sessions be it solitaire, surfing the web, or watching a baseball game, so why not read an actual email from a constituent?

Of course you can also stimulate my personal economy and order this shirt from my Zazzle store too. Just in time for Christmas.

Dark Morsels

"Fog of Complacency" red pen doodle.

Another red pen doodle. This one however wasn't something I started last night. I found it cleaning my office and it was only half drawn.

Apparently months ago I had started it and never finished. So I grabbed my red pen and gave it a proper creative polish.


Dark morsel artwork. (Click Image to View Larger)

I've always referred to my doodles as "Dark Morsels." Mainly because they tend to be strange and I just figure they emerge from the dark recesses of my mind. Be that as it may, they are fun to visually consume regardless what psychology you want to view them through.


"Fog of Complacency" t-shirt design.

I do think it would be interesting to see what a psycho-babble shrink would say about this art though. I just may try to email one and see if they'd be willing to give their opinion? That would make for a cool future post. Hmmmm.

But for now I'll let the readers of my blog suggest possible interpretations of this art in the comments. So feel free to share what you think it means. I'm curious to see what diagnoses you all come up with.

You can view and order this shirt from my Zazzle store.

(If you want to know more about the halftone effect just go here.)

Watchers

"Watcher" doodle via Paper Mate® Flair Pen.

I think Paper Mate® Flair Pens Rule! And, just in case the FTC (Nanny State) is reading this blog post and wants to say my endorsement breaches my right to freedom of speech they should know I wasn't given any FREE pens to say that.

I'd like to say I doodle every day religiously. Well, I'd like too but I have to be in the mood and last night I was. I didn't have any idea where it would lead I just started drawing an eyeball and the rest just kind of spawned itself over the next five minutes or so.


"Watcher" design. (Click Image to View Larger)

Like I've said before, I prefer doodling and drawing on note pads rather than a sketch book. But that said I do have a mole skin.

My doodles tend to contain all matter of nonsensical strangeness. I don't really think when I doodle I just open the flood gates and just see what spills out. I think it's more fun that way.


"Watcher" t-shirt design.

When ever I do doodles I always try to use them in some way. Many times I animate them, but being a fan of apparel graphics I enjoy offering them up as t-shirts.

I think this art makes for a cool t-shirt so I put a design together utilizing a halftone effect.

You can view and order this shirt from my Zazzle store.

Power to the People

"Power to the People" graphic.

Our national leadership on all levels needs a re-boot. Regardless of what political OS you operate under it's pretty clear that our national leadership on all platforms needs to be defragmented. They all seem to suffer from a lack of mental RAM?

A national system isn't re-installed from the top down it's facilitated by the users. So when I thought of the saying "Power to the People" it cached this graphic idea.


"Power to the People" t-shirts.

So think different and restart your own convictions in a day and age of Compromise.

- View / Order Black Shirt Here
- View / Order White Shirt Here

Guaran Tee

Guaran Tee. Neutraface and Gill Sans versions.

Tonight I was thinking about what a client had asked me a while back.

"Do I get a guarantee if I hire you?"

I'm happy to announce that I'll be able to say "Sure, no problem."

Get Your Own "Guaran Tee"
- Neutraface Version
- Gill Sans Version

Urban DJ.

Urban DJ logo.

A while back a Japanese company approached me about designing the brand system for their two online business ventures. The first one was for "Street Value" and the second one was for "100 Milligrams." (I didn't design their web sites)

The company is now starting a new business called "Urban DJ" and wanted the logo to match the brand style of the previous marks. So once again it's character driven, uses the same typography and plays off the common DJ term of "Five Legs." (At least that is what I was told is a common term? I've never heard it myself.)


Urban DJ logo, secondary format.

Since "Street Value" produces collectible toys I proposed the idea of trading out services in exchange for them producing a toy design of mine. They agreed and as of right now tooling is being figured out at the manufacturer so that a wax prototype can be made. But I'll post more about that later, so stay tuned.


Official Ninja quality garb.

I call this character "Cycloptopus." Infest your wardrobe with this asian monster!

Pistons and Pinups.

Pistons and Pinups logo mark.

My good friend and fellow artist Rob Schwager creates incredible artwork! He enjoys illustrating pinups and drawing cars and has decided to combine the two passions into one new web presence he is calling "PistonsAndPinups.com." (Site is in development.)

I was honored when he asked me to create a logo for his new venture. After all "Women" and "Flames" are part of the "Top Ten Themes" artists adore illustrating so it was a no-brainer.


Promotional t-shirt design.

Adorn your chassis with some high-octane inspiration!

BLOCK HEAD.

BLOCK HEADS - Happy, UnHappy and Grimace.

BLOCK HEAD is an attitude. BLOCK HEAD doesn't cause chaffing. BLOCK HEAD is good for wooing women. BLOCK HEAD can gird your loins.


Popular with clones.

Be a BLOCK HEAD!

- BLOCK HEAD (Happy)
- BLOCK HEAD (UnHappy)
- BLOCK HEAD (Grimace)

Copyright © 2008 Essential Nonsense Ltd.

Bad Design Kills

'The original BDK tee. Inset image: Back chop print.'

A little over three years ago my friends and I launched a little web site called "Bad Design Kills". We had a lot of fun with it but none of us had the time to keep it up to date so it no longer exists.

I had sold the above design on the site and ever since I took the site down I've been asked how someone could get one of the original shirts. Well, now you can and unlike before you can pick what ever size and color shirt you'd like.

"View and Order Shirt Here"

Vonster Tees

The creative director from Zazzle.com contacted me and asked if I'd like to put a store up on their new revised site. I didn't really want to manage a store nor did I have the time to get one set up. So they made it easy for me and said If I would pull art from my archive and send them a DVD with hi-res images on it they'd do it for me. Well they did.

Below are a few of the designs I sent them. I have to say that the automated process they use seems easy enough to use. I do need to get them some hi-res png files though so the art will work on dark garments too.

To view all of my available art go to my Zazzle.com Store.



'Vonster Monster Design'


'Samurai Guppy'


'Tribal Face'


'I Love Comic Sans'


'Command Z'

BMX Bike Graphics 2

'Click Image to See Complete Design '

I think this project tapped out my skull art quota for the rest of the year. I really like how the two designs came out though.

I have documented my entire creative process which includes an interesting way I went about shooting my own reference pictures to draw from. I'll be posting a tutorial about this project at www.IllustrationClass.com so you'll be able to see each step on my creative process in creating this art.

BMX Bike Graphics

'Winged Skull Bike Graphic'

I've always enjoyed designing for the action sports industry. So when Dave Mirra's company contacted me to create a few bike graphics for them I was honored. Dave Mirra is to BMX what Tony Hawk is to Skate. That and I'll use any excuse to draw a skull and with wings no less. After all it is one of the 'Top Ten Favorite Themes.' for illustrators.


'Skulls-O-Plenty. I'll be using the other three in my second design.'

Why are skulls so much fun to illustrate? Why do they look so cool with wings, flames and crowns? Of all the things an artist can draw or create the skull is somewhat iconic, simple shapes and form that captures and relays complex ideas and subject matter in a very graphic way. Is it a representation of death? Or is it a visual contradiction to live a bold and full life in the face of death? After all the death rate is still one per person.


'Skull Art In Context'

I have to create another design using three other skulls for them and I'll post that art soon as well.

Caving to Frill.

Top: Back T-Shirt Design, Bottom: Front Center Chest - Click to View Larger Image.

The whole design trend to use oranate turn of the century frills and motifs in design isn't anything new. I told my friend 'Shane' who is a master at this style "I refuse to take part in this 'Frill' trend." We'll I've caved. And yes I admit it's fun.

A retired LAPD officer and former SWAT team member hired me to create this t-shirt design for his company. He sells products to police and SWAT members. Those Dover books collecting dusk on my library shelf are finally being put to good use.

The terms used in this design are buzz words popular with SWAT:
- Operator: High Level SWAT
- Tango: Bad Guy and or Terrorist


Detail of Design Textures.

It's hard to appreciate this design at such a small posting size so this image shows how cool the textures look at 100%.

Top Ten Favorite Themes!

Fire Squad
A friend of mine asked me to create a logo for his sons engineering team that builds robots so they could get some t-shirts printed. Like most artists I jumped at the excuse to create some new robot art. This made me think about popular themes that artist enjoy creating around.

Creative Observation
I've mentioned it in passing in previous posts but have never really dedicated a specific post on the topic and that is 'The Top Ten Favorite Themes' of artists. It's not so much something I set out to discover but rather something I have observed over the past decade or so. Artist are most certainly a unique group of creative minded folk and I've noticed a handful of themes that tend to be common favorites they choose to do design and or illustration work on. Mind you this is by no means an iron clad list but just the most obvious ones I've noticed and have participated in creating myself through my own art. The latest offering above is no exception and motivated me to post this thread.

Top Ten Themes
The following are what I consider to be the top ten favorite themes of artists when creating their art. The order in which I have listed them is not according to popularity but rather just what came to mind when I posted this. I am sure I'll miss a few obvious ones but that is where you come in. Feel free to post others I may have missed or ones you think should be replace with another and I'll re-tool this list over time.

1. Robots: Evil, Benevolent or Humanoid it's all fun.
2. Monkeys: Ape, Chimp, Gorilla or go ape and do a 'Robot Monkey'.
3. Naked Women: No explanation needed.
4. Skulls: Or skeletons for that matter. It's all Bona-fide fun.
5. Monsters/Mutants: Home grown or universal the scarier the better.
6. Paranormal: Aliens, Angels, Demons, Ethereal forms etc.
7. Surrealism: Popularized by Dali, captured by most artists in doodles.
8. Dogs: Flea bitten art inspired by mans best friend.
9. Human Head: All matter of zany things have popped out of heads.
10: Machines: All kinds of mechanic contraptions and devices.

If an artist can combine several of the above into one composition then it's a dream project.

A couple other common elements used by artists are 'Flames' and 'Wings', but they tend to be integrated into the work of a given theme more then a theme in and of themselves. Someone had mentioned 'Pirates' which I agree is a most enjoyable theme to work with. But I think it' recent craze is due to the recent Disney movies. Of course every child at one time or another drew 'Dinosaurs' and all though another fun theme to work with it's not as popular as the ones in the list.

As you can see most of what drives us creatives tend to be very character driven.

I've had many artists email me on this list and I've adapted some content from their input. If you have suggestions let me know.

My art has gone to the birds!

Not sure why I've been commissioned to illustrate so many birds the past few months but here are two more. I am actually creating '7' school mascots for 'Tactix Creative' in Arizona. These specific mascots are for a school called 'Williams Field Black Hawks' (High School) and 'Higley Hawks' (Elementary School). These are tricky little buggers. You see you only get a maximum of '4' spot colors and two of those have to be 'Black' and 'White'. The schools colors are 'Red' and 'Grey' and 'Gold' and 'Grey' respectively.

This project is interesting in that all mascots have to be approved by the district and it brings up interesting opinions. Since one is for an Elementary school they don't want the mascot to be too aggressive or mean looking. But they want him cool enough that kids will still like it. Were as the High school prefers a more aggressive mascot and it's OK to have a furrowed brow. Either way who really wants to wear a weenie looking hawk on their school shirt? I can't help but think that soccer moms are influencing the art direction by not wanting Jr. to be scared by the mean looking hawk character? (OK, rant over)

The thing I like best about these type of projects is it's a good mix of illustration and design. I design my illustration more then normal on this type of work since it's being used in such a graphic format such as t-shirts, banners, floor decals etc.

Mascot for 'Williams Field Black Hawks' - High School


Mascot for 'Higley Hawks' - Elementary School