Loyal Order of Thug Bunny

'Thug Bunny - Click to see larger version of art.'

A few years back me and another designer almost started a new design firm together. One of the names we had kicked around at that time was "Thug Bunny." I liked the name so much I secured the domain and lately I've been thinking about that name and decided I needed to illustrate it.

The above art is the result of this inspiration. Over Christmas I was at my parents and was working on the drawing. None of my family members could comprehend why I am illustrating a cigar smoking rabbit wearing a picklehauber and sporting an ear ring.

My older sister looked at it and said "Smoking is terrible why did you draw that?" I said "Hello! It's a cartoon rabbit. It's not real and besides it looks cool."


'Loyal Order of Thug Bunny Logo.'

I felt the "Loyal Order of Thug Bunny" needed a cool logo too so I created this mark to use on his pickelhaube.

If you'd like to get an official "Loyal Order of Thug Bunny" t-shirt click here.

FREE iPhone Wallpaper - Set 2

'Arizona - A picture from my trip to the Arizona Desert'

When the iPhone came out I was stoked and I have thoroughly enjoyed it ever since. I figured with Christmas upon us that the new year would bring about a new swarm of iPhone users, so I decided to create a new set of iPhone Wallpapers.


'Da Bomb'

This set consists of '8' images that are formatted for the iPhone and cover a diverse range of styles and topics.


'Urban Burn'

I still plan on creating a more customized set in 2008 but I am going to wait until after the Apple keynote in January. More then likely Mr. Jobs will have a few surprises in store and it might alter what I do?

You can view my original set of '25' iPhone Wallpapers here.


'FBI'

I'd be remiss if I didn't include one specifically geared for the creative community.

Get this set of '8' images here: Download Vonster Brand iPhone Wallpaper

The Return of Mr. Cubistic

'Mr. Cubistic enjoys a stroll in the park.'

A few years ago I created a character called "Mr. Cubistic." He existed mainly as an OSX desktop icon but now lives on as a fun nifty little download.


'"Mr. Cubistic" is looking for a friend.'

Invite "Mr. Cubistic" over for dinner and enjoy his segmented elegance.

DOWNLOAD FREE PDF TEMPLATE HERE.

Enjoy!

Oopart

'Oopart Circle.'

Lately I've been reading a fascinating book about technology and ancient man. One specific subject in the book which is amazing is the whole area of "Ooparts." This name is given for a historical, archaeological or palaeontological object found in a very unusual or seemingly impossible location. The one that caught my attention in the book is a Jin Dynasty tomb unearthed about 1,500 years ago in China. In the tomb they found an ornate belt and on the belt were pieces of aluminum metal which shouldn't be since modern metallurgy hadn't developed aluminum at that point. At least that is what the common belief is regarding technology and history thus the reason for "Oop" in "Ooparts."

If you want to know more Wikipedia has this page.

The book also gets into the Aztecs etc. so I was thinking about their graphics and the above visual popped into my head so I just doodled it out, scanned it in and colorized it. Don't ask me what it means? I am not sure I like it that much but figured it made for a good blog post.

Doodle Art

'Wall Art Installation.'

Sometimes I get inspired on the spur of the moment. When this happens I tend to put aside what ever I am working on and just pursue the creative rabbit trail to see where it leads.

Such was the case here. I had a tight project deadline and I was cleaning off my desk when I picked up a pad of paper that was almost empty. I took off the two remaining sheets and was going to toss the cardboard backing away when I had an idea.

I grabbed a pair of scissors and cut out a rough shape then proceeded to doodle on top of it until I had "Doodle Dog." It was so much fun I did a few more. All of them are shown on my studio wall above. They are attached to thumb tacks so they pop out from the wall a little and I plan on doing more and creating a whole scene.


'Doodle Dog.'

I even took one of the pictures into Photoshop and applied some color. It was a fun creative exercise and this type of creative interlude truly lives up to the name of this site.


'Doodle Fish.'

Man alive these little things are addictive. I couldn't help myself and created the above fish last night. They are spawning faster than Tribbles on crack.

If you want to see and read more about this then visit my other web site www.illustrationclass.com and download my complete creative exercise.

Book Worm

'Doodle Art "Book Worm"'

This past weekend I stumbled upon a fun little creative exercise. I won't go into it now but I'll be posting more about it in my next post in a few days which will explain what it's all about and show you how to do it yourself. The above image shows you the result of my doodle exercise. As I drew his worm like torso I thought of this specific usage. That is emerging from my books on my shelf and thus "Book Worm" was born.


'Refined Doodle Art "Book Worm" Download in context.'

I liked the raw nature of the doodle art so I scanned that in and colored it. Normally I avoid live trace like the plague but in this case it served its purpose. In general however I pretty much distain using it.


'"Book Worm" wants to snuggle up to your books.'

Give "Book Worm" a home in your bookshelf today!

DOWNLOAD FREE PDF TEMPLATE HERE.

Enjoy!

FBI - Federal Bureau of Illustration

'FBI Logo and Door graphic.'

I am a huge film noir fan and have always liked the old styled beveled glass doors you see in those type of movies. Usually they are found in a police department, or a private eyes office. It's been a few years since I first thought about doing this, but I finally got around to installing one for my own studio office this past month.

I realized after getting the door installed that it needed a graphic. I gave it a lot of thought and came up with the above concept. Just to be safe I also purchased the domain www.FederalBureauofIllustration.com even though I am not sure what or if I'll use that for anything?


'New studio door with graphic applied.'

My wife at first wasn't sure she'd like the door but after installing it she agreed it looked nice. After showing her my door graphic design however she just shook her head and rolled her eyes. LOL One out of two isn't bad I suppose.

You too can join the "Federal Bureau of Illustration?" Download an FBI wallpaper for your machine today!

Doodle Novel - Vol. 1

'Art for Doodle Novel Vol. 1 - You write the story for this art.'

The fun thing about most doodles, are they allow the one viewing them the opportunity to read into it their own meaning. Most of the doodles I draw have no premeditated idea, they just kind of pour out of my subconscious onto the page and I try not to get in the way. I then take it into Photoshop and continue the artistic experimentation. That is how the above art was created.

Usually that is how the content for a post will begin and end. But I wanted to try something new and that is where you the reader of this blog can play a part. I want to turn these meaningless doodles into what I call a "Doodle Novel".

How it works
- Using "Comments" write a story for the doodle. Anything goes, have fun.
- Weave your yarn as long or as short as you like.
- Include your name

So release your inner scribe and let others enjoy your fictional prose as you author a "Doodle Novel" for my artwork.

I look forward to reading your ideas.

Unwrapping a Logotype - TV Spot

'Lifetime Television Seasonal Logotype'

Lifetime Television just sent me the TV spot using my logotype design. They changed the colors and added some modeling to the letterforms but overall I think it came out pretty cool. The above image shows the art I delivered.


'Lifetime Television TV Spot'

The screen capture shown above comes from the actual TV spot being aired the whole month of December on Lifetime. Watch the entire TV spot here.

Isometric Diagram Illustration

'Isometric Diagram Illustration for Kazeon.'

How do you relay technically complex IT processes and methodologies in a simple visual manner so a layman or garden variety corporate suit can quickly and easily get a grasp on the big picture and understand a products benefit to their bottom line? That was the challenge I faced on this project.


'Diagrams integrated into Kazeon web site.'

Kazeon equips large companies to manage and isolate individual data points within their own networks that may contain millions of documents, files and emails. They needed to show these services visually on their web site at www.kazeon.com, and within presentations to potential clients and investors alike.

In total I created four diagram illustrations for Kazeon along with some GUI icons you can see on their web site. Working in this isometric style is fun and is kind of like vector SIMS in a way. To view a larger version of the illustration above click here.

Trashing Abe

'Doodle Movie - Trashing Abe'

Another doodle movie using one of my recent drawings of Abraham Lincoln, some found textures from a parking garage in Nashville, a church door in NYC and a local parking lot. Also included is several historical diagrams I found in a vintage high school science book which I've made into Photoshop brushes.

Mix them all together and you get this essential nonsense.

Viral Marketing High Jinks

'George sporting a nice fro.'

I've had a lot of fun with my dedication site "HappyAfro.com". I was even interviewed by Chicago public radio and interviewed as if I was Bob Ross which was a lot of fun and pretty hilarious too.

Well, 90% of the time I use my debit card to buy stuff and rarely have cash on hand. But when I do I like to doodle afro's on the presidents and write "HappyAfro.com" on the bill itself. It's a fun creative use of commerce and capitalism in pursuit of art.


'AJ goes urban funk.'

Who knows how far these bills will travel through circulation nationwide and maybe even over seas? I figure it's a simple and harmless viral marketing tactic that will give people a few laughs and that is why I decided to post about it here.


'Embedded code within US currency design.'

So I took these bills out of my wallet that I had drawn on and scanned them in to create the images you see in this post and when I opened them up in Adobe Photoshop a window instantly popped up and showed me this message. Yikes! Apparently our money has encoded counterfeit technology literally embedded into the designs that even when scanned is recognized by something Adobe has integrated into Photoshop CS3. It may have been there in previous versions but I don't know since I never scan in money?

I know there are companies that are developing this technology and I know a few artists who are beta testers and get monthly reports on who is using their images without permission online or in print. One company that is doing this in Canada has a great site you can view here.

Anyway I didn't try to print anything out of Photoshop, I was afraid if I did that some message would be sent to the secret service covertly and I'd have the FBI knocking on my studio door in a few hours and I don't think they'd find presidential fro's very funny. I have to admit the technology is pretty stinking impressive though.

Editorial Illustration

'Risk Assessment' for Gas & Oil Investor Magazine (Click for larger view)

In the late 90's and early...uh...0's? (I just realized I have no clue what to reference the first ten years of the twenty first century?) Anyway, I use to do a lot of editorial illustration but over the last six years my niche has changed and most of my illustration is within a design context and frankly I prefer that.

Even though I enjoy doing illustrative design I still do editorial projects when they come my way. I've been doing editorial illustration for one of my clients since 1999 and every few months they send me an article and have me read it then conceptualize an editorial illustration to go along with it. The articles aren't what I'd call page turners since they deal mostly with the minutia of Gas & Oil investing, so trying to pull out a clever concept I can visually capitalize on can be somewhat painful.

This illustration is the end result of my most recent editorial work.

PS: My wife isn't a creative type and I'll admit some of my work just pushes her comfort zone style wise. She likes much of it but would never want it to hang in her living room. I had shown her the above illustration mid-way through and all she said was "His nose is too long. Nobody has a nose that long." I just laughed and my oldest daughter who was in my studio at the time chimed in with "Mom it's not suppose to be real." I seconded my daughters comment with a proud nod of agreement and my wife exited my studio saying "Too big." LOL

htmhell

'Doodle Movie - htmhell'

In an age of flash animation and online video the venerable animated gif keeps marching along and that is why I enjoy creating what I call 'Doodle Movies'. I doodle some art, take images I've either found or photos I've taken and then go into Photoshop and use the gif timeline to create fun animated artwork.

If you're wondering why I created this keep reading.


'Actual scrambled page.'

This past summer I was introduced to Twitter. What is Twitter you ask? According to their own site it is defined as follows:

"Twitter is for staying in touch and keeping up with friends no matter where you are or what you’re doing."

I've done exactly that, documenting stray thoughts, funny insights, snarky quips and cool links with fellow creative peers and others who have added me to their follow list. It's fun taking a peek into others lives and each of us sharing our own. (See link in my contact information at right)

About a week ago one of my friends posted a link to a web site on Twitter. I clicked the link but when it loaded into my browser the page was scrambled as shown above. A few seconds passed and right before I moved my cursor to close the window a thought crossed my mind

"That is so ugly looking it's kind of cool."

I've trained myself to not ignore these types of thoughts, so I took a few screen shots of the scrambled page knowing I'd use it somehow to create some art. And thus a new doodle movie was born.

Brand Icons

'Chicken Club - Sticker design motif used on all food products.'

When a client hires me to illustrate a sausage gondola and a hot dog smoking a pipe it goes without saying that the project is going to be a fun one to work on. This was the case when I was asked to create a set of icons for use in a new re-branding of a popular restaurant chain in Canada called Kolachy Co.

Kolachy's offers a wide range of unique pastry sandwich flavors and thus needed an equally unique set of icons to distinguish each of them. Working closely with the art director I developed a fun whimsical concept for such flavors as "Terrazzo Sausage" (Sausage Gondola), "Spinach & Feta" (Popeye Arm), "Steak and Cheese" (Cow with Swiss Cheese Holes), "Ginger Beef" (Cow in Chopsticks) and "BBQ Beef" (Flaming Cow Head) and many more.


'A particle selection of the '38' icons I designed.'

Each of the icons will be used within the context of the sticker design motif shown above. These stickers will be applied to the actual food item within the restaurants to clarify the flavor or food type being offered. The colors used are part of Kolachy's new overall branding strategy developed by ReThink.

I enjoy working closely with a creative team like ReThink, bouncing around ideas and fine tuning concepts until you arrive at a well crafted solution.

Continuous Line Illustration

'Linear styled illustration of a man.'

Sometimes in the course of working with agencies projects change or get axed mid-way through a creative process. Thus was the case with this project. I was hired to illustrate some linear line art for an advertising campaign. With this specific style all the heavy lifting creatively speaking is done upfront in the refining of the sketch. Working out how the one continuous line flows to create the given image. And once the sketch is done you essentially know what the final art will end up looking like so all that remains is just building the final vector version once the sketches are approved.


'Linear styled illustration of a women.'

Well, before I had a chance to build the art the client changed the direction of the project and thus the linear art was no longer needed. That's the way it goes at times but I liked the art so I went ahead and created it for myself.

Unwrapping a Logotype

'Lifetime Television Seasonal Logotype'

I was approached by Lifetime Television to create the above seasonal logotype. They wanted fun and festive hand lettering for use in their branding for the holiday season the entire month of December. It'll also be used in their print publicity materials and online.

The TV spots will be animated and are suppose to start airing November 10th. I haven't been able to see the animation yet myself however.


'Secondary Seasonal Element Provided'

I also created the above secondary graphic to go with the logotype. All though I don't think Lifetime Television will end up using the holly berries I still provided the art incase they changed their mind.

I always enjoy doing hand lettering it's almost as fun as Christmas.

Embracing My Inner Geek

'The Ferengi . Click on image to view larger sample.'

I admit I love watching Star Trek. Over the years I've enjoyed the Ferengi characters the most. Since I just got TIVO I've been watching a lot of Star Trek lately and was reminded again of how much this specific character amused me and I've been meaning to illustrate one based on a sketch I did a few months ago.

Well I had a few extra hours last night so I created the art shown above. I integrated their official logo and an actual rule of acquisition. Of course if you're not familiar with the Star Trek universe then this art will mean very little to you and you'll just think I am a geek and yes you'd be correct in that assessment, and my wife would be of the exact same mindset as you too. :-)

But if you're a fellow geek and enjoy Star Trek as much as I do then you'll want to download the pdf I have created so you can print it out and enjoy the art yourself. Download Ferengi PDF.

PS: Of course I am violating multiple rules of acquisition by giving this art away for FREE in the PDF file but to appease the Grand Nagus I am also offering a handsome t-shirt which you can purchase for a minimal amount of Latinum.

Update! Well federation commerce police didn't think I should be selling my fan art on their site so even though all things Star Wars is permitted it looks like anything Star Trek is not? Nice Kardashian tactics.


NEW Ferengi Rules of Acquisition Widget On It's Way!

I've partnered with a coder out of Portland to create a MAC OSX widget. He had previously released a Ferengi Rules of Acquisition Widget but the graphics weren't so great so I offered to re-design his GUI and soon the new widget will be uploaded to Apples site for all to download and enjoy. Below is a sneak peek at the graphics.


'GUI Design for Widget Front.'


'GUI Design for Widget Back.'


'Dashboard Dock Icon.'

Flattering Copyright Infringement

'My Original Tribal Tattoo Art.'

I created the above artwork about two years ago. It was something I did for no other reason then to have fun. I've used it on several creative projects and a t-shirt design I give away when I do speaking gigs. It now seems this art is making it's way into the whole tattoo art sub-culture and people are helping themselves to the visual imagery and having it applied to their body without my permission.

Sure I am always flattered in a wierd kind of way by this type of artistic commitment, but I'd at least appreciate a request for permission first. My morbid curiosity wonders if I could sue them for copyright infringement and then legally have it removed?


'My artwork now graces the forearm of a German man.'


'A hostage quality picture of my art kidnapping the back of some headless body from God knows where?'

Neither of these two gentleman asked permission nor did they pay me a usage fee, but I digress.

In any regard I wish them well, I hope they enjoy it. But as I've said before: As for me and my torso I prefer a blank canvas. I just can't make that type of artistic commitment.

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"

Good Medicine

'Icons for Advertising Campaign.'

Now that summer is over I can officially declare it "The Summer of Icons". I designed icons for Merck, AllState Insurance, Oxford University Press, Novell and recently these two sets for an ad agency that specializes in medical services and products called "Medicus" out of New York. These icons will be used in an advertising campaign.

Icons are an interesting mix of design and illustrative skill sets. Sometimes your asked to design an icon for a somewhat nebulous term or functionality like "Save" which depending upon the context could take on a variety of visual solutions. Other icon projects they provide a laundry list of specified topics or items that are more literal then figurative and the challenge creatively speaking is to create simplistic i.e. "Iconic" images that work together as a family style wise. This is easier said then done when dealing with subject matter that in and of itself may be complex. But I guess that is why I enjoy it so much it's always a challenge to pull it off well.

I have to admit when I was asked to do the flexing arm with the "Mom Tattoo" I thought to myself "OK, that one is going to look stupid." But as is usual that was just my creative defense mechanism venting it's fear of the artistic unknown. In the end it turned out to be my favorite one out of all of them. Go figure.

The Themes We Love

'Alien Biker Skull Art - Click to view larger image.'

I was asked to write an article for "Computer Arts Magazine" out of the UK. Now that it's been published I can post it on my blog. I did notice they edited my text a bit so this version below is my article in it's original form.

The Themes We Love

Based on my observations within the creative community, and my own personal passions when it comes to creating artwork, I have compiled a top ten list of themes that artists adore illustrating.

Recently a friend of mine asked me to create some artwork 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 caused me once again to think about popular visual themes artists* enjoy creating for and tend to gravitate towards when given an opportunity or are just driven by their own passion to create.

The list I have compiled wasn't something I set out to discover but rather something I have observed with curiosity over the past decade or so. Artists* 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 design and or illustrate 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 artwork.

The order in which I have listed them below is not according to popularity but rather just what came to mind as I wrote this. I am sure I'll miss a few obvious ones but I am also sure you'll let me know which ones those are. ;-)

Top Ten Favorite Themes of Artists

1. Robots: Evil, Benevolent or Humanoid
it's all mechanically fun to draw.

2. Monkeys: Ape, Chimp or Gorilla variety
is fine. Or go ape and do a 'Robot Monkey'.

3. Female Figure: Whether naked women or just
your garden variety hotties it's all about capturing
the essence and beauty of the female form.

4. Skulls/Skeletons: Ironically we all have a skull and it
protects our ideas. What ever bones you decide to
draw It's all Bona-fide fun.

5. Monsters/Mutants: Home grown or universal the
scarier the better.

6. Paranormal: Aliens, Angels, Demons, Ethereal forms
or any other X File favorites.

7. Surrealism: Popularized by Dali, captured by most
artists within their doodles.

8. Dogs: Flea bitten art inspired by mans best friend.

9. Human Head/Face: Floating, or attached all matter
of zany things have been done with them.

10: Birds: One of the animal kingdoms most
symmetrically wonderful creatures.

It goes without saying that if an artist can mix and match a combination of several of the above themes or parts of several themes into one artistic composition or project then it's a dream job. That said we never need an excuse to create whether we are being paid for it or not.

Artists are very opinionated so I'd be remiss if I didn't list other themes I considered for the list but chose not to include. Many of these are what I'd consider elements used by artists which are not themes but rather tend to be integrated into the work of a given theme more then a theme in and of themselves.

These included: Brains, Cars, Cats, Clouds, Crowns, Dinosaurs, Dragons, Eyeballs, Fish, Flames, Flowers, Hands, Mechanical Devices, Mouths, Political, Pirates, Tiki, War and many more which I don't have room to list here. These are without doubt most enjoyable themes and elements to work with but they are not as popular as the ones in the list.

Whether our art is driven by a clients project or just our own artistic passion inspiring us we can still enjoy the creative process and continually seek opportunities to utilize our favorite themes into our artwork. Since I was asked to write this article I used that opportunity to create the skull art you now see. It's as easy as that. Now go forth and create!


*When I use the term 'Artists' I am referring to graphic designers and illustrators specifically, not fine artists.

Think Tank 2007

'Mini Me.'

The Nashville AIGA Chapter is putting on a cool design gig this coming weekend called "Think Tank".

Should be a fun weekend and I've been asked to speak about what a "Graphic Designer" is and if that term is accurate in today's ever changing market. I am pretty nervous but looking forward to it. If you can make it then make sure to say hi I'd like to meet you.

Lots of great speakers lined up:
- Debbie Millman
- Shaun Inman
- Marian Bantjes
- Von Glitschka
- Nate Voss
- Bennett Holzworth
- Donovan Beery


'For me the term "Graphic Designer" comes with a huge asterisk.'

I'll be bringing some fun give away items like stickers, a copy of my book, sets of Keyboard Characters and a handful of "Vonster Brand" t-shirts.

So head on over to the official "Think Tank" web site and get the full scoop.

MLB Embroidery Patches - 2008

'Major League Baseball Licensed Patch Designs.'

Collecting baseball cards as a kid was one of my favorite memories from childhood. When I'd get my monthly $5 allowance I'd ride my purple bike with a banana seat, big back tire and small front tire down to the local drug store and make my monthly purchase of baseball cards, candy and of course the holy grail of all things creatively inspiring for me at the time a copy of the latest MAD Magazine. The latter of course I'd stuff in my pants and covertly sneak it into my room because my parents thought it was a bad influence. My mom reads my blog so I'll let her be the judge on that now. ;-)

I continued to collect baseball cards all the way through high school and had a very valuable collection of some great rookie cards and players going back to the 40's and 50's. As much as it pains me to say this, I sold the entire collection after college. I was desperate for money, hadn't found my first job yet after art school and didn't want to mooch off my parents any more then had been doing so I sold it. It still makes me sick to my stomach thinking about it again. Ugh.

But working on these MLB designs has brought back a lot of childhood memories since it's the same players I collected and enjoyed watching and mimicking myself growing up.

Baseball cards have gone through a quantum shift since when I collected though. The Upper Deck Company is by far the industry leader when it comes to sports collectibles. Gone are the days of merely having a full color front and 1 color back printed on cheap stock. Now they have full color with 5th and 6th spot colors, high grade stock, foil and embossing, die-cutting, holographic imagery and jersey or other sports material attached to the card. The choices for collectors are endless now.


'This image shows '14' of the nearly '90' patches I designed.'

Many of the patches I had to design commemorate historically memorable moments in baseball. Sometimes that is hard to capture in a static image such as a patch design, so that makes it difficult to relay the accurate mood and tense that video footage might be able to showcase easier.

For example, look at the second row first patch. Do you know what that is illustrating? It's Carlton Fisks 1975 home run against the 'Big Red Machine' in the World Series. Before he knew it was a home run though he was waving at the ball as it flew through the air hoping it wouldn't go foul and it didn't. It hit the foul pole for a very dramatic home run. Now how do you tell that whole scene in a simplistic and graphic manner? Well, my solution is shown above.

If you'd like to see the set of NBA Licensed embroidery patches I designed previously just click here.

If you'd like to see the set of NFL Licensed embroidery patches I designed previously just click here.