23 June 2009
Wired Magazine posted this a while ago—I just saw it today via Josh Spear. Sometime’s Girl Talk is a bit overwhelming to listen to if set as background musci, but I think he is an incredible artist. To thread so many elements together so seamlessly is both impressive and, I think, a culminating statement speaking to the appropriation/sample movement in art and music. His music is like speeding through the last 5 decades of pop music in lightspeed. Have a listen below and follow along with the chart above—it’s pretty fun and totally mind-blowing.
22 June 2009
Every few months I get the opportunity to work with Jon Canlas and I’ve just begun to work on his upcoming website refresh for his 4th version of “Film is Not Dead” which he’s hosting this time in Park City, Utah. He’s officially announcing it today, but if you’d like a coveted seat at his workshop, act fast! Word on the street is that there is (already) very few seats remaining.
So Jon’s a good friend and, at times, I must confess that due to overexposure, perhaps, I get somewhat numbed to the greatness of his work. That’s why I appreciate these projects so much—it gives me yet another chance to dive into his work with refreshed eyes. Last night I spent probably almost an hour looking at a selection of his most recent work and was reminded how incredibly talented he is. And it made me think: if one is going to go through the trouble of meticulously planning the most perfect and gorgeous wedding (not everyone’s into that, but for those who are…), that they would just be insane not to hire someone of Jon’s caliber to document and tell the story of that perfect day. When we were working on his new brand last year, we really got into why he does what he does and the magic of photography in preserving those really important memories. Wedding days are crazy and—after months of planning—fly by once The Day arrives… it’s priceless to be able to go back and relive that day a bit more patiently and indulge in the details and the moments that were all a blur at the time.
Anyways, I’ve probably babbled enough. I’m going to post some of my new favorites pieces of his before and after the jump. Enjoy.
09 June 2009
I posted yesterday about that 7′ tall banner that I had like a day to design. I forgot about the 15′ tall poster I threw together for Chris Purdie that I was graciously granted all of one lunch break to complete. We’ve made up for that with the months it’s taking us to complete to booklet to go along with the show (currently woring on this…).
photo credits: 1) Chad Keyes; 2) Justin Hackworth; and, of course, 3) all portrait photography used in the design by Leo Patrone
08 June 2009
It’s a bit awkward to photograph a pair of 7′ tall banners in a bland office space and make them look really good, but here they are anyways. I designed these for a convention table backdrop at work a couple weeks ago. Once again, ther was limited timeline (was it one day or two?) and budget—which I’ve come to learn means that I get to do the illustrating. I’ll continue to display and discuss some of the inside|sales rebrand on here, but for now I’ll just note the strong Constructivist overtones used to help convey the notion of a revolution. The visual concept was to blend that with a software-esque design aesthetic… Didn’t nail it, but I think we came to something decent for the time being. And until we do nail it, I think it’s kind of an exciting and fun creative challenge.
31 May 2009
The company I work at was a key sponsor of Saturday’s “Glenn Beck at the Capitol” fund raising gala in SLC. Thursday night, my boss called to tell me that they (the coordinators) granted us permission to play a quick little video at the event—something none of the other sponsors received, so it was a pretty big deal. Problem was: we had no such video to show.
So Friday morning at 7:30, my boss, Dave, Joe (from Children Kids), and myself met up and ran over ground rules and a few basic concepts. By about 8:30, we knew we needed our stand-by musician extraordinaire, Micah (of Typophile and Children Kids fame… to name but a few) in order to pull anything even remotely ok off. He was there within the hour and we got down to business. With some help from Ashley Mackay (also of Typophile fame) and a few rolls of sushi from Demae here in Provo, we completed the piece from conception to final render in one day—done by 2:30 am.
Now, I know it’s not the world’s most perfect piece, but I think there’s some good foundational work in there. And, honestly, I’m pretty impressed with us for getting it done—period. Especially since I haven’t used After Effects since said Typophile fame…
31 May 2009
Over the past few weeks, we’ve finally begun to see some of the new branding come to life. These cards, I think, are one of my favorites so far. I love the simplicity of the design because it gets out of the way of the receiver’s experience with the card. Business cards are a tactile experience and these are great to hold—the two kinds of paper, the letter press print, the stiff sturdiness of card… even the audible tone—a hefty smack—with which they land on a desk is really enjoyable.
They’re constructed of a sheet of Neenah Classic Crest Solar White and a French Speckltone Black sheet glued together, with black ink on the front and silver on the back (finally got to try this out… worked perfectly). Beautiful print work—as always—by Bryce at Bjorn Press.
A couple of guys from work took them to a convention back in Boston last week and amidst the various bright, big, and bold design that we did, feedback was that these cards made the most impact. I love that.
06 May 2009
Over two years ago I started working on a cartoon short called “Children Kids” with some friends of mine. Progress is really slow, but recently evidence has surfaced that there is indeed progress. And lots of it!
This particular piece is about a happy little boy named Zak who gets his Big Mac™ stolen by a bully named Jack. Have a look…
05 May 2009
Today at work I got an assignment to design an “ad” (no conceptual directions, copy, or liscenced images to work with) and it needed to be done in a couple hours, max. I spewed out like 10 different directions and ended up refining this one for submission. Hopefully I’ll get a picture of the print soon.
21 February 2009
For those of you who have kept your distance from this blog because it crashed your browser and/or computer, (first: sorry, but) rest assured: it’s safe to come back. We’ve turned off the sifr that was apparently causing all the problems. Until we can get that figured out again, we’ll just all have to make do with Arial.
I got a job. A real, full-time, designer job. Which is cool, but I’ve been super swamped getting up to speed there, as well as finishing freelance work after hours. Here are some of the projects I’ve been working on:
I’ve been working on preliminary ad design for the “i am chris purdy” show happening March 6th at the Sego Arts Center here in Provo. If you’re in the area, expect to see a lot more of this coming soon.
You may recognize Leo Patrone’s work in the photo shoot above (both he and Jon Canlas loaned their services and expertise to the Chris Purdy shoot). Leo just launched his updated site that I’ve been tweaking and updating for the past little bit. And Dane, as always, did masterful work with the flash design. We have a lot more work to accomplish in the next few months that I’m really excited about diving into. And as soon as we get some photos of Leo’s new business card, I’ll post that here, too. It’s pretty hot. Rob, at Tryst Press, letterpressed them beautifully. If anyone is looking for a photographer, Leo is a very special and amazing talent. Catch him while you can.
Thanks to Jon and Leo, I’ve had lots of opportunities to work with photographers over the past couple years. Mark Weinberg is another that I’ve worked with who produces amazing work. He’s releasing some post cards soon that we just finished up a couple days ago. I’ll let you know if and when and where you can see them and/or get your hands on them. They’re simple and beautiful and, naturally, have some great photos on them. Most, by the way, do not have type on the front.
That’s all the work I’m going to post today. I’ll post soon about the album cover I’ve been working on for Joshua James, as well as some fun and exciting design I’ve ran across in the past few weeks.
02 February 2009
It’s been almost a year and a half since I started working with Jonathan Canlas—a renowned film photographer from Utah. After admiring his images from afar for some time, it was a great opportunity to get in and work with them. Since then, we’ve produced the Film is Not Dead website, the Film is Not Dead workbook (images coming soon both here and on my site), we’ve rebranded him, created an updated portfolio site, and another promotional book (again, I’ll have images of that up here soon)—not to mention various collateral and pdfs and so on and on.
Today, information on Jon’s Film is Not Dead 3 workshop was announced and will be held in beautiful San Francisco this coming July. If you’re into photography and you want to learn a TON—check it out.
And, Jon— thanks for letting me explore my creative vision along side yours.
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