Finally got the Dark Collar webstore live. I have a ton of posters and prints that I’ve been working on this year stocked up and ready to sell. Spread the word, and go to the store!!
The first batch of goods include my Alpha Bravo Poster. The WMC Skull Poster. Two versions of the Pinchflat Poster, as well as the WMC Words Of Wisdom Prints.
Another Weapons Of Mass Creation has come and gone, and this was, as we all expected, the best one yet. After having a table, and a small Q&A the first year, to being a featured designer again the second year, I am so grateful for the fest that I decided to be an official gold sponsor of the event this year.
My buddy Josh flew up from Memphis, and came along to Cleveland with me. We set up our monster-of-a-table in the iLTHY Workshop, and began seeing some old and new faces at Friday night’s mixer party.
Saturday and Sunday, we got in, and got to slingin’ goods alongside the likes of OKPants, Oliver Barrett, Dan Cassaro, Nate Utesch, Rachel Novak, Brian Jasinski, Dan Christofferson, Glen Infante, and Jen K.
While I’ve been a freelance designer for a long time, this is the first time I had any product to sell. It was overwhelming to see people appreciating the work in person, and telling me so. I was humbled and excited.
Highlights that pop to mind are getting to meet and have conversation with both Johnny Cupcakes, and Jacqui Oakley. There are just too many people to list, but I had some very great conversations with so many people. My throat has been sore all week.
I guess the concept that I’m taking away from WMC 2012 is the fact that this camaraderie in the design community is rare, and this is an opportunity to connect with a bunch of creatives that spend most of the year with their heads down, grinding out great work, but can get a change to converse with other creatives who actually know what each other is talking about.
The overall theme that I kept coming back to in most of my conversations was the idea that we have to work hard to make art our living. While the image of an artist tends to convey some hippy skipping through a field, the reality is that those of us who actually make our living with our art, love making that art so much that we fully immerse ourselves in it, working longer than the majority of nine-to-fivers. We have to fight to make this our living, and as someone who IS an artist for a living, I can say that it is SO worth the fight.
My man Kevin Maestros was clutch. He shot this quick recap video below for me. Check him out here.
I’ve been waiting a whole year to get back up to Cleveland for this years Weapons Of Mass Creation 3. WMC Fest is a rare chance for designers like myself to connect with other designers, and finally put faces to some of the names we hear in the design community. It’s going to be a great weekend. As a Gold Sponsor of WMC Fest this year, I’ll have a table set up with a bunch of stuff to sell. Posters, Mini Prints, Stickers, Buttons, and even the very first pressing of The Racing Machetes line of shirts. I cannot wait to see you all up there, and to talk shoppe with so many creatives.
Here’s thee first look at what I’ll be hauling up to Cleveland.
So we added a few little upgrades to the site, many have been going live during this past week. I want to thank the talented Ben Albaugh for developing out all of these new features, Ben is a web ninja, and I’m happy to have him on my team.
Please take a stroll around the site. New features include a client list, a revamped profile page, random work thumbnails on the main page (which allows some old work to step back into the spotlight), a dribbble module in the sidebar, a reworked twitter module, and a more stable server in general.
Thanks for stopping by.
Had a great time at the Pinchflat opening this past Saturday. You can purchase my print here: http://www.wildgoosecreative.com/Pinchflat_Posters_2012.html
Printed by the fine folks at Vahalla Studios. Sized 20×16. Signed and numbered. Here’s proof.
I’ve been lucky enough to design a lot of work for a lot of musicians. I often create this work, send it off, and never really get to see it’s life span. But when you’re able to create something that people truly appreciate, and sometimes even obsess over, it’s one of the most rewarding accomplishments any graphic designer can experience.
I’ve been doing doing design here and there for many of Skrillex‘s previous musical ventures, so naturally, when I was asked to design a logo for his new label, OWSLA, I took on the project without hesitation. After a very quick and minimal spell of revisions, the OWSLA logo was born.
I was told, via email, about how stoked Skrillex, and everyone in his camp were about the new logo. I found myself creating posters and flyers for him, often utilizing the new logo. I also watched him give an acceptance speech, as my logo, tattooed on his arm, crept out beneath his sleeve as he accepted his Grammy!
Overall, it’s been a complete joy to watch this little mark that I created get so much mileage. I’m honored to be a part of it.
Creative mornings is a fantastic lecture series, and is put together well enough that visiting the site, and checking the videos allows you to get an experience almost as good as actually being there.
One of my favorite designers, and one hell of a human being, Aaron Draplin, did a recent lecture in Portland. I’ve had the pleasure of having a quick conversation with Draplin, but watching his lecture was one of those moments where I realize that someone else sees things the same way as I do, and that someone is on the same team as I am, when it comes to design in general.
My favorite points of his are that of humility and entitlement. People have lost the genuine excitement of “creating something cool for someone” and have tacked on ridiculous invoices and expectations. After watching Draplin’s lecture, maybe you can sit back, take a deep breath, and realize you get to create art all day, and leave it alone.
Anyway, thanks, Draplin, for spelling it out for the design world. Respect.
I was excited to be asked by my friend, and extremely talented designer, Jeremy Slagle, to participate in this years Pinchflat Bicycle/Poster Show. Below is my submission for the shindig. I’ll be having the fine folks over at Vahalla Studios screen print these bad boys at a 11″x17″. If you’re in the Columbus, Ohio area, be sure to make it out to Wild Goose Creative on May 5th to see all of the wonderful prints. My poster, as well as a ton of others will be for sale.
And for all of you designers, there is still time to submit your bike-related art to the show.
I’m honored to have been asked to be a part of Ferocious Quarterly. This issue’s theme is Deep Sea, Deep Space – where a deep sea image interacts with a deep space image. My assignment was to do a Deep Sea panel. While it may be unoriginal, I think the Octopus is gnarly, and I really wanted to draw one. Here is a video of my process:
