Pop Culture Circa 1970-1990

In the recent weeks I have been watching a lot of the AMC's Mad Men. It's a great drama about a Manhattan based advertising agency in the 1960's. Written and directed by the same people who did The Sopranos. A few weeks ago I was at the office and I stumbled upon an old box of News Week and TIME magazines . . . from the 70's and 80's. Little to say the ads and illustrations reminded me a lot of the ads and artwork I saw on Mad Men. The magazines were so saturated with ads for cigarettes, alcohols, cameras, cars and hotels. The high life. Ideals have changed since then; however, I was excited to see the pop-culture of the time. I scanned in some of my favourites. Check these out.

Jesus with his game face on

Peter Yuill look alike?

Who needs Captain Morgan when you have this guy

Read the captions and enjoy :)

Possibly the greatest knit sweater I have ever seen in my life (bottom right)

Bell Canada keepin' it real

Bell Canada again

Glad to see that ABSOLUT has been putting out great ads since before I was born

And my favourite Canadian product . . . Molson

It's A Freakin' House!

Greetings from the Bay! After my short hiatus after graduation I am back on the illustration horse per say. I thought it would be wise to step back and try to consciously soak in what I have collected over my artistic education. Let it settle. Percolate. It felt good to see things from a distance and plan when I wanted to get back into the game. Well . . . check this out. See that small, white house on my desk in the photo above? See it? Good, cause that is the album I am working on right now. It folds out into a freakin' house with die cut windows and everything! I'm stoked be working on this project. The entire album is illustrations without a single line of type! I will post more progress shots as we move forward. YES!!! ~ followed by fist pump ~

Youth Zoooooone

So here's a little taste of the design work I've been working on lately. This is an ad campaign I've been working on for a local youth oriented group called Youth Zone. Youth Zone is a branch of the City of Thunder Bay's Recreation & Culture Division, which organizes opportunities and events for teens over the Summer holidays. Before this campaign they did not have much of a visual identity. In a past few weeks I put together for them a festival poster, Ciniplex still screen ad and promotional program brochure. I tried to limit the amount of bulk type in efforts to keep the viewers interest with out over loading them with content; hence, using a healthy content of regular, bold, condensed, small caps, colours, etc. It's been really fun so far. There are a few more smaller Youth Zone projects I will be working on, but until then I will be working on the album cover/design for the very talented musician Jean-Paul De Roover. We're are working with some really cool technical aspects within the design process. I'm looking forward to showing you guys some progress.

Keep Movin' the Feet

Long time no post. I'm sorry to say that I haven't been very "gung-ho" in regards to producing new artwork. A little while ago I decided to take some time off to collect my thoughts -- start creating rather than reflecting what's going on around me. The City of Thunder Bay and Youth Zone contacted me to revise some of their graphic representations. The image above is a redesigned logo for Thunder Bay's Superior Youth Festival, you can see the original logo here. Next up I will be creating some newspaper ads, poster, brochure and even a still slide that will be played during the coming attractions at movie theatres. Hopefully I can get into the swing of things more sooner than later. Just waiting for that light bulb to go off.

The Future

Okay, so here's the deal. Lately I haven't been feeling like myself. For the most part I have felt that my artistic vision has been clouded by my influences. This is bad. Because you should never compare yourself to anybody and you should always try to produce a genuine representation of yourself and your artwork. I've been trying to reach some sort of comfort with any creative outlet; however, the progress has been hindered by my lack of motivation and concentration.

I am here to inform my friends and fellow artistic minded community that I will be relocating to Vancouver Island come September. I will be joining the Graphic Design program at Vancouver Island University. This is a decision that I have come to because I feel that I need a new adventure. I appreciate everything that Thunder Bay has given me, and I am very grateful for the education and friendships that I have made in Toronto/Sheridan College. It is time for a new adventure. I will miss you all. And I will always be thinking of you because you are my inspiration. I was hoping to relocate to Southern Ontario, but now that seems to have been put on hold. I will be back some day. Right now I need to concentrate on building who I am and what I can contribute to the artistic community.

Let's Fire It Up!

The Friendly Beast

11.5" x 14.5"

Acrylic on Stonehenge

I must admit that my venture back to Thunder Bay began somewhat rough. I didn't even have the internet today! I was going crazy! . . . but . . . things are beginning to turn around for me a little bit. I have a couple interviews this week, I ordered a new Mac book Pro and most importantly, I started to paint again! It's incredible what I can accomplish without being tempted by the digital sweet tooth that I call Photoshop. It's been a while since I've actually been able to sit down and paint. I have no idea what I'm painting, but I'm really doing it. I'm really doing it!

The painting above is a mix of things still in progress. I've been thinking about the roles of archetypal characters and scribbled some out on paper the other day. This creature is known as the friendly beast. Every story has one. He's the one that starts out as a thorn in your side, but moves up into a place in your heart. I wanted to get across the contradictory nature of a wild beast conflicted with a main of blossoming flowers -- chrysanthemums to be specific. I'd like to create more pieces based on the idea of conflict and dichotomous subject matter. Dark vs. Light. Good vs. Evil. Butter vs. Margarine, etc. Right now I'm happy that I'm painting again. I need to build up that portfolio!

Spreadzilla

Due to certain circumstances it appears that I will not be joining the ranks as a Graphic Designer this summer. Due to the economic climate and competitive nature of the business world I'll have to wait to flex my skills some other time. It's okay though, in the back of my mind I think this was the right thing to happen. I don't know why? But it is. Call it instinct. And the major thing I learned at Sheridan is to be confident and trust your instinct.

In the meantime I thought I would share a few sample spreads from the new book I made. The book was done for my Narrative class and was themed around the making of my film, ILLUSTRATION: The Drawcumentary. I tried to focus on the Graphic Design element of the book. I had a lot of fun producing my own photography, creating layouts and generally finding a new way to add fun to each spread. It turned out great. I ordered the book through Blurb.com, and the quality was incredible. I recommend it to anyone interested in book making.

On a side note, I was reading Jillian Tamakis Sketchblog and came across these two great lectures(1, 2) by Icelandic Graphic Designer/Illustrator Siggi Eggertson. This guy is something special. Watch the lecture and you'll see why I say this.

The 100% Campaign

So for the last semester of Graphic Design class I was working on a re-branding campaign for a denim company called Peacock's Jeans. As you can see with their current logo (above) the imagery and typography is outdated and not appropriately aimed at a definite target audience. They are trying to appeal to younger women; however, I think they could be doing much more to emphasize the brand as sexy, slim and feminine.

Now here is my redesign of the Peacock logo. I began with an idea board cluttered full of ideas and inspirations to which I wanted to focus on. My initial inspiration was an article in McLean's Magazine written about decor by Alexander McQueen. It was about the idea of "taxidermy chic" and how it was becoming a popular fad in interior design among night clubs and bars. This is the target audience that I am directing my marketing efforts to. The socialites and trust fund kids who live to be seen in the public eye.

The logo is a mixture of delicate and smooth script; however, the counters are filled in to add that little bit of boldness and power. Finally I capped off the "k" with a feathery design to resemble a peacock's tail. I tried as hard as I could to stay away from cliche design elements that would resemble a peacock like colour, pattern and shape. My main focus was to emphasize the combination of power and beauty, with a feminine twist.

One of the project guidelines was to emphasize that the denim company of our choice was a "green" company using 100% denim. I thought to myself and said why stop there? Why not make everything about this brand 100%? So the poster ad for my project was based on Peacock's "100% Campaign". Peacock represents everything fun, flashy and glamorous to the highest degree. I used the amazing photography skills of European Photographer Hedi Slimane for the Polaroids. I thought his artistic vision and views on the World reflect what I was looking to re-brand this product as.

Please forgive me for not posting photos of the other facets of the project which were a hang tag and shopping bag. I have no digital mock ups because they were 100% handmade. I have recently moved, so in the process they were lost amongst the debris. Hopefully I'll find some photos of them sooner or later because I really enjoyed working on this project.