Ape poster progress

I still want to do a little more to this, I think I need to put him in the context of a bar to make the type make more sense. One of my friends in San Diego would always order this drink at bars. As band that inspired the illustration are from there I thought it would be a nice touch. I think I would like to add something in to the type too.

Transport illustrations

Playing around with some shapes and iconography. I was actually thinking about using something along these lines for a big painting initially but now I'm not too sure. Maybe another possible screen print. Might look at developing some type.

Do you recognize the truck in the top image? Clue: "Great Scott!"

America illustration

We wore cowboy boots to work one day towards the end of last year and I had this idea for an illustration. Might make a nice screen print at some point. I'm not decided on the colors though. As much as I want the red, white and blue I want to play with some less expected color.

Floral fabric

Thanks to the magic that is Spoonflower, I got my rosette design printed on to fabric. This is then going to hopefully end up as awesome cushions via the sewing machine skills of Julie and flogged on Etsy. That's the plan anyway.

Bespoken Fall/Winter

The second book I have worked on for Bespoken, uncoated black cover printed in silver with a soft touch coat on the interior pages. We kept the design simple with emphasis on the clothes, quality and the brand message. Photography by Blossom Berkofsky.

First painting

I must have been working on this for well over a year and a half. I started my stencil technique with this and as it is on art board, have had many terrible issues with it. I know working on wood is way easier.

Although I already moved on, I need to back and finish this up. There will eventually be type on the sign, all I need to do is figure out what it will say.

New rosette study

I want to roll out my floral rosette design in to a series of different but related circular pieces. This one I am starting out planning the shapes and color in illustrator with the intention to move over to texture later.

I want to tone the color down a lot but kind of like how this looks all bright. Very playful.

Nice day for a spot of painting

Awesome until your dog tries to eat a Pomeranian walking past your
house. I think her stoop rights are revoked for now.

Apartment complex painting

Trying to get all of these cabinet doors painted so I can start on my full size doors. Started this piece for a friend, going to try get it done in good time, speed up my process. This is my 2nd full-on piece. Another local spot in Long Beach, this super cool 70's apartment complex is looking kind of tatty these days but the lines are awesome.

Well hung

Took far too long, but not as long as the last one. My completed
lighthouse painting up on the wall! I still need to go in and touch up a few spots which got messed up along the way. The Long beach Lighthouse, or robot lighthouse sits in the port of Long Beach and was completed in 1949. Built to survive earthquakes and tidal waves, it's a great example of 50's design. I have been fascinated with it since we moved to Long Beach as you can see it's light blinking at night and it is often silhouetted against Catalina Island.

iPhone doodle

Drawn using brushes for the iPhone. Cool little tool for the finger
phone. Lots of control of zoom, brushes, color and opacity. Layers
would be nice though.

This is a Steve Jobs quote I found interesting, and worthy of a little
doodle.

Bespoken lookbook

Drum roll please........... This is the cover of a spring / summer 09 look book that should print this weekend.

BC Surf

My good friend, and Brother-in-law Chris asked me to help out with some branding for a local surf shop in San Clemente California.

After meeting the owners I decided this would be a fun project, we agreed on a lot of the things we liked. One of those being old-school Ocean Pacific graphics.

I think we managed to bring that through in the redesign.

Rumors circulating that they are having new signage made for the exterior of the shop using the new branding which will be great. Got to say I'm crossing my fingers for the board laminate though.

If you are in the area and need anything check them out. Melanie, Mannie and Chris. Super nice people... BC SURF

APES desktop art

Here's two 16080x1027 APES desktop images. Click on the above image then right click and save, or just drag over to your desktop. I will work on getting some other sizes up. Any requests?

Save Trestles From The Monster

Everyone seemed to like this concept for it's attention-grabbing quality. Also this comes across a considerably meaner than the previous idea. The work was eventually used across web banners, posters, pins, shirts and so on.

Great chance to work with a great organization. We need to look after our natural resources and hopefully with our participation there's room for Surfrider to grow in to a force to be reckoned with.

Save Trestles Initial concept

Through work I got the opportunity to do some work for Surfrider. It was a quick-fire job to get people to attend a public hearing. This was the second and final hearing where arguments were being heard for and against building a giant, gnarly toll road right through the middle of some truly unique countryside in Southern California.

Surfrider had already done a great job raising awareness with the 'Save Trestles' campaign. They now wanted to get something a little more solid circulated that
had a specific call to action for the event.

We banged out two concepts. This being the first. These were meant to be posters, highlighting what might happen if the toll road was to go ahead.

The second concept was chosen. I liked this one personally. If not just for finding a good place to make a reference to the original Woodstock poster!

APES banner art

I worked some detail in to the 'Apes Of Wrath' type for a banner to hang behind the band at shows. Was pretty tedious but think it will pay off when it's printed pretty large. Just need to decide on the color scheme.

Quiet afternoon

Some quick studies for a work in progress.

Very graphic

Spotted this great building In long beach. Might make a great painting.

Work in Progress

I have been getting in some practice with the old Wacom Tablet. I like drawing big textures so far. Tedious but rewarding. Here's a test for a possible poster, and probable wall mural.

Tuesday morning gadget fest

This phone blogging is cool

S&S Digibook

By far the most ambitious interactive project I have worked on, it took about seven months from start to completion to get this together. Saatchi Los Angeles wanted to produce a yearly book of work but instead of printing a book, saving those resources and producing an interactive book to be distributed on a USB drive.

I tried to keep the navigation linear to emulate a printed book, using detail photos from around the office as background elements. It was nice to work on a project like this and see it all come together through the programming and flash development.

Good friends and photographers extraordinaire, Dan Busta and Ryan Schude came along and shot wonderful interior images of the new remodeled third floor. The final package was an orange rubber casing presented in a foil-stamped box.

Stag Rmx

In an attempt to produce some prints as gifts for the kind gents that helped myself and Julie out at our wedding, I produced these pieces. Both are kind of mash-ups of other existing content I am working on. I was initially going to just print one piece but realized that some people are room mates and would therefore have duplicate prints in the house. Going to produce 6 prints, three of each on a different type of art paper, including bamboo which I'm super excited about as it's totally sustainable.

Finally on a wall

It's been probably 6 months since I had the first rosette print made which now hangs above my bed. With the help of my friend Sayer Danforth I hand framed two pieces last week. Getting better at the whole process, and also found a great gloss coating that paints on and protects the surface. Since then I have found a wonderful printing resource in Santa Ana. There's a guy down there called Moses who is trying to experiment with all types of digital printing. Also is very cost effective and quality conscious for canvas prints. Feels good to get this up on the wall at last. Two more are ready to give to friends as presents.

Unseen Forces

A piece for my good friend Chris Iltis for a musical project. The radio had some personal meaning as an object. Chris wanted for the music to be portrayed as an unseen force so I created the creature as a sort of spirit of the radio.

STAG!

So far the only thing this has been good for has been to add a speech bubble to for the header of this blog. Pretty frustrated with this piece in general, was intended to be a print but not really holding up yet. Needs work. Fully planning to NOT let this slip in to the WIP drawer for the next month to two years...

Rosette

In 2006-ish I collaborated a good friend of mine who is a fashion designer to make some sweet hand made mens T-shirts. We did make some sweet mens shirts, 5 of them, then we both went our separate ways. Since then I have had a half-realized project on my to-do list. From shirts, to canvas, first in hopefully a series I have two 50x50 inch versions of the above ready to frame.

Toyota Matrix Launch

This was a fun first project as Art Director for Saatchi Los Angeles. Studio shots of the what was all-new 09 Toyota Matrix. Designed and printed on pearl Curious paper in a 2 fold poster format.

My Wedding invites

So my part of the wedding planning came down to designing and printing the invites. I drew this scene which is meant to be the spot that we got married at, right there in front of those two bushes. I guess it kind of looks like that. Designing = easy, printing on our home HP Photosmart thing = stupid.

Way Free

Some sketchbook studies for a concept I have finally started making a painting for. Even though I don't paint. Or didn't paint. We will see how that goes. All about life, cars, oil, concrete. I started thinking about this when I used to spend two hours plus per day on the I405.