January 20th, 2010
Tom Caruana made this killer mixtape of Wu-Tang vocals and Beatles-related instrumentals and has just released it for free online here. I made the official album cover as seen above. Even if I wasn't involved I feel like I'd be recommending this to friends, it's just that good. The samples especially really run the gamut from expected to totally-far-out-"what was that?"-style-awesome. Reception has been pretty good so far, Raekwon put the link out on twitter and it really started blowing up! Looking forward to doing more stuff like this.
Tags: album covers, beatles, wu-tang
Posted in Music, Portfolio | 3 Comments »
December 26th, 2009
The official 2009 Taito Christmas card. Pretty sweet (p.s. I didn't make this).
Happy Holidays everybody!
Tags: christmas, space invaders
Posted in Design, Video Games | No Comments »
November 11th, 2009
One of my favorite things to work on at Media Genesis in the last year or so has been the newsletter. We have a number of Project Managers with writing backgrounds, so every month or so we put together a newsletter of roughly four to five articles on the latest internet news, specifically geared towards clients of ours. As a founding member of the newsletter team, it's my job to create all the editorial illustrations.
Sometimes these come to me rather quickly, and the idea is easy enough to execute that just a basic sketch is all that's required before moving into Photoshop:
Other times things don't go quite as smoothly. For this illustration entitled "The Key to Corporate Blogging," I first drew a locked chest and a locked door down a long hallway:
After some work in Photoshop, it became clear that neither of these paths had much merit. The simplest path, just drawing a key, was the best:
Sometimes even the simplest sketch, just a gesture really, is enough of an idea to go on:
Despite what I thought as a child, today I'm not sure I'd really want to be an illustrator full-time. But editorial illustration is a great diversion from having your nose buried in website design all day, and I'm pretty proud of the newsletter we've put together. You can check out all past entries here, and while you're there feel free to subscribe.
Below are a few more of my favorite illustrations that I couldn't find my sketches for:
Tags: illustration, mediag, newsletter
Posted in Portfolio, Process | 1 Comment »
November 10th, 2009
A little while ago I was contacted about creating a logo for a brand new PR agency known as The Redner Group. Their areas of expertise are "video games, consumer electronics, and men's fashion," so I was pretty much on board right away. Visualizing PR without resorting to gimmicks is kind of a tricky thing, plus there was the added weight of creating something for a brand new company (as opposed to redesigns, which at least for me tends to be a bit more common). The one thing we established early on was that the color scheme would be primarily red-based (REDner, right?). With that in mind, I got to sketching in my handy-dandy Field Notes book:
Sketching wasn't going as well as I am maybe used to. Things were a little murky, although if there was one thing I did hit on at this stage it was the notion that the acronym TRG was potentially more visually interesting than writing out the whole name — I don't know why exactly, but it seemed to have interesting ligature possibilities. I decided to dive head-first into Illustrator, with less of a life-preserver than usual.
A few themes came out of this stage that would set the course for the rest of the process, namely acronyms and circles. The top left was a fairly successful (I thought, at least) full-name version, set into a rather abstract capital R. The other versions on top also intrigued me — I had primarily been using bold condensed sans-serifs like Bureau and Knockout (especially nice as cap acronyms, I think), but in this case I used a typeface my co-worker Ryan introduced me to called Calvert, which worked pretty well. The lower-right logo is a little too obviously Draplin-y, and yeah, it's kind of goofy.
So those were shown, some edits were made, new logos were shown, and we quickly hit upon these three "families:"
I should take this opportunity to mention how great a client Redner was. With every new batch, I felt like real progress was being made towards a solution we would both be happy with, which was really reassuring considering how this process tends to go sometimes. Anyway, I was pretty excited with the right option especially, but then this was pointed out to me:
Oops. Yeah, it's not the same typeface, but it was close enough to be an issue. It was right around this point that I think we both started gravitating towards the "acronym in a circle" option. Not because it had a whole lot of special meaning, but because both aesthetically and functionally it held the most promise. Next I made a whole slew of typeface/color variations:
Yeah, so some of those are a little wacky, but I felt like we were 90% of the way there and it was important to me to make sure no stone was left unturned. We narrowed that down to two options:
And then one:
Helvetica wins again. All in all I'm really happy with this solution, I think it lays a really solid groundwork for future visualizations of the brand. Like I said earlier, tt's somewhat rare for me to a create logo for a brand new company, and not a re-design of an existing logo, so the idea of "laying a good groundwork" was an important goal for me. Nothing too flashy or bogged down, just a no-nonsense mark ready to get to work.
Coming soon, another process-y kind of post on a year's worth of editorial illustration for the MG Newsletter.
Tags: logo, Process, red, redner
Posted in Portfolio, Process | 2 Comments »
November 2nd, 2009
This is just a quick post to announce/promote/remind everyone that I now have a weekly radio show on WDET HD2. The show is called Quarter Circle Forward and it airs every Wednesday at 9EST and goes to Midnight. This Wednesday will be the third show so far, and it's shaping up pretty nicely. A link to stream the station online and copies of previous setlists can be found at the official show page. For a sampling of what gets played on the show, here's a sneak peak at the first few songs from this week's show:
Necessaries - Detroit Tonight
the Mantles - Bad Design
Best Coast - Sun Was High (So Was I)
Summer Camp - I Only Have Eyes For You
the Flaming Lips - Worm Mountain
Kim Sun - The Man Who Must Leave
Kanye West - RoboCop
Islands - Heartbeat
Islands - Vapours
Fuck Buttons - Space Mountain
Neon Indian - 6669 (I Don't Know if You Know)
Tags: quarter circle forward, radio, wdet
Posted in Music | No Comments »
October 24th, 2009
A few months ago I was asked to submit the "Many Faces of a Space Invader" poster to a kind of video game art zine. I took the opportunity to remake it, addressing what I felt were some of the weak points of the original and adding a few new ones I'd recently thought of.
Tags: space invaders
Posted in Art, Video Games | 46 Comments »
September 18th, 2009
I've wanted to do another "mixtape" for so long but just haven't the time — my old method was convoluted and messy and just generally not that fun to do. Today I discovered a new method that's the complete opposite, so these may start coming out at a more feverish pace. Mix 3 is much shorter than the others — under 20 minutes, so there's definitely no time for filler. It's made up of:
the xx / Washed Out / Au Revoir Simone x Neon Indian / the Pains of Being Pure at Heart / James Husband / Yoni Wolf
Pretty killer right?? Download here: http://www.mediafire.com/?moclgtzyzdn
Posted in mixtape | No Comments »
July 30th, 2009
Cover design for Function 13's "Prostitution" remix album. More information and a link to the free download are available on the official site.
More work coming soon, things are getting kind of busy right now but I'm going to at least try and finish up the Wu-Note Project before the end of summer.
Tags: album covers
Posted in Music, Portfolio | No Comments »
July 24th, 2009
Just a quick note to let everyone know that munkybutler.com, a new social networking site that Media Genesis developed, is now live. I got to work on this (specifically the name and logo, above) so it's exciting for me to see it finally released into "the wild."
Side note: apparently to help promote the launch there are guys in monkey suits performing zany stunts all over metro Detroit right now, so if you're heading downtown today don't bring any bananas or anything (and if you do, make sure you keep your eyes "peeled" for any suspicious activity).
Tags: logo, mediag, munkeybutler
Posted in Internets, Portfolio | No Comments »
July 20th, 2009
The above is a detail from the new version of "The Many Faces of a Space Invader," created for an upcoming video game art zine. The new version features ten new characters, and I'm looking into my options for printing it.
Tags: poster, simpsons, space invaders
Posted in Portfolio, Video Games | No Comments »
June 22nd, 2009
The Ugly Mug Cafe in Ypsilanti is using my logo as their signage now — looks good. If you're in the area check them out, they make a great coffee.
Tags: coffee, logo, ugly mug, ypsilanti
Posted in Portfolio | No Comments »
June 9th, 2009
My boss Antoine has been brewing beer in his spare time, recently I made a couple labels for them and here's how they turned out:
You can see some more on the Media Genesis Facebook page.
Tags: beer, label, mediag
Posted in Portfolio | No Comments »
May 30th, 2009
So I want to take back something I said in Part 1 -- "almost all of the Wu-Tang album art was horrible" is a bit too harsh I think. Some people have really run with that and gotten quite upset, and rightfully so. There are definitely some good ones in there. I've thought about it and I think it would be more accurate to say that my real problem with the original covers was how disjointed they all looked when put in the same playlist. The cleverest thing the Wu-Tang Clan ever did was negotiate separate contracts for everybody, but since these came out on so many different labels the cover art varies drastically. The "Wu-Note Project" is my attempt to amend this all the covers work as a set.
Let me know what you guys think of Part 2, either in the comments here or on Flickr, where I'm posting each as they're made. All in all I'm pretty happy with them, although I wish there was a Killa Bees Volume 2 fit into this series chronologically so I could do that Thelonius Monk yellow/red trick.
Tags: album covers, blue note, Design, remix, wu-tang
Posted in Design, Music, Portfolio | 17 Comments »
May 28th, 2009
I've always loved the NY Magazine Approval Matrix, and now the Wu-Note Project is in my favorite quadrant: Brilliant/Lowbrow. Does this mean I can put "More brilliant than Cat Power and Captain Kirk" -NY Mag on my next resume?
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
May 25th, 2009
I caved and created a Tumblr. So far the posts just consist of images from my " design inspiration" folder, songs I've been digging, cover art from songs I've been digging, reposts of Eric's Tumblr, and shared items from Google Reader. It's been a fun experiment in posting things quickly (sometimes automatically) without thinking about them nearly as much as I do for posts here. It's like a quick and dirty version of this site.
Oh and Wu-Note Round 2 is just around the corner -- I'm psyched.
Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
April 30th, 2009
Wow, big thanks to everyone who checked out my covers and gave me feedback. The response has been great -- in fact I was so psyched about it I went ahead and made #8. This is the only individual one I will post here, the rest will go up on Flickr as they are completed (although don't expect #9 til maybe next week, paying freelance takes priority). Special thanks to Ghostlaced at the Wu-Tang Corp message board and Tom at FreakyTrigger, who went so far as to name the project (Blu-Tang Clan [but maybe I prefer Wu Note Records?]) and offer some analysis:
Sample-based hip-hop is a conversation between the past (the records producers draw on), the present (the scene it emerges from and the audience who embrace it), and the future (its reception, and the possibility of crossover). Remaking Wu-Tang sleeve art as Blue Note sleeve art is making a point: this music, like that music, is classic African-American art.
Whoa dude. The reaction has been almost entirely positive, although a few people pointed out that the Raekwon cover either looked lazy or just didn't "fit." I'm only mentioning this because I felt pretty much the same way and posted it anyway, which I now want to rectify. The original was relying too much on the photo and as a result looked out of place. Rather than redesign it entirely I've tweaked it a bit and replaced it in the original post and on Flickr. From now on I'm going to be much more careful about calling something "done." In the meantime, enjoy, and I'll be back soon with some new stuff.
Posted in Uncategorized | 5 Comments »
April 28th, 2009
A little while ago I put a bunch of Wu-Tang (both group and solo) albums on my computer. 21 of them, in fact. I inherited some mild OCD from my mom, and as anyone who has seen my iTunes can attest to, it manifests itself in weird ways. I need to have decent-quality album art for every album on my computer, which currently equals over 90 gigs. The problem was that almost all of the Wu-Tang album art was horrible (ODB's two albums being the only real exceptions) -- no offense to the original designers, but as iconic as they might be they're looking pretty dated these days. So, armed with inspiration from what Olly Moss and others are doing (as written about by me here, and later by Kottke here) and a book of Blue Note Records covers, I set out to remake all 21. The first seven are here (click for full-view):
I've changed the art for these in my iTunes and love the results:
So seven down, fourteen to go. From here on out I'm going to start uploading them to my Flickr Photostream as soon as each is done, so you guys can bug me if I'm not making them fast enough. I'll post the next set of seven here when they're done. In the meantime, enjoy, and let me know if you have any comments or suggestions.
Tags: album covers, blue note, Design, remix, wu-tang
Posted in Design, Music, Portfolio, Uncategorized | 101 Comments »
March 20th, 2009
Made a Space Invaders sprite for the MG Newsletter last month and decided to make some variations today.
Tags: meme-worthy?, space invaders
Posted in Portfolio, Video Games | 6 Comments »
March 3rd, 2009
The article I wrote on Twitter for the Media Genesis newsletter is now live. You can read it (and subscribe to the newsletter) here.
Tags: mediag, newsletter, twitter
Posted in Internets | No Comments »
February 27th, 2009
Tags: demo, photoshop, street fighter
Posted in Lulz | No Comments »
February 17th, 2009
I've been really into these kinds of "design remixes" lately. Most of them involve taking current, not very elegantly designed products and redoing them in such a way as to avoid modern design pratfalls, which, especially in the case of books, makes them look a lot like classic-era Penguin covers (which I love). I think part of the appeal for me, apart from the great design, is my love of sets. I've always been drawn to collections, especially when they look like they belong together. The image above is of the Harry Potter books, redesigned by M.S. Corley. The bottom two are from a set by Olly Moss that features some of my favorite old video games, re-imagined as books.
I've got a similar scheme worked up for a favorite set of mine. Will post when I complete the first ten.
Tags: helvetica, penguin, remix, sets
Posted in Design, Video Games | 7 Comments »
January 22nd, 2009
The Detroit Institute of Arts is curating a special selection of contemporary art for friends of Media Genesis and Boyle Burdett on January 22nd, and we got to create the promotional material for the event. The first image was sent out as an email, and the second is going to be printed as an 18 x 24 inch poster. We're really happy with how they turned out, it's especially fun to take a set of visual elements designed for one medium and remix them in another.
Bonus Factoid: Pentagram made the logos for both the DIA and DSO (Detroit Symphony Orchestra). And both are excellent.
Photo: 
Michelle Andonian, American (born 1958), Andy Warhol in Detroit, 1985 (printed 2008); ink jet print. Gift of Michelle Andonian in honor of Joy Hakansen Colby (2008.422), © Michelle Andonian.
Tags: dia, mediag, warhol
Posted in Portfolio, Uncategorized | No Comments »
January 19th, 2009
One of my favorite projects at work lately has been the redesign of our newsletter. Not only did we redesign the look, we completely revamped the content and restructured how each story is presented. We mostly cover topics related to website development, but if you use the internet(s) at all there's bound to be something of interest to you. We're working on our third "issue" right now and in my opinion they're just getting better and better -- but we can always use feedback. Click here to visit the newsletter site, leave some comments on individual stories, and sign up to get the monthly newsletter in your inbox.
Update: full page January newsletter can now be found here.
Tags: email, mediag, newsletter
Posted in Portfolio | No Comments »
December 23rd, 2008
Made this for the Media Genesis Holiday email -- thanks to whichever co-worker suggested the "MediaG Meme" idea. Want to do one of those outlines-with-numbers guides to this but maybe three people would think that was funny and Super Puzzle Fighter isn't going to play itself.
Tags: email, holiday, mediag
Posted in Portfolio | 1 Comment »
December 7th, 2008
Stacey has some cool new photos available on her Etsy store, check it out here. "Vegetable Chefs," shown above, was made entirely by hand -- no Photoshop. Would make a great gift!
Tags: photo, stacey, vegetables
Posted in Art | No Comments »
November 30th, 2008
The navigation on the left finally works. I know it's stupid to make a page live before it's even half done but that's the way I chose to do this and I'm sticking to it. Browse the portfolio, tell your rich friends who need freelance design work done.
Still have a lot to do on this site (cleaning up the right column WordPress stuff for one), but I think I'm instead going to spend the rest of this snowy Michigan Sunday playing Animal Crossing, watching Metropolis, and eating more Thanxgiving leftovers.
Tags: Portfolio, site update
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
November 12th, 2008
Super-psyched about the new book from the guys at FreeDarko. Not just for the content (FreeDarko is a terribly well-written and insightful blog), but also: those illustrations. Gorgeous. It officially came out yesterday, hoping my pre-ordered copy is waiting for me when I get home (thanks Stacey). To whet your appetite, Slate posted a nice preview here.
Tags: basketball, freedarko, illustration
Posted in Sports | No Comments »
November 7th, 2008
Just came across and read this entire Newsweek article on the 2008 presidential election, from Obama deciding to run (but only, per Michelle's request, if he gave up cigarettes) to his victory speech Tuesday. This article is looooong but incredibly interesting, the information gleaned by their reporters was only done so under the agreement that it not be published until after the election. Thankfully not a lot of evening news Palin mud-slinging, but instead some great actual information on campaign insiders, strategy decisions and non-decisions, and behind-the-scenes looks at McCain and Obama. A great way to wrap everything up and put this whole mess behind us.
(photo by Charles Ommanney)
Posted in Uncategorized | 3 Comments »
November 4th, 2008
Still working on code. Major changes have been made but there's still a ton to do. Don't bother clicking on that nav for a few days.
In the meantime, SRSLY Y'LL VOTE
Tags: basketball, politics, srsly
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
