February 2012
8 posts
2 tags
Attack Of The Photoshop
“There is no can’t” is one of the main things I try to push on young designers. In the realm of 2D design, any and every image is possible. All you need is alittle creativity, and photoshop. You can have a shark attacking a moon astronaut, while on fire. I did a photofavor for a friend who needed to use an image of a building for an ad, only they didn’t like how the...
24 tags
11 tags
From Sketch To Stretch
4 tags
30 tags
4 tags
Hibernation Hyperdrive
I wouldn’t say I have a caffiene problem, but the thought does cross my mind around my fourth cup in the morning. Coffee has been a great tool in my designs. Whether it’s late at night or first thing on a sunday morning, my brain stays focused when I have a touch of caffiene in the system. One of these days I’ll need to cut down and switch to some kind of herbal organic mutant...
19 tags
From Sketch To Stretch
9 tags
From Sketch To Stretch
January 2012
1 post
23 tags
December 2011
2 posts
16 tags
Female Fight Club
8 tags
November 2011
3 posts
20 tags
A Year Later
By popular demand my Lightkatana Fight and Hail To The King designs are back on sale. Both were previously available for only 24 hours (teefury, ript, etc), last year, on a tuesday. But thanks to my broskis over at SnorgTees, they are now available for days, weeks, months, maybe even years, and perfect for this coming holiday gift gifting season.
It has been a busy fall. A gazillion projects...
30 tags
Scum and Villainy
October 2011
3 posts
14 tags
Just In Case
Brandy new merch just rolled in: custom iPhone cases. Now available in my shop. As a trial I supplied designs to coincide with the biggest shirt sellers, and will will probably expand if the kids go crazy for them.
6 tags
Wedding Shift
I don’t like giving greeting cards. Just feels weird to give someone something, that cost about $4, that you didn’t write, and know it’ll be tossed in a day. So for my buddy’s wedding I decided to give him an “alternative” card. I picked up a used book for $1, Love Birds of Fall by Henry Whatshisname, discarded the book jacket, and created a hand drawn...
20 tags
Past Sale Date
Work work work. The “busy” season has set in, and as my freelance clients prep for the holiday sales boom and winter music tours, I have been autopiloted into constant work. Wake up, work, go home, work, sleep, repeat. This cycle has made me completely blank on updating everyone on sales and new designs in advance. My bad. This month I had 3 designs (Check Exterminate, Our Blessed...
August 2011
6 posts
5 tags
From Sketch To Print
4 tags
Come On Irene
Irene was a terrible guest: blew into town, messed things up, and then headed north. My apartment was unblemished by the storm, but the area around it got pretty roughed up. Most the streets were blocked by either downed telephone poles or fallen trees.
My apartment neighbor and I took a walk to pull branches out of the roads. We found a huge pine tree that was split down the middle.
The...
16 tags
Buffy the Riveter
7 tags
Summer Type
By popular demand, my sugar skull trooper design is now available in multiple season-friendly colors. The top brass at snorg have decided to make it available in brown, navy, and kelly green. Perfect for rocking out your nerdness without clashing with the change of weather settings.
Awhile back, Hasbro comissioned me to make a font for one of their Iron Man toy lines, so I adapted my Aldo the...
11 tags
Make Lemonade
A couple months ago, another designer and I collaborated on a tee sale that would mash-up pop culture rivalries with sports rivalries. We each created a design, I merged Star Wars with Liverpool Football, and in contrast he merged Star Trek with Manchester United. The whole event was a bomb, by my standards. Both the facebook and forum caught fire with negative feedback. It quickly became a...
20 tags
Gonzo the Extra Terrestrial
July 2011
5 posts
6 tags
Second City Shirt
Mocked up a one-color illustration print of a tee design for the man who flipped the wrestling world upside-down, CM Punk. Think I’ll add Best In The World on the back. Hopefully will be printed and ready for sale before he returns from his “unemployment”.
5 tags
Ball Point Preference
Scribble, digital, print. The life cycle of a design. There are very few designs of mine that did not start as a doodle on a legal pad with a ball point pen. It’s probably just a habit brought on by my impulsive doodling disorder, but it works. I get a feel for the layout and overall composition before I dive in digitally. Plus it’s fun looking back at old sketches, reminiscing,...
14 tags
The Doctor Is Out
Coincidences happen in the pop-reference apparel field, due to us basically being visual disc jockeys. When a DJ mixes a track of Jay-Z with a Weezer song, and another mixes different tracks from the same artists, it is a coincidence based on their interests and views. Both felt the same connection to the work, and wanted to share it. This relates to my current tussle with a Dr.Who/Peanuts...
24 tags
Stay Positive
Back in 2007 I was commissioned to make an anti-Yankees tee design for a Boston based website. I instead offered to make a pro-Red Sox tribute design. My reasoning: no one wants to be around someone who is negative. Which is why I’m always surprised when certain products enter the market. Those negative shirts were designed, printed, and sold. The profit is made on advertising someone’s...
June 2011
4 posts
4 tags
Amity Island
It started as an addiction to everything remotely related to my favorite movie (Jaws), but became my favorite annual tradition, weekend trip to Martha’s Vineyard. After an hour ferry ride, you check your frowns at the dock. It’s a combo of the shelly beaches, salty breezes, crystal water, long bike paths, loud harbors, vibrant ice cream shops, cozy breweries, piles of seafood, hand...
6 tags
Steps Ad Up
Although the majority of my snorg work is designed for printing and worn proudly until the inevitable mustard stain, I also do a fair amount of ad work. New features, contests, sales, etc. Here’s the process of the making of one, using this month’s contest ad:
1. the snorg marketing director will send me a bundle of photos to use, from them I’ll pick the one that best suits...
6 tags
Kicked Back Busy
Summer time for most people means beach trips, BBQs, and a tan that doesn’t define where your t-shirt usually is. For designers it’s hunting season.
Bands need merchandise for summer tours, businesses need logos and branding ready for their big fall products, and just about everybody somehow needs a website. In summer the average designer, much like Mars, has no life. And...
Poster Boy
My first real step into graphic design came in junior high school when I made the movie poster for my friend’s camcoder-shot film Rabies, a terrifying tale of a community terrorized by a terribly rabid raccoon. I’ve always loved the concept of a movie poster. It requires far more detail than a book cover, and needs to be so dynamic you are compelled to buy a ticket, all while being a...
May 2011
4 posts
13 tags
Just in time for the last installment of the movie series, Magic Training Corps, my Harry Potter parody of the ROTC logo is on sale today, for only 24 hours at TeeFury
Laying Out The Enemy
As a diehard PC Friar fan, I found it morally difficult to accept the freelance job for designing the cover for this year’s URI Rams athletic planner book. Deep down I knew that “design comes first”, and powered through, providing them with a piece they were really happy with.
Live Responsibly
Responsibility isn’t a lesson taught in art school, but is a necessity of design. Own the failure, it makes us better. If a design fails in its execution, responsibility of the failure needs to be taken by you the designer, because it’s the only way to get better. Design bombs? Say “I should’ve done this or this, and will next time”. If you have a tendency to get...
The Whole Package
Package design is a huge influence on my work. I’ll be at the market or liquor store, just mesmirized at some of package design, the workers can’t see the gears in my head turning so they just assume I’m a weirdo shopper who gets in a staring contest with a box of pasta. A lot of my clients request a vintage look to their design, so a good source for research is older packaging...
April 2011
4 posts
10 tags
Battle Like A Boss
My mom had her own small business, which exposed me to a greater level of work and responsibility than most teenagers, and helped me get an A- on my small business project in middle school, booyah. But even with that experience, I constantly find being your own boss can be just as limiting as working corporate. It’s filled with time management, second guessing, project planning, etc. I...
WatchMade a promotional video for SnorgTees.com, divulging my hidden secrets of how to make a dinosaur shirt.
Avant-Odd Gallery
Growing up in a house filled with hand-me-downs made me have loving appreciation for cheesy art. So as a hobby, I find painting/illustration reproductions at the local thrift store or elderly yard sale, and add “tweaks”. What is normally ignored for its boring delivery, is now forcing someone to make a double-take. The intentional absurdity of the image can pull a laugh from any...
Refresh and Repeat
Break out the comically giant scissors and cut the red ribbon. Redesigned my website for the 642nd time, and also my logo for only the 3rd time.
March 2011
3 posts
11 tags
Help Japan
Made a print to help raise funds for Japan’s relief effort. Although my friends and colleagues in Tokyo are safe, others were not as lucky. 100% of the comission will be donated to the Red Cross to help the victims and communities affected by the earthquake diaster. Every little bit helps.
Think Outside The Block
Maybe one day in the future, once jet-pack racing is no longer cool, they’ll discover a cure for the writer’s block. Although I’m not a writer, I hit my creative wall from time to time just the same. Think think think, and still nothing. But like any actual wall, there’s always a way passed it. My trick/advice is simple submersion. Ideas can’t be forced, but by surrounding yourself with...
Better Check Yourself
The trick to juggling is focus. I work on an average fifteen designs or projects a week. The only way I’ve found to stay on track is keeping checklists. But not just checklists, super mutant steroid checklists, with highlighting and footnotes.
February 2011
5 posts
6 tags
Light Speed Busy
This month alone I have worked on over twenty Star Wars related designs. Not sure if the it’s due to the brand making a retro-revival, or it’s unwavering awesomeness, either way it’s fun and surreal. Years ago I closeted my passion for the galaxy far far away, and now I can’t preach it loud enough.
Every once in awhile I come across my fonts around town or the net....
15 tags
Dropping Truth Bombs
Illustrated a portrait for Stephen Colbert, King of America
From Start to Finish
My number one piece of advice to all young designers: never name a design file “final”. It’s bad luck to consider a design finished. As soon as you do, odds are your client needs “one more edit”. I’m always amazed the process an idea can go through on it’s trek from initial concept all the way to commercial sale. Below are a few recent snorg designs I...
Yabba dabba doodle
Improvised sketching is one of the most important habits a person should adopt. It’s a fancy word for “doodling”, and defaces just about every important document or notepad I have come into contact with since I was 5.
When you’re young it is considered a bad habit, like finger nail biting or cursing. I have yet to find a downside in visually depicting random thought. ...
21 tags
Fantastic Process
I receive emails quite often asking how my work process gets from point A to point B. Here’s a quick summary using a new design, The Sesame Six a mash up of my 2 childhood favorites. This idea is merging the worlds of Sesame Street with Jack Kirby’s Fantastic Four. The initial sketch is basic pencils and paper.
Scanned into Adobe Illustrator, then layer shapes using the pen tool...
January 2011
3 posts
6 tags
Winter Trademark
There’s always a happy compromise with every “legally difficult” idea. Copyrights are a steady battle in my toils, especially with the pop culture tee designs. Print a design with trademarked themes and you’re bound to get a cease and desist letter. This pirate tee was originally set on a scrabble board, but due to the use of Scrabble®, it’d never fly. After a little brainstormage I found the...
7 tags
Six More Prequels
Not sure what it is about Groundhog’s Day that I love so much, maybe it’s the mythology of the common creature defining weather patterns in a modern world, or maybe it’s because Bill Murray is the nerd overlord. Either way, I love it. So I made a bunch of Boba Fett Groundhog cards to send to my freelance clients.
Most “vendors” send christmas cards and gift...