The Illustrative Designer Podcast

'Our iTunes Badge.'

The Illustrative Designer Podcast is now live. Our first episode is on iTunes and we have '3' more scheduled to hit ever couple of weeks. You can subscribe in iTunes by clicking here.

To support this new podcast I have developed a site so if for some reason you do not use iTunes or don't have access to that app all the time you can simply visit the site and listen to the podcast online. Visit the web site at: www.TheIlustrativeDesigner.com

It's taken me a while to work out all the technical bugs and I am still working on improving the optimization of the interviews since I record them over a phone line but if you listen to this with head phones it should be fine.

The first podcast features an interview with Bill Gardner the creator and founder of Logo Lounge. The end of each podcast will feature cool music sourced out by my friend and fellow designer John Nissen.

I hope you all enjoy and please leave some positive feedback at iTunes and be sure to visit the web site.

Von

Promotional Poster

'Promotional Poster' Click art to view larger image.

I'll be teaching digital illustration again come Winter term on January 4th. This is a poster I created to hang up at the college to encourage students to sign-up. Once I start this years classes I'll be posting the assignments and all the resources I use at 'IllustrationClass.com'. Anyone can download the files and if you do let me know and I'll show your work to my class.

You'll notice several common themes I have repeated in this artwork. I've been illustrating a lot of tubes coming out of heads, snakes, wings, fire, another bird cameo and of course the token fedora. Not sure why I've been on this kick but it's fun so stop whining about it already.

I am a new CS2 Illustrator user as you'd know reading this blog. This project was only the fourth time I've used CS2 to create a project. It's getting moderately easier but still far slower then FreeHand unfortunately. One thing for sure it's getting harder to use both and eventually I'll have to completely cut all ties to the previous. I am still a little bitter with the corporate weasels at Adobe who forced this change on me. Eventually I'll have to illustrate a corporate weasel and of course use CS2 Frustrator...uh...I mean Illustrator.

Top Ten Favorite Themes!

Fire Squad
A friend of mine asked me to create a logo for his sons engineering team that builds robots so they could get some t-shirts printed. Like most artists I jumped at the excuse to create some new robot art. This made me think about popular themes that artist enjoy creating around.

Creative Observation
I've mentioned it in passing in previous posts but have never really dedicated a specific post on the topic and that is 'The Top Ten Favorite Themes' of artists. It's not so much something I set out to discover but rather something I have observed over the past decade or so. Artist are most certainly a unique group of creative minded folk and I've noticed a handful of themes that tend to be common favorites they choose to do design and or illustration work on. Mind you this is by no means an iron clad list but just the most obvious ones I've noticed and have participated in creating myself through my own art. The latest offering above is no exception and motivated me to post this thread.

Top Ten Themes
The following are what I consider to be the top ten favorite themes of artists when creating their art. The order in which I have listed them is not according to popularity but rather just what came to mind when I posted this. I am sure I'll miss a few obvious ones but that is where you come in. Feel free to post others I may have missed or ones you think should be replace with another and I'll re-tool this list over time.

1. Robots: Evil, Benevolent or Humanoid it's all fun.
2. Monkeys: Ape, Chimp, Gorilla or go ape and do a 'Robot Monkey'.
3. Naked Women: No explanation needed.
4. Skulls: Or skeletons for that matter. It's all Bona-fide fun.
5. Monsters/Mutants: Home grown or universal the scarier the better.
6. Paranormal: Aliens, Angels, Demons, Ethereal forms etc.
7. Surrealism: Popularized by Dali, captured by most artists in doodles.
8. Dogs: Flea bitten art inspired by mans best friend.
9. Human Head: All matter of zany things have popped out of heads.
10: Machines: All kinds of mechanic contraptions and devices.

If an artist can combine several of the above into one composition then it's a dream project.

A couple other common elements used by artists are 'Flames' and 'Wings', but they tend to be integrated into the work of a given theme more then a theme in and of themselves. Someone had mentioned 'Pirates' which I agree is a most enjoyable theme to work with. But I think it' recent craze is due to the recent Disney movies. Of course every child at one time or another drew 'Dinosaurs' and all though another fun theme to work with it's not as popular as the ones in the list.

As you can see most of what drives us creatives tend to be very character driven.

I've had many artists email me on this list and I've adapted some content from their input. If you have suggestions let me know.

Go Forth & Create!

Click art to view larger image.

History
Pretty much every product or industry has some kind of ongoing rivalry. In soft drinks, it's "Coke vs. Pepsi." You have "Nike vs. Adidas" in the world of footwear, and "Mac vs. PC" in computers.

The communication arts world is no different. Graphic designers and illustrators have been arguing the merits of Macromedia FreeHand and Adobe Illustrator since the early days of digital design. I've been a diehard FreeHand user since 1991. Over the years, as more and more illustrators migrated to Adobe products, some have scorned me for sticking with FreeHand. But I didn't care. It facilitated my creative pursuits, and no one could argue with the results. I've won major awards and received recognition both nationally and internationally for work done with FreeHand. Sure, I've owned Illustrator since Version 8, but only for converting or opening files sent to me. I and a handful of other hardcore FreeHand aficionados have been holdouts, while most of our friends and peers have gone over to the other side.


No, I don't know what the pipe smokin' worm means. It just looked cool.

Bad News
In 2005, Adobe purchased Macromedia. With the merger, FreeHand's future looked grim. I knew it was time to make the change. Dragging my heels and Wacom pad, I knew I must begin the switchover. Little did I know that I was embarking on a tortured journey. Changing my primary drawing application wasn't easy. It was like learning to drive on the other side of the road or read a book upside down. Things that were intuitive, almost second nature, were now unfamiliar. I confess--I resisted the change. I was still fuming that the corporate officers and business analysts at Adobe would make a decision about my most important artistic tool. What if Leonardo was forced to switch to watercolor? You know he would have been grumbling a little, too.

My plan was to learn Illustrator gradually. With a booming year of business and a long list of client projects, I really didn't have room in my schedule, or motivation, to take a class or to switch abruptly. I bargained with Time: when FreeHand no longer worked on my Mac (due to the inevitable hardware and OS upgrades), I'd migrate. Really. But fate had other plans for me.


Bubbling ideas. Or as I like to call it, "Slow Boiling."

Closet FreeHand User
Recently, a Portland agency approached me to illustrate a promotional poster for the Adobe CS2 Creative Suite. Wow! I was totally jazzed and honored. When we met to discuss ideas, I quickly realized they assumed I was a CS2 Illustrator user. Now, I was no stranger to Adobe products. CS2 Photoshop had been part of my creative process for eons. And I actually owned CS2 Illustrator. But I had never created a whole project from beginning to end with any version of Illustrator.

They had no clue that a holdout was right under their very noses! I felt like an agent in a covert operation, a scout behind enemy lines. Should I blow my cover, and reveal my diehard alliance with FreeHand? All kinds of amusing arguments went back and forth in my mind. "Don't worry, Adobe owns FreeHand now, so it's not like you're technically a spy." How about this one: "No problem, we'll just do it in FreeHand, then copy and paste everything into CS2. After we save it as an Illustrator file, no one will even notice." I was starting to get a little nervous. I hoped my eyes weren't twitching and sending a Morse code message that a traitor was in their midst!


Yes, even spiders have duo-colored eyes.

Moment of Decision
The agency explained the project: Adobe wanted to use the poster to demonstrate Illustrator's various features, such as transparent vectors, smart objects, layer effects, VPF Technology, and the relationship of CS2 apps working together. It was a juicy project, to say the least. I would be designing a creative illustration for one of the planet's most famous software companies.

It just got better and better. Trying not to drool, I asked if there was a particular direction, theme or concept. The art director looked at me, and said the words that every illustrator dreams of hearing: "No. It's wide open. I like your art, so just do what you do." An account executive did mention to stay away from "edgy"--guns, nudity or violence were out. Okay, so no naked John Wayne Green Beret homage. Other than that, the door was open. Weird, strange, whatever. Whoopee!

Suddenly I came to my senses. There I sat, with one of the coolest projects ever, with total creative license. But I couldn't use my old friend and accomplice, FreeHand. The tool that was my partner for the previous decade was not invited to the ball. How ironic. Panic time!

I did weigh the idea of coming clean. Should I tell them I didn't use Illustrator as a primary drawing application? I decided against it...they didn't hire me because of my software. They loved my previous work, which was all done on FreeHand. My creativity doesn't come from a tool. However, for integrity's sake, I would have to create the artwork with Illustrator. I would have to get my butt in gear and go on a crash course to learn the software, inside and out.

I felt like a man emerging from a concrete bunker, after years of solitary resistance. I must learn CS2 Illustrator...and quickly. This would be a great test of the product's capabilities and ease of use. FreeHand wasn't an option, and it was time to be baptized by fire.


Happy little bee

Creative Process
Hmm, having a wide open creative brief wasn't as easy as it sounded. I had no idea where to start! For several days, I just let ideas slow boil. Then came a period of furious sketching. An idea started to take shape. I thought about what the AD had said, "Do what you do." That was it; that was the idea. So I did. I began "to do." I didn't hold back either. I stretched myself and created art that I thought would be inspiring for other artists. My idea was based on the premise "Why do artists use Adobe products?" The answer is, "To create."


No art is complete without a winged Roman worm

The End Results
I wasn't sure how Adobe would respond. Was the illustration a little too weird? Would the concept clash with their branding somehow? After all, this was a respectable software company, not MTV. But because creatives were the target audience, quirky is good. The agency loved it! They didn't have any changes, and presented it as created. Thankfully, Adobe was thrilled as well, and everything was green-lighted. I made some minor tweaks, then finalized the art.

I wish I could say the switch of software went as smoothly. Honestly, it was sometimes difficult and frustrating. Menus were different. Shortcuts weren't the same. And some tools just didn't exist in Illustrator. However, I found that Illustrator had some great capabilities I never dreamed existed. Later this year, I'm taking an intensive class for former FreeHand users. I'll miss my old buddy, but when you work in a creative environment, you have to be willing to upgrade and adapt, or technology will leave you behind.


Houston, We Have a Problem

Every Good Story Needs a Villain
Lest you think that this fairy tale had no cliffhanger, there was a bit of drama mixed with humor along the way. After many meetings, multitudes of eyeballs viewing the design (including both Adobe and agency staff)...after the artwork was finalized and just about ready to be handed off, along comes the "Ogre of the Audience Demographics and Financial Returns." Uh, I mean, the marketing person, who said, "Why is the worm guy wearing a Nazi helmet?"

(Cue sinister music)

We all know that marketing people have their place in business. And every creative professional knows there's often a tug-of-war between creative expression and the realities of the business model.

In this case, Mr. Worm was not wearing a Nazi helmet. Mr. Worm was sporting a vintage World War I German officer's helmet. The Nazi Party wasn't even around at that time. But no, this was going to be a problem. The marketing person was not going to budge, Nazi helmet or not. Someone might take this image the wrong way. They most certainly didn't want anyone to think they supported militaristic worms with suspect ideology.

I understood the concern, but, hello! What we had here is a winged worm wearing spectacles and a metal helmet. Perhaps we should take another look at the other worm, who wasn't wearing any clothes at all, only a fedora. He's actually smoking a pipe, too.

I can just see it now, protests at Adobe headquarters over the company's implicit endorsement of nationalistic, drug-smoking, nude invertebrates.

(You can probably tell that designers can be sensitive about their work.)

But hey, I'm a professional, and this isn't the first time someone has nixed an element in my artwork. We had to find another helmet for Mr. Worm. I finally settled on a Roman soldier's headgear. And unless you're from Carthage or fought in the Punic Wars, a Roman helmet shouldn't offend anyone. Here endeth my rant, and an amusing anecdote about worms smoking pipes and wearing helmets.

(By the way, I preferred the German helmet because of its sub-culture nod to one of my childhood favorites, Ed Big-Daddy Roth. He was a California illustrator and custom car builder who was influenced by hot rod and motorcycle culture. We illustrators like to include subtle references like that from time to time.)


Epitaph
Anyway this story has gone on long enough, so I'll end it here. I hope I provided some insight into the processes, challenges and zany episodes in an illustrator's average workweek. If you're interested in seeing more behind-the-scenes views of how the art was created, I'll be posting a project tutorial at IllustrationClass.com.

I think it's funny how things work out. For a while, I was dreading the idea of switching from FreeHand to Illustrator. I was that skinny kid at summer camp, shivering at the end of the diving board, scared to jump. Along comes this project, with a not-so-subtle push that got me in the water.

Life is an adventure. I'm really thankful to be able to work on such cool projects.

RIP, my old friend, FreeHand.

If you'd like to see this project from concept to completion you can view it via a free tutorial by clicking here.

It'll Make You Sick!

A while back I did the above art for a 'Barf Bag' art contest ran by 'www.DesignForChunks.com'. (No longer online) Virgin Atlantic Airlines sponsored the contest and out of over 500 international submissions mine was picked to be part of a limited edition set Virgin would actually produce and use on their international flights.

You can watch a CNN Video about the contest and see my bag in it here.

Well a few weeks back a friend of mine emailed me and informed me that 'The Oriental Trading Company' had ripped-off my barf bag artwork. He attached the following image.



I was surprised they'd actually derive their art so closely from my original. The fact the toy product was also called 'Barf Bag' furthered my suspicion in regards to their so-called inspiration for the design. I realize the derived art they created just flat out stinks, if you're going to rip-off another design at least make it look good. But then again I guess if they could make something look good they wouldn't need to rip-off another persons art?

This isn't the first time I've had my art ripped-off. Over the past several years it's happened about six times now. Most of those times I find out from other people who come across my work online and then let me know. Some have tried to create whole shops on Cafepress.com using my art on mugs, clocks and throw pillows, others have broken into pdf files and have sold my artwork on iStockPhoto.com. Another person posted my work on a russian web site and offered it as clip-art. I am amazed that people think they can get away with this? And yet they do for at least a little while until they are caught. The guy on iStockPhoto.com had '46' orders before he was shut down. Who knows what those '46' people will do with my art that was stolen?

Today I've been talking with the legal department of Oriental Trading Company to resolve this matter. I am seeking compensation for the usage. I am not going to be a jerk about it but they need to be fair and honest about their artist infringement. The general counsel for OTC said they had bought the product from an Asian vendor but as you can see in the image above they have '©OTC' in it. That makes them owners of illegal art and they are profiting from it.

I have learned my lesson, all my pdf files now are encrypted and I file quarterly copyright registration with the US Government to protect my unpublished artwork.

I hope they do the right thing and I'll update this post when I know more.

***UPDATE***

Well I've been going back and forth with the Oriental Trading Company and they've agreed to pay the usage fee I requested so that is cool.

I am glad I didn't need to get a lawyer involved.

A Day in the Life of a Designer.

Recently on a design forum the topic of how a designer should deal with clients who like to play art director came up. I've given this topic much thought over the past decade and I'll be honest, I haven't always made the right decision. One of those unfortunate times was when I drew an unflattering caricature of a marketing director and put it on her desk. Even-though she wished to fire me she didn't have the power to do so. Not smart. Thankfully I handle such situations better now. LOL

In general I think the whole process is a balance.

Sure I've had clients who were knobs and I told them to take a hike in no certain terms and you know what they really got pissed at me. Saying stuff like "You're willing to turn down the money?" or "I can't believe you won't do this?" I try to explain to them my reasoning but it never sinks in with them. Paramount in their mindset is their own opinion and because of that I know the design will suffer so it's not worth the trouble.

Other clients who on the surface seem to be a pain I can see past their ignorance and realize some upfront pain is worth the potential that lay beneath.

Lets face it commercial art isn't fine art. Sure I think it's critical for a designer to have a passion and let that fuel his creative pursuits but those creative pursuits need to accomplish a commercial end. If the art changes and tweaks are not moving it towards that end objective and is just a non-designer playing art director then a designer needs to step up and give a well reasoned response as to why that shouldn't be done. If the party insists then you make it clear that project failure is on their head and decide if it's best to drop them or ask them to find another creative to assist them.

At speaking engagements I often tell a story about my time at Upper Deck where a weasel marketing director tried to play art director on a logo job. I submitted a tenth anniversary logo to him and what I got back in return sent me over the edge. I was about to call him up and tell him how much of a dork he was and then realized the best way to do this was to do exactly what he requested.

Long story short here is how it played out:

This is the logo I submitted originally. They whined that it didn't have the 'Upper Deck' logo in it even-though it says 'Upper Deck' and even-though it goes on product with the logo already on it. Redundant is marketings middle name.


At this point I am still playing nice. Fine here is your crappy logo.


I get back to my office and find this on my desk. What the? 400%? This guy is a uber knob. Why I ought to go Keith on them! @#$%! But wait I have an idea...


...Instead I did exactly what was requested. I executed (Pardon the pun) his well thought out art direction and left the print out on his desk and went to lunch.


He got really pissed at me and called me up and told me so. In a nut-shell I said "I did exactly what you asked for." He responded "That isn't what I meant." I said "I can't read your mind and maybe you shouldn't play art director." In the end he got the message and the logo came out decent.


Doesn't always work but you should always try to defend good design and if in the process you can make marketing weasels squirm all the better.

PS: I ran across this post on 'Speak Up' that had a great song on it called 'Make the Logo Bigger.' Too funny.

Portrait - Jacob Renfold

Back in like 1995 me and my wife noticed our phone blinking meaning there was a message left. I went over to the phone and hit the button to listen and the following message played.

"Hello this is Jacob Renfold. I called to get my ears cleaned. I think there full of wax. I can call back again later. Thank you."

At first I thought it was my goofy friend Matt who loves to do stuff like this just to mess with my head. But then the more I listened to it I realized some elderly guy had dialed the wrong phone number. I saved the message and then played it for my wife a few minutes later. We both laughed.

We kept that message saved for about five years until we had to switch our phone service. We'd play it for friends who came by to visit. How odd that a complete stranger would be such a source of entertainment for us without him ever knowing about it. It made us both wonder over the years who Jacob Renfold is and if he ever got his ears cleaned?

Craptacular!

Today I participated in the Portland AIGA chapters 'Student Portfolio Review'. The first 80 students to sign up get the opportunity to present their portfolios to 20 industry professionals. Each of us had 4 students books to review. My assessment of most? Well I think you get the idea.



Student Number 1 This first students work had good potential, signs of emerging talent for sure. His manner of communication was somewhat lacking but understandable. His enthusiasm for what he did and what he wanted to do and learn was nothing short of contagious.

His work was above the norm although a bit predictable at times in terms of style. But I can tell he has the raw skill needed to survive and eventually thrive, he just needs to refine his craft and process. Turns out he's also from Salem so I told him if he ever needs feedback I'd be more then willing to help him out.

Student Number 2 This student was borderline marginal at best. On par with a Kinko's quality design service. His work had a somewhat amateurish flair and made me nervous about his future success. I do feel he can improve but he's a long way from even being a junior designer, more on par with grunt production artist as it stands now.

The common denominator with all his work was the obvious tool-driven design solutions. His concepts were at best half-baked and the execution and attention to detail in his work was pretty weak.

Student Number 3 The third student was absolutely craptacular! I was at a lost as to how to give him any form of positive feedback what so ever. Usually I can find something but in this case it was trying to find the lips on a chicken, they just aren't there. Frankly he should not even be considering this industry as a career. I know that sounds harsh but unfortunately it's an honest and accurate assessment based on his work.

On the review form I filled out I basically told him as much. AIGA told us to be brutally honest with these students so I was. I tried to be as friendly as possible but it's hard to come off that way when everything about the persons work is nothing short of crap. He just doesn't have it.

His work is a testimony to knowing tools of our trade but having zero creative skills to utilize them effectively. He is what I'd consider a 'Hack'. 15 yrs ago he would have never pursued this career because the level of craft needed to even enter into it demanded you could do a certain level of creative work. Well the cheap PC has removed that industry speed bump and we have all sorts of educated tool savy designers flooding the industry who 15 yrs ago would be flipping burgers instead.

I must admit I felt a little guilty writing the review only because I didn't like knowing that my opinion was going to hurt him. I don't like knowing my words will cause him pain. It's this part of doing these reviews that I really don't like. I understand it's necessary but it's certainly not fun.

Student Number 4 At least the fourth student made up for the past two books I had to let assault my eyes. I must say first off that this girls presense is very professional but at the same time approachable and friendly. She is the best designer I've personally seen come out of a local school in four years. Great design but more importantly great concepts behind the design. She is a 'Good Thinker' and thus a good designer. She has a good grasp of how things work and to top it off she is just a good communicator. She is going to go far. Reviewing her work was a true joy, I did have some good feedback about a handful of pieces and how she could improve and strengthen her book but I didn't have to address any of the basics her fundamentals were iron clad and dialed in with precision.

Some firm is going to nab her and be a better place for it.

So How Does This Happen?
You have two students one whose work is on par with a polished turd and another whose work is anything but student in quality? Both have the same tools, both had the same opportunity, both have the same parameters to work by in this industry yet one is good and the other bad. I am not talking personal taste, what I like is what I like and what you like is what you like. This wasn't a vague dislike anymore then it was a vague appeal I had for the other designer. This was an absolute situation and the proof was the work.

Schools do a good job of teaching students how to use the tools. What are the proper techniques and methods used to create the design. But the one thing that seperates the good from the bad seems to be the one area art schools lack in and that is 'Concepts' the art of thinking creatively. How do you teach a student to be creative? How do you teach them to be good thinkers? Can you even? Will our PC society allow us to call a spade a spade anymore as far as talent and skill goes? Can a design teacher just tell a student at some point "Look you need to give it up and find a new career because you are simply not good enough." Allowing these people to further self-deceive themselves into thinking they are legit designers is not only dishonest to them but it hurts our industry as a whole.

I am sure some will take offense at these comments? I know I probably haven't adequately relayed my feelings very well in this regard but I think most designers will understand what I am trying to say? Life is too short for bad design. I always come back to the same thing when I think about design in the larger sense. Creation itself is the ultimate example of good design, you don't find bad design in the animal kingdom. You might find strange beasts but thier purpose puts their seemingly bizarre design into context.

I am not pretending to have any sure fire answers but maybe teachers need to head off these type of portfolios in mid-stream before they waste their time and money pursuing a career that their tool-driven designs cannot help them succeed in?

You're Hired!

Over the past three years since I've started my own design business I've had a lot of art students contact me asking for various forms of advice. I am happy to share with them and I hope it helps in their pursuit in this industry. A while back someone on the HOW Design Forum asked for insight in regards to an interview they were going to have the next day. This caused me to think back when I interviewed after art school seeing as everyone else in the forum was already giving good solid advice about what to do, I decided to share with this person some real-world examples of what not to do that I personally experienced while interviewing.

What not to do Number 1: If your sick re-schedule it. I didn't and during the interview I was sniffling and playing yo-yo with post nasal drip. Then at the end of the interview I sneezed put my hand up to cover my face and deposited about 12 fluid ounces of snot in my right hand. Immediately after doing that the art director finished looking at my book, smiled and extended his hand to shake mine while standing up. Remember, I now have a hand full of snot so what should I do? I can't tell him "Sorry but my hand is full of snot right now." So in those few moments panic started to set in and as I stood I let my right hand slide against the padded cushion of the chair wiping the snot off in one constant motion as I then raised my arm and shook his hand hoping I had wiped it clean. Needless to say I didn't get the job and someone using the chair later got a nice slimy surprise.

What not to do Number 2: Never mention other design work you didn't do that you've seen in public that you didn't like or thought was poorly executed. Murphy's law dictates that the art director interviewing you when you comment on fore mentioned work will be the one who did that work you didn't like and they won't appreciate your design opinions.

What not to do Number 3: Put your portfolio in a safe secure place the night before you goto an interview. This prevents any cats from pissing on it to mark their territory i.e. your portfolio case. And since they do it during the night the urine dries thus making you unaware of the problem until your in your really hot car half way to the interview location and something starts smelling really hinky.

What you might not want to do Number 4: When a company shows enough interest in hiring you that they have a two hour phone interview and then pay to fly you to meet with them for another interview onsite, it's a good idea to dress professionally and not wear a t-shirt, shorts and sandals to the interview. Then again I got the job with Upper Deck so maybe it's ok to do that? I still get ribbed for that to this day.

Crappy Saturday.

A few months back my wife left for the weekend to attend a womens retreat so I played Mr. Mom with my two daughters. Saturday is normally the only day I ever sleep in so when my youngest woke me up at 7:30 am it was a bit difficult.

I promised them the night before I'd take them to the pancake house so we got dressed and headed off. During breakfast my daughters asked me to tell them a story about myself growing up, my oldest said "You know those funny stories where something happens to you. They make us laugh."

Well I thought to myself "It's been a while since something funny happened to me." Ok, that was a big mistake. I guess that was God's cue to add another one into my hopper because when we got home, opened the garage door and proceeded to walk inside we couldn't. Walk inside that is, the door was locked. We keep the key in a small utility drawer in the garage so I went to retrieve it and it wasn't there? Then I remembered my wife saying last week "I lost the key to the garage."

At this point I said "Uh oh. No key." and my daughter started whining how she was going to miss the birthday party she was invited too later that day and how the presents were inside the house. I decided to use my cell phone and call a friend and realized I didn't have it. And like one of those bad dreams where no one is around to help you, all our neighbors were gone for the weekend. Great. I then noticed my second story window open and considered climbing up but the pitch of our roof is such that I knew it would quickly go from humorous to dangerous so I axed that out. I then asked my daughter if she wanted to try and she said "No way!"

My youngest daughter said "We could goto our friends down the street and call." I shook my head and said "Ok lets go." Well it's about this time that a particular aspect to this story kicks in which could not have come at a worse time. My bowels chime in and say "I need to take a crap. Now!"

I walked about four steps and said "I can't go, I think I have diarrhea?" and then proceeded to grimace and dance around like I was standing on a hot plate. I told my daughter "Hurry go tell your friend to call a locksmith." She took off on her scooter. My other daughter is now pointing at me and laughing "You dance funny." "I am not dancing!" I said a little too sharply.

About 2 minutes go by and my bowels speak up again "Sorry but we aren't waiting. Open flood gate 3!" Panic sets in instantly and I look towards a shelf in our garage that contains cleaning supplies and toilet paper and hop over rip open the pack and grab a roll. I then take off as fast as I can run without allowing my butt cheeks to seperate and yell back at my daughter "Stay in the garage I am going to the backyard. Do not follow me!"

I make it 3/4 of the way and then experience what I can only assume is the same feeling a Depends user has and realize I didn't make it. So now I am hunched over behind our porch in the backyard in shock thinking "I hope my wife is having fun at the coast." I am hunched because if I stand up all the way neighbors can see me. So I proceed to take care of business. (Who said camping doesn't come in handy)

I come back around to the front of the house successfully purged, undies and all buried in a shallow unmarked grave in our back yard flower bed and hoping my daughter was a success in calling for help. She was and about ten minutes later the locksmith showed up opened our door in about 20 seconds and I paid him $45.



So now my daughters have a fun story about their goofy dad they can laugh about from now and for the rest of their lives. Sometimes I wonder why crap like this happens? Pardon the pun.

UPDATE TO STORY
Since posted this side order of my life, we have moved to a new house. So the obvious question is "Did you dig up the shorts?" Well, no I left them buried in the backyard for the new home owner to discover some day when he's doing yard work. I figure by that time it'll just resemble a very large dirty rubber band. The undies part will be long gone by then. Why are you making a funny looking face?

Jesus Wins!

A few years back I was waiting in line at the grocery store. All along the aisle was chocolate bunnies. I wondered what Jesus would think about the Easter Bunny. At the time I was illustrating a set of 'Business Icons' that used almost a Fisher Price™ figure style in them. I adapted that format and created this image.

Of course I emailed it to my Mom and her only comment was "I don't think that's funny at all." Which of course made it hilarious.

So with that said I hope your Easter is a good one!

The bird that didn't soar.

Sometimes when working on projects it becomes apparent mid-stream that the likelihood of the end result being what you expected or was told to expect just isn't going to happen. This project was just such a case.

I was contacted by Upper Deck Company Entertainment to illustrate a mark they could use on a card game for 'World of Warcraft' the mark they wanted was a two headed eagle. In all I did 3-4 incarnations. The character was based on a part of the game apparently and the creature had antlers as well which are not shown in this version.

The mark incarnations I created also contained an eye on the chest with flames above and below. I've worked with this art director before and he's excellent. I feel the problem in this creative pursuit was the classic 'too many chefs in the kitchen.' It's hard to gauge perception and feedback when each stage of the project seems to contradict the original brief and the previous feedback and suggestions.

Years ago I remember a marketing person coming up to me and deciding he was going to play art director and saying "I think what we are looking for is a post modern edgy retro feel!" Well I have never bothered to learn how to speak psycho-babble so I just responded "What does that mean?" He just looked at me not sure what to say. In essence I couldn't get a radar fix on what his or any other marketing weasels expectation was.

This project felt like that. I'd get some very nebulous feedback along the way and it felt like I was shooting in the dark hoping it would hit the mark. In the end I felt like I struck out and that really bugs me. Doesn't happen often but when it does I have a hard time shaking it off and stepping up to the plate. (Yes I like baseball analogies thank you)

This version never made it past a pencil rough I scanned in and emailed for consideration. They pretty much wrote it off immediately even-though I felt it had some good solid potential. So as not to feel like a complete loss creatively speaking I took that sketch and refined it and then did the finished work for no other reason then to show myself what it would have looked like fleshed out fully. Personally I didn't like the eye or flames which looked kind of corn-ball so I removed those and simplified the art.

Thus you have the bird that didn't soar.



PS: Years ago when I had my yearly review with my then boss and art director I remember him telling me "Von you can't be so married to your artwork." Now looking back and fully understanding his business, how he worked and trying to interpret that statement now I know it was his way of saying "You have to allow me to control it." At the time I thought that is what he might have meant but the statement even if not meant that way bugged me.

I feel like I am not being honest with myself or investing the needed part of 'me' in my art if I don't feel attached to it. I am not a short order cook. Order up! One logo with a side order of identity. Heres your art and I move on to the next order taken. Part of what I like about what I do is being passionate about it, investing my interest and drive into something and seeing it through. I am reminded every so often that just isn't always possible when you have too many people who are non-creatives deciding to play the part and wanting to treat design as a creative ala carte.

Maybe I could change my name to 'Greasy Spoon Graphics'? Ok I need to go check and see if that domain is available.....

The Clone Wars

This past year has had it's ups and it's downs. With the economy tanking, every creative business has been effected in one way or another and mine was no exception.

But the most disturbing trends within our industry in my opinion are two fold:

1. The continued growth of the "Creative Industrial Complex" via pre-fab design, which I touched on in an earlier post this year. I'll have more to say about this specific topic in an upcoming post on my blog.

2. The exponential growth in copyright infringement. I've had a total of "62" individual cases (That I'm aware of) where designers, marketing firms, design studios, ad agencies, stock companies, and other businesses used my artwork without paying for it or seeking permission to use it.

Unfortunately I don't see this problem going away. More and more art schools are focusing on the tools rather than the creative process that facilitates original and unique ideas. Thus they are producing the next generation of copyright infringers who ironically in many cases are the same mindless drones who facilitate the degrading of our industry by pimping their ware to industrial hacks like CrowdSpring.com.

But I digress.


Google Image Search.

Showcasing my artwork online is a double edged sword. For a creative hired gun like myself you have to promote or perish. Marketing my services is a must, but it also opens me up to being exploited by unscrupulous design hacks who have no problem googling for their creative solutions.

Most of the cases I was able to handle myself by sending out a copyright infringement letter. Some are just over zealous tattoo lovers who never bothered to ask permission but still feel obligated to email me a picture so I can share in their flattering copyright infringement. This over time has spawned a rogues gallery of what I like to call "Walking Portfolios."


The Damage
I've spent roughly "73" hours responding to the "62" individuals cases. I don't charge by the hour but if I did I figured the amount of time I've invested this year alone is roughly $8,500.

Three of the cases I had to hire a copyright lawyer to deal with them. I settled two of those amicably. The third case is currently ongoing and is represented by the video below.


Chronological list of all the 2009 infringers.

- Photobucket.com User Tribal Tattoo Face Art
- Zazzle.com User Bonehead Skull Artwork
- MySpace.com User Tribal Tattoo Face Art
- Beerorkid.com Trashing Abe Art
- Deviantart.com User Tribal Tattoo Face Art
- Motattoo.com Tribal Tattoo Face Art
- Olloo.com Tribal Tattoo Face Art
- Alaskaslist.com Polar Bear Logo Art
- Deviantart.com User Tribal Tattoo Face Art
- SideHatchEntertainment.com Tickles the Evil Clown
- Chrinodesign.com Billy Mays Artwork
- VolcanoVistaHawks.com Black Hawk Artwork
- Community.mediacorp.com.sg Tickles the Evil Clown
- Flickr.com User White Tiger Art
- Flickr.com User Tribal Bat Tattoo
- Logotypes101.com Fire Giant Art
- ShutterStock.com User / Serbia Black Hawk Artwork
- Lacrosse.schigas.com Black Hawk Artwork
- Deviantart.com User Tribal Bat Tattoo
- IMVU.com User Tribal Bat Tattoo
- 895thehawk.com Black Hawk Artwork
- Dummidumbwit.wordpress.com Billy Mays Artwork
- Unconfirmedsources.com Billy Mays Artwork
- Emptees.com Tribal Bat Tattoo
- Mundozenn.com / Brazil Tribal Tattoo Face Art
- Deviantart.com User Tribal Bat Tattoo
- LAtimes.com Billy Mays Artwork
- SeemyButton.com Billy Mays Artwork
- Consumerist.com Billy Mays Artwork
- Brownsville Early College HS Scorpion Mascot Artwork
- EveryTattoo.com Tribal Tattoo Face Art
- Tao-Of-Tattoos.com Tribal Bat Tattoo
- Twitter.com User Self Portrait Illustration
- Discrim Athletic Tees Black Hawk Artwork
- Zazzle.com User Billy Mays Artwork
- Vyzion360.com Tribal Tattoo Lion
- Flickr.com User Tribal Tattoo Face Art
- Junklist.eu Two Headed Eagle Art
- JohnHaller.com Billy Mays Artwork
- Deviantart.com User Tribal Bat Tattoo
- Deviantart.com User Tribal Bat Tattoo
- Flickr.com User Tribal Bat Tattoo
- Picsquare.com Tiger Art
- Deviantart.com User Alien Skull Art
- Flickr.com User Tribal Bat Tattoo
- Skreened.com Billy Mays Artwork
- Gun Shop, Tacoma Espy Graphic Bird
- Photobucket.com User Black Hawk Artwork
- KosherHam.com Billy Mays Artwork
- InkedMedia.com Tribal Tattoo Skull
- MindSpark.com Billy Mays Artwork
- VectorStock.com User Doodle Fish Artwork
- case-mate.com Tribal Tattoo Face Art
- designbyhumans.com Tribal Tattoo Face Art
- (US Army) wood.army.mil White Tiger Art
- Zazzle.com User Owl Artwork
- WAWK.com Black Hawk Artwork
- Classiccitysigns.com Black Hawk Artwork
- Embroiderydesigns.com Alien Skull Art
- Flickr.com User Tribal Tattoo Face Art
- Houseofgrafix.net Billy Mays Artwork
- Uthstuph.com Security Shield Logo

"Unique" and colorful tribal pattern.

I don't enjoy getting my work ripped off and it frankly pisses me off when I have to waste my time dealing with it when it happens. That said I still try not to be a jerk with the people I'm forced to confront. I tend to give them the benefit of the doubt and try to treat the situation in a reasonable manner. If the infringer responds reasonably and works with me to resolve the matter than I can avoid taking it to next level legally.

But that isn't the case with case-mate. (Pardon the pun) I gave them three months to respond to my reasonable request regarding their infringement and use of my tribal face tattoo art on one of their products to no avail.

So as this year ends a copyright infringement lawsuit begins.

Follow Up: I've settled with case-mate. It took four months of back and forth but I was able to protect my copyright.

Design Time

Ever since I was a little kid and would think about the topic of time, I would make a visual connection between it and the days of the week in my mind.

I've always been a visual thinker and no one told me not to do this, it was just how my imagination made sense of the topic that far greater minds have wrestled with through out history.

When most people think of a timeline be it historical or otherwise it tends to be a horizontal linear line moving from left to right. They view if almost from a third person perspective, an observer if you will.

When I view the subject of time in my mind I see it more from a first person perspective with me in the current/now looking ahead to the next minute, hour, day, month, year etc.


How I see a week in my mind.

Even though I've pictured this concept in my head my whole life I've never bothered to share it with anyone, it just never came up and when I have thought about it I've never spent more then a few seconds analyzing it.

One day about five years ago while driving with my wife I was telling her about a cool program I watched on the string theory. During that conversation I thought about my view of time and shared it the best I could.

My wife furrowed her brow and said "Your mind is weird."

I tried doodling out what I meant but it didn't help and we started talking about something else and I once again let the topic slip back into the recesses of my subconscious.

A week in my mind starts on Monday and ends on Sunday. I think that is pretty normal. But for some reason I've always pictured Sunday being off to the left of Saturday. In other words you take a left at Saturday and arrive at Sunday. Why you ask? I have no idea. It just feels that way to me.

So in my head time marches onward forever stair stepping to the left.

( I tried to show my diagram in more of a perspective but I kept having errors with Illustrator.)

This same stair stepping format applies not just to the days in a week but also to the hours in a given day. Instead of a circular aspect for time I've always thought of it within the same visual framework as I do days in a week.

Midnight is like Saturday and so on. At this point in my post you're probably saying the same thing my wife said to me? You have to admit it's at least interesting even if you think it's a bit psycho. But if you think this is weird you should read up on the latest in Quantum Mechanics.


How I see a year in my mind.

This same structure of thinking also shapes my view of an entire year. But I'll admit this has more to do with a feeling then anything else. July and August feel like a Saturday, September feels like a Sunday and so on. And once everything is moving to the left.


The Stair Stepping of Time.

So why would I devote a blog post to this? Well, because it came up again today. I was driving somewhere with my daughter and she asked "Where are we going?" to which I replied "We'll take a left at Saturday."

When I got home today I decided to document what has been floating around in my head since childhood. The diagrams in this post represent how I see time in my own minds eye.


A new day: Someday

Have you ever wondered where the days of the week got their name? It's an interesting bit of history. I've often fantasized about creating a new day to add to the calendar.

It would fit in between Sunday and Monday and I'd call it Someday. Basically forever creating a three day weekend and serving the purpose of playing catch up on all those things you never have time to do or finish. You know what I mean. How many times have you heard someone say:

"I'll get to that someday."

Well now they could, literally.


Creating a bigger step.

I know someone will read this post, neglect to discern the sarcasm and humor and feel obligated to post a comment that this idea wouldn't work because of the lunar calendar or it would conflict with the time continuum. Regardless I welcome your feedback.

There are other aspects to this that I could expand upon and perhaps I'll get to that Someday? We'll see. ;-P

Is This Your Art?

My fish art stolen and sold on VectorStock.com

Like millions of other people the first thing I do most days is check my email. I sit down with a cup of coffee and read through my inbox early in the morning, respond to anything waiting my attention and put out any necessary fires.

My least favorite email subjects to read in the morning are ones that say:

"Is this your artwork?"

I dread opening them (But I do appreciate people point them out too), because I often find an attachment showcasing another infringement or a link to a web page that has my art displayed on it, or worse selling it.

These emails are always a double-edged sword for me. One one hand I appreciate people watching out for me, but each time always ends up taking at least an hour of my time to respond and there is no way to recoup that loss. On the other hand I've spent about a hundred hours this year alone getting to know the copyright laws in and out.

Well I got one of these emails today and it informed me that a nebulous user going by the screen name of "TuNiSaNo003" had posted my art as his own on VectorStock.com (It's now been removed)

A Growing Problem
As I write this post I have had over "50" separate cases of copyright infringement so far in 2009. I just settled a matter that happened four months ago which I had to get my copyright lawyer involved in, but thankfully most I can handle using my DMCA formatted infringement letter.

Such was the case with this most recent example of stolen art.

I really wish Google would buyout a company like Tineye.com and make it really useful with their infinite database. They could offer it much like Google Analytics and I'd even be willing to pay an annual fee to track my art.

Come on Google Spiders sniff out this post and put it in front of you acquisition board.


My original doodle wall art.

I created this art as part of a creative experiment I did a few years ago. I'm not sure if the weasel pulled the image from this post or if he got it from my corresponding tutorial?


IllustrationClass.com tutorial "Doodle Book Worm."

I'm guessing the culprit pulled this image from my tutorial on IllustrationClass.com since it has a larger jpeg in it of the same artwork?.

Either way VectorStock.com responded to my infringement letter and removed my artwork and shut down the users account in a very reasonable time I may add.

Copyright Infringement Letter
As a creative our work will exist online for the duration of our career in one way or another. So at some point you'll have to deal with those who have no scruples taking your work without permission and using it. I hope this pre-formatted letter will help you deal with the situation a lot easier.

View/Download Copyright Infringement Letter.

Graphic Homicide

Another victim of bad design.

Rarely do I talk about local design issues. But recently an article in a local news paper about a logo design demonstrated a text book case of how design can go so very wrong.

In order for you the blog reader to fully understand the context in which I'll be critiquing this design, I encourage you to go read the short article here. Or if the news paper decides to remove it you can download a PDF of the article here.


Diagraming a graphic homicide.

Design Crime Notes

Overall: This is a bad design period the end. It's not "Kinda OK" or "Not that bad" it's a victim of bad design, a graphic homicide if you will.

There isn't a distinct graphic tone for this design. It's all over the stylistic map in such an incoherent manner that it's no surprise that a board DID facilitate it.

The lack of a distinct hierarchy in the design makes for a very schizophrenic end result as well. Everything is competing for attention, which kind of reflects the board approval process it's gone through as well I suppose. Various factions all playing art director trying to get their element integrated.

I think there is too many visual compenents to begin with, but if it's mandatory to include a mountain, fish, and flowers than spend the time to weave them together in a compelling well crafted manner. What you have here is at best a mishmash design, which again may just be a reflection of the board mentality?

But the blame cannot rest on the board alone. A designer has to play a proactive roll in any creative process, not be intimidated by a client and help steer a board in the right direction. So the problem is two fold IMO. No agency, just in house designers with very little leverage and a swarm of board members who fancy themselves as art directors.

A. Photographic Elements: These glorified web graphics are unnecessary saddle bags full of bad design chops. They've been fused onto an already poorly crafted motif like love handles on a middle aged balding board member. Sure, some might find them cute, but realistically they are just visual fat that impedes the design health.

B. Typography Choice: The choice of the Optima typeface adds to the visual tension since the font itself has been referred to as a centrist font trying to merge characteristics of serif and sans serif typefaces. The fact it's hay day was in the mid 1970's makes the mark look dated from the get go.

C. Clip-Art: Like water and oil this art doesn't swim with the rest of the graphics stylistically, thus repelling each other. The so-called native american inspired graphic looks like something a hack designer would pull from an Art Explosion CD. It feels like clip-art because it's poorly illustrated and executed.

D. Mountain: At first I didn't see a mountain. I saw a green shark getting ready to eat a black fish. The saw tooth graphic is another weak attempt at native american style, and instead it adds unnecessary complexity. The rendering of the mountain is lame as well and the graphic birth mark they inserted on it's interior will just look like a hickey at smaller sizes. Brilliant!

In Closing: It's only taken this board two years to get this design result. If government can't initiate a logo design, why do we think it can run health care? (I digress.) The board needs to stop playing art director, stop using hack designers, and hire a legit agency to produce a professional solution.

The eventual eye sore.

If any board member or local citizen reads this post I challenge you to encourage our local leadership to put out an RFP to local design firms and let us show you how the creative process can produce a well crafted and creative design solution for the water tower. It won't take two years and it'll look professional.

The following is an opinion piece I wrote and submitted to the local paper in response to the water tower logo story. I hope they run it, but I won't hold my breath.

50 Miles From Good Design

What separates good design from bad design? Apparently 50 miles.

One could argue that the Pacific Northwest is a design mecca when it comes to communication arts. Portland of all cities in Oregon understands and values good design. Just drive around the city and it's hard not to see examples of it everywhere you go. Because of this attention to design Portland is globally-renowned for it's design community.

When a graphic logo is needed local Portland leaders and businesses appropriately turn to the local design community and lean on professional agencies to create what they need and the end result is creative, well crafted, and this reflects positively on Portland as a whole.

Public transportation has a nice "TriMet" logo and when Portland developed a new premiere shopping center they turned to a local design firm and produced the "Bridgeport Village" logo.

But for some reason if you travel a mere 50 miles south the attitude towards design changes and you have a city like Keizer producing the antithesis in "Keizer Station." Don't get me wrong the shopping experience is fine, I'm speaking in regard to the aesthetic of their logo, the design is bad and doesn't reflect the quality of the shopping experience.

Like Portland, the Keizer and Salem community have many talented design agencies they could be calling upon to produce well crafted and creative professional solutions for their graphic needs. Instead however Keizer chooses to create a logo design for their latest water tower graphic without tapping any local agency. You can view it here.

If you compare the quality of this water tower logo with that of Portland's "Park Smart" logo, you'll see the difference between good and bad design produced on behalf of an Oregon city. Portland values it and Keizer leadership has no clue.

Why is it that Portland design trumps Keizer design?

Portland values design, there fore they value the designers producing it and depend upon them and their agencies to guide and facilitate the creative process.

Keizer on the other hand, didn't hire any agency and instead has taken two years of board meetings and a fragmented design process to create what they now have which is at best unprofessional and at worse will reflect poorly upon the city when it's plastered on a 200 ft. water tower.

The good news is this can all be easily corrected. Keizer and Salem like Portland can have the same high standards of design appreciation and benefit from it too. It just takes leadership who'll acknowledge their own lack of understanding when it comes to the design process and realize they need to stop playing art director and be wise leaders by hiring a local design agency to give Keizer and it's community what they deserve, good design.

Surreal Email

Over the years I've had all kinds of illustrative requests. Tonight I was up late working on a deadline due tomorrow morning, and the following email showed up in my inbox:


Strange but true illustration request.

At first I thought it was spam, followed closely by my suspicion that a friend was joking around with me, and ending with the thought of "How can anyone think this is a good idea or an appropriate solution?"

Needless to say I wasn't interested in doing these illustrations (Despite the very tempting $150 budget) and turned it down with a reply email that read:

Sarah,

This project wouldn't stimulate my interest.

Thanks.

Von

Call me a creative prude I guess.

The Designers of Summer

"Hard Ball" Back print on white shirts.

Being a hired gun (creative pinch hitter if you will) means I do a lot of exploratory work that will never be used and tends to serve the purpose of helping an agency focus in on final solution. I'm not complaining, that's just the reality of the game.

Recently I was hired by Red Jacket Clothing to create a tribal tattoo themed baseball design. I love baseball, I think it has a lot of great metaphors that one can play off for all kinds of various concepts.

My client gave me full control of this project so of course I picked my favorite team, the Boston Red Sox to use in my design.


"Hard Ball" Back print on colored shirts.

I decided since this had a tribal tattoo look I'd play off of that theme with the term "Hard Ball." I also created a modular design that could be adapted for any of the MLB teams. This way the design would have a broader potential for the marketability and be relatively easy to customize by merely shifting ink and shirt colors either dark or light.

The hardest part of this design though was creating the baseball. The first one I did looked horrible. It didn't read as a baseball, it read more like a Klingon jig-saw puzzle instead. So I had to re-draw it a few times before I struck the right balance.


Logo front print on colored shirts.

The main design is a back print and this is the front center chest print. The team logo would be dropped into the middle of the tribal ring for each team.

It took roughly two months for the design to make it through MLB licensing circles and ultimately got benched. No reason was really given? But I've dealt with MLB licenses before and they are somewhat finicky IMO.

I'd be curious what others think regarding this designs marketability, so I created a simple poll you can vote in here.

Personally I like the design, it was fun to create so I'm just bummed it got put on waivers before it even had it's first at bat.

Maybe I should buy a steroid plugin for Adobe Illustrator? Hmmmm.

The Designers of Summer

I love baseball. The sport, the history, the stats and even the analogies. I played it all the time growing up and during my summers in high school me and my friends would drive up to Seattle and hang out at the Kingdome all day collecting autographs, catching balls during batting practice and of course enjoying the game. (As much as one could enjoy it, because the Mariners really sucked back then)

I also collected baseball cards growing up. I had an awesome collection with hundreds of some of the best MLB all-stars from rookie all the way through to their retirement. Unfortunately after I graduated from art school it took me eight months to get my first job, the economy like now was pretty bad and I sold my collection to get some quick cash. (I still regret that decision)

In 1997 I accepted a job at Upper Deck Company as a senior designer in their baseball division. I worked at Upper Deck for three years and it was a great experience and I made some awesome friends I still keep in contact with to this day.

I was quickly blown away by how far trading cards had come since I was a collector. In fact you'll find the highest form of print technology in the trading card industry and they're always looking for next form of print tech they can integrate into cards.

Some of the technologies I designed for were:
- Printing full-color with multiple spot colors
- Metallic Inks
- Foil Stamping
- Embossing
- Die-Cutting
- Laser Cutting
- Holographic Foil and Imagery
- Custom Packaging and Paper Engineering
- Flexography
- Embroidery

The following is a grab bag sampling of a few of the hundreds of trading cards etc. I designed at Upper Deck.


1998 UD3™ card design.

The approach I took with this set was to make the card itself look like a high tech user interface. The design integrated a multitude of print technologies and I really liked how the whole set came out.

As in every industry however they're are always critics and the trading card industry is legion with them. One guy that goes by the name of "Bull Dog" made the following comment on the above design.

"This card set has everything but the kitchen sink. I hate it."

Maybe Bull Dog was right seeing as this card is worth a whopping quarter now?


Victory™ brand logo design.

I designed several brand logos for Upper Deck while I worked there and unfortunately Victory™ is one of them. I say that because I had exactly half a day to design a brand logo and at the end of that day we were going to meet with marketing and pick a direction for this new line of product.

I had done about 3-4 designs and put them up in the conference room along with other designers concepts and than at the last moment I stuck this one up. I didn't really like it that much but thought "One more won't hurt."

Well, guess which one marketing loved. Yep, dumb move and all the other designers groaned knowing they'd have to work this beast into their designs. I got a lot of sarcastic feedback from my fellow creatives over that one and it was all well deserved too.


Victory™ brand card design.

The Victory™ brand by Upper Deck was like the Toyota Tercel of Upper Decks products. No frills, basic full-color printing and not much else. But I still tried to make the design as interesting as I could for the childhood collectors who this was targeted at. (Nevermind the hideous logo I cursed our department with)


Another Victory™ brand insert card.

When designing cards at Upper Deck we had access to a photo room that archived thousands of pictures of pro athletes. I could pull the slides and scan them for my specific design and to use in my final mechanicals. The photo guys would use my design as a guide to pick the remaining set of player photos, and production would use my digital files to set up the gang run of all the cards.


"A Piece of History" Babe Ruth bat card.

Upper Deck is the industry leader when it comes to sports collectibles, creating unique one of a kind products for very avid fans of professional sports. Not every fan can afford an original bat used by Babe Ruth however, so Upper Deck purchased one from Sotheby's and decided to share the wealth with collectors everywhere by putting pieces of the bat on trading cards.

They had me design the official branded card that would showcase this piece of history.

As much fun as this project was the absolute best part of it was being able to handle this bat myself and take a few swings with it. Knowing it was destined to be cut into pieces, I insisted we photograph it and use that image in the card design as well. One VP at Upper Deck liked my work so much he gave me one of the cards when it was finally produced.


1999 Upper Deck Encore insert card.

This image doesn't do this card justice. It has a nice rainbow foil substrate it was printed on along with silver foil stamping. This was one of my favorite insert cards I designed while working there IMO.


1999 Upper Deck Century insert card.

I was kind of like a roaming designer at Upper Deck, I'd work on MLB, NBA, NFL and in this case NHL product lines. I know nothing about hockey, but due to the popularity of the whole "Techno" vibe I had developed for the other sports we adapted it to the new set of hockey cards.


1999 Upper Deck Retro brand foil pack design.

Foil pack design was always a hit or miss form of printing. Sometimes the flexography came out nice and other times it looked like a retarded monkey printed it. This specific design worked well for flexo.


1998 Upper Deck bobblehead cards.

One friend I made at Upper Deck was a very talented lead designer named Wayne Wilcoxen. The guy is brilliant when it comes to paper engineering (Anything actually) and he figured out a production method that allowed a card to lay flat in the package but once opened could be assembled into a paper bobble head doll.

I helped in picking the photos and did all the illustrations for the various sports. If I had these growing up they would have been no-brainer bb gun targets. ;-P


1999 Upper Deck PowerDeck CD card designs.

Upper Deck has never been shy about trying new approaches to trading card collecting. These CD cards had short videos on them, audio, interactive menus, and stats. All though well intentioned this product was not very well received by the collecting community. Simply put they prefer paper products.

Now if Upper Deck could integrate a Harry Potter like interactive paper experience they may have something they could bank on.


1999 Upper Deck PowerDeck POP mobile design.

This picture makes it hard to determine the scale of this mobile but the pyramid part of it was about 14 inches square at the top. I was responsible for all the marketing pieces for this new product launch and when it bombed the marketing guy I was working with (One of the nicest marketing people I've ever worked with BTW) was fired.

It's been nearly a decade since I worked at Upper Deck but they are a client of mine now and I still create a variety of work for them and consider my former employer one of the best jobs I ever had.