We All Have One

"Ultimate Bonehead" Skull Submission. (Click to see larger image)

An illustrator by the name of Ryan August started a collaborative art project a few years ago called "IWantYourSkull.com."

He has published a total of five books already and I've participated in three of them. This submission is for book number six.

So once again I find myself working on a project centered around one of the top ten favorite themes of artists, that is "Skulls." If you want to know more about the top ten themes you can read another blog post I did on it called "The Themes We Love."

I repurposed this skull art from another project I had done. You can see the tutorial about that entire project at "IllustrationClass.com."

The Puck Stops Here!

I grew up in the Pacific Northwest where the sport of hockey wasn't very popular.

Every so often I'd stumbled upon it accidently while flipping through channels. I never watched the whole game and the only reason I held off turning the channel sooner than later had to do with the possibility of a fight breaking out.

The only exception to this was about six years ago when FOX Sports embedded a computer chip into the puck and you could watch it zip around on screen like a laser beam. That kind of technology actually made me want to watch a full game. I still had no clue what all the rules were however.

Turns out each puck cost around $8,000 to replace if broken or if hit into the crowd and carted off by a fanatic. So they stopped doing that after the first season and thus my new found fascination ended.


NHL nick-name patches.

Upper Deck Company hired me to create a set of embroidery patch designs for their NHL licensed product. Many of the themes I had to design reflect specific achievements, famous moments, awards, and as shown above player nick-names. I have no clue who "Moose" is, but his intense look worked well for this design. The dentist of "Golden Jet" must be a happy camper, and "Stitches" seems to have inspired a franchise of hollywood horror films it would seem?


"16" of "135" embroidery patch designs in set.

With embroidery you have to keep detail simplified or it can get messy quick. I was given a garden variety offering of various themed embroidery patches to design. All the various color shifts reflect the team colors the patch is associated with as well. This shows about "16" out of around "135" I created for this set.


The holy grail of the hockey world.

Every sport has it's ultimate award and with hockey it's the "Stanley Cup".


Awards-O-Plenty.

I may be wrong but I think hockey has more award trophies than any other sport and I had to illustrate each of them. From what I could tell there was around "13" different awards in all. (Feel free to correct me if I am wrong)

I don't have to be a fan of broken teeth, mullets gone wild, or spontaneous skirmishes between two pugnacious players to appreciate the finer points of ice hockey. I just get to enjoy designing for this frozen sport culture.

Designer "Kick Me" Sheet

'Designer "Kick Me" Sheet.'

It's easy, humorous and non-lethal. Just follow the simple step-by-step instructions on this FREE downloadable designer "Kick Me" sheet and you'll be mocking fellow creative types in no time.

Whether it's a fellow Designer, a stuffy Art Director or a garden variety Marketing Weasel, you'll need to utilize your stealthy ninja-like skills in order to successfully place the sign on your target's back and pull off this creative Special Ops. Then all you have to do is sit back and enjoy the show.


'John Nissen male model.'

My long time design buddy John Nissen helped me pull this off. I call him up and he agrees to model for me. He's also a big ham in front of the camera which helps too. :-) John's also responsible for all the music for my podcast so he's multi-talented. Thanks John!

So download the sheet and have some fun.

Download Designer "Kick Me" Sheet

Branding a Vampire?

Cover Design by Jerry Todd of St. Martins Press.

Some times projects come my way and I am just given enough information and time to do my job and then I am off working on another project and the previous gig is out of sight and out of mind. Rarely do I get to see the final usage.

Today I was watching TiVo while I worked and getting ready to FF through a commercial when my spidey sense kicked in. Something about the commercial was familiar. I hit rewind and watched it again and there it was, the logo mark I had created for St. Martins Press back in October of 2007.

At the time I created this mark I heard the word "Romance Novel" thrown around so I didn't bother getting into the nitty gritty of the back story I just working out the iconic design, delivered the art and moved along. Little did I know that Dark-Hunter is a best-selling paranormal romance book series by the American author Sherrilyn Kenyon.

At least that is what I've read online, to be completely honest I've never heard of any of it.


Actual TV spot that appeared on the sci-fi channel.

Some of you might be wondering what the mark means? I have no idea myself. I was given a very crude idea of what they wanted and didn't bother to ask for an interpretation of the symbolism. The mark must mean something to be so prominently featured in the TV spot? Or maybe not? If there are any Dark-Hunter readers out there please educate me as to it's meaning.

So I guess you can say I've branded a vampire? Or at least a story about vampires? A little ironic seeing as I created the art right around Halloween and didn't even know it was for a vampire story.

In any regard it was a pleasant surprise seeing it on the sci-fi channel. Not sure I'll be reading the book though, not my cup of blood if you will. ;-P

Tweens

'Happy Tweens and Sad Tweens'

Earlier this year the Associated Press (AP) put me on retainer to do illustration for them. This was my first assignment. An article about a study on 'Tweens' and what makes them happy and sad. I've done newspaper illustration before for the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post and The Oregonian in the past but this one could potentially appear in nearly all of them since it's being distributed by the AP.

Drip.Dot.Swirl - Pattern Book!

"Drip.Dot.Swirl. 94 incredible patterns for design and illustration."

For that past 14 months I've been working on my next book called "Drip.Dot.Swirl" which is a book of illustrated patterns. This book will come with a DVD like my texture book that contains all "94" illustrative patterns on it in vector format. Each pattern has three color options so that's a grand total of "282" variations to choose from.


"9" of the "94" patterns in the book.

Each of the patterns is tileable, so you fill any size space needed seamlessly. The patterns are fully customizable too, meaning you'll be able to adapt them to your own projects by changing colors, simplifying the content or combining more then one to create additional options.

Pattern names for each in order from left to right.
- Rosetta
- Vindaloo
- Frillicious
- Boogie Pop
- Psychotronic
- Dragon Hide
- Magic Beans
- Hypnotica
- Palatium


Shoe design using my "Greener" pattern. (For more info click image)

The folks over at Zazzle.com just launched a cool new service where you can design your own shoes. At the time of this post it's only women's shoes but I decided to give a few of my patterns a test drive.


Shoe design using my "Off-Set Camo" pattern. (For more info click image)

In the process of putting this book together I did a lot of reading about the art of math which in essence is captured in patterns. A college professor who specializes in pattern art and the math behind it explained to me that there is only "14" types of patterns. I'll take his word for it.


Shoe design using my "Protozoa" pattern. (For more info click image)

Everyone who orders the book will receive a bonus set of patterns not included with the books DVD that I am creating now.

The book will hit the shelves in March of 2009. If you'd like to be notified when this book is available for pre-order you can email me to be added to my book list and I'll notify you when it's available via Amazon.com. Send your request to: info@glitschka.com

Merck Icons

'Icons for Diabetes Print Collateral'

Merck Pharmaceuticals needed a set of icons they could use in their print collateral pieces on Diabetes. The icons needed to be easily recognized by a very broad audience from kids to adults. The icons also needed to work using a simplified color palette based on two colors that could easily be adapted for varying color themes.

I nested each icon on a rounded-corner square motif which allowed me to then use it as a cropping device on the icons which wouldn't work as stand alone elements. The hardest one by far was the icon for 'Nervous System'. My first attempt looked more like an alien life form then it did a nerve ending. ;-)


'Food icons for Print Collateral'

Pineapple, Mushrooms, Grits oh my. Like the Diabetes icons these will also be used within Merck's print collateral pieces.

All though low in fat, vector art is high in creative calories.