The pen tool is my friend....

So I think I'm close to being done with my magazine logo. I redrew my hand written type in illustrator to give it a nice, clean, scalable look... I also added varying weight to the "BIG" part of the logo by drawing another edge inside of it, rather than just using a stroke... finally... I minimalized the texture that I've been using to make it more readable, yet retain some of that hand-drawn look. I seem to like it a bit... However, I can't decide if I was a very small amount of texture like the the version on the top right corner, of if it looks better with the two toned texture in the bottom versions.. I definately dont like the "big" part just filled in with black.. it looks waaay too heavy... anyway, any comments would be appreciated!

D.I.A.F

For some reason the popular internet phrase "die in a fire" popped in my head yesterday... and I decided to design a t-shirt inspired by it... I have some coworkers that play D&D and thought roleplayers would like this as well... haha.. anyway, check it out.

The Big Takeover...

Well... it looks like I've finally chosen a direction with my magazine logo for Jon's class... This isn't the finished product as I plan to clean up the handwriten type for "the" and "takeover," but I do like the "big" graphic that I've come up with... I also have to work on that part a bit and get the texture on it just right.. I like having a border to the texture a little offset however (a contemporary graphic cliche).. but anyway... if anyone has an opinon on these, please let me know.. I originally designed this to have the type somewhat stacked as in the first two examples.. but I do seem to like the horizonal version (the last one) best right now... any comments will be appreciated...

I think I'm done with this...

I took Stan's suggestion to put these all in individual petri dishes... and suddenly I don't like this so much.. but I'm about tired of looking at this.. time to move on to something new.

S.C.I.E.N.C.E!

I think I'm done with my illustrative alphabet... I've taken Nathan's suggestion and places my organic little creatures into petri dishes. Although I may go back and work w/ the colors on these letters a bit to make the black parts appear to be dark green or orange, I have other work to do... so this is what I'm posting for now.

A very impressive music video / More Letters!

I just posted this on the blog for Paige's class, but I'll post this here as well since there's a lot of moving type in this video... anyway...

So I went to a bar this past Saturday to watch some college football, and after all the games were over this bar played music videos on the big projector screens they had setup.. The played this new video by T-Pain... I know many of you would probably rather stab yourselves in the face with an unsharpened pencil before listening to T-Pain, but seriously this video has some really cool sequences... This concept seems like something put together more by an artist than an everyday music video producer... I bet you could even do a lot of this stuff in After Effects... 

Anyway, if you hate the music, put it on mute but definitely check out the sequences at 1:05 and the best part at about 2:30.

I also cleaned up the inverted version of my illustrative alphabet... I think I'm going to go with this version...

Letters!

So this is what I came up w/ for my typographic alphabet.  I took some vaseline and rubbed it on some napkins... I then layed the napkins in a dish and poured some dye over it... it kinda made it look like jello or something.. but after making is black and white ya really dont know what the hell it is... if you invert it, it even looks stranger...like something organic you might see in a microscope...  I dont know what version I'm going to use, regular or inverted... I might clean up the edges on the inverted one too so you can't see the borders...

I figured it was also time for a new layout for my blog... I was tired of looking at the sea of blue... heh..  anyway, here's what I got...

TYPE my way to work...

So I decided to just take pictures of some type I saw on the way to work today...  They way these pictures look, it makes it seem like I live in the sticks.. ha.. but I really don't.. I take the scenic route to work... anyway, this is what I found

McCain... Final Version

McCain is a badass... what more can I say...  

I am not implying he is the devil... (I'm not voting for him, but I don't dislike McCain nearly as much as you might think)

Bah... last version

Bah.. I might as well not even posted the last version.. Here's what I got.. I guess I'm done with it... I think I'll have to explain my intent since you can't read anything on the damn thing.. hah.. like the imagery, but I don't know if my concept will come across...

Barack version 2

Hrmmmm... almost there.. I guess... still gotta draw and scan in the last element of this composition... but it looks like this part of the main image is about complete.. Im not sure about the TEXTure I used in the background... I tried to have it very opaque.. but it might look better as just a solid color.. hrmm.. and maybe I can lose the word CHANGE at the top.. still deciding on that one... 

I like the image a lot, but unfortunatley because it's so layered, you can't even read 75% of the stuff I spent hours writing.. lol  oh well

Barack version 1

This isn't even near completed.. but I just touched up my scans and live traced them and added some basic color to see what my composition will start out... this is what I have so far.. I plan to spend several hours over the next day or so to make this look really cool... there's another major component of the piece that I haven't added yet.. anyway.. here's the beginning...

Barack Sketches...

So I have my concept for my Obama illustration... and I've decided to mimic a movie poster for this one as well... It's a popular movie, but I'm not sure if the poster will be recognized by many... I'll disclose the movie at critique... anyway, I'm doing this one with a combination of handwritten and digital type.. but the central image will be hand written type.. I finished my main sketches that will be layered to form the central image... take a look...

McCain strikes back!

Ah... so my original concept for this was going to be McCain "following Osama bin Laden to the gates of hell."  After spending several hours just making the McCain face and bin Laden skull, I decided I wasn't going to do this elaborate, multi-color image that I had in my head.. It'd probably take too long, and with all this type my computer seems to be chugging along as it is.  Anyway, somehow I got the idea to put McCain in a famous movie poster.  And if there is any character badassed enough to actually follow someone to hell, it'd have to be Scarface!  I don't know if I'm going to go w/ the pitchfork on the image or not... I put on the pitchfork McCain's nonsensical quote that inspired this piece... Anyway, I might be doing something a bit different for the Obama illustration.. I've thought of doing a movie poster for him too, but I'm not 100% sure on it yet.. anyway.. for your viewing pleasure...