Poster Retrospective

I figured that since I haven't had much time to do any new work, that I'd start uploading some older pieces. 

As it is with most creative work, I look back at most of these works and am reminded how I  felt about these as I made them. I really liked most of them. I thought I was onto something. I fancied my work flow as clever.

Multiple process refinements later, I can't help but feel that these represent a more undefined version of my thought process. Creative process ages badly. So it is.

Until I find more time to make new work, I'll be adding more older pieces. It's (at least) "interesting" looking back at work inside one medium from a comparative viewpoint.

This venue is always funny. What they deem a spec kind of limits the potential of the materials. At this point in time, they wanted at least some form of a "band press material" in the piece. ~har.

This is from roughly that same period. I've never consciously felt the need to do many posters in 3D, unless the situation demanded it, but this was an exception. Only the header and footer are 2D (rest is 3DSmax using mental ray shaders/renderer).

I wanted to do something iconic w/ Buckethead. It's in alignment with his persona. Kinda fun, i guess.

Blues Traveler Poster

It's funny, when i sat down to do this, all i could think about was John Popper's '07 run in w/ the law in Washington. After blocking that out, I wanted to do a piece w/ some z depth and use a lot of push/pull w/ focus elements and palette. Would have put more into it, but I'm quite busy as of late.

It's 80's supergroup week!

Just how things played out. Somehow both of these "veteran" acts came across my desk. ; )

In Foreigner's case, my goal was to keep their iconic treatment but go for a more stylized implementation while not alienating their audience. I took their iconic "F" and recreated it in Illustrator, then subtly changed up the negative space and lighting for a variation. Not one of my favorite pieces, but addresses their target demo effectively.

I've done Asia posters before and they present an interesting challenge every time in their branding. That logo does not play well with anything other than their imagery. In the past I've tried to update and style that logo and always came back to it. Their audience knows that logo, in that state, and recognize it from 15 feet away. Ultimately, i decided to take album art and extend it's limits for formatting. Again, while I'm not in love with it, it meets the goal of portraying this artist to their fans in a faithful manner.

Let The Games Begin!

Novation SL 25 Mkii Keyboard Controller and Novation Launchpad

Both of these take advantage of Novation Automap technologies and have complete synching Ableton Live and compatibility w/ most major digital audio workstations. The Mkii automaps between midi/VST controls, most major plug-ins, editing and clip creation seemlessly through Ableton.

The Launchpad allows for one click mapped recording and playback of session mode Ableton clips. It's amazingly flexible in terms of laying down clips, creating tracks and playing live. It provides a very organic feeling in terms of creation.

The combination of the Mkii, the Launchpad and Ableton Live really is awesome. It feels very similar to my art workflows between Pshop, Illustrator, Max and Flash. Constantly allowing you access to the best tool for the job without having to think about it (shortest distance between A & B). Tracks are surely soon to follow. Stay tuned!

TMBG Poster

Started this on around 9a.m. this morning.

Wanted to go for more an mid-century duotone processed feel, while maintaining that it had been archived to date. Utilizing the vintage Marshall amp knobs, guitar neck and mic were the initial foundations for the piece. I had a retro Moog Little Fatty in there, but didn't like it's implementation.

A Couple More New Posters

When it comes to comedians i prefer photographic imagery to reinforce the name for recognition.

I did an alternate version of this that i'll post at some point.

New Track ~ The Haze

I sat down and started to learn Garage Band on my MacBook Pro yesterday. I've played w/ my share of audio software, and initially, I'd have to say that i like it. As with everything on the Mac, the user interface is amazingly intuitive yet robust as all get out.

I was going for a strong ambient/acoustic live feel. (Disclaimer: By no means am i a singer) I laid down the vocal track w/ the microphone built into the Mac and transformed it to a female voice. It's not too bad.  It's definitely one of the better compositions I've done. The track is constructed from 84 loops and is 2:28 in length and was made in about 2 hours.

CLICK BELOW TO CHECK IT!