January READS - Subliminal by Leonard Mlodinow

I've always been interested in psychology in some way or another so when I was Christmas shopping I was pretty stoked to run across this gem. Not only does it sport a beautiful green and black cover but it has a super sneaky laminate that tells the consumer that they are sexy and should buy the book. Needless to say I was sold. Bazing.

Anyway, so far so good, neuroscience is pretty neat and it's interesting to learn about how people perceive their surroundings consciously and unconsciously as it will aid in building more meaningful products for the future.

Read it.

http://www.amazon.com/Subliminal-Unconscious-Rules-Behavior-Vintage/dp/0307472256

Inkd Life Clothing Design

Design created for Inkd Life Clothing. They were super excited about it! Can't wait to see the shirts and jackets in action.

My roomate sent me this IM this morning. Completely unrelated to art or design but full of funny awesomness.

 Matthew:  I had a dream that you and I were going to get into Zords and fight monsters. It was a long involved dream using some of the plot from the Ducktales movie. I had a feeling that the entire time we were gonna get to fight in Zords and then when the time came and Zordon told me we had to get to training soon because the monsters were wreaking havoc. I was like "sweet" and then tracked you down via a trail of instagram pictures (everywhere was end of the world parties). But then I woke up before Zords.

 Sent at 10:18 AM on Thursday

 Matthew: 

Brand and Company Guidelines

I've been trying to pinpoint the key elements that are issues within the internal structure of the company and fix them and so far I've come up with this.

One major problem with the company is that no motive exists, no community, no spirit, so by creating a brand and essence for the company I hope to create a different mindset for it's employee's. This book will hopefully spark an employee's ownership of their position within the company.

The other problem the company faces is a lack of proper, standardized communication. New hires tend to learn everything as they go and so far this creates confusion and the possibility for errant orders. Considering there is also a quick turn around on reps it could cost the company a lot of time and money. With that in consideration I've been attempting to make this book as simple as possible so it's easier to grasp the information inside. Keeping the layout striped down, including only necessary copy and picture references will help promote a smaller learning curve. 

The goal is to create a book that will not only serve as a brand reference but also cover the necessary steps to ensure new hires understand the processes that enable the company to operate efficiently.

I'll keep updating as more issues arise but hopefully I can create something that can act as a guiding light for new hires and encouragement for the business owner to continue where I leave off.

Coffee and InDesign for the win.

USA TEES Branding

I've been working on getting a comprehensive brand together for USA TEES for a month now, since there has apparently been a lack of one for 28 plus years. The logo is getting worked out and some basic guidelines are starting to come together regarding communication between shop and customers. There is a ton of information to consolidate and organize it's a bit staggering that nobody has bothered to put this together.

Here are some screenshots of work being done. I'll post more updates as they are available.

Thanks for looking!

The celebration of a birthday.

On Sunday my coworker will celebrate his 29th birthday and he asked me to use a photo he took with a painted naked woman and make him a shirt. Since I've done stuff for him before I know the style he likes so I intentionally made it look a bit sketchy, threw in a bit of Aztec influenced patterns and some west coast style lettering. Came out kinda cool. He loved it.

Glad I could help you out homie. Happy Birthday.

Project update - BSKY NYC

Recently I completed some illustrations for a street wear brand here in Brooklyn that I'm quite proud of and I'm happy to say these pieces will be included in their new Fall 2014 line. Keep an eye out.

This series of illustrations is a bit of a departure from normalcy for me since I'm usually illustrating with traditional media and cleaning up in the computer. However, these were 95% completed strictly in Photoshop. I wanted to challenge myself and create a different workflow.

Imagery of the panther is used to create a sense of power and grace while the mandala, in this context, is meant to embody the universe, wisdom and impermanence. Trident's and alchemy symbols are also used to push the feeling of power, self worth and the root of oneself even further. 

I'm a symbol and imagery nerd... 

The trident representation of Neptune in particular embodies the becoming, being and the passing away, the cross (or line) at the bottom of the trident is considered the root or stabilizer for the erratic nature of this concept. Which I thought was very inherent of human nature, we are a very erratic species and we need something to root us, and keep ourselves on track.

Anyway, I'll post up the full pieces when I feel they are 100% ready, I'd say they are about 90% right now!

Thanks for reading.

Bunch of kids

Generally when I do character designs each character ends up on a separate page in my sketchbook so it was nice to put a few of them together on one sheet. The definitely look like they want to get into some trouble.

Workspace

At work I'm always trying to keep my work space interesting and my brain moving. So I take 2 minutes to draw on a post it every now and then. Keeps my mind playful.

Bondage Illustration

This piece started as an illustration for Prostitution, a local NYC band, but they have their eyes set on another piece I did so this one will now just be something for fun. This is a mix of sumi ink wash, watercolor and a little acrylic. It was definitely fun to draw/paint and since watercolor and painting in general are all still new to me it was a fun experiment.  Trying to loosen up with this whole painting business but I like control too much!

Below you can see the piece and then the mock I did for their LP, it was a first draft. There were a few minor and embellishments on the LP so it looks slightly different than the original painting.

Prostitution LP (in the works)

Untitled

I started this piece awhile back, maybe a few months, but I just completed it tonight. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out, it just started as a drawing on the Greyhound bus and evolved from there. Most of my work starts as a simple doodle and just continues to work itself out, about 90% of the time I have no motive.

Hope you like.

Thanks!

"To Raise Thy Throne Above the Stars of God"

The purpose of this piece was to represent the essence of what Lucifer is and how he is depicted through the ages. Take what you will from it, there are many ways to describe what's going on but I'll leave that up to you. It was damn fun to draw and a bit of a departure of my normal pen, ink, computer routine. 

I'll include a final framed image with more details at a later date.

Thanks for looking and enjoy!

Tattoo for a friend.

A buddy of mine asked me to draw Atlas as a tattoo design for his arm. I don't usually do tattoo designs because it's such an intimate experience with the artist you choose to get it done by but the idea of drawing Atlas sounded too fun to pass up.

To the young fella who would be getting this done I hope you actually get it. The idea of someone having my drawing predominantly etched into their skin is kinda morbidly exciting.

Right now this is where I am...work in progress.

Really Todd Akins? Really...

Maybe you follow the news maybe you do not, if you do then the name Todd Akins may haunt your ears a bit. This is a tribute piece to him, he did not say the words in my piece exactly, however, he did say;

"If it's a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down..."
~Todd Akins

THUS! PREVENTING PREGNANCY PEOPLE, I mean...why hasn't this been uncovered until just now? What's with all the pregnant rape victims? Anomalies I suppose. Why give rape victims the choice to abort a pregnancy under our legislation when the body does it NATURALLY!? Get it together sir. Such a touchy subject and you are blabbing your mouth about things you have no right discussing (a woman's right to her own decisions about her body). Anyway, I will spare you more political mumbo jumbo and skip to the typography.

HOPE YOU LIKE IT!