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)