VIC AND GAB – BRIDGES AND GUNS

A few weeks ago, Vic and Gab asked me if I’d be interested in making some art for their next album. Considering you’re reading a blog post called “Vic and Gab – Bridges and Guns,” it’s pretty obvious I said yes. And you being the smart cookie you are, I bet you already figured out that the above image is my sketch of the front cover.

The packaging would be a basic cardboard sleeve. Nothing too complex. All they’d need from me is a front cover, a back cover, and something for the CD itself. The above image is what I came up with after listening to some of the songs, and having them tell me the basic theme of most of the tunes– losing someone to violence, and how that loss affects the lives of everyone around them. And this is what I came up with for the back:

With the front cover so loaded with imagery, I wanted to keep the back simple. I also knew we’d need space for track listing, album info, and the bar code.

Within a day of sending these off to the band, I heard back from them. They liked it, but thought it hit too close to home. The iconography was too heavy and accurate, considering the tragedy they’d written the songs about was theirs. They asked me to try and scale it back a bit, and I obliged. The last thing I want to do is making art for a band that the band can’t stand to look at.

The result?

A revised cover, a revised title, and PURPLE. No other color would do. As for the back:

I was hoping to keep that background all purple as well, but being able to read that album info was kind of important, so I brought the banner color from the front to the back side. No, I could NOT have added a white drop shadow or outer glow. Those are terrible ideas, both this time, and 90% of all other times.

Last but not least, the actual disc art:

You being the savvy you that you are, I don’t need to remind you that the green, blue, pink and gray are all part of the template, and not the actual disc. No, true believers, the actual disc is a plain white, with simple black characters of Vic and Gab, as well as the album title. I initially put the band name and song titles on it, too, but Vic and Gab decided less is more— a philosophy I can ALWAYS get behind. (Except when it comes to getting paid.)

If you want a physical copy, drop Vic and Gab a line here, or nab one at a show. You can also grab it now at this crazy new thing you’ve probably never heard of called iTunes. Once you’ve spent some serious time listening to the tunes, let me know if I did the album justice!

SON OF A TEACHERMAN, PT.3

Read Pt. 1 here.
Read Pt. 2 here.

About a week after my teaching tenure ended, the school held an Awards Assembly for the students. A few days prior, a panel of judges came in and selected their favorites from the more than 400 pieces hanging. The panel included working artists, a husband and wife childrens’ book artist/author team, an art professor, a gallery owner (I think), and Ella— the little girl who collaborated with me on an art show called dwella vs. ella years ago.

The assembly was my first time seeing the kids since I left, and apparently, they missed me. I walked into the auditorium, and suddenly had over 400 students eagerly waving their arms to me, whisper-shouting “Hi, dwellephant!” or “Hi, MR. dwellephant!” (Which is what they called me for the most part.) Seeing all their happy faces, happy to see me? Easily one of the greatest feelings ever.

I had no hand in selecting the winners. I couldn’t. Choosing one over another would have hurt some feelings, for sure. I will say that I did my best while teaching to assure them that NOT winning a prize doesn’t mean their art wasn’t good.

When the prizes were all handed out, (including the ones I custom-made for them) the kids then presented me with a few surprise gifts. The first was a piece of my art, recreated on a ceramic tray, courtesy of the magicians over at Glaze. The front featured an old illustration of mine, and the back was inscribed, “Oriole Lane Elementary School • Gallery Night • May 03, 2011″ so I would never forget:

The second surprise gift almost made my heart burst. Five or six kids approached with a giant roll of paper. And unrolling it revealed a gigantic banner reading, ” Thank you, dwellephant!” But beneath those letters, on the chunks of brown paper you see, were messages from each and every kid. Some serious. Some hilarious. All awesome. And knowing I liked art that was smudged, dirty and imperfect, they cut the paper up, stepped on it, spilled stuff on it, and reassembled it randomly. It’s perfectly imperfect, and currently sits in my studio, waiting for the day I own walls long enough to hang it on:

Later that evening, I returned to the school for its Gallery Night. The school would open for parents and friends to come in and see the beautiful stuff their kids made over the course of my two weeks with them. The newly opened Pick N Save Metro Market in Mequon donated cupcakes and beverages for the evening. The lovely Dori Zori DJ’d the entire affair. The Milwaukee Art Museum even graciously sent their Kohl’s Color Wheel out to keep the kids busy, though most of them seemed to need no distractions, because there were two pretty big ones smack dab in the middle of the hallway.

The first was my friend Daniel from Boswell Books, selling copies of the kids’ book I illustrated, Missing The Boat:

Typically, being around to sign books means I also draw in them. And once the kids realized this, they made it their collective mission to try and stump me. I wound up drawing everything from an alligator backflipping off a trampline under water with a shark coming towards him, to something as simple as two humans playing basketball. But man, did they put me to work. We even wound up extending Gallery  Night’s hours just so I could finish drawing in everyone’s copies. Students of Oriole Lane, you sent me home a tired man!

The other distraction was this floor-to-ceiling sheet of paper:

It was empty at the start of the night. And frankly, the only drawing I actually did on it was of three birds on a wire, which you can see up in the left-hand corner. The kids did the rest. How great is that?!? These kids are at a party, essentially to celebrate THEM, and all they wanted to do was DRAW. Sounds like me at their age.

A lot of the text wound up being messages to me, which, again, makes me feel beyond grateful. I only captured a few, to give you a general idea how awesome these kids are (to me, and in general):

I haven’t spoken to the kids since Gallery Night, so I have no idea if they loved it. The parents and teachers who helped this all happen assure me it was a wild success, which is all I wanted to hear. I wanted to make sure we celebrated these kids and the art they made in a way that will make all future Gallery Nights have to work a little harder. I wanted to make sure they left there thinking what they made, and what they make in the future, is something to get excited about. And I think this will.

One more post to go— part 4. I’ll be writing this one over the weekend, and posting it next week. Check back then, so we can wrap this all up nice and neatly!

LA TORTUGA

You might recognize the below image from the various Internet fun-spaces I host:

But I wasn’t just drawing eight-armed turtles in sweet suits, holding a bunch of musical instruments for my health, you know. I did it for this:

It’s De La Buena‘s new album, La Tortuga. (That means “the turtle,” dummy.) And for those of you unfamiliar with De La Buena, they are (by their own words) an Afro Cuban/Latin jazz band. By my words, they’re massive in size, ridiculously talented, and an instant dance party for mind, body and soul. And though we share an area code (something I’m extremely proud of), their music is for everywhere.

Yes, it’s available on vinyl. LIMITED-EDITION vinyl, which is just cool to say. And yes, this is the first time my art has appeared on a record sleeve. Pretty excited about that.

Though I didn’t take pictures to prove it, the above CD packaging actually opens up to reveal three panels, with all the important liner note info you yearn for.

The coolest thing about this project (and there were a lot of cool things about this project) is how well it worked out. One person came up with the concept, one person painted the shell and background swirls, one person shot the photographs, I did the lettering and illustration, and two others worked on the final layout. (You can read their names in the liner note of the copy you’ll buy for yourself.) Normally, having this many cooks in the kitchen leads to one hot mess of a final project. This, however, was that rarest of cases, where not only did everything work well together, but there was absolutely NO EGO interfering with progress. Everyone was just plain stoked to be working on something so cool.

Before we settled on the final lettering, I’d turned in a few different versions. This was the set that put me on the right path:

And here is the final lettering, song titles and all:

I’m super grateful to have been asked to contribute to such an incredible group and record. And I’m not going to lie: it’s pretty cool to see my art on record that shares the shelf with all the other albums in my collection. I can’t wait for all four of you who read this to get a copy of your own. And if you have any trouble getting a hold of one, drop me a line. I’ll get one for you.

SO… THIS HAPPENED IN 2010: #4

At the tail end of 2009, I was approached by an agency here in Milwaukee about working on a new client of theirs: Stacy Adams. They’re a menswear company, with a heavier emphasis on the shoe end of things. Real classy, tasteful stuff like you’d see in the pages of GQ. Especially the shoes. (Wish I could’ve been comped a few pairs for “inspiration.”)

The agency didn’t want adorable monsters in wingtips, or dinosaurs in loafers. They wanted lettering. Famous quotations, hand-lettered in a variety of styles. Like these:

The agency chose the quotes– about 50 of them– and had me letter each one a few different ways. By project’s end, I had about 100 different pieces stacked up on my table. What did they do with all these quotes? This:

If memory serves me correctly, this wound up being the cover of Stacy Adams Spring 2010 catalog. Can’t say for sure, sadly, because I never got one. Not sure who did the product shots, but they’re pretty great. Like in this next piece, which I think was one of their eventual print ads:

That’s a mighty fine-looking shoe! Nice copy, too. Again, not sure where this particular ad ran, but if anyone out there saw it somewhere, let me know.

The next phase of the project was a lot simpler– way less work than lettering out 100 different phrases in record time. It involved a couple of simple, hand-drawn black and white picture frames. Frames that someone at the agency integrated into a photo shoot with a couple of models wearing Stacy Adams clothing:

Are these bros happy because they have sweet new threads? Or because they’re leaning against some dwellephant handiwork? No one knows. We do know, however, that this image is the thing that wound up getting the most shine shine. My friend, photographer/writer Justin Shady, spotted it along the highway in Los Angeles:

Despite the fact that Los Angeles likes to fence in their interstate as if it’s a Shawshank Redemption-era prison yard, the billboard looked classy. The agency did the layout, and I throw much love their way for believing in negative space. Good designers know how to let a piece breathe.

I don’t know how many markets they had media buys in, but my pal Jennifer spotted the billboard alongside the Dan Ryan in Chicago. No picture of that one, though. NO ONE should be shooting photos while driving on the DRE.

Having my work on a billboard was a first for me. Also a first? This:

No, not Deion looking less than Neon on the cover of ESPN magazine. I’m talking about THIS:

My work wound up reconfigured into a print ad that ran in ESPN magazine. Yes, I know I posted about that here back when it actually came out. But having my work in an internationally distributed magazine that wasn’t currently being assembled in my apartment was another big first. (As was the hilarity of I– an art nerd– making it into ESPN Magazine before any of the athletes I went to school with could.)

In addition to the above pieces, there were also allegedly in-store displays, regional ads, and other collateral designed using elements I created. No one seems to have actual proof of those, though. And my contact with the agency ended after this project was finished. If anyone out there actually saw more of this Stacy Adams stuff anywhere, let me know. It was a big gig. I like knowing that it really did get out there.

SO… THIS HAPPENED IN 2010: #3

My art on a t-shirt is not an entirely new concept. But my art as part of a line of kids’ apparel is. 2010 finally made that happen, thanks to the kind, creative folks at Heavy Rotation. Below are the selected designs from their Spring and Fall 2010 lines (minus one which must have sold out). You can find them online both here and here. And if you’re looking to support a boutique near you, go here and click on “retailers.”

 

SO… THIS HAPPENED IN 2010: #2

2010 kicked off with a reunion of sorts. At the start of my Junior year in college, I was hired by an agency called Out of the Box (OTB). It was an ad agency, or “integrated marketing” something or other, if you were to believe the business card. And I was lucky to be there. Not only did I get to do some actual copywriting (which I was going to school for), but I got to do it surrounded by some of the most talented, creative people I’ve ever worked with. Good, decent human beings with the kind of skill levels the Miami Heat monopolized headlines for. It was kind of criminal, actually. I felt bad for the other agencies in town.

The agency is no longer in tact, but most of the folks who worked there now work together at a place called GSW-W. And one of them, former OTB Art Director (and good friend) Dave Bowers, called me up one day. They needed some illustration work for a pitch they were doing… for Herman Miller. Specifically, their healthcare line. The concept was a children’s book. It was developed and written by my old boss at Out of the Box, Keith Cowgill. He taught me everything I needed to know way back when. He was Master Po. I was Young Caine.

The book (cover featured above), in its entirety, is posted below. With captions. But before you depart on your mildly entertaining journey, know this:

Working on this project was hectic. It went from doing a couple of illustrations, to illustrating and hand-lettering the entire book. There was a supplemental web teaser, signage for the office, and giant decals that covered the elevator doors. (Which I sadly have no photos of yet.) And the turnaround time was urgent to the point of impossible. But we did it. All of us. Working with Dave and the GSW-W gang (Sean, Ryan, Hannah, Keith, and countless others I’m no doubt forgetting) was the kind of freelance experience you hope for. The kind of experience you want when working with an ad agency. The kind of experience you don’t normally have working with an ad agency. (Or at least I don’t.) Everyone was on top of their game. There was mutual respect and admiration. There was collaboration on both ends. And there was the kind of respectful and appropriate compensation you almost never see from a company this large.

I’m extremely proud of this piece, and honored to have been asked to do it for such a big potential client. I’m glad I had a chance to work with some very talented friends I haven’t worked with in over a decade. And I’ll always hold this particular freelance experience as the bar by which all other future ad agency collaboration will be measured. Except for that whole “due yesterday” part.

The dust jacket flap. Classy! (And recyclable.)

 

As a reader, I’ve always been a fan of books that put a little something on the actual hard cover, under the dust jacket. Glad to see I was in like-minded company.

The title page. “Aichim,” by the way, is pronounced like the letters “H – M.”

 

This is how each two-page spread looked. I break the rest of the book down by page below. Just keep this layout in mind.

 

The final spread.

The back cover.

 

SO…THIS HAPPENED IN 2010: #1

Eight, maybe nine years ago, while looking for info on new music from one of my favorite bands, I discovered the above album. It was parked on MP3.com, back when MP3.com was a place where bands put their music just to get heard. You didn’t have to sign up. You didn’t have to pay for anything. You just downloaded all the tracks and became a fan.

Almost immediately, I fell in love with this record. It was as schizophrenic as my record collection. One minute you’re listening to a snare-shuffled sing-a-long, then next you’re hearing a piano-heavy nod to Jamaica’s pre-Reggae sounds. Moments of thrash, free jazz, and hardcore would pop up. The vocals were simultaneously dark and funny. And the whole thing ends on a reinterpretation of the album’s opening track, sung as if coming from the last safe haven on an obliterated planet. It wasn’t like Mr. Bungle or Estradasphere or anything you might be thinking of. It was more… well, it was different.

The album’s players come mostly from New York’s turn-of-the-century jazz and ska scenes. (And we’re not talking the super-poppy, irritating ska your radio/GoGurt commercials were plagued with.) And it shows. The musicianship on this thing was something to behold. Even moreso after I found out that all the instrumentation was done live. (So, when you’re hearing three different keyboard parts in the span of a song, know that the keys player was sitting behind three keyboards, playing them in one take.)

And at the helm of this mind-blowing ship of apocalypse-scoring scourges was in Irishman named Patrick Carrayanis. He composed most of the tunes, conducted the sessions, and provided ample guitar parts for the album.

And he’s the reason I did the art for the cover.

I was so inspired by one of the songs on the album (“The Graveyard Dance”) that I made this image for it, and published it in a magazine I used to work for:

He loved it, found it, and emailed me. Or maybe I sent it to him. (It was so long ago, I can’t really remember.) We became email friends, chatting back and forth about art, music, hating doing anything other than making our art, the sad state of the world. I started working on proper packaging for a CD release of Tooth, but it was such a difficult album to pigeonhole, finding a label proved tougher than expected.

Then, a few years into our correspondence (and about  a decade after it was recorded), Tooth‘s predecessor was picked up by Stubborn Records, for a proper release. I was asked to instead create sleeve art for that, and Da Whole Thing @ Version City was released:

That album did well enough to inspire conversations about officially releasing Tooth. But a myriad of reasons led to those talks stopping, and all those concepts and painted pages I’d made for Tooth some six or seven years ago were once again tucked away in the archives.

Fast-forward to this year. Digital heroes to the rescue, whatevski.org, decided to offer it as a digital download. Nearly ten years after the album was recorded, it finally has a proper home. Which is funny to me. I’ve always considered this band, and this album especially, as being very ahead of its time. They spent all these years waiting for a proper label to pick this record up and give it a proper CD release. When in reality, all the band needed to do was keep their digital downloads online, and wait for the rest of the world to catch up to them.

You can download the album by clicking here. Normally, it’ll run you $10, but they’re apparently having a holiday sale that brings the price down to $6. If you can’t easily describe your musical tastes, this will be worth every single penny.

GLOBAL UNION: REDONE!

A few weeks ago, I posted a drastically different Global Union poster. Why the redo? Well, all involved parties (myself included) agreed it wasn’t nearly as dynamic as it needed to be. And so, with music blaring and windows open, I rebuilt this thing from scratch, reusing only the birds on the wire from the older version. They served their purpose well enough, and it would have been a waste to keep them out of this. Plus, I like including something hand-drawn in almost everything I do. More people should.

If you’ve never been to this event before, this year’s a good year to start. Sure, you’ve never heard of the bands before. But it won’t matter once they start playing. The live shows usually surpass most of what you pay to see at clubs throughout the year. And it usually turns into one big dance party by the end of the evening.

This year, the fine folks who bring you this FREE festival every year are wondering just how much the thousands and thousands of you who attend it, truly love it. And they’re wondering with the help of Kickstarter. In short, Kickstarter is a way for hard-working folks like you and I to support the things that entertain us, with the modest financial amounts we can afford to part with. In a way, it finally makes us “patrons of the arts,” a title that used to only belong to folks who wore monocles and reaped the benefits of Bush’s tax cuts.

Global Union has a pretty lofty goal, but if every person who attended last year donated a mere $5, they’d meet their goal a few times over. Not too shabby, eh?

You can read the donation levels (and their respective prize packages) by clicking here. And if you have ever been, or plan to be this year, consider tossing a five-spot their way.

BASTILLE DAYS T-SHIRTS

A few months ago, I was hired to submit a crepe-load of sketches to some good-looking folks in charge. Sketches of what? Spain. Just kidding. T-shirts! For what? Spain! Again, kidding. The annual Bastille Days festival here in Milwaukee, WI.

Two of the crepe-load were approved, and starting tomorrow morning, can be purchased at one of the merch booths in Cathedral Square Park. (For American currency.) We don’t know how much they are, but we DO know they’re printed in a VERY limited run.

One of them is standard fare: an Eiffel Tower, and all relevant event info, in white and gray on a black shirt. We’ll try and get a proper photo of that one up for you, since digital versions of reversed out art don’t typically do the reversed-out art justice, in our opinion.

But the second one? Well, it’ll look like one of these three images below:

(We’re not sure which colors they went with yet! The world is full of secrets…)

This is one of our favorite things we’ve done this year. It’s even driven us to write in third person, when clearly, dwellephant is a lone wolf. Like Highlander.

Viva l’affordable souvenirs!

Me + Fancy Shoes and Clothes = ESPN Magazine

Well, hello there, Neon Deion. To what do we owe this great pleasure? Turn to page 33, you say? Okay.

Doot doo-doo… Article about basketball, article about horses, ad for… whoa! Could it be?

It is! One of the pieces I collaborated with BVK on, for Stacy Adams. Let’s move on to the next image– a better look at this bad boy.

I didn’t make the clothes. Or the two dudes. But I did draw all those frames on that wall. It was one of a handful of things I did for ‘em, and the first thing I’ve seen publicly. My friend/type sensei Tim Ryan found it a few days ago while thumbing through his copy of the magazine. Neither of us were expecting it, as agencies don’t typically tell their freelancers about their media buys. Needless to say it was a pretty cool surprise for the both of us.

You can also see a very tiny second piece I did when you visit the shiny new Stacy Adams Web site. Never in a million years would I have imagined my work being used for such a cool, classy and stylish cause.

Side note: If you were to travel back in time to 1996, and ask the coaches and teachers of Steubenville High School “Which member of the Class of ’96 will eventually wind up in ESPN magazine?” I’m pretty sure none of them would guess “the art nerd.” But lo and behold…