04 November 2010

Life in L.A.


“It’s the closing of the book, the slamming of the door, the quenching of the flame. It’s the final handshake, the least welcome visitor, the cruelest joke of all. It can sneak up on you, or reserve its place in advance. It makes you stop and think, makes you wonder, makes you less attractive, makes you a member of an ever-growing majority, the silent majority. It asks for the check before you’ve finished eating, asks for payment in full.”-- Joe Frank from A Death in the Family

It's a bagel thing.
Minister by Joe Frank

22 September 2010

Justin Wood

I can't believe I'm lucky enough to be related to this guy.

Beautiful Modern Book Covers


CB Design




























Sigh. I love GW's work.





Grand Central Publishing




 

GT



Little, Brown and Co.

Exacting grammar IS glamorous and elusive, especially to a 
California public school rat like me (and yes, this is a warning of sorts to you).


 

Penguin  Books


 



The mark of an excellent designer? 
When the writing might be crap, 
but the designer stays inspired and manages to create something so good. 
One of the most beautiful modern book covers ever- below.


Granted, Mr. Corral had an incredible image to work with.
I've seen this painting by Jacob Magraw-Mickelson in person and it is beautiful,
however it could still have been just okay in print depending 
on the whim of a designer. The cropping, paper choice, gold stamping, dye-cut, 
title, and famous author name placement were applied with a finesse and skill that is so 
incredibly rare and breath taking to see when done well. Pulling out all those stop's 
could have easily turned this cover into a garish sucker punch at the consumer 
but RCD used his bag of tricks with an archers precision and it worked.

13 September 2010

Art of McSweeney's is out and available through Chronicle Books

I have some sketch work as well as several finished pieces in this. If your interested in seeing how things are done at McSweeney's, or have a general interest in how a small press publishing company works, I highly recommend this book. It's an excellent read for students, dabblers and the pros. 

It's also just plain ole pretty to look at.



Art of McSweeney's
A novel with each cover hand-illustrated by the author. Literary journals bound by magnets, or designed to look like junk mail. The sharp wit, gorgeous design, and playful why not invention of independent literary publisher McSweeney's have earned it a large and loyal following and made its journals, books, The Believer magazine, and Wholphin DVDs collectible favorites of readers and graphic designers alike. Created by the McSweeney's staff to commemorate their 11th (or 12th) anniversary, this book showcases their award-winning art and design across all the company's activities. It features hundreds of images, interviews with collaborators such as Chris Ware and Michael Chabon, and dozens of insights into McSweeney's quirky creative process and the visual experience of reading.
McSweeney's began in 1998 as a San Francisco-based literary journal edited by Dave Eggers, and has since grown into a celebrated independent publishing company. Its publications have won awards from AIGA and Print and have appeared in exhibits at the Smithsonian and the Pasadena Museum.

Watch a video preview of the book and purchase HERE

photo source: designrelated

12 September 2010

Vrs. : MockingJay Cover


One of these images is the cover to a novel, the other was created for a NYTimes review of the novel.
I have always been partial to illustrator Tomer Hanuka's work (and YA novel's). 

Edit: Yet another image from an MJ review:


30 August 2010

Reading Room - O Magazine Septmeber Issue

Reading is one of my favorite pastimes and any illustration assignment that involves books, be it a review or a cover will undoubtedly be a pleasure to create. What made this assignment unique was that the art director, Jody Churchfield, asked me to illustrate three pieces using three different styles. Usually consistency is key in illustration so this was a rare opportunity indeed.


Some of the sketches:




and finals:





Thanks Jody!

More on the Historical Museum Stockholm, Riksutställningar / Sweden

Travel back and forth is a co-production between The Swedish Travelling Exhibition and The Museum of National Antiquities in collaboration with Institute for Futures Studies. The exhibition involves exhibition designers Maison Beton http://maisonbeton1.blogspot.com, and the Swedish artists Anna Svensson www.annasvensson.se, Fredrik Söderberg www.fredriksoderberg.se , Kollektivet Livet http://kollektivetlivet.se  
The exhibition will open the 26th of February at the Museum of National Antiquities and will be shown there for a year before it will go out on tour in Sweden 2012 – 2014 to approximately 8 – 10 different county museums.  

Each artist gets a to design a room. The room that I've been asked to create works for is titled "Truths and Myths" and will be built out of logs- how perfect is that? I am so excited about this project.

Some images from Maison Beton:


27 August 2010

Dazzling

Samantha Fields is added to Western Project's roster.

 
Destroy the Destroyers, 2007
acrylic on canvas, 52 x 72 inches

A fantastic facination with Franz Boas

I'm working on a commissioned art project for the Swedish National Museum of Antiquities that has led me to the discovery of an amazing man. Boas once summed up his approach to anthropology and folklore by saying: "In the course of time I became convinced that a materialistic point of view, for a physicist a very real one, was untenable. This gave me a new point of view and I recognized the importance of studying the interaction between the organic and inorganic, above all the relation between the life of a people and their physical environment." -Franz Boas

"Franz Boas posing for figure in US Natural History Museum exhibit entitled 
"Hamats'a coming out of secret room" 1895 or before. Courtesy of National Anthropology Archives.



Drawing of a Kwakiutl mask from Boas's 
The Social Organization and the Secret Societies of the Kwakiutl Indians (1897). 
Wooden skulls hang from below the mask, which represents one of the 
cannibal bird helpers of Bakbakwalinooksiwey.

12 August 2010

tusen takk





Phil Hays now has a website! He was the reigning department chair when I was a student at Art Center College of Design. Phil was an amazing illustrator and could give a precise critique if you asked for one. When he spoke his voice was all gravel and sticks. On his office wall hung a beautiful black and white portrait that said "To Phil, Love Andy(Warhol)"