Fashion Monsters are finished!

Finally finished this project that began over drinks in July or August, was shot at the beginning of September (or was it the very end of August) and languished in post-production (read: ME) for the last three months. It is done and I think it looks great. Beautiful shots, beautiful model, beautiful clothes, and some seriously cute and creepy monsters.

About the project:

Fashion Monster was a project conceived with photographer Dustin Cohen to combine his photographs and my "monster" illustrations. We set out to create a noir feel, knowing that the monsters would upend that with their absurd placement and bright colors. Shot on location around lower Manhattan at the beginning of Fall, the light was great and the team Dustin put together created wonderful images for me to work with.

Eli Neugeboren | Art Direction, Retouching, Illustration
Dustin Cohen | Photography
Angelique Velez | Hair & Makeup
Matthew Simonelli | Styling
Andrew Hanenberg | Photo Assistant, Stunt Driver
Winfield Foster | Photo Assistant
Casey Levine & Monique Perreault | Producers, Kids With Candy

All clothes | Edelweiss by Sarah
model | Mirielle represented by APM

see it on Behance

Morning Disc Designs

One of my pickup ultimate friends, Emmanuelle put out an open call for tee-shirt designs to represent our unique early-morning game. The game, started in 1997, originally met on Wednesday mornings at 6:45AM and ending promptly at 8AM when we would all go out for breakfast together, during the daylight savings months. There are pickup games on weeknights but those aren't possible after the time change. The game has morphed over the last few years, and an influx of loyal participants, into a Tuesday to Friday game that starts at about 7:15AM and now lasts sometimes until 9AM. Starting last year some of the participants have begun playing at more mellow tournaments together as "The Magnificent 7AM", representing our group quite well.

I love designing logos, and I really love designing logos for ultimate, so I designed these:

The Future of Print

So many articles being published titled, "The Future of Print" or proclamations being made that, "PRINT IS DEAD!" These seem to only lead to reactions of one of two extremes - rigid defense that print is not going anywhere or demands for everyone to get with it and scrap the presses and move to digital-only models.

Does anyone consider the future of ALL printed stuff? In every "the future of print?" article I read, book people only think about books, magazine people only about magazines, newspapers only about newspapers. The business models are obviously different, but the method of production and distribution and consumption are the same. People can't see the forest for the pulped trees.

doodles from APHA conference

(tried posting this from the train yesterday and it just wasn't happening)

Here are some doodles drawn in my sketchbook during the lectures and panels while I was at the APHA conference in Washington DC this weekend. The lectures and discussions mostly focused on letterpress and bookarts.

It was interesting to attend a conference like this as an academic, while still feeling like a working professional. The way I think and feel about Printing (not printmaking) is in the context of making magazines, running jobs for design clients, and preparing my students to do the same. The idea that most of the folks at the conference seemed to have is one of printing in the context of rare books and fine arts and, in some cases, craft. Letterpress printing as a niche craft carried out by antiquarian enthusiasts trying to keep a dead technology alive. In the world of living technologies for printing; digital offset, web presses, etc., the technologies give way to newer methods out of necessity and cost-effectiveness.

I don't see why both cannot legitimately exist and coexist, there always being the right tool for the right job. I do wonder why so much bookart is designed so poorly. By labeling it as Art it becomes like the kids work on the fridge, the process justifies any slapdash techniques or terrible end-product because of the precious nature of it's Art/craft context.

I think I'll need to expand this a bit more later.



This is "TMI" - monogram for Internet abbreviations.



My first initial, natch.



Monograms for JLN, ECN and a few miscellaneous ones.



Stacking monograms.

The repeat pattern is almost done

Happy 60th Anniversary to the Peanuts

The Peanuts comic strip was a big part of my childhood and it is now 60 years old! The collected strips were published by my Pop's publisher, Holt Rheinhart & Winston (as it was then) and his editor, Don Hutter, always sent him back home with a few books for us. I saw something about the 60th anniversary yesterday and immediately drew this. Nothing too special or interpretive here, but just looking at it makes me smile.

Bunnybear splodeyface

new bunnybear:
Splodeyface

drawn in Illustrator, from a pencil sketch I scanned

Beginnings of a repeat pattern

Making a new background for my twitter page, and this is the start. I think I want to keep adding large and small details to make it more kaleidoscopic. I saw this today and feel like I should bite some of this style, too. I like how there's something lozenge-like about how these fit together in this pattern. Maybe I can work some sort of Akira/Kaneda imagery into the background as well.

Drawing From the News

Striking factory worker in today's Times:

It is definitely not a great drawing, but it's an ok drawing. Drawn in a 9x12 moleskine, using a koh-i-nor mechanical pencil with HB lead only. It just feels good to be doing some freehand work and that it looks somewhat like the original source.
http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2010/08/04/business/jp-paycuts.html

In the year 2000

If television and phone service 50 years ago had been equivalent to AT&T wireless and Time Warner Cable today, tv and phones would have NEVER HAPPENED.

Accepting spotty service in an emerging technology is one thing. Accepting the occasional bug in a beta version of a software is another. But these are things that purport to be everyday reliable services that are quite the opposite. The immediacy and volume of information available is both daunting and incredible at the same time, and I think it may be exactly those factors that allow us to forgive the shortcomings.

This is definitely not exclusive to those two service providers. I have heard (and experienced) bad service, bad customer service, bad hardware, bad software, false promises, etc. from other companies, these are just the two that I'm dealing with currently, and it frustrates me and makes me sad. I have to spend the money either way ... I don't HAVE to, but to live in the environment and lifestyle (creative professional, freelancer, educator, NYC) I need these services. The fact of the matter is that there are NO good options, and all we have is a choice of lesser evils, shitty or shittier goods and services.


Even more depressing: there is no solution, because there is no alternative. Promise the moon and deliver the upper atmosphere? Crappy metaphor for a crappy situation.


http://tinyurl.com/32k2r9j

Pitcher sketch

Drew this today for a project I'm working on: adapting one of my father's stories into a graphic novel. Been planning (procrastinating) this for about five years and very excited that I have finally stopped being so lazy and have started working on it.

Location:Sackett St,Brooklyn,United States

another one on the way

Partway done with another one. I'll call it a bunnybear but really this is going to be a giant salamander dragon...

A New BunnyBear (Hope)

Not chapter four, or rather, chapter IV, just a new bunnybear.

Burton-Ize

The final project I am giving my Digital Imaging students at City Tech is to "Burton-Ize" a self-portrait. We are teaching to a "Core Text" at City Tech this semester and the Core Text is Tim Burton. They chose Burton because of the coinciding show at MoMA and the release of his version of Alice in Wonderland. Visually I figured this would be something both challenging and fun for the students to do as they yearn for the freedom of Summer vacation.

So much fun that I did a quick one of myself this morning:

The assignment can be found at the wordpress site I have been keeping for the class:
http://adv1260.wordpress.com/
Oh, and this here is the original:

Doodle

Drew a student in the class I was observing


Pen used: sakura microperm 01

More new pens

Got a set of faber-castell big brush pens, too. I feel like I'm channeling klaus janson.

Trapper Keeper Doodle Drawing

I know I'm about three-four years behind the whole hand-lettering hooha, but I have been doing this kind of stuff forever and I never stopped, I just never shared either. Now I'm sharing.

Part of the excitement is that I bought a new rapidograph. I have had a love affair with these amazing technical pens since I first discovered them when I was 8 or 9 years old. A hebrew school friend of my older brother used them and I could not believer the clarity of line he got with them. Back then I could never keep my pens, the original koh-i-nor clean or stop them from getting clogged, and then the amazing Rotring came out with it's fancy no-clog ink cartridges! Huzzah. I bought my new one last week after visiting Pearl on Canal and a place on Court Street with no luck. The guy behind the counter at WC Art & Graphic Supply on Jay Street, across from the City Tech building, said that rapidographs area  dying breed, and are now collector's items. Might have to start buying up a supply for the future. I prefer .25 since anything smaller really does clog too much and the nib is too fragile, and anything else is too thick for my preference. All I could get was a .30 this time. Might have to hit ebay or something.

I love getting new pens.

M.A.D.

Sketched this while procrastinating other things. Jessica Hische I am not, but what the hey. Sometimes I just stare off into space and think about mushroom clouds and the end of the world as we know it.

Clouds & Explosions

First in what will become a series of drawings based on clouds and explosions. First is full drawing, followed by detail.

Logo: muted managment

Muted Management is a dj mangement/booking company. Their philosophy is music first, we take care of the business.





I was partial to the grey-on-grey but we added some color. Went with orange for splash and blue for info. Type is flama light tracked out to 300.

New Cloud Drawing

Second in my new series of cloud drawings. Lots and lots of cross-hatching. Attempting to create a sense of depth by varying the scale and tone of the cross-hatching.

Cyclops

Saw this truck on 33rd & Broadway. Love the X-Factor era cyclops and how they framed it on the truck. The bonus was the girl sticking her head out of the truck's window right as I snapped the shot. I think she was in there eating something.

Location:Sackett St,Brooklyn,United States

Cloud Drawing

New cloud drawing I made this week. Is it done? Dunno but I feel like it could use more density and detail, which would add depth to it. Will repost if I keep working on it.

Logo: MyStorageBill.com

Made a logo for a startup billing management company that deals exclusively with self-storage centers.

Here are some of the earlier versions, as it came along:

And the first attempts. Client didn't like the "old shool" finance look of castle/pyramid and thought the lock sent the wrong message.

WD-40

Drew a can of WD-40. Finished product looks like freshman drawing class still life assignment. I am pleased enough with it. Cloud drawing coming next, you can see part of it poking out from behind the moleskine. Feels good to know that I can still render objects from life with some facility.

Location:Sackett St,Brooklyn,United States