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:

Bunnybear splodeyface

new bunnybear:
Splodeyface

drawn in Illustrator, from a pencil sketch I scanned

old stuff: Cracked Out Snowmen

These were proposed illustrations for the Spin corporate holiday card a few years ago. Didn't get approved for some reason.

Prince's Purple Rain

I remember listening to this album constantly when it came out. I had the 45" of "When Doves Cry" and my sister had the LP, and we'd listen to it at our house and her best friend, Jennifer Wentzel's house. I would sing, "this is what it sounds like, when dogs dieeeee!!!" I didn't know what "Darling Nikki" was about, but I wanted to. Spin just published a huge feature package marking the 25th anniversary of the release of the movie and album, and they got a bunch of bands to cover the album. Best part for me? I got to do the photo-illustration for the cover under art direction from Devin Pedzwater.

This first sketch is something I threw together that didn't get used. I had done a few different ink versions before I scanned this and colored it in photoshop. It got me very comfortable with the image, which helped when I made the final.
This is the final version, as it looks on newsstands.
And this is the original photo, by ASP.

look at this fucking hipster

Had to leave the Spin stationary info on there, since it is mostly inspired by people I have met here or seen at our loverly events. Looking forward to a great one tonight, Girltalk... whoo! That guy sucks. Inspired by this site, as well:
http://www.latfh.com/

Angry Wade's Running Team, redux

Redone did it again, after showing it around. Should be getting the shirts pretty soon, I hope! For now, mad props to Bri, my favorite bartender in the world, and Angry Wade's, because they had cold taps, even during the blackout of aught-three.

More stuff from Spin

This was the AD's initial idea for the illustration - DVD morphing into imageThis one is what ended up running. I was happy with how I managed to make the type seem carved into the collumns, and the shadows/highlights seemed to all work well in the end.

Drawing from the news: Grieving Sports Fans

I call this "Grieve for Eli" since she's got the #10 jersey on. Drawn from a photo taken just after the Giants were knocked out of the playoffs this year.

old stuff: NERDCORE logo

Another thing I found that I made on the computer, but for some reason all I have is one printout, which I scanned.

album art: Indelible Beancurd

Cover art

Interior art

Just finished this album art for my old pals Ethan and Dan. This is the first work I've done as the Liaison to the Sun in about 11 or 12 years. This album is the result of five years of work between these guys: Inspired by the long-distance collaboration that produced the Cooling Pies album(s), Ethan and Dan began writing and recording this album in 2003. They traded visits back and forth between Ohio and NYC, and this gem is ready to go on the world's finger. Er sumthin.

check them on their site and on amazon.

monogram 1: Oh My God

I have always loved interlocking monograms; usually I notice them as sport's logos, but they are all over the place. They are an optical illusion, an Escher-like puzzle for the eyes to sort out.

The more complex the design, the more letters involved, the longer it will take to figure it out, but our eyes and brain seem to have an amazing ability to sort these things out, similar to reading a sentence wth sme of th lttrs mssng without skipping a beat. I think that I am also drawn to these things because they take type and make it into an image, maybe through decorative means, but still. I think I can track this back to looking at the Star of David iconography at the synagogue I went to growing up, and trying to follow the lines around and over and under and through, trying to make sense of it, in my head. I spent many hours drawing and re-drawing these, tracing them until I could draw them on my own.

So I decided to try making some of my own. The question was, what would I make them for, what would the letters I chose represent? I immediately thought I would use instant messaging acronyms, since the juxtaposition of the slow labor-intensive process of drawing these with the hurryupnow nature of their etymology seemed at odds. This strikes me as a similar intent to the slow-blogging movement, though not as crusty or bitter. My intent is to do it as an homage, a glorification of our newfound method of simplified communication. All that being said, here is my first effort. This is a scan of a pencil drawing, colored digitally. I will see what they look like re-drawn in vectors, but I like the idea that they have an element of the non-digital in them as well.

FRED

This is Fred. Fred is a Pisces, he likes lobster dinners, sunset walks on the beach, kayaking, and BRAINS!!!! BRAIIIINNNNNNNSSSSSS!!!!!

monstertauk

Now I see what was causing all those weird clouds. He doesn't look so bad.

Inventions!

I love the skymall. Flew out to Minneapolis for a wedding this past weekend and discovered the above bit of genius in that amazing mile-high periodical. Below are some sketches of "inventions" of my own: Coffee AND Donuts, package deal; Carton o' Chum; Milk 'n' Cookies.