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