so i completely missed may, huh? not good, not good…

anyway, please enjoy this as i gather a ton of my work to put towards a brand new website! yep! you heard it right!!!

at work we ordered a few blank skateboard decks with the hopes of decorating the office with something a little more interesting than bills and manila envelopes filled with this years taxes. we each took one and attempted to create something cool and a little representative of the overall vibe of onetwentysix. this particular deck was drawn in pencil, then outlined with a regular sharpie, then painted over with prismacolor markers, then outlined again with paint pens and markers. check out the process shot after the jump.

smashing magazine (an insanely inspirational design resource for those who may not know) has just published an article about the lost art of handwriting and lettering. it covers everything from classical calligraphy to modern day typographic-based comic illustrations and does not disappoint in any of the categories. do yourself a favor and check it out. i know that anyone who reads this site will have an instant infatuation with almost every piece it features.

funny side note: a friend linked me to this article earlier today and pointed out the fact that they mention me and one of my latest brooklyn circus type treatments. nice!

as you can see, i have a new layout for the summer. sure it looks simple, but it was agonizing trying to figure out which lettering to use at the top of the page for my name. (i guess that’s because it’s the only real piece of the site that actually changes.)

there are much more samples after the jump of what i attempted to use. you can see how desperate i get towards the end before finally giving up and going with the most graphic version.

before i begin, i would like to excuse myself if any of the following is nothing but gibberish. i’ve been sick with the flu for the past week and i think it has completely fried my brain. moving on…

today’s post is a complete walk-through of some of my latest pieces for the brooklyn circus. as always, the good guys at the bkc are looking to push the boundaries of their customers’ style and, in doing so, asked me to design a bunch of custom hand-lettered shirts. each shirt will show my hand drawing, the design process, and one colorway sample of a shirt in completion. there’s so much more after the break, enjoy!

let’s look at this first design to kick things off. this design was based off the lettering of some of my favorite cartoons of the mid-twentieth century. it’s very shag and doesn’t really stick to one main style, yet they stack together rather nicely to create somewhat of a family.

the original began more with the intention to really personify the brooklyn circus. as you can see from the final piece above, i ended up stearing away from that “nationwide entertainment” feel. i also broke the yn ligature in fear that it was forming too much of a swastika shape.

one of the final colorways sent in for approval.

this next design is also sporting a retro feel, maybe a little different than the prior though.

here we have a hand-sketched typeset along with a three dimensional structure of sorts containing a few old-school elephant illustrations.

the brooklyn circus loves the cmyk color palette for their brand, but i was curious what some muddier colors might look like.

i decided to keep this one fairly simple.

from here we move to a more complex design.

i had the elements exactly how i planned, but the proportions were just not right. i decided to bring it into illustrator and mess around a bit with the sizes and colors.

once i was happy with the actual layout, i moved it onto a shirt and tried a few different colorways.

not the typical cmyk palette, but slightly modified to give it a more caribbean feel.

the last design i’d like to run through is also the most recent. ironically, it was also the most complicated in terms of putting it together.

each piece was hand drawn and then assembled into a single photoshop document (with the exception of the elephant which is a piece of old clip art i found in an old magazine i had laying around.)

after a surpringly exhaustive layout process, i finally settled on this stacked design. using the cmyk scheme of the brooklyn circus, i began playing around with colorways to see which might work best. they all had different personalities and were fun in different ways, so it was hard to narrow down my favorites.

one of the final versions was this black design. for some reason the yellow elephant amused me to no end…i blame day-quil.

i hope you enjoyed this walk-through as much as i enjoyed compiling it.

recently one of my best friends moved into a new apartment and in doing so asked if i would paint her something to hang on the wall. of course i obliged and only a few months later (sorry!!!) i finally finished it. i apologize for the horrible photography, but it just isn’t one of my strong points. there are some progress shots taken from my iphone after the jump.

after a few comments on my color, i decided that it was indeed hurting a bit and decided to give it a bolder approach. thanks to kyle for pointing that out to me. here are the rest, side by side to show you exactly how the values change.

i’ve always had problems finishing any drawings i start. recently i started working with a new method that i thought would help with my personal lettering/illustration pieces. so far, i think it’s working out, i just need to relearn how to use color creatively. sometimes it’s hard to get back into the swing of “art” when you do it day in and day out as a designer.

something drawn up for a project at work today. not much else to share right now, but i enjoyed how this came out and figured i’d post it.

YouTube Directvideo link

i love this guy. nothing groundbreaking here, but oh my god is it fun.