Radio Static

This poster for Cornish senior Amber Shein was possibly my favorite of the semester. She was a fantastic client, the process went as smoothly as possible, and I’m very satisfied with the end result. She wanted something that was strange, random and eclectic, as well as possibly referencing popular culture. For the poster, I used photo-manipulated found images, vector illustrations, and hand-drawn elements. I also wrote all the headlines and copy with my left hand (I’m right handed) while riding in a car on the freeway, for mega “static” vibes.

digital final

found magazine clothing ad from the 60's

found image of fashion icon and sex symbol, Jane Fonda

1st layer print (red) closeup

1st layer print (red) closeup

1st layer print (red) closeup

1st layer print (red) closeup

1st layer print (red)

2nd layer print (cyan)

2nd layer print (cyan) closeup

2nd layer print (cyan) closeup

2nd layer print (cyan) closeup

2nd layer print (cyan) closeup

The Never-Ending Poster

More posters for junior and senior recitalists at Cornish:

Brandon and Natacha poster digital final

Brandon and Natacha digital comp

Brandon and Natacha digital comp

Jason Gray poster digital final

Surreal-Fi Guy

Among other things, Alexander Bishop is a fantastic classical music composer/writer/pianist/guitarist/vocalist/everything musical (Alex Bishop’s music on Myspace). He sent me one song which I listened to literally 38 times while I designed this poster for his upcoming senior recital, which is on December 1st at 8pm at POHCHO Concert Hall, and I highly recommend attending. The only thing we discussed prior to this (we had no formal brief or meeting) was his interest in the Sci-fi genre. I kept this in mind, and while loosing myself in his composition “Escala”, out came this exploration of surreal landscape and nature, Sci-fi elements, and an unintentional, yet surprisingly enjoyable 80′s vibe:

Note: I apologize for the low quality photographs, a new camera is in the works asap!

digital final

exposure time

I need a new studio space... that's not my bedroom.

1st layer print

halftone gradient closeup

type closeup

custom 80's type!

purple planet

double halftone gradient space clouds

drop

cosmic watershed

final 2 color print (teal and royal purple on bright white 100lb Cougar cover stock)

(not about female basketball in the 1920′s)

This poster is for Jake Brady and Steve O’Brien’s junior jazz recital. They said do whatever I wanted for the design, something that I don’t often get with clients. I would have to say, as a designer, I almost felt a sense discomfort due to the lack of “the box” for this project. I decided to embrace this and convey that feeling through the image. I picked something as arbitrary and irrelevant to ‘jazz music’ as possible; an image of a female basketball player from 1920. Then simply layered a large red X over the top of it, signifying that the recital certainly was not women’s basketball. Kind of an interesting take, and I’m not sure how I feel about it, but it was fun nonetheless.

digital final

digital v. analog

Bedroom

X

1st layer (black on 100lb natural cover stock)

1st layer (black on 100lb natural cover stock)

Type closeup

Now What? Bloody 3D

X-V

X-V

Dylan Arthur Baker

This recent poster job for Dylan Barker (a junior classical composition major) was a refreshing and enjoyable project for me. I enjoyed designing a minimal, yet playful poster for a genre that I don’t get all that often. The image is an abstracted representation of an actual written composition with the notes on the staff. I also enjoyed printing on the natural 100lb Cougar cover-stock in a new size (13″x20″). I’ve also noticed I need a new camera for shooting these posters. My Sony “Cybershot” just isn’t cutting it…

Final 2-color print

"notes" on "staff"

O:D

1/24

I kept a few black-only prints. I love the simplicity and openness.

Alex Jackson recital poster

It’s been a while since our last post. We’ve had a nice little summer break, and now we’re back to school again. This means were designing and printing more junior/senior recital posters for the Cornish Music department!

This poster for Alexander Jackson’s senior recital was the first one of the semester. He wanted to communicate birth, evolution, and the nature of his recital; an eclectic blend of jazz, chamber music, and metal. During his recital performance, he will be projecting neon colors and a portrait of Charles Darwin onto 3 trapezoid screens on-stage, so I thought I’d include an image of the man himself. I wanted to experiment with the fountain (a gradient of several inks on one screen) printing technique with this project, so I decided to split the illustration into two separate fountains; one vertical fountain of red, magenta and cyan inks, and one horizontal fountain with the same colors only in reverse order. It was really fun to experiment with, and the result was pretty fascinating.

digital final

final print (14"x20" 3 screen, double fountain)

Charles Darwin / birth elements

date stamp from the library for recital date

2 color shirts are hard to register at home

fountain screen!

2 layers

first layer fountain on coated silver cover stock

both fountain layers on coated silver cover stock

double fountain art print poster (coated silver cover stock)

Gamelon Pacifica

Lindell designed this poster for a Gamelon Pacifica show coming up. The gong ornamentation and subtext is printed with gold ink.

2 layer

Top detail

Golden shimmer

Recital posters

We are still doing more recital posters and here is a bunch of ones we’ve done this last month.

Lindell's 2 layer

Detail

Detail 2

Julian & Robert collaboration, 3 layer

Venus flytraps

The Fly

Robert's 2 layer

Detail

Robert's 2 layer w/ split fountain

Detail

Lindell's 2 layer

Detail

Julian's 2 layer

Test prints

Crazy rock poster

Here is a ridiculous rock poster I (Julian) designed for a musician at Cornish. He wanted an image of himself, on his knees on a pile of skulls, with a guitar in each hand, the title “Mayday”, and his name in a banner. With all of this in mind, I illustrated the whole ridiculous scene. The poster is 25″x13″, so it comfortably sits on a telephone pole. This project definitely pushed me as a designer/illustrator to take such crazy requests and push the limits in order to create a poster that is so over the top that it’s good.

Mayday

Drying

Top detail

Middle detail

Bottom detail

Design for social change

Lindell designed and printed some posters for a class taught by the wonderful Natalia Ilyin, called design for social change. For the propaganda poster assignment, she divided the class in two groups according to eye color. Brown-eyed students were to design posters promoting the dominant order, and the blue-eyed students were to design for the rebellious opposition, fighting for the downfall of the “administration”. The poster simply depicts brown-eyed oppression with the over-printed oppressing parenthesis, and the tear drop symbolizing the blue-eyed struggle and victimization. The type was inspired by Nazi Germany posters of WW2.

As for the hypothetical WW3 posters, they were designed and printed for a class wide guest critique with the amazing Israeli poster designer, Yossi Lemel, who is on a national tour giving lectures at various art/design schools. The poster is a commentary of the power and potential destruction that would be caused by nuclear warfare. It also shows the ridiculousness of that sort of situation, with the six-shooter on the left, representing the west, and the 9-millimeter on the right representing the east. The earth in between, re-contextualized by scale, sits in the line of fire of the shoot-out between the opposing sides.

24"x36"

Enough! detail

Transparent

Enough! detail

WW3

WW3 detail

the NowWhat? state of mind

WW3

WW3 detail

NowWhat? golden pimps.