Watts

I’m a movie guy. I know a lot of  people think they’re movie people, but they’re not. It’s like those people who think they’re music people, then you ask them, “What kind of music do you like?” – and they’re all, “Oh, I like a little bit of everything.” – THEN YOU’RE NOT A MUSIC PERSON.  Sorry, what were we talking about? Yea, movies. So I like movies. I always love to talk movies with someone who is relatively versed on the topic. Someone who has a favorite director or understands the importance of a good score. Someone who understands pacing and is forgiving when the third act isn’t as good as the first 2. Someone who isn’t too basic to appreciate the indies and not to pretentious to appreciate the blockbusters. I’m so far off point…

I’m gonna start over with this paragraph. So I like movies. I did a Suicide Squad poster a while back. It’s on here if you just scroll down a little bit. That movie, unfortunately, didn’t do for me what i hoped it would. But i enjoyed creating it. Afterwards, I kept thinking i should do another – but to pick something that i love.

I toyed with the idea of doing Footloose or Drive or characters from Raising Arizona… Attack the Block was one that I considered… but nothing i thought of created that spark that actually got me off my butt to put idea to pixel. Then I watched Killing Zoe, which I love. And it got me to thinking how much I love Stoltz. I love him in a little movie he did titled Sleep With Me. And he has one of my favorite lines in Pulp fiction when he’s on the phone with Travolta and he says “prank caller, prank caller!” – Anyhoo… Man, i keep going off on these tangents… Let me bring this back around. So i first saw Stoltz when i was a wee lad in my very favorite John Hughes movie – not one he directed (that would be She’s Having a Baby), but he produced it – wrote it too i assume – Some Kind of Wonderful.

That movie meant so much to me when i was growing up. I could relate to his character SO much. And it was a relationship I was okay with. Even proud of. The weird artsy type who wasn’t quite sure where he was going yet. It was this fear of the unknown that helped shape me and I owe a lot of that to Mr. Stoltz and Mr. Hughes. I tell you, I had way more girl friends than guy friends in high school; this makes the rumor mill abuzz with speculation about one’s preferences. The kind of rumors that can crush a young person in the confines of high school – but due to to Some Kind of Wonderful, it was yet another thing I was okay with. I could feel the temporary nature of it all. But i’m not sure I would have without the soft spoken, creatively-inclined, tomboy-loving character of Keith.

Who wants to be Blaine? Ducky is where it’s at. Who wants to be the jock when clearly the criminal is way cooler. Hell, even Farmer Ted seemed way more fun than Jake.

That was way more build-up than I intended. I really hope most of you just skipped all that and went straight to the artwork.

So after all that, you were probably thinking I went and did a portrait of Stoltz as Keith – And that would be an understandable assumption – but you know what? – In today’s world where we feel the need to label normal thinking as feminist, I thought Watts made a better subject. There would be no Keith without Watts. So I know it’s way too late to make a long story short but, without further adieu – here’s Mary Stuart Masterson as Watts in Some Kind of Wonderful:

It’s the first piece of art I’ve done in a long time that wasn’t for a client or a commissioned piece of some kind. Hope you like. I just put it up on Society 6. You can find it here.

Thanks for reading my ramblings.

I would end this by saying that i plan on posting more often but it would probably be a lie and i’m not sure anyone cares anyway.  That sounded way darker and apathetic than i intended. Be good.

Flying Tiger Brewery

So for a long time now, I’ve been working on a commercial project, an ongoing project that I wasn’t including on this blog. In fact, that project was keeping me off this blog due to the secrecy of it. Secret because I didn’t want to reveal the designs until the company had a chance to do it first. Well now the work is everywhere so finally, here I am to talk about it and show off some of the work. It’s for Flying Tiger Brewery in Monroe, LA. I designed their logo, their beer cans, and some social media and swag along the way.

By the way, nowhere in this long post am i going into any detail about what a flying tiger is or was, or what historical significance the plane and the pilots hold – suffice it to say, they made a difference and one outstanding man has ties to the region where the brewery is located, hence the name – alas, this isn’t a history blog. If you want more insight, there’s wikipedia.

The logo. Here’s the original “approved” logo…

The shark-mouth-circle, based upon the traditional flying tiger nose design, was supposed to go along with the word mark as a secondary image to make up the logo.

It’s a cool, little illustration and while we still use it here and there (shirts, hats), it ended up not being the final logo. Nope, the final logo happened as I was designing a possible sticker or coaster to add to their collection of goods. But once the powers-that-be saw it, they preferred it over mr. shark mouth and the rest is history. And here we are…

See how the propeller cuts into the red circle? Originally it cut into the letters too but that just didn’t translate well. Also, the original design had blasts of fire near the 2 guns (barely visible) on the wings, but somewhere along the way those were removed. But the real meat of this project is the can designs. I had never designed anything for cans before and began the project without realizing there are certain limitations within the medium. Which is a good thing, limitations are anti-creative.

I knew i wanted to give the cans some common elements other than colors so the stripes were implemented early on; they changed shape and color a time or two but remained until the very end. Also, from nearly the very beginning, I thought of using different “characters” to represent different beer styles/flavors. And while this idea also stood the test of time, the characters themselves changed radically.

The following are a few preliminary attempts/roughs, including the original sketch for Mr. Heroic Hops himself when he was single (and also before he grew his exquisite facial hair). While we figured out what look we wanted to give the cans, things naturally evolved and developed, essentially creating the look of the company. Enjoy.

 

One of my favorite flavors to work on was the Burma Blonde. But while i was figuring out the look, somewhere along the way i should’ve zigged instead of zagged or something and i produced this homely specimen:

Yea, i’m not sure what happened there. But then when i was finding my footing again, i over-rotated and went a little too far on the sex-appeal meter. Exhibit A:

I like her.

But they thought her face was a little too cartoony. And when compared to the other designs, it is. So you’ll see below that her look is a little more realistic and her shirt is a little less revealing.

I want to mention the dots real quick. I was using dots, or a halftone pattern, or both, a lot on the first designs. It reminded me of old news print, which i thought reflected the era i was going for somehow – but due to color limitations, those were eventually lost.

Above is the final burma blonde design in all her glory, with her Indian motorcycle and white as a ghost complexion (color limitations and all, i’m hoping to add a little pigment once we put her on a shirt).

And here are the other two:

And here’s the Nitro Bomb Milk, along with the illustration before all the bells and whistles were added:

 

The nitro bomb has yet to actually be printed (and it may not as a nitrogenized beer is hard to replicate in a can i’m told) which is why the design looks so much different than the other three. I never got to the point of finalizing it for the manufacture’s specifications.

There’s also a fifth design that i’m very proud of featuring a tank. I’m not including it here because it’s yet to be printed. Hopefully it will see the light of day because next to the nitro design, it’s my favorite.

Now that i understand the methodology a little better regarding ink on cans, i would probably do things a little differently. But with that said, i’m very happy with the outcome. And luckily, the beer is fantastic. It would suck to have my designs on a product i didn’t care for. If you’re in the Monroe area, check out the brewery. I can’t recommend the nitro bomb enough… so good.

And i would be remiss not to thank Rob Brewer and James Simpson for coming to me with this project in the first place. Thanks guys. You have a stellar product, I hope you enjoy the designs as much as i enjoy the beer… probably depends on how many i’ve had… moving on.

On a side note, because i feel the need to mention it – there are several band posters that follow this post -I did those when i just needed to take a mental break from the Flying Tiger stuff. If you feel the need to continue reading after all this, you’ll see them below. I designed each of those with some rules in place – the first being that i had to use the same color scheme, and the second is that i only gave myself an hour for each. Why rules? I don’t know. Maybe i liked the challenge. Maybe i’m lazy and an hour was all i was willing to give to a non-paying project. Do we have to question everything?

Thanks for reading.

DEATH GRIPS

P.O.S.

DAN THE AUTOMATOR

IDIOT PILOT

PORTISHEAD

BLOC PARTY

THE CIVIL WARS

KANYE WEST