Some new jackets I made this weekend.

Final piece for the school year; my last at SVA.
Special thanks to all of my wonderful design teachers over the years: Richard Mehl, Frank Young, James Victore, and Genevieve Williams. True educators.

In progress.

Brahma's gift is a compass for navigating through life.

A sketch I made this morning for a piece of type I'm going to work on. Hopefully I can have the end results by tonight.

Almost done. Just need to tie up the loose ends.

He met many tribulations on his way.

The dark night slowly
fades away to reveal a
dark day. I am blind

I write when I'm sad because sadness becomes comedy in writing.

I want to become
stardust; invisible yet
always beautiful

Simple choices made too fast.

Words from Vignelli
keeping me company, this
Friday afternoon



New format for my process book. New typefaces. New everything.

The blue is true.

Template for my portfolio website! Just using it to figure out the codes and stuff.

I am happy with this piece as an illustration, but it is not a compelling enough solution for The Pillowman.

I can't wait to mix the green for Michal's face in the silkscreen lab. A good green satisfies me.

Miles Davis splash page for my web design class.

Sketches for the interior pages:




Another version.

Fun with black paper.

Me reading a book in a house of my own.

Silkscreened it. Have to redo it because the L's feet is too long.

Tweaked Rilke

Print test.

Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet

Drawing the secessionist lettering was fun, but I'm going to make another cover for this book.

Edited version.

Print test.


Other versions.

Murakami Novels

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle
Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World
Norwegian Wood

ROUGH DRAFT for the Murakami jackets. Taking inspiration from dada typography because these novels are super dada. Basing my rules on Japanese katakana forms, and I'm going to add little motifs and icons from the novels. I want these jackets to have the look and feel of a Japanese two color print ad, so the color palette is going to change pretty dramatically.

Ender's Game

It took over a week of thinking and testing out a million different variations of typography and imagery before finally coming up with a cover I am satisfied with for this book. Or like Paula Scher says, it took a lifetime plus a week.

Size test from my inkjet. I'm going to silkscreen this with glossy black ink. Ignore the random math the book is sitting on.


Cutting everything off.

Happy Valentine's Day

Book jackets:
1. Mastering the Art of French Cooking (work in progress)

This is the perfect book for lonely bachelors on Valentine's Day. The most amazing thing I learned from this book was how to dice a whole onion with extreme efficiency, so I decided to illustrate that with an onion being masterfully attacked from both ends. I was influenced by Swiss design, because I wanted a cold, harsh, no nonsense book to keep me company on this holiday.

Full jacket:

Imagine a whole series of these books, one for each holiday, I would totally stock up:
Mastering the Art of Advanced Origami
Mastering the Art of Advanced Origami II
Mastering the Art of Morning Calisthenics
Mastering the Art of Applied Trigonometry
Mastering the Art of Graphic Communication
Mastering the Art of Indoor Gardening
Mastering the Art of Speed Reading
Mastering the Art of Mechanical Paper Structures
Mastering the Art of Coping
Mastering the Art of Self Back Massage

In fact, I'm going to go ahead and design jackets for a couple of these imaginary titles using the same visual language.


Test print on scrap paper. I added a bit of gold into the ink to make it nice and shimmery.

Theatre Posters

Silk screen posters for the Jack Creek Community Theatre in Nevada. This is a group of men and their wives who share a love of smart and edgy modern plays and enjoy fishing for catfish at Lake Mead on the weekends.

1. Little Murders


This is a play about random acts of violence in post-Kennedy America. I'm working on a series of three for this play: dead fish, dead birds, and dead turtles (except I don't really know what dead turtles look like...do they fall out of their shell or something? If someone could tell me that would be great).

Book Jackets

1. Ender's Game

This is my favorite book. It is about an army of children being rigorously trained to fight off an alien invasion. I didn't do the spine yet. I will do it when I wake up.

2. Doctor Zhivago

This is a story of a young doctor's life torn apart during the Russian revolution. I based the forms in the type treatment on the hammer and sickle symbol, but I wanted to arrange them in a way that reflected the poetic quality of Pasternak's writing; the hammers form a train track of sorts, and the sickle blades are like moons, representing the many nights Doctor Z spent traveling with his family on the train. This is going to be silk screened.

P is for Please hire me.

When I was young I always drew in my books for fun and I wanted to reflect that in these silkscreens

Doom is slowly creeping up upon these furries.

A website I made for one of my favorite photographers, David LaChapelle. I hope he likes it.

Process book, page by page

Sea monster inspired typography.




Working on headline.


Still working on type.

Ed & I made this. Go see the jumbo size super 3-d version on the second floor.

A project on cartography for Eric Baker. It is a map of alien life forms on my ceiling, and the metro you can take to visit them. Going to try tracing the headline with a tablet. Station and town names range from Blastoise to Tolstoy.


Screen shot of other pages.

Custom endpapers for my yearbook. I had a lot of fun working on these.

Looking at this reminds me of Reading Rainbow for some reason.

A spread about fossils.

This spread occured to me while I was on a bus to Stroudsburg.

The desert is my element.

I am putting myself on the yearbook cover.

Setting type, yearbook style.

This lucky girl gets to be the Queen of the Forest. I wish I was half as lucky. Also, thanks Dan, for the amazing Bambi book.

Shoot out the stars and win!

From apples to space cornbread.

PA

A secret blend of Carpenters and Celtic mysticism.

Moccasins. Pow-wow.

Cheese.

Can you spot Bat Dog Cormac?

With a tablet I can shoot silly string onto typography. It is kind of amazing.

I like hiding little secret passwords in my spreads.


If only all my yearbook photography turned out as awesome as this one. Faux shooting stars are just so special.

Work in progress.

I spy a handgun

Today I walked past a laundromat called Equus. Its sign shone like phosphorus. I thought it was the most awesome thing in the world. Peter Shaffer might not think so.

Torsos

From left to right: Shaina Andrews, Dane Zarra, Rex Bell, Rod Cameron, Buck Jones, Smiley Brunette, Buzz Barton

16k's, lung failure, heart explosion, and ed

Thesis proposal pt. 2

This week I organized my thoughts, and did some soul searching. Maybe if I went to Pennsylvania also it would have been much easier.

My thesis project is about self awareness. The desperate calls for social change that we hear (or choose not to hear) daily will only remain as such if the change does not begin within each individual. Of course, we are all fools when it comes to becoming in touch with our inner selves, thanks to fear, thanks to laziness, thanks to the fact that it is just so much easier to sit on the couch and watch America's Next Top Model than to embark of a quest of self discovery.

Doing a thesis on self awareness, I will undoubtedly become heavily drenched in hypocrisy by the end of this process, for the only possible way for me to truly understand anything about myself is to trek through Patagonia alone for two, maybe three years, with nothing but Pasternak's Dr. Zhivago and some Tolstoy for company. Since I cannot do that, at least not until spring time (of course Genevieve would strongly disagree), I must then turn to that which is familiar. To illustrate my thesis, I will enlist the aide of one of my favorite stories of all time, the story of Bambi, as conceived by Felix Salten. Through the conceit of Bambi's life, my thesis will be shaped. Here is a rough mind map, the final version won't be quite so boxy:



Two major projects that must be completed this semester are of course, the yearbook and the process book. My portion of the yearbook will conveniently coincide with my thesis:

Yearbook theme: When will you stop feeling sorry for yourself? There are only two reasons why you would continually live in a state of self judgment. One is, you're an asshole, and there is just no hope for salvation if that is the case. The second reason is that for most people the mind has developed into something that does incessant describing, comparing, and judging. Sometimes we mistakenly put our trust in this inner voice and think we are trusting our self. We lose our identity and follow the rules of should and should not.

The four sections of my yearbook parallel the four stages of the development of self awareness as illustrated by my mind map above.

Section one: Seacliff Asylum (This section will illustrate the consequences of a loss of self identity, a complacency toward the perecption of our selves which the external world has impressed upon us. This is actually stage two of the Bambi conceit, but I am choosing to present this as section one due to visual considerations.)

Section two: You pretend, I pretend, it is ok to pretend (This section illustrates stage one on the mind map, a stage of total lack of self awareness. Here, the emphasis is placed completely on externalities. The obsession with labeling, fitting into physical roles, is demonstrated.)

Section three: The lake (You've seen this, these are those black and white spreads. Explanation of this section has been covered in a previous post. The mood I am trying to convey in this section is that of exposure, nakedness, and danger.)

Section four: The Great Prince of the forest (In this section I am trying to abstract the internal state of mind. To convey a sense of happiness and well being, qualities available only through mental enlightenment, and a true understanding of what it means to exist in this world.)


In addition to the yearbook, I will be creating a process book. I will address each element of the process book as outlined by the syllabus, with the exception of perhaps the symbol creating, it is just too cute for me...maybe I'll do one...at the end. Here are the steps I will take:
1. Finalized thesis map
2. Self awareness survey
3. Essay
4. Type book of my essay
5. Symbols, posters, etc.

Gen, could you please extend the deadline for the final presentation of the thesis book to the first week after Christmas break to ensure that I don't half-ass this book or the yearbook. I will construct all the elements this semester (mind map, survey, etc.), but I just need a little more time on the binding/sequencing/presentation aspect of this project.

That is all.

Richard Gartrell is my muse.

4B is the perfect shade of pencil

Here are some yearbook spreads that I did this week.
Sometimes I find it necessary to make an extensive sketch of a spread before I start working on it:







Other times I just go for it:



Look, it's Becca from our class!





After I leave the yearbook office I find time to work on my project for Gianakos. It is a model of a high-end eco-friendly vegan restaurant, a restaurant I will open one day. This is the foundation:


Trees will be chairs, and chairs will be trees. There will also be secret compartments.

Dramatic blur.

Finally, here is a visual map for my thesis book. I am secretly working on this book. It will be awesome.

Focus your energy on the center and the rest will follow.

Yearbook spreads: Seacliff Asylum

The lake...with people:

Yearbook spreads: the lake

'Escape from Seacliff'


'Oh holy desert'


'Ecotone, duh'


'Bambi porn'

When will you stop feeling sorry for yourself? That is the question my portion of the yearbook is addressing. It is so easy to dwell upon our inadequacies, to take the 'grass is always greener' stance. It is always the others' fault, never our own. Get over yourself. Find a way to fill your own void. Go buy a new pair of jeans or something, please.

I have chosen the lake as a metaphor for the self. How Italian of me. As a reflective surface, a mirror, the lake conjures up connotations of self contemplation, consciousness, revelation, whatever. It is also much more than that. It is also a fluid mass of transparency. Will you be too scared to acknowledge your own hollow self? Or are you willing to drown. How deep are you willing to go? Whatever you do, stop talking so much, it does you no favors. Deep rivers run quiet.

I created the above four illustrations as yearbook spreads (there is also a fifth one, but that one is secret). I worked on them for 36 hours straight, surprisingly this time without the help of my little friend Adderall; just several cans of Howling Monkey soda, which were on sale. But they are not done yet. I need faces. I need bodies. I need you. So please, I am having a YEARBOOK SHOOT this FRIDAY THE 28th in the EAST 21ST BUILDING 6TH FLOOR for these spreads, and other spreads, of course. You see those semi-awkward negative spaces to the left or right of the drawings? That is where you will go. If you want to be part of the 'lake series,' please come Friday, no props necessary. I promise I will make you look awesome.

Cheers.

P.S. If you are interested in purchasing the originals of the 'lake series,' I am selling them for $44 each.

Yearbook spreads: concepts

Here are some concepts for the different sections of my yearbook third:
1. Seacliff Asylum: because if you don't stop feeling for yourself this is where you will end up
2. Aleya's sketchbook/the lake: something personal I want to do
3. Onion patch: figure it out


Floss daily, because it will significantly improve the quality of your life. I plan to develop these 'wise luchadores' in subsequent spreads. Anybody want to be a part of these spreads?


If you can't read, or are too lazy to, the text says 'blessed are the forgetful.' It is true.

4. Carnival: it is ok to pretend
5. The court jesters: sometimes we need others to do the pretending for us






Look at their faces, not a single blemish. I will retouch your face for you for free. I treat the inhabitants of my spreads with love and tender care.

6. Pace regulation spreads: that is what they are


These guys are wearing my lovely antlers, therefore they are lovely. I do not know why I have an obsession with deers (and guns). That is a lie. I think it has something to do with my father, or lack thereof.

That is pretty much it for now, I will develop more sections as the yearbook shoots carry on. Do you have a particular way you want to be shot for the yearbook? Talk to me, come to my shoots; my photographer is wonderful.

Cheers.

Thesis: self preservation

When was the last time you did something for yourself? Any answer other than "earlier today" means you are among the majority of the human population who have been immobilized by fear, or more likely, laziness, subsisting on existing. For my portfolio I intend to explore the ways in which we can save ourselves from being crushed by the collective, to preserve our sense of self, or whatever trace of it is left. There is no supreme God-figure to guide us, she is too busy mastering the art of indoor herb cultivation; even Ganesha, the great Lord of Obstacles and Beginnings, won't remove any obstacles for us this time. What is left is our own bodies, our own minds, our own will to survive, to thrive. There is no greater elixir of life than a bowl of cream of mushroom soup, so I will teach you how to make 6-8 servings of a fine, rich, mushroom soup either for grand occasions or as the main course for a Sunday supper:



1. 1/4 cup minced onions, 3 Tb butter; Cook the onions slowly in the butter for 8 to 10 minutes, until they are tender but not browned.



2. 3 Tb flour; Add the flour and stir over moderate heat for 3 minutes without browning.



3. 6 cups boiling chicken stock, 2 parsley sprigs, 1/3 bay leaf, 1/8 tsp thyme, salt and pepper to taste, the chopped stems from 1 lb. fresh mushrooms; Off heat, beat in the boiling stock and blend it thoroughly with the flour. Season to taste, Stir in the mushroom stems, and simmer partially covered for 20 minutes or more, skimming occasionally. Strain, pressing juices out of mushroom stems. Return the soup to the pan.



4. 2 Tb butter, the thinly sliced caps from 1 lb. fresh mushrooms, 1 tsp salt, 1 tsp lemon juice; Melt the butter in a separate saucepan. When it is foaming, toss in the mushrooms, salt, and lemon juice. Cover and cook slowly for 5 minutes.



5. Pour the mushrooms and their cooking juices into the strained soup base. Simmer for 10 minutes.



6. 2 egg yolks, 3/4 cup whipping cream; beat the egg yolks and cream in a mixing bowl. Then beat in hot soup by spoonfuls until a cup has been added. Gradually stir in the rest. Correct seasoning. Return the soup to the pan and stir over moderate heat for a minute or two to poach the egg yolks, but do not let the soup come near the simmer.



7. 3 Tb softened butter; Off heat, stir in the butter by tablespoons. Pour soup into a tureen or soup cups, and decorate with optional mushrooms and herbs.


The perfect cream of mushroom soup, created with a French flair. You owe it to yourself to make it.

Cheers.