I would totally shred this kit

Start Over

I have been working on spending a little more time in the rough draft stage lately, attempting to “keep my hand out of the way of my brain” (a quote from Nate Williams). For years I have been jumping straight to pen, and inking everything in, because it can be very instantly gratifying, but I am finding that when I take the time to pull all the details into a sketch, I can still quickly edit with ease, and refine my ideas without feeling like I am too far along yet. Sometimes, when things look polished, or finished, I begin to resist the notion of starting over. I am refining my process, which feels good.

The image above is one of many nice pieces of work over at Mutt. Great stuff.

Watercoloring

A little taste of something secret.

We have to design for trillions.

Trillions from MAYAnMAYA on Vimeo.

My two favorite quotes from designers. Currently.

“The design field is shifting. Collaboration is the new competition.”

- Frank Chimero.

“The collaborators shall inherit the Earth.”

- Aaron Rayburn.

Split Fountain Mountains

Finally got some time in this weekend to print the posters I designed with Santiago for Finn Riggins’ 2010 tour. I spent saturday night printing the background which was a pretty intense split fountain that transitioned from red to blue, but after I got going I decided to phase out the blue, and eventually the green too. Printing a 5 color blend like this is nice and challenging - ask my pals over at Seizure Palace.

Although I was really feeling the rasta color-scheme, I knew the blue would fight the second layer of dark brown a bit. Sometimes I experimented with allowing colors mix unevenly, which created some really great textures, adding even more dimension to the colors. I’m inspired to incorporate that some more in future designs. The process opens doors to new ideas and techniques.

Peruvian born illustrator Santiago came up from Corvallis to print the second color on Sunday. It’s rough being stuck indoors, printing when the weather outside is so glorious, but the work had to get done. Thanks for gettin’ dirty Mr. Uceda.

There ended up being a few different variations on colors, I’ll have to post some more when I sort through them and get some shots. What a blast, man.

The commons

I have been scouring the commons a ton lately. So much awesome! Here’s two that just close-lined me. HARD.

Man. The type on that guy has got some guts. POW.

New Ad Platform for Uvumi - Anti Ads

So in order to generate some revenue, Uvumi is launching an ad platform for the site. But the requirements of the ads are unusual and seek to blend into the site and remain minimal. So I put together a few ads to get the system rollin’ and set the bar in terms of the aesthetic approach.

It’s unique and unusual in terms of advertising, but that’s what the Uvumi folks are after. The anti-ad. Something that doesn’t look like typical advertising on the web. They don’t beat the user down with information, instead they try to cultivate a desire to find out more. Do we really need to keep telling the user to “click here”. I think they get it at this point.

Therefore, the design I developed does not fill the ad space to the edges, it’s contained within simple shapes - circles, squares, polygons(not squares or rectangles), or even some more organic shapes, like paint splatters, drips, or silhouettes. It has texture and reflects moments in the artistic process. There are remnents of culture and loosely related elements, all intriguing the user to click on it based on a sense of mystique and wonder, like “what is this?”. Punk rock, goth, DIY, tatooes, motorcycles, in the tone of noir, and made from scratch. Head on over there to see them in action, looks pretty cool.

Haiti

I really wanted to do something for Haiti. My pal Katie invited me to contribute a print to this event at W+K. If you missed the first thursday event, you can still help out and get a poster online at the W+K shop and W+K will match that to boot. How’s that for collaboration? This Lloyd + Santiago + W+K + Haiti joint.

I wanted to get lots of process shots while printing, but I was alone in the room and only got a few shots. So hey, here they is, son.