To Live and Let Dieagram

Every which way but approved concept.

I've said it before, but I'll say it again, "Agency work is fickle."

Don't get me wrong, I enjoy it. It may be fickle, but it's always fun!


Circling the conceptional wagons.

A lot of agency work is exploritory. The project may never see the light of day in a real world use, but the agency in charge is exploring all graphic possibilities of what could be done.

I was hired to explore different ways a diagram graphic (think pie chart etc.) could be carried out to make it more interesting, be flexible enough so it had animation attributes, and reflect a more feminine target audience.

This post contains some of the ideas I created for this project.


Steps to no where concept.

I was provided with some very rough general directions and also asked to go beyond them as well and share what I think could work as well. Many of the ideas in this post I see animated in my mind. I was only providing static images but I think it was important to think through how they'd build out in motion as I created them as well.


This idea blossom was sprayed with creative Roundup.

Some of the ideas were pretty straight forward and probably not too practical. It's a balance of trying to be unique, but still retaining an element of graphic pragmatism. After all, there is a reason why the pie chart is used so much, it works well for it's purpose.


My personal favorite: Globulous Nodes.

How can you not like this when it's named "Globulous Nodes?" I'd animate this so when you moused over the fat ends of the nodes they would increase in size and everything else would scale back as the information populated the node end.

I've already recycled this motif into a new pattern for a bonus edition pattern set I'm creating.


A concept inspired by game show graphics.

Just search Google images for "The Dating Game" and you'll get an idea of my source of inspiration for this design.


Technicolor Rams horn concept.

The term "Technicolor" is one of those words that take a reality of life "Color" and turn it into a brand name. As far as I know reality has always been in color.


Rams horn extruded.

Follow the multi-colored brick road but watch your step, you may fall off into the alpha channel netherworld.


Animation centric concept.

Slowly spinning, transparent, pulsing, and when moused over scales up and text slides in.


Revised direction "Flat."

After taking in all my ideas the agency requests another specific direction playing off several of my ideas. Kind of like if Pantone created mag wheels I guess.


Revised direction "3D."

With the help of Google SketchUp I created this 3D version.


New Revised direction "Flat Perspective."

The agency asked me to work some of the other colors back into this new version and I also played with the perspective so it wasn't so flat as well. They also requested a version that took this same motif and extruded it into 3D. Oh yeah, they asked that I include a heart in the diagram too. (No I didn't ask why)


New Revised direction "3D" with spacing.

With all the colors and 3D applied I felt it was getting too busy. The more I looked at it the more it felt like a Fisher-Price™ version of Stonehenge.


New Revised direction "3D" without spacing.

I rendered out the detail a little more and removed the spacing which I felt added too much visual tension.

When it was all said and done the project was killed leaving me with a stink load of "Dieagrams."

Rogues' Gallery

My original tribal face tattoo art.

Over the past eight months I've been collecting a rogues' gallery of assorted people who have used my art to either get a tattoo or create a tattoo for another person. None of the people in this post sought permission to use my art and a few even posted my art within their own online accounts, listing it with their own copyright notice.

Every time I post about this topic I get a swarm of people saying "If I were you I'd be flattered!" or "You should be happy people like your work!" etc. Well let me say before I get any further that of course I'm flattered that people like my art and want to get it permanently tattooed on their body. Who wouldn't be?

That said, neither of those two comments excuse anyone from the obligation of getting permission to use another persons artwork. It's my art period the end and if they want to use it they should ask first. A handful have done this and I've worked out very fair arrangements with them and they've received flash sheets from me to assist them in getting my art tattooed with precision. The people in this post didn't do that.


Derived art by Michel Schwarz.

Michel did ask permission to use my art, but it came after he already had the tattoo done. Personally I think he should have just drawn the whole thing out himself, he obviously has the chops. But over all it came out pretty good and he was nice enough to share the picture with me.


My tribal face poorly executed on Natas Filth. (Screen Name)

Some one had emailed me a link that had the photo of the shoulder. I did some connecting the dots and found it's home on Natas. Beautiful women, but an ugly tattoo job. Too bad.


My original tribal bat tattoo art.

This design is becoming my most popular tattoo design. It's showing up all over the place like walking portfolios.


My tribal bat perched on the back of TheDeadAmongUs. (Screen Name)

Originally I thought this tattoo was used by a goth girl celebrity from Transilvania, Romania named Razor Candi? But the real persona behind the costume visual branding seems to be quite normal and answered my email informing me she doesn't have a tattoo on her back.

So I did some more poking around on Deviantart.com and discovered it is on the back of "TheDeadAmongUs" AKA Lauren. (Who apparently is a fan of "Razor Candi)

Lauren values her privacy so she doesn't reveal her last name in her profile, but she does share the fact she loves classic cars, death rock, body modification, vintage corsets, latex fashion, dermal implants, hairless cats, b-rated movies, roller derby and one could argue my tribal tattoo art as well.


My tribal bat on "Hell Ya Buddy!" (Screen Name)

I get asked all the time "How do you find these?" well usually I don't. Most often it works like this:

- Receive email saying: "Hey is this your art?" (Link provided)
- Visit link and usually see a hostage quality photo showing my art
- Shake head, groan, and say "Weasel!"
- Ask person to remove the image showing my art
- Blog about it here

My tribal bat on the leg of Helen Norcross.

OK, so my preference is shown on the left and reality is shown on the right.

If it were up to me I'd make some kind of tattoo law that only allowed well proportioned young people to get them done. Tattoos look great on beautiful bodies but not so hot on the modus operandi of the greater populace. (That includes me BTW)

I have no idea what Helen Norcross looks like? Flickr.com had all kinds of pictures of her family and husband but she always seemed to be behind the camera.


My tribal bat tickling Sherri Langfords leg.

It looks like a guy by the name of Bull Snook is claiming copyright ownership of my work. Well that is a bunch of bull! (Pun intended) And Sherri should know better being a photographer herself.

At best it's a clear case of derivative work.


My tribal bat kickin' it on the calf of Ramsey1984's. (Screen Name)

Kind of a strange location to put a horizontally oriented design? But thankfully Ramsey1984's calf muscle is as meaty as a ham hock with enough real estate to suffice. The tattoo artist seems to have done a nice precise job too, so props for that.


My tribal bat hacked together on Zoro4me3's gut. (Screen Name)

The following is another example of derivative work.

It's bad enough when people use my art without permission, but it's insult upon injury when nebulous screen names have hacked my art and produce a craptacular tattoo with it.

Of course this doesn't stop people from proudly displaying it to the world via the internet of course. So lets all hug one another and celebrate mediocrity!


My tribal bat gracing the wrist of Jakk636. (Screen Name)

Tattoos like this remind me of the old PeeChee folders everyone would doodle on in school. But in this case he chose to do it on his own body instead. So for the next 70 years or so he'll have to stare at this poorly executed art and cringe.


My tribal bat scrawled on EvilMuffinMan. (Screen Name)

Do you know the muffin man, the muffin man, the muffin man, that lives on Drury Lane, and apparently hires the blind to poorly trace my tattoo design on his back.


My original tribal lion tattoo art.

It's not just people wanting a tattoo it's also tattoo artists themselves who have no qualms about using other peoples art without permission. I know there are always exceptions and many good tattoo shops try to avoid this situation, but here is one artist who didn't.


My tribal lion on some persons body done by Pisopez. (Screen Name)

Well I've managed to figure out that the artists first name is Joel and apparently Joel is some what of a renaissance man. He's an artist who paints, plays the guitar, does tattoos (see image above) and even throws axes for fun?

Joel seems to be pretty accurate with those axes too, so I'll just say this:

"Next time axe me for permission Joel!"

For information about my stock tribal designs or to have me create a custom tribal design for you visit VonsterTattoos.com.

0-63 in 7 Seconds

Over the last 23 years I've worked on a lot of different type of illustrative design projects, but my favorite type of project is still logo designs. Sometimes it may be my own client, but most often it's for another agency or firm.

I always find logo designs challenging in that I have to discover that one concept that will be an appropriate, creative, and hopefully clever solution for my clients business or product.

Back in 2003 my friend Paul Howalt introduced me to Bill Gardner the author of "Logolounge I, II, III, IV and V." Bill invited me to submit for his second book and I've been addicted to his site Logolounge.com ever since.

The logo lounge books have become the most popular design publications in our industry and now they've started to put together a new series derived from the ever growing archive that is Logolounge.com and the first one out of the gate was "Logolounge: Master Library Vol. 1 - Crest Logos" which also featured "14" of my logo designs in it.

Logolounge Master Library 2 - Animals & Mythology
A few weeks back I was contacted by the publisher and notified that the next book in the series "Logolounge Master Library 2 - Animals & Mythology" would contain "63" of my logo designs. At first I thought someone made a typo, but was shocked to discover it was accurate.


Logolounge Master Library 2 - Animals & Mythology: 63 Logos in 7 seconds.

I'm so honored just to have any of my work in this wonderful collection. I didn't want to post all "63" so I figured the easiest way was to do a simple animation that loops through all of them. Kind of speed reading for bloggers I suppose?

Cassette Tape Art

Blue eyes linear tape illustration. (Click for larger image)

Linear art (also called continuous line art or contour art) has seen a resurgence in the last five years or so in our industry. I've personally done linear illustrations for clients like a grocery store chain, magazine editorials, coffee companies, medical industry, Kleenex box packaging, and a Banks animated TV Ads.

I've had the idea of doing an illustration such as the one above for a few years now but just haven't found the time to do so. Well a couple weeks ago someone shared the art of iri5 with me (Cool art!) and I realized I better hurry up and do my linear take on the same genre before it becomes old hat.

Creating the Artwork

Drawing linear art.

Growing up my parents had a nice size LP collection filled with big band and the classic crooners like Frank Sinatra. So naturally I still love his music and decided to base my tape illustration on "Blue Eyes" himself.

I drew out my art based off a classic reference, and I'll use it to help guide me as I build my artwork.


A sticky situation.

I used my xacto and scraped off small amounts of glue stick to affix the tape to the paper and keep it in place.


Inch by inch.

Placing small amounts of glue stick on the paper I then pressed the tape down. I did this on my light box so I could see my drawing underneath and follow it. I repeated this process for the next several hours until I completed the entire linear art.


Eyeing the details.

Tape is flat so I had to bent, fold and twist it to follow the form I wanted. I almost broke the tape a few times along the way and it got tangled on my desk since I was constantly rotating the paper too.


Antique audio = Art.

It was a slow process but it was fun. I almost did Elvis for the iconic aspects of his image but I decided to go with Sinatra instead since I actually listen to his music more often.

Another idea hit me as I was working on this though. I'd love to get my hands on a real Watergate tape and do a tape illustration of Nixon. Now that would be cool! (If someone at the Smithsonian is reading this lets talk.)

Serious though, I'd love to do a linear illustration of John Wayne using rope, just not sure when I'll get around to that?

Mrs. Green

Meet Mrs. Green.

I work with agencies both big and small and a local firm Design Point Inc. approached me about creating a character for one of their clients called "Mrs. Green."

I love doing character design. Creating an illustrative persona can be challenging since it'll be directly related to a company or product in the eyes of the public.

I was provided a list of characteristics the firm said needed to be reflected in Mrs. Green. When I first read them I couldn't help myself and laughed because I knew it was an unfiltered client wish list for the character. But that said it wasn't impossible, it was just an interesting mix of attributes pinpoined by their client.

- She needs to be a hip Mom (Not Betty Crocker)
- She needs to have a nice friendly smile
- Have her wearing Sarah Palin glasses
- Red hair like Ariel from the "Little Mermaid" (No I'm not kidding)
- Have her wearing a light green shirt

Pruning Mrs. Green.

I think we went through a total of four rounds making subtle changes to body language, hand position, frame thickness on glasses etc.


Final Mrs. Green brand created by Design Point Inc.

This shows the final branded mark the agency put together using my character art. It remains to be seen if she becomes as well known as other product characters like Mrs. Buttersworth, or The Pillsbury Doughboy, but word of mouth on the grocery shelves is that Mr. Clean has taken a shine to her, so her future looks promising.

A Graphic Skeleton from my Design Closet

Hitler and cheap font CD.

A good friend and talented designer Tim Frame emailed me the link to the above video earlier today. I drank my latte and chuckled as the video played and then nearly did a spit take as the following came on screen...


Guilty as charged.

There in front of me was my own typeface "Whutevur" which I had designed back in 1998 starring at me, mocking me, and being mentioned along side infamous design eye sores like "Comic Sans." I legitimately LOL when I saw it and emailed Tim back.

I should point out that my font was never included on a "Cheap Font CD" but I can't say I disagree with the videos assessment either. I tend to always cringe looking at work I produced in the past and seeing this font again gave me that same sense of artistic foreboding.


Whutevur font designed in 1998.

For those who've asked me if I've ever posted bad work, here you go. Behold the glory of my custom font "Whutevur" designed to be marketed with an art collection of the same name.

I liked it at the time but I look at it now and think "What was I thinking?"

Whutevur Art Collection created in 1998.

I think the art collection holds up well though. I still can't believe step by step graphics who published it wrote off on the concept. I basically sketched these out while working at Upper Deck during the day and built them at night until I had the whole set of 130+ done. It was like getting paid to do glorified doodles.

My favorite quote regarding this project was shared with me by a creative director at step by step. As the story goes a marketing person who apparently had never seen this art before it launched saw the final product sitting on her desk and exclaimed:

"Who would buy this?"

To which I replied "Whutevur." ;-P

So there you go, a graphic skeleton from my design closet.