START TO FINISH: Here's a start to finish look at the shirt design created for the N-Spired story. Each new shirt is created by a different artist and is based on a story from their website that has received the most votes. After the shirt is created, a social act is performed, by members of the company, inspired by the story that inspired the shirt design.

 I was asked to create a design for the N-Spired Brand shirt. Stories from the site appear as vignettes in the type. The stories have quite a range, some were funny others were bizarre but all quite moving.

The final art.

 

A Few of the initial sketch explorations.

Starting the art. 

Progress.

  Progress.

Close to finish. 

Then scan, Streamline (yes, I use Streamline with OS 9 on an old laptop) and send to Europe.

Note: some of the initial drawings used for the sketches are above the light box.

Job is done, client is happy, on to the next. 

(This is where the hands on, messy, art happens in the studio. Joy.)

LIFE OF AN IDENTITY MARK: Last week I went to the final day of the Quiksilver PRO NYC event to take some shots of the logo usage at the actual event site. Originally, I had sent David the "PRO" type (above), along with a variety of other type explorations, and through his transformative magic the O became integrated into the logo and identity of the event.

It was a stunning beach day and the surf was simply perfect.The shots that follow are from about a half hour before the final heat and the aftermath.

 

The sales people said the merch was really selling well, especially the shirt on the left that had the "Long Beach" scene on it as this was the most site specific shirt and folks seemed to want a memento of that site (another factor: Long Beach pride). They had actually run out of sizes for that shirt. As I mentioned in the previous post, that drawing was done in my sketchbook while thinking about 89the street in Rockaway but it looks pretty much just like Long Beach site.

There was some fantastic local surfing going on to the right and left of the event site but for the final heat everyone got out of the water to watch. Right before the heat began it got really crowded, but not too crowded. The vibe was something, charged, amped, electric yet beachy mellow...Final heat shots below.

The champ emerges victoriously from the sea.

 Love the big check...All in all it seemed like the actual surfing aspect of the event was a huge success for Quik despite the Irene problems and setbacks from that storm. We'll see if they are back next year. Good times.

 

FROM SKETCHBOOK TO PRODUCT: For some of the Quiksilver Pro NYC merch, work was taken directly out of my Moleskine sketchbooks and used for product. Above is a drawing I did of Rockaway that looks pretty much just like Long Beach. The planes were removed due to 9-11 sensitivity (wise move).

This is from my Travel Sketchbook. Done while relaxing out in Coney Island several years ago. Go get 'em while they're hot! Tomorrow is the last day of the event.

Here's the first i've seen of the official Quiksilver PRO France 2011 campaign I collaborated on with David Carson. The shot is from a storefront somewhere in Hossogor, France. No word on if this is the "window set" or if it's a work in progress and the painting will be "finished" like the final art I turned in (see below) .Right now I do love the scrappy bits hung about, as they are some of the campaign presentation David gave over there, but we'll see...

The image is roughly based on old travel posters from that particular area of France from the 30's&40's. I think what they are doing with the campaign it is much more interesting, adventurous and unique than the NYC campaign .David presented ALOT of stuff over there much like the NYC PRO campaign and perhaps we'll see it all some day as it's all really hot.

Collaboration with David Carson on campaigns for Quiksilver PRO NYC and FRANCE events. Gallery of poster campaign explorations originally posted on David's site.

Final logo in Quiksilver NYC storefront, July 2011.

Last fall I was invited to submit a proposal for the NYC URBAN CANVAS public art project which provides NYC constructions sites with scalable artwork for covering fences, scaffolds and buildings. In the end this proposal was not chosen but here's a glimpse at the proposal I submitted as I was really pleased with the outcome and was honored to be invited. All final art was submitted as vector files.

HEAD SNOWBOARD PDF NEWPAPER with George Bates interview conducted by Sven Hoffmann. Designed by DESIGNBURO