Goodbye Mount Orchid

Posted on April 16, 2019April 24, 2019 Posted in DesignTagged art, Colorado, concert posters, Design, Featured, graphic design, illustration, mount orchid, music posters, rock posters, wildghost

For the past 10 years I’ve had the absolute pleasure to play bass with Mount Orchid (formally Dreamboat). Last Friday, April 12, we played our final show, a bittersweet moment for sure. Playing music with Billy Pogany and the band has been so rewarding. Together we recorded, three albums, played countless shows across Colorado, opened for Collective Soul, and were the first band from Western Colorado invited to play the Open Air show on Colorado Public Radio.

Playing in the band as a designer has also been a lot of fun. I’ve made countless band posters, buttons, and album designs for all iterations of the band, from Dreamboat through Mount Orchid. It’s some of my favorite work, primarily because it was for my own passion project. Here’s a collection of my favorite band designs.

Notes:
• Mount Orchid Smokey the Bear button design by 464r7h4
• Bronco Country / Mount Orchid poster design by Andrew Watson

Read! \m/

Posted on March 24, 2019January 7, 2020 Posted in DesignTagged art, Design, Featured, graphic design, illustration, metal, music, read, wildghostLeave a comment

Colorado Public Radio Open Air host Bruce Trujillo rocking the Read shirt.

Every year libraries across the country participate in Summer Reading, a program designed to encourage reading during the summer and keep kids from having setbacks. The 2018 Summer Reading theme was ‘”Reading Rocks!” An offshoot of working on that project for Mesa County Libraries was this limited run of “Read” metal shirts.

Inspired by the ubiquitous Read posters, my version is a take on totally brutal metal band logos. Obviously not a great fit to promote reading to little kids, the natural use of this art is to throw it on a black shirt and sell it to music nerds like Colorado Public Radio Open Air host Bruce Trujillo.

Historical Sign Update

Posted on February 5, 2019 Posted in DesignTagged art, Colorado, Colorado state register of historic properties, Design, Featured, graphic design, historic properties, illustration, signage, wildghostLeave a comment

Recently, I got to work on a historical sign update in Collbran, Colorado. On February 1, Mesa County Libraries installed new window signage at the Collbran Branch Library. Paying homage to the history of Collbran, the new signage is a unique addition to the library.

Thanks to a Historical Society Grant in 1995, the Collbran Branch was relocated to the Stockmen Bank Building on Main Street, Collbran. The original Stockmen Bank opened for business in 1916 and the building was remodeled to its current form in 1929.

The Collbran Branch maintains much of the original charm of the 1929 remodel including the original bank safe dated to 1908, interior wood molding accents, iron work surround the exterior windows and door, and decorative brickwork on the front facade, including “Stockmen’s Bank” in blue and white terracotta frieze.

While the building itself is a beautiful example of early twentieth century western architecture, it has proved challenging to rebrand it as a Mesa County Libraries location. The building was added to the Colorado State Register of Historic Properties in March 8, 1995, so major modifications were out of the question.

Working with the Town of Collbran (Stockmen Bank building owners), we were able to get approval to add a window signage to building to help identify the building as a library, and prominently display library hours.

In an effort to match the charm and historical nature of the building, we threw out our style book and focused on designing signage that would have been historically accurate to 1929. Specifically, we sought to replicate the hand-painted, gold leaf signs often found on bank, salon, and barbershop windows from that era.

Using historical photos of Plateau Valley and other western towns for reference, the design focuses on the word “Library.” Large, gold block serif letters scroll across the top of the design, and are framed by hand-drawn ornaments. Mesa County Libraries colorful sunrise logo was redesigned as a two color, gold and black logo to help unify the sign to the existing building elements.

Working with a sign vendor we were able to find on a vinyl material that replicates a gold leaf texture, while still being affordable and durable enough to hold up to the weather elements. The overall look is pretty stunning, and adds new sparkle to the Stockmen Bank.

Concert Posters

Posted on January 28, 2019February 5, 2019 Posted in DesignTagged art, concert posters, Design, Featured, graphic design, illustration, kyle emerson, mount orchid, music posters, rock posters, tight thump, wildghostLeave a comment

Designers are always looking for total creative freedom. When approaching a project, nothing is more appealing than the phrase “do whatever you want.” While that attitude doesn’t work out so well for commissioned projects, it always plays when making concert posters.

Concert posters are a blast to make, and since I play in a band (Mount Orchid) and hang out with a lot of musicians, I get the chance to make a lot of them. My general approach is to be as wild as possible, no limitations.

Wild color schemes, fun font treatments, and weird art make for an eye catching combo. I’m a fan of taking art out of context and reusing it in creative ways. This three-armed gorilla for example, was a piece of art I found on a vintage Czech circus poster. With some color adjustments, hand-drawn fonts, and an expressive brush palette, it’s now a fun advertisement for a concert.

The stakes are pretty low when designing concert posters. They are temporary ads that are not meant to last forever, like a commissioned logo. I think that’s why I like making them so much. It’s total freedom and the chance to be creative just for the sake of being creative.

Longo, Bacon

Posted on January 23, 2019 Posted in DesignTagged art, Design, Featured, francis bacon, graphic design, illustration, robert longo, wildghostLeave a comment

“I believe in deeply ordered chaos.” – Francis Bacon, painter

“Longo, Bacon” is an art piece I made for recent art show celebrating artists Francis Bacon and Robert Longo. Both artists made work about identity, isolation, and anxiety, themes I often feel and think about.

This collage takes the iconic character poses from Longo’s “Man in Cities” project, and places them in the expressive and chaotic world of Bacon. All the expressive brush work and boxes hint at themes of isolation and anxiousness. Creating this piece, I imagined myself as the central image trying to make sense of the world around me. I like the juxtaposition of a dirty maddening background against the clean but anguished characters of Longo. It suggests that even when you think you’ve got the world figured out, chaos is all around you.

Generally, this style of art work falls outside of my comfort zone. However, as a creative it is important to push your self to try new styles. As Longo said, “an artist should know art history.”

The final piece is a 24 x 32 inch, mixed media collage.

Zine Party

Posted on January 10, 2019 Posted in DesignTagged art, boston terrier, Colorado, comic book, Design, Featured, graphic design, illustration, magazine, wildghost, Writing, zine1 Comment

I was recently asked to contribute some artwork and writing to a pop-up magazine. These projects are fun to work on as it is a chance to create something completely from your own imagination without having to answer to a client.

For this pop-up I created four items: “Shed Your Skin – Wild Ghost logo,” “Electric Ballroom” short story, John Contino tribute skull, and “Dog-o and Chef,” an original comic short.

Shed Your Skin – Wild Ghost logo

This is a new take on my own Wild Ghost logo. I’ve had the idea to make a glyph using the Wild Ghost snake in the shape of a “G” for a while and this iteration feels really good. Eventually as I develop my brand I see this as being a stand alone mark.

The “Shed Your Skin” text is really a reminder to myself that when I fell boxed in to a certain artistic style that I have the freedom to change as needed. This really is the essence of Wild Ghost and why I founded the company. I wanted to create something that was unshackled and free to inhabit any artistic form I need the company to take, hence, Wild Ghost.

“Electric Ballroom” – Short Story / John Contino Tribute Skull

The “Electric Ballroom” short story in an excerpt from a longer unpublished fictional piece I wrote about a local band struggling for attention in a small town. I chose this section because I really like description of the main character playing guitar. I’m obsessed with Fender instruments and their offset guitars always seemed so cool to me.

John Contino is one of my favorite designers and I love how expressive he can be using a combination of digital and hand drawn art. I struggle sometimes with digital art, particularly getting a computer to be as expressive as I want it to be. I’ve been studying Contino’s technique in the hopes of learning how to bring a more personal feel to digital design. This skull was hand drawn, based off one of his drawings, scanned into Photoshop, and redrawn from there. The lines in the finished skull seem more lively to me. It’s a little extra work to get this effect, but I’m looking forward to using this technique in upcoming projects.

Dog-o and Chef – Comic Short

This was by far my favorite piece to create for the magazine. I’m my spare time I really love cooking and every time I’m in the kitchen my Boston Terrier is at my feet, hoping to catch a couple scraps. This is a real pecan pie recipe, but as you can see, when you let a dog be your sous-chef, things can take a turn for the worse!

While fun, this project turned out to be much more time intensive than I anticipated. Character drawing in particular was difficult. Drawing my dog in multiple positions, while still maintaining his defining characteristics was a challenge.

Vibrant Together Logo

Posted on October 25, 2018December 10, 2018 Posted in DesignTagged Colorado, Design, downtown grand junction, Featured, Grand Junction, graphic design, illustration, vibrant together, westslopebestslope, wildghostLeave a comment

Vibrant Together is an update to Downtown Grand Junction’s 2019 plan of development. The goal of the project is to outline a strategic plan for the multiple areas of Downtown Grand Junction including the River District, Rail District, and the Central Business District.

Downtown Grand Junction wanted a logo for the project that represented more than just Main Street. For the design I choose to color block abstract representations of the various districts included in the plan. The orange buildings represent the brick buildings on Main Street, the red building represents the warehouses in the Rail District, the blue building is the Los Colonias Amphitheater in the River District, and the green building represents the Business District.

The bold color choices are meant to reflect the creativity and vibrant energy of Downtown Grand Junction. As the project develops, the goal is to use the colors to represent the individual downtown districts.

New growth is already taking place in the River and Rail Districts so it was important to highlight those areas as much as possible in the design. The new Los Colonias Amphitheater sits at the center of the design, just above two bold blue lines meant to invoke the prominence of the Colorado River. Anchored on each side of the logo are the brick buildings of Main Street. This adds balance to the design and is meant to unify the districts and show that the strategic plan is focused on the entire area, and not just the Central Business District.

Dia de los Muertos

Posted on October 18, 2018 Posted in DesignTagged alebrije, cats, Colorado, Design, dia de los muertos, Featured, graphic design, illustration, wildghostLeave a comment

Bold colors, big ideas, these are the types of projects I love working on. This year for Día del los Muertos I got the chance to create some artwork for a Spanish celebration. The first image is a alebrije, which is a fantastical creature from Mexican folklore.

My take on the alebriije is a cat with antlers and raptor claws. Not really sure where this idea came from but the client gave me free reign to create something unique and wild, and this was the result!

The brightly colored creatures in the excellent Pixar movie Coco are all alebrijes. I used the movie for color and pattern reference and based this drawing off the general shape of an ocelot. I also textured the alebrije with a watercolor paper pattern to give it a textile feel.

The second image is an owl done in the Día del los Muertos style. Here the image is framed with marigolds, the flower traditionally placed on alters during Día del los Muertos.

Boneshaker Adventures

Posted on October 13, 2018October 13, 2018 Posted in DesignTagged adventure camp, boneshaker, boneshaker adventures, Colorado, Design, Featured, Grand Junction, graphic design, mountain bike, mountain biking, westslopebestslope, wildghostLeave a comment

Boneshaker Adventures is a mountain biking skills camp and adventure tour group based in Grand Junction, Colorado. Boneshaker focuses on teaching kids skills to navigate mountain bike trails safely.

This design project is more of a design update than a total redesign. Boneshaker already had the essential idea for their logo sketched up and asked us to update the overall look. For the update we focused on three things: redrawing the skull while still using the essential elements, updating the typeface, and adding color.

Starting with the skull element, our goal was to simplify the art and make it more legible at multiple sizes. We kept the main bone shaker bike as the eyes but redrew it slightly to add symmetry to the art. We also resized elements like the bike seat nose and chain link teeth for simplicity. The over all shape of the skull was also reimagined to give it a more classic and easily identifiable look.

As you can see from the original Boneshaker design, a majority of our effort was spent working on a new typeface that captured Boneshaker’s youthful spirit and was more legible at distance. The only instruction was to create something bold and something that wasn’t overtly masculine. The new Boneshaker typeface is bold, shows movement, and can work as a stand-alone element.

The overall design update is impactful in one tone but we also wanted to add color. The orange and gold color scheme is inspired by the natural sandstone features and sunsets that dominate high desert landscape. Adding spots of teal, purple, and white add a vibrancy to the logo and again, match the playful nature of Boneshaker Adventures.

Grand Valley Cat Coalition

Posted on September 25, 2018 Posted in DesignTagged cat coalition, cats, Design, Featured, Grand Junction, grand valley cat coalition, graphic design, wildghostLeave a comment

I love partnering with non-profits on projects, especially those that benefit local communities. The The Grand Valley Cat Coalition is a collaborative effort of six local animal welfare agencies and shelters and several committed community members. The project goal is to complete targeted TNR activities for community cats as well as barrier-free spay/neuter surgeries for pet cats in the 81501 zip code.

This artwork is for an upcoming t-shirt fundraiser. I took their sketch for the design, cleaned it up, and prepped the file for screen printing. It’s my little way to give back to an organization doing thankless work for the Downtown Grand Junction community and vulnerable pet populations.