Gimme a brake!

Here is a random post. Brake job time on the Dodge Dart. The thing about these old cars is they are simple enough a person like myself can work on them. It went smoothly. I did have to go back to the parts store 2 times to exchange the wrong parts I was given and the modern day parts don’t always fit these old timers right so there was some “jimmying” that had to happen.

After taking it apart, it sure makes me wonder how engineers design this stuff, especially older stuff that work with mechanics and not microchips. “This kind of spring here, a metal clip with a cable here, a little doohickey there and voilà, you gots yerself a brake system son”. Pretty amazing, and all these little parts work together to help my 3000-pound green bean come to a complete stop.

1. Those are standard issue mechanic's socks and slippers.

3. Before and After. Then I repeated this 3 more times, though a little different between the front and back brakes.

“Me want cookie! Om nom nom nom”

Here is some recent work I did for local company, Ancient Grains (no website yet, that’s my job as well). When I say “local” I mean in downtown Lawrence. When I say “company” I mean one woman, Hilary Kass, sweating away in a kitchen (certified of course) cranking out some super tasty baked goods. Her products are gluten free, egg free and dairy free. Yeah, I know, doesn’t sound very tasty, but believe you me, her stuff is yumscious. Double Chocolate Chip is so good it can cure blindness. That’s my own statement, not an official claim by Hilary. You can buy her goods at the Merc, The Casbah Market, (where her kitchen is located) and a handful of other places in and around Lawrence.

What I did here was tweak the logo just a bit. She really liked her existing so I just redrew the grain bushel, added some earthy colors and resized some elements so that all were proportionately harmonious with one another, just to give it that little oomph it needed.

I incorporated the oomphed-up logo and some of the colors into a new label format that she wanted to use with her cookies.

1. Left version is pre-tweak, right version is post-tweak

2. The actual ink drawing I created to replace the current grain bushel, before I scanned and digitized it.

3. I created different versions for all of the applications the logo might be used in.

4. Two new cookie labels

5. Old style vs. new style. The cookie can now be seen and gets to be the shining star it should be.

4 posters

Here are a few posters, or should it be “several” posters? Anyway, while you scramble to Google this hot debate I started, here are 4 posters. None with exciting behind-the-scenes stories, just something to look at.

A few illustrations/drawings

Not much to post right now, so here are a few illustrations and drawings I’ve dusted off to quench your millspaz thirst. I’ll be throwing some more up as well.

1. Watercolors, pastels, guache oh my

2. Some work from life drawings sessions

Put a spork in it, this poster is done

Here is another gig poster. The one band is called The Sunflower Colonels. Get it? Instead of sunflower kernels? I think its pretty damn genius myself. You is a bright one D. Barnhill. When concepting this, I wanted to come up with a famous Colonel to somehow use. At first I was thinking a military officer but when I put “Colonel” into google, THE Colonel, Harland Sanders, came up as the first image results. Perfect, I had forgot about that ol’ coot. So I drew a KFC bucket and the typefaces for band names (tweaking the “finger lickin’” tagline a bit to be more music related), scanned them in and converted it to digital line art. I then created some textures based off of images of a fried chicken leg and a potato sack. I tossed all that in and mixed it up with a secret flavor recipe of 11 herbs and spices and you got you some home cooked, chicken fried design. Enjoy, but lick your own fingers please.

1. Ink drawings of some of the poster elements. I used a cheap paper and inked very slow to allow the marker to bleed enough to create a roughish edge.

2. Using an image of a fried chicken leg, I created a texture for, well, the fried chicken leg. I did the same for the shadow of the bucket with an image of a potato sack texture.

3. The final fried-in-grease design.

Two bands, multiple married couples, one designer

Here are a couple of recent CD packages I did for The Midday Ramblers (I did their website too) and for MAW. Both bands are bluegrassy/old-timey. One is an all dudes band, the other an all chick band. 3 of the dudes from the one band are married to 3 of the chicks from the other band. Something very weird about that isn’t there? These were fun to work on as both bands are full of very cool people, and some of Lawrence’s finest, nicest musicians. The wood cut rabbit used on the The Ramblers cover was done by Katie Conrad, who plays in MAW. The painting used on the MAW cover was painted by local artist, Aaron Marable (no website for him, “get with the times man!”)

1. Package design for the Midday Ramblers

2. Package design for MAW

City sidewalks, busy sidewalks…

1. The master plan for my sidewalk wall

2. Various stages of build

3. I had to dig out the dirt. I even had to chip away some rough concrete at the
bottom of my trench to get a nice flushness to the sidewalk. One day I
dug in the mud and the rain. It was miserable.

4. The end product. Keeps the dirt off the sidewalk and makes it look fancy shmancy. You Lika da bonsai action on that juniper bush? That might be another post.

This aint no graphic design
BUT, It is something I designed and built, close enough for me. When it rains it washes dirt onto our sidewalk from the yard. The yard is higher than the sidewalk. Gravity had the water running downhill and it was taking my yard with it. Well, it was little, but if I didn’t fix it I would have another Grand Canyon in my hands—in 6 million years. I thought the most cost effective and funnest (you mean that still aint a word?) way was for me to fix it myself. I made up a design and did a watercolor sketch so my wife could envision it and have her mind put to ease. I bought the wood at the Habitat for Humanity Restore, so it was cheap. I had to buy the tin at Home Depot though, it was still cheap, just not reclaimed like the wood. As you can see above I cut, glued, sanded, painted, and sealed the little guys. I then dug out a trench along the sidewalk. Put them in, leveled, filled, packed and now—no more erosion. All for about $40. Now that I think about it, where I took the biggest loss was down the road, 6 million years, in potential tourism dollars had I allowed the erosion to form my own Grand Canyon. Dang, I’m not a very foresightful business person.

Just fiddlin’ around

Final poster for this years Kansas State Fiddling and Picking Championships. It is part print, part printed. Make sense?

1. I drew my fiddle and prepared the backside so that I could transfer it.

2. I took the pencil drawing and transferred it to some linocut-rubber stuff I bought at Hobby Lobby. I think it was speedball brand. then I used the carving tools and made my "printing plate"

3. Here is the process of printing the fiddle. Inking up the rubber, placing the paper and rubbing it down, then hanging it to dry (After I printed the blue fiddle I decided to add a brown inking of another fiddle). Also shown are the decorative edges I cut into the computer printed labels that were applied.

Printing a fiddle is much easier than playing one
For he last couple of years I have been on the Committee of the Kansas State Fiddle and Picking Championships, My chore is producing all of the graphics and branding. I design the website, t shirts, posters, signage, and all that fiddle diddle dee (how appropriate is that phrase for this post huh? amazing! simply amazing, or not) For this years poster I decided to make it a print, or partly a print. Drawing, carving, inking, rolling, printing, cutting, sticking—do that many times over and you have a handful of posters. An involved process, but unique product. Next year is the 35th year and we might have a shirt design competition, so get to cranking on those ideas folks.

Birth of a magazine cover (abbreviated)

1. Le sketch. Concept nailed, now to make the prop

2. I took another box apart to make a template, then designed, printed and trimmed the new label

3. I wrapped the box and taped it down. As in my case, the back side aint to pretty, but it wasn't getting photographed

4. BAM! I took the prop and concept to Brian Goodman and he made it a reality. He makes dreams come true

I am going to whip this out before I go on vacation.
Here is how a magazine cover came to life. Sure, it isn’t terribly unique and maybe even a bit cliche. Sometimes that’s the name of the game folks. Either way, I kept it well under budget on prop expenses. two boxes of $1.87 Crayola’s.

The final piece was photographed by super bad-fly boy shutter-bug, Brian Goodman. No, he is better than that, he is supaaaah bad. I know he will be thrilled and delighted being called a shutter-bug. I did add “super bad-fly boy” in there. Brian took the concept and really did it up right, providing a vivid image that has people saying, “That is fly, that has got to be the work of a super bad-fly boy”. And he only winced a little bit when I offered to pay him what I paid the crayons. Go now and look at his work. HERE!

Want more? I know I do. He is also here.

Did I mention he is simply the best? Better than all the rest.

Better than anyone, anyone I’ve ever met
I’m stuck on your heart, I hang on every word you say
Tear us apart no, no, baby, I would rather be dead

Woops, got a little carried away with Tina there.

“I’m in print, things are going to start happening to me now”

The book I was published in. According to the title that makes me a "leading designer", guess I need someone or thing to lead now

There it is in print, "Millspaz". Autographs anyone?

A close-up

I’m in a book, and it isn’t the phone book
But it is just as exciting as when Navin R. Johnson found himself in the phone book in The Jerk. “I’m somebody now…” Somebody thought one of my logos worthy enough to publish in a book all about logos. Apparently tens of thousands of people submit logos then they pick enough to make a book out of them. I’m lucky, but it also didn’t hurt that i included a few benjamins with my submittal. Not really, I couldn’t afford that. It was really a dollar, well 66 cents after I paid postage. See my other logos at my website.