Side Stitch - Designers at Heart

As you can probably tell, I put a lot of heart into this episode of Side Stitch. If you aren't familiar with the comic, it's something I make for when it's my turn to blog at the office (I work at BBR Creative, a design/ad agency in Lafayette, LA). I always try to instill some humor and cleverness in along with the design references, but this time I thought I'd try to make it pretty heartfelt.

As I mentioned on the BBR Blog, here we follow a young design pair from initial campus crush to the Request for Proposal (RFP), seeing all the adorableness and designer in-jokes in between.

I started concepting the story after I thought of the RFP/marriage kicker. I tried to think of a bunch of design-related situations in which to put the couple. The challenge wasn’t to try and squeeze in as much design references as possible (that was the easy part), but to illustrate two people falling in love in a very finite number of panels. So we see them working together to ace their design final, the initial inquiry to a first date, bonding over the industry’s beloved design annuals, starting their own design studio, painting a house, adopting their own pet and, finally, proposing marriage.

Hope you enjoyed it, and please pass this along to your design friends. They might get a kick out of it! :D

BBR Creative, The Teenage Years

BBR Creative, the design/ad agency that I work for, is turning 13 years old this week. Actually, today. But this Friday we're taking half the day off to relax by the pool. So I was told to come up with a fun graphic to insert into an HTML mailer to let everyone know we'll be out of the office that afternoon. Did this illustration in a couple of hours. I love getting to illustrate at work!

Oh, BBR stands for Blondes, Brunettes & Redheads.

Now you know!

Affaire De Coeur

My friend Meghann has a passion for fashion design. She just graduated; her senior project was to design a line of clothing for a fashion show that was held on campus. The line wascalled "Affaire De Coeur." She came away with some major accolades, including Best of Show, and some pretty sweet photos (Good job, again!). She has big aspirations, so I volunteered to do an illustration of one of her dresses for her portfolio.

The illustration above was based on one of the photos of the model wearing the dress during the fashion show. Done in watercolor and ink. I was aiming for a Tim Burton-ish style, which is one of Meghann's favorite directors/artists.

Meg, let me know if I got any of that info wrong, lulz.

I'm a Mr. T Pot

Last week at Sketchgroup, we were talking about the new The A-Team movie that is about to explode into theaters. Then we talked about that hilarious cooking appliance informercial that Mr. T did a while back. He's just SO enthusiastic about that product!

Well, right then and there I decided that I needed to do a T illustration. And, in my typical fashion, I had to incorporate some sort of pun or twist. Cue the literal town fool, subject to T's pity. But I didn't stop there! The fool is slightly turning the tables in that he is doing the "I'm a little tea pot" dancing thingie. It's not really an insult, but I don't think Mr. T appreciates its. Look at the pity! The disdain!

If you're super picky about details, you may be asking yourself "OK BURT, now wouldn't the rings on his RIGHT hand say 'PITY,' while the LEFT hand rings spell 'FOOL?'" No. Because if he were to indulge in fisticuffs, he'd need BOTH hands to have rings that spell "PITY," because he'd be applying pity with both hands TO the fool. Hitting a fool with the word FOOL is just redundant.

In closing, Mr. T has always been, and will always be awesome.

Zach & Zach

Last week (or so), my friend Zach (Broussard) posted a note on Facebook about how he needed an artist to whip up some art for a new podcast and comedy tour featuring himself and his friend Zach (Sims). I responded that I'd like to help. But, knowing me, it turned into a full-blown illustration, including hand-drawn type and all. Haha, the things I get myself into!

I also resized/reworked this image to fit the square iTunes album artwork size. And did a borderless version and a grayscale version to cover all printing bases.

From what I gather, it'll be a fun, "character-driven" podcast with our two Zachs and featuring special guests. Maybe they'll tour the USA, saving Community Centers as they go. It's comedy, folks.

LAUGH.

Save Our Gulf.

That horrid mess in the Gulf of Mexico, off the coast of Louisana, has been going on for over a month now. Even if they plug up the leak tomorrow, the mess will definitely still be there, in the Gulf and on the coast.

A couple of week ago I woke up with this idea in my head. I figured the way I could help most with this situation would be to design an emotional poster that could potentially reach people and let them know (if they haven't already heard) the plight in the Gulf. Side note: If you didn't know, I live in Lafayette, LA.

There's oil, oil everywhere! Many areas of the coast have been shut down and closed off. It ain't pretty.

The illustration's message is that this oil leak disaster is telling us something. If people aren't prepared to handle every sort of oilfield emergency, there's going to be harsh repercussions. Who knows the extent of the effect this spill will have on the coastal ecosystem.

It's the least I can do as a designer, a Louisianian and a rational human to try to communicate this message. I don't have the funds to have this silk-screened and posted up, but I can post it online. If the message reaches you, please spread it.

Thanks!

UPDATE Due to the strong positive reaction to the design, I will be pursuing getting this design printed on shirts and stickers and having the proceeds go to helping clean up the mess. I'll be looking into that this week.

Also, some local designers are rallying to get all interested individuals to come together and design posters to raise awareness about the Gulf oil spill. They are accepting entries for a couple more weeks. You can find out more at The Great Oil Leak.

Go West, Old Man!

It's fun to draw old people. Therefor, it's fun to draw old-timey gold prospectors.

Last night's theme for our Lafayette Drink & Draw Social Club (I do seem to vary up the name each time, don't I?) was "Old West." At least I think it was. A few of us were going with it, anyway. Half of us had bought Red Dead Redemption the day before (and SOME of us did Monday at midnight), so I think there was some spillover.

I'm going to have to refill my wonderful Copic markers. A few key ones are running dry and I had to borrow my friend Matt's set to work this illustration.

Oh, and if you get the "GIVE ME DA GOLD!" reference, then good for you. You know the internet very well. If not, do yourself a favor and search "Leprechaun in Mobile, Alabama" on youtube. The vid has been around for a while, but if you haven't seen it, it'll be like finding buried treasure.

Also, if you haven't done so already, feel free to add me on Facebook and follow me on Twitter. I try to be as entertaining as possible!

Gotta Be The Shoes

Or, The Cyclopirate.

The theme for last week's Drink & Draw Lafayette Sketchgroup meeting was "Eyepatches." Mostly because I was wearing an eyepatch. Not because I was trying to be a pirate, but because I had minor eye surgery the day before. And because I am such a dedicated illustrator, I was able to make it to Sketchgroup.

Now, cyclopean pirates are usually the most fearless. Mostly because they can't see anything. This one is especially fearless because he's wearing stylish boat shoes. Literal boat shoes.

Oh, and he's pretty drunk. And has a sword. And is a mythical creature.

Lemi Shine On!

Here are the second and third illustrations done for my friend Jody's design school project. Again, the concept is to illustrate that one can really tell the difference when using Lemi Shine to clean residue left by hard water in dishwashers.

My personal favorite of the three shows Lemi Shine being sprinkled in front of a "dirty mouth."



The third illustration features Lemi Shine passing in front of a grimy work boot. The tamest of the three, but still gets across the same "Wow, look at the contrast!" feel (on a slightly less zany level).

Burnin' Rubber Gloves

Here's the first in a series of three illustrations I was commissioned to do by my friend Jody. One of her final school projects has her taking the role of an art director who must search out a photographer or illustrator to help produce a magazine ad. The concept is that this cleaning product, Lemi Shine, cleans so well that it has the power to morph even the dirtiest of images. I may have gone a BIT overboard with the zaniness factor, but I think it still fits the concept, haha.

All that being said, I guess that Lemi Shine actuall does fit into the current Illustration Friday theme of "Equipment," since you'd need some heavy-duty equipment to tidy-up this fellow. AMIRITE?