The cards have arrived!

I recently participated in a competitive project called Custom 52. The ojective of this exercise was to participate in an online design community using playing cards as the canvas. Entries were graded by peers and only the strong would survive. The top design for each playing card of each suit were selected to go to print and a deck of the top submissions was produced. My card designs were selected for cycle 1 which have been printed. The deck is now on sale for the world to enjoy. UPDATE - Cycle one is Sold Out!

A very special thanks goes out to all who voted. Below are the two designs I submitted for cycle 1:

Seven Deadly Diamonds



My Lovely Queen of Hearts

Labels: creative play, graphic design, Illustration, Personal

While on my road trip this past weekend, I made some really cool visual discoveries. One of the awesome finds included a church in the small town of Findlay, Ohio. The building is designed in traditional Gothic architecture that you would find in most towns, but what caught my attention was the Archangel Michael, perched on an overhang, looking down upon me as if I were to be his next conquest. On either side of the main entrance stood guardian angels holding lanterns up high in one hand, wings out stretched, while trumpeting a fanfare.


According to biblical writings, Michael seems to be an important individual in heaven. He is the Archangel, which means he is the chief of the angels. The name Michael also has an important meaning, it means: (one) who is like God. Different versions of the Bible describe Michael as: one of, the chief, or the first archangel who is described as the one who stands in time of conflict for the children of Israel. In the new Testament, Michael is described as: the first of the chief princes or archangels who is supposed to be the guardian angel of the Israelites.


Then there are the trumpeting guardian angels stationed on each side of the entrance. I discovered through a Google search that the belief in guardian angels can be traced throughout all antiquity; pagans, like Menander and Plutarch (cf. Eusebius, "Praep. Evang.", xii), and Neo-Platonists, like Plotinus, held it. Guardian angels were also in the beliefs of Babylonians and Assyrians, as their monuments testify, for a figure of a guardian angel now in the British Museum once decorated an Assyrian palace, and might well serve for a modern representation; while Nabopolassar, father of Nebuchadnezzar the Great, says: "He (Marduk) sent a tutelary deity (cherub) of grace to go at my side; in everything that I did, he made my work to succeed"


I hope you enjoyed this theological history lesson as much as the I enjoyed shooting the images of this small church in Ohio.

Labels: Experimental Work, Personal, Photography

While exploring Northwest Ohio’s largest antique emporium, I noticed that almost every vendor has at least one tin toy for sale. The toys ranged from cars to clown banks. I have always loved tin toy airplanes and was pleased to find so many. I began to think about what it is about tin toys that I find so fascinating, my favorites being airplanes, robots, and spaceships. So I decided to do a little research on the history of tin toys to get an answer.


I discovered that some of the finest, most expensive and highly sought-after toys today are made from tin. The range is hugely diverse, covering pull-along, clockwork, wind up, battery-operated, friction cars, planes, spaceships, robots - in fact the manufacturers were enormously enterprising in the variety of toys they made.

I also learned that painted metal tin toys were among the first toys to be mass-produced in the U.S., Germany and Japan after World War II. Production of these flashy metal toys peaked in the 1950s to satisfy young baby boomers, and afterwards metal toys lost their appeal as plastic proved to be safer and less expensive to mass produce.


According to Tin Man Tin Toys, which is a really cool site that sells a variety of tin toys, the United States has a long history of tin toy manufactures dating back to 1850, when there were at least fifty toy makers in the United States. The bulk of this group operated in and around Connecticut, but a notable exception was Francis, Field, and Framis of Philadelphia. Also known as the Philadelphia Tin Toy Manufactory, this organization is the first toy manufacturer of record in America, and was making toys as a business at least as early as 1838. Other notable American companies of the period 1850 --1885 included the George W. Brown Company of Connecticut, James Fallows and Company of Philadelphia, Althof, Bergmann and Company of New York. Followed by the Ives Corporation in Bridgeport, Connecticut and the Leo Schlesinger Company of New York. Brooklyn's Buckman Manufacturing Co. produced its first early version of a steam-powered tin toy around 1872. A pre and post W.W.II tin toy manufacture Unique Art Mfg. Co. founded 1916, produced a wide range of entertaining mechanical tin toys and vehicles. The Strauss Company founded 1918 located in East Rutherford, New Jersey had a very interesting history in the tradition of tin toys. Ferdinand Strauss, from Alsace, France was a toy importer in the early 1900's. During the World War I embargo of German toys, Strauss began producing his own. Strauss also employed Louis Marx and continued to produce a variety of wind-up toys in the United States until 1942.


The United States is where mass produced tin toys began, opening the floodgates for an industry, which thrived well into late 1950’s. When reputable American companies such as Marx Toys 1940s, J. Chein and Co. founded in 1903, Wolverine U.S.A. and the Ohio Art Company carried on the tradition and produced many of the highly sought after tin toys found on the market today. An interesting fact is wind-up tin toys have a history of being inexpensive during certain periods of time. This was a fact for American ones made during the Great Depression of the 1930’s, which was a desperate time for many American people. Tin toys were very inexpensive, which in return, made them a popular gift of that period.


There has recently been resurgence in tin toy popularity. With the advent of the Internet, increased availability of both vintage and newly manufactured tin toys found at sites like Ebay and other auction-type sites.

Labels: Personal, Photography, Toys

This past weekend I was fortunate enough to have discovered an old caboose sitting behind an antique emporium. I wasn't sure if it was a caboose at first, but once I got a little closer and did some investigating, I was happy to confirm that it truely was, or, what was left of an old caboose. It appreared that the caboose's main structure was removed from the under carriage and trucks and the top level was removed and replaced with some plywood. It also appeared to have been used as a shed or storage building before ending up at this present location.


Most of the old cabooses I have seen in the past had an outer skin of metal. This particular caboose was composed of wood planking which looked as if it were cut over a hundred years ago. The paint was also peeling to reveal a number of previous layers and the scarred bare wood. That is what attracted me to this ghost of a structure the most due to me being a texture addict.


The textures this old caboose offered were too good to pass up. So I grabbed my camera out the car and went wild shooting almost every square inch of the exterior of this now dead railroad car. I didn't dare try going inside for fear the whole structure would colapse on me. There were awesome opportunities within to get some great texture shots, but not at the risk of losing my life.

So without further adieu, welcome to my texture exploration of a caboose from days gone by:

Labels: creative play, Personal, Photography, Texture

I wish I could have bought it all!


There is an antique store in Ohio along Interstate 75, just north of Findlay, with hundreds of spaces leased to vendors selling things of the past. While exploring this warehouse sized time capsule, I made a discovery that brought me great joy. I found two spaces full of moveable type and the tools and accesories for printing on letterpress. My eyes glazed over and I became immediately transfixed on all the wonderful lead and wooden fonts of every possible point size that lay before me. Drawers and drawers full of type were to be found.


My friend Nick (above), bought a complete set of 48pt Bodoni Italic type that was nicely displayed in its own wooden drawer. While he was purchasing the lead, I was thinking about all the projects that have been printed from past jobs using his newly aquired type. My imagination just started going wild.


I know that there is a desire in the design profession to keep the letterpress around, and some designers have even purchased a press to do their own work. For those of you seeking moveable type, I know of a place in Ohio that may have what you're looking for.

Labels: design issues, typography

STEP-BY-STEP

Introduction

I was excited about being able to produce a composition for this project around a topic that could be so much fun. Robots have intrigued humans since the idea of being able to create a mechanized being has been around. They fascinate, yet frighten us at the same time.

When I started to concept ideas for this project, I had instant images of Robby the Robot from Fantastic Planet going through my head. But I didn’t want to produce something that was so obvious. Robots surround us all the time, and they usually don’t fit the stereotypical humanized form. I also wanted to create a scene from my past. Something I could relate to on a personal level.

Serendipity

As a kid, my dad and I used to take our family car to an automated car wash better known as Robo-Wash. It cost 50 cents for about 2 minutes of rinse time, which was a bit expensive back in the early 70s. But my dad figured it was a fun way to keep me entertained as this mechanized sprayer circled our car in a haphazard attempt to clean the road dirt from the vehicle. It wasn’t very efficient at cleaning the car, but people were lined up for the experience and novelty of having a robot do the job for them. I’m sure in the end, most customers were just as unhappy with the results as my dad was.

Fast forward to the present and I discovered that some places around the country are still employing these inefficient mechanized aqua bots. I stumbled upon images of Robo-Wash on flickr quite by accident and was thrilled to see that it hadn’t gone completely extinct.

I thought to myself that this would make a great subject for my concept. I quickly started to jot down all my ideas as they came pouring out of my head. The idea that stood out the most was to have the Robo-Wash look like it was old and run down to the point of being condemned, and then add a modern, toy-like robot into the mix as a kind of intervention to save the poor Robo-Wash. To make things fun, I would tie in how the Robo-Wash was on a path that lead to nowhere and thus being the reason for his demise.

Illustration

After establishing the concept, I quickly worked up some draft sketches and transferred the final sketch to canvas to illustrate the exchange between the old and the new. Another element I added to the mix was one of emotion that gives the new robot a humanistic feel. The new robot would convey his sadness at the sight of poor Robo-Wash through a display of lights on his upper torso to reveal a broken heart. A stormy sky in the background and broken windows were also added to give a certain feeling of doom.

Process – Page 1

After completing the illustration, I wanted to produce a composition to compliment the art. I found an image of an old rusted piece of metal and decided this would make a great background. I launched Photoshop CS2 and set-up a new image to the size of those specified for the HOWiezine and imported the rusted metal as my background.


I now needed to produce a vector of the Robo-Wash sign to place on top of the rusted metal background. I did this using Freehand MX and created an outline of the
Sign typography and robot icon.




After completing the vector illustration, I used fill colors that matched the original sign. In this step I used saturated colors because I wanted to be able to manipulate them in Photoshop once I imported the vector into the document. I then copied and pasted the art into Photoshop.



Here you can see now how the vector looks imported into the Photoshop document. The colors appear to be saturated and too clean. Not to worry because in the next step I will start to manipulate this layer to give the sign a faded, weathered look through the use of texture and masks.



In this step I selected the rusted metal layer in the layers palette. Next, I go to edit >> select all, and then edit >> copy, then back to the layer palette and select the layer with the sign art and add a layer mask. I do this by clicking on the little rectangle icon with a circle in it at the bottom of the layers palette. Next I hold down the option key and click the layer mask preview box in the sign layer. Now I have a white background. I then click on paste and the rusted metal image appears in black and white. This is going to be the layer mask that will distress the sign art.

Before I go back into preview mode, I need to manipulate this layer mask. Remember that black is erase and white is clear. Light shades of gray will let the image come through where darker shades will remove more of the image. I want to increase the contrast of this layer mask to get the desired results I'm looking for. I can do that a number of ways, but in this example I am going to use levels. I click on the image menu, then adjustments, and finally levels. In the levels dialog box there is a histogram. I like to move the triangular handles just under the histogram to get the desired levels I’m looking for. This is completely open to experimentation and I generally go back and forth from mask to preview until I get the effect I am looking for.

Once I have settled on the appearance of the mask, I then move on to color manipulation. This can also be done in levels. In this example I used hue/saturation. My goal was to make the colors look faded.





After some tweaking in the hue/saturation dialog box, I now have the sign looking old, faded and rusty. This is the final composition that was submitted as page 1.








Process – Page 2

Now I am going to produce the backside page using the robot illustration I produced earlier on canvas. The first step is a repeat of step one for page one, only this time I flipped the background horizontally. To do this I started off with the page 1 psd file and removed all the layers with the exception of the rusted metal layer then went to the edit menu, transform, flip horizontal. Then I did a save as and renamed the document.

The next step is to import the illustration into the document. I first scanned the art work and did some fine tuning of the image before importing it into my final layout. Here you can see the whole image layered on top of the metal background.




Rather than have a nice clean line around the image, I wanted to convey the same distressed and weathered look to the edges of the illustration. To do this I had to create a layer mask in the illustration layer. I then held down the option key and clicked on the layer mask preview to get the white background of the layer mask. Remember, black is the mask and white is clear. I select black in my color pallet and then selected a grunge brush that I created. I want to paint a mask that will distress the edges of the illustration. As you can see in this example, I used care to not intrude on the image more than neccessary. I did this by switching back and forth between layer mask and preview mode to make sure I have no solid edges left on the illustration.

In this example you can see how the layer mask blocks out the clean edges and offers a much more interesting border.







In the final steps I added type and my brandmark. I used a duplicate mask for the headline layer to give the type some added distress. The body type was distressed by first raterizing it, then setting my grunge brushes to 15% opacity and randomly hitting the type for some added effect.




This is the the final composition for page 2 of HOWizine 10 - Robots.

If you would like to get in touch with me with questions or comments, please visit my profile and send me an email.

Labels: graphic design, HOWiezine, Illustration, Robots, Tutorial