I’m a HUGE fan of Arrested Development. Once I heard that each episode in the new season was going to focus on a different character, I thought it would be fun to create a series of art doing the same. After seeing Ty Mattson’s amazing Homeland project, I decided to create a record for each Bluth member, with titles and songs relating to their character. Continue reading
I just recently finished up some art for our baby’s room. I decided to make some fake vintage album covers so that our baby room art was a little different than everybody else’s. I created the characters based on the animals from our crib bumper and sheet set, and then used classic song titles that were related to each one. Continue reading
The Madison Addy Awards were a couple weeks ago, and I was lucky enough to come away with a few winners. I even managed to grab a few Gold’s this year! My Rock and Roll Daydream self-promo box, Fall Classic wedding collateral, and On Wisconsin acoustic recording were all among the winners. This makes me almost as proud as winning back to back coloring contests in 1987 and 1988.
…and by request, here are the pics of an award winning 5 and 6 year old Josh.
I got married four months ago to a wonderful little lady and had a baseball themed wedding. I was surprised she went for the idea when I brought it up originally. She’s not a HUGE baseball fan like everyone else in my family, but she does like Continue reading
With a month under our belt in 2012, it’s time to highlight some of my favorite Project Wisconsin posts. I started this hair-brained idea with my friend Doua. We wanted to do some kind of daily, artistic, type of thing for 2012—something kind of fun but also an exercise of sorts. It’s become much more. We’re learning a ton! It’s basically become a daily history lesson on Wisconsin. There are so many towns that have such unique facts and great historical importance. There are also some that have absolutely nothing of interest. Just kidding. Kind of.
We debated on different ideas for this project—icons, random words from the dictionary, Eddie Murphy movies—but finally decided on Wisconsin towns as the subject. We’ve compiled a list of over 1,000 Wisconsin cities, towns, and villages for reference. Each day we pick a town, look up some facts on it, and then create a piece of art that kind of reflects it. Or sometimes we just do whatever the hell we want (ex. Franklin and Florence). So far it’s pretty fun. We’ll have to see how this is going in late July though. Hmm. Here are a few of my favorites so far…
As I mentioned awhile back, I wanted to create a self promo box set for my debut album, Rock and Roll Daydream. I knew that I would be dropping off my CD at local radio stations and I wanted to deliver something more than a burned disk with my name written on it. A good self promo piece can help you really stand out.
Since my music has an old-school rock and roll feel, I wanted the packaging to be a bit retro. I designed the CD and case to resemble a vinyl album and record sleeve and then sent it to Disc Makers to print and burn. They turned out great! I also created various items to include in the promo box, fun stuff—CD coasters, mini liquor bottles, buttons from Wacky Buttons, posters, etc. I think my favorite part of the whole piece is the filler material that I used for the base—unwound tape from my old cassettes! It looks great and brings it all together.
I’m pretty happy with the way it turned out. Now, we’ll just have to wait and see how well it goes over. Rock and roll.
UPDATES:
February 15: ‘For Print Only’ is featuring this on their blog today.
March 16: This won Gold at the Madison Addys and now advances to district!
April 20: This finished with a Silver Addy at District. Very cool.
I assume everyone has seen the new Comedy Central logo by now. They unveiled it back in January of this year. I just recently saw it for the first time, yet I had seen this same logo a few years ago…because I had created it! Well, something quite similar anyways. Very similar in fact. Somehow I managed to miss this logo redesign of theirs until I was on a flight home from L.A. this summer. I was kind of dozing off and kind of watching the tv of the kid in front of me (because I was too cheap to spend $6 for a couple hours of airplane tv). Then my eyes caught a glimpse of the icon in the corner of the screen…it was my old logo! What station was this? Had I unknowingly stolen my old logo idea from a special tv station hidden in the clouds on a prior flight? It turns out I did not. It was Comedy Central’s new logo, created by The Lab from NYC. I immediately sat upright, whipped out my old business card, and woke up my girlfriend to have a look.
I had created this logo a few years ago when I was trying to start up my own design company. I thought it was a pretty cool idea at first—a logo that resembled the copyright logo but with a spin. I fell out of love with it after awhile though because of numerous people saying it resembled the Chicago Cubs logo. I’m a die hard White Sox fan so that wasn’t going to work. I also felt it was pretty plain and didn’t fit the feel of my work. So after a short while, I redesigned my logo to something which I thought was better. I thought that was end of me seeing that ‘C’ in ‘C’ logo. Even the use of Comedy Central’s logo in other images is quite similar to my use of it.
COMEDY CENTRAL
COLOSSUS OF CLOUT
I’ve been reading tons of blogs about the new logo, seeing the awards it’s been receiving, hearing the praise of the “copyright-looking” logo, and think to myself…well, shit. I feel proud sometimes when I read the reviews—they’re basically critiquing my work. Other times I wonder…Most likely the logo is a coincidence, but what if somehow, someone of importance had gotten their hands on my old business card? I was in NYC a couple years back throwing around my cards left and right trying to get some freelance work for my newly started adventure. What if someone had liked what they saw and it got stuck in their brain, knowingly or unknowingly, and then it came out when ideas for their new logo were being thrown about? Probably not, but I wonder.
I never copyrighted or trademarked my old logo and I still like my newer logo better, but COME ON people! It’s kind of funny actually. Imagine me sending Comedy Central a cease and desist letter and demanding they change the name of Jon Stewart’s show to the Colossus of Clout Power Hour, with just an old-ass quark file and a stack of unused business cards backing me up. What I think is great too, is that the logo wasn’t good enough for me to keep, but it was good enough for a giant cable network.
Well, here are our engagement pictures, on the world wide web for all to see. Jen’s sister Michelle, and friends Allison and Ashley were kind enough to snap a few pics of us with their fancy little cameras (thanks a lot!), and then I did some p-shop work on them. I think they turned out pretty good for $0. Eh? And I’m glad I had a cutie in the pics to divert people’s eyes from this big buffoon.
I went to a Madison Mallards game Sunday afternoon and every time I go I wonder why I don’t go more often. So much more affordable than a big league game and just as much fun. I also love the small town atmosphere and sense of camaraderie there. Great times. Great baseball. Summer Sunday afternoon at its best.
The websites for Colossus of Clout Design and The Josh Cox Experiment are finally up and running. Check out the portfolio and enjoy some rock and roll.
