The Man Who Should Be There

Once more with feeling Dr. Horrible

2012-02-10T20:50:00.000-07:00

The next EXPOsure presentation, happening in March, is a Joss Whedon Double feature: Once More With Feeling (the all singing all dancing spectacular from Buffy the Vampire Slayer) and Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. I tried to go for an ol' fashioned musical poster for this one, I even included some of the sheet music for "a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do.

Now I'm sure most people would have me run out of town on rails when I reveal that I liked the original Buffy movie more than I liked the T.V. series, but I did. It was a fun flick that I still bring out and watch once in a while. The T.V. series never did float my boat no matter how many times I tried to watch it, and I tried a lot.

Dr. Horrible on the other hand, now this is an amazing show. Loved it the minute I first saw it. I remember anxiously waiting for each new webisode and never being disappointed. Racing out and getting the dvd the second it became available on Amazon. My family even downloaded the soundtrack from iTunes. The cast was perfect, the songs are great and I can't say enough nice things about it. Most people looked at me like I was a freak when I would share this gem with them, eventually they came around to realize it's greatness, and when the Expo brought Felicia Day to town last year it was a real thrill to meet her and get a picture of her with my daughter (my daughter was wearing her brain slug hair band which intrigued Ms. Day).

So if you're in Calgary on March 4th and you want to support the Calgary Comic & Entertainment Expo and the Make-a-Wish Foundation, go to the Plaza and check out the "All Singing! Some Dancing! Wheadon Double Feature!"

Belle De Jour

2012-01-26T05:58:00.002-07:00

The Calgary Cinematheque is presenting Belle De Jour on the 4th of February (and later on the 9th). I decided to try and channel the great Robert McGinnis on this one (with his slight elongation of the female form), since I was dealing with the stunning Catherine Denuve I thought this approach would be a good direction. I think I did alright. I only hope I did the film justice.

Make it so!

2012-01-15T11:33:00.001-07:00

Well here we have a new poster I just finished for the next Expo screening in February. We will be presenting the best of the TNG movies Star Trek: First Contact.

On a side note, in June 2011 Jonathan Frakes was at the Expo and I got the opportunity to have my First Contact one sheet poster signed by him and I told him I thought his was the best film of the bunch. He gave me that roguish Riker smile (twinkle in the eye included) and said "I know". If it wasn't for the fact that it's Trek I would have labeled it an Empire Strikes Back kind of moment.

He was a real pleasure to meet by the by.

SkyFall poster

2011-12-31T19:42:00.001-07:00

Super Punch is putting on an art contest that wraps up in a couple of days and I decided to give it a go and do my own take on a James Bond poster. It was a lot of fun, as usual, and I'm pretty happy with the end result. I even threw in the release date for the license plate on the DB5 (which will be in the new flick by the way). I don't know what else will be happening in the film, it's all pretty hush hush, I do know they are using the Varda Railway Bridge, but I had to take a guess that something would blow up and that there would probably be a woman with a gun. So there you have it.

I'm really looking forward to the next Bond installment because I have to admit that Daniel Craig is now my favorite Bond. I was a staunch believer in the church of Connery (I liked Moore in Live and Let Die - mainly because of the kick ass theme by Wings - and I liked Brosnan in Goldeneye) but when Daniel Craig took over he bumped Connery from the pedestal. Sorry Sean.

na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, yada, yada, yada, yada - BATMAN!

2011-12-24T10:58:00.001-07:00

Here is the poster I just finished for the upcoming screening, in January, of the one, the only, Adam West in Batman!

It's good fun and it's part of the screening series that the Expo is doing as a build up to the 2012 show (Mayor West will be at the Expo in 2012 don't you know). So go the the Plaza, sit back, relax and be a kid again.

And don't forget your shark-repellent Batspray.

Ingmar Bergman's Strawberries

2011-12-24T10:46:00.001-07:00

Here is the latest poster I did for Ingmar Bergman's classic Wild Strawberries, next film coming up in the new year for the Cinematheque. As with most Bergman films it looks at life, death and human existence. My favorite is still the Seventh Seal, and one day I hope to tackle the extended version of Fanny and Alexander when I have 5.2 consecutive hours free.

SERENITY NOW!

2011-12-01T21:03:00.001-07:00

I have been very remiss in keeping up my blog as of late (six months goes by pretty fast) so I am going to try and update it over the course of the next week so that people don't assume I was lost in the Bermuda Triangle or something.

I've been busy with a lot of things lately but I had to blog about this poster I just finished for an upcoming Calgary Expo screening of one of my favorite movies: Serenity. This movie made me feel like my 11 year old self staring up at the silver screen as a Star Destroyer gave pursuit to a Rebel Blockade Runner.

Serenity is fun. It's smart. It's awesome. And if you haven't seen it all I can say is -shame on you.

If you're in Calgary on December 18th go to the Plaza Theatre and check it out on the big screen, tickets are available through the Expo website or at the doors prior to showtime. If you can't wait to see it, and I don't blame you, then go buy it now. And while you're at it if you don't have the series Firefly then you should buy that too because awesomeness begets awesomeness.

Expo Billboards

2011-05-28T12:39:00.001-06:00

The new billboards are here! The new billboards are here!!

I haven't seen the Elvira board but I did see the Shatner and it looks pretty good, if I do say so myself. We ended up going with only two board this year, the Tia Carrere image that worked best was too low a resolution for a billboard and Katee Sackhoff had to postpone her visit (she will be here next year). so we opted for just the two boards.

Shatner's board is the one that changed. The headline used is one that was brought to the table by the event organizer early on. It's pretty funny.

Now I have to drive around and check them out - ROADTRIP!

The final Heroes vs Zombies

2011-05-25T20:27:00.000-06:00

Nothing has really changed on the poster except that it now has the official time and date.

I decided to donate the image to the Calgary Roller Derby Association (CRDA) so they can sell some posters and raise funds for the association. So if you're at the Calgary Comic and Entertainment Expo in June don't forget to pick up a poster and support the CRDA.

Shatner vs Superman…FIGHT!

2011-05-24T11:15:00.000-06:00

Well I just finished the Calgary Comic and Entertainment Expo program guide. The fun thing about it this year was I did an illustration for the cover. I'm still playing with the whole painting in Photoshop thing but overall I am pretty happy with the end result.

The idea for the cover came from a few sources:
1 - The event organizer came up with a video ad that will run in EB Games stores. It was kind of an Ultimate Fighter (I think) battle intro: The Guild vs Zombies…FIGHT!, Shatner vs Superman…FIGHT! and so on.

2 - I found out that DC Comics will be at the show, so this seemed like a natural marriage between our media guests and the comics industry.

3 - Neal-FRICKIN-Adams is coming to the show. I grew up on his books (I had all the Batman books, the Green Arrow/Green Lantern books, and of course his run of Deadman - but student loans and rent payments took care of my comic collection pretty quick) and who can forget the cover of the oversized issue featuring a boxing match between Muhammad Ali and Superman, so I wanted to pay homage to that cover and Mr. Adams.

4 - A recent poster/ad I did for the Calgary Roller Derby match being held at the Expo: Superheroes and Zombies. The reason I say that is not to plug my own work but to mention that to me Wonder Woman is Lynda Carter and by the same token Superman will always be Christopher Reeve and I wanted to keep my superheroes in the same era, - I remember sitting in a movie theatre as a kid believing a man could fly. For the record I think that Brandon Routh did a solid job in the last Superman flick and Kevin Spacey was a pretty good Lex Luthor.

So with all those inspirational sources in mind I began to go to work.

Shatner vs Superman…FIGHT!

One of the main things for me was to make it Calgary Centric, there had to be an element that said this is where it's taking place. I didn't want you to think this was for any other Expo or comic convention. So the Saddledome was chosen for the landmark (that's also where the Expo is being held, so really, it made sense). The other main thing it had to have - Shatner (as Kirk) had to look like the scrapper he always was. The shirt had to be ripped, the face had to be dirty, and the hair had to be mussed. And even though they would probably have their match under some sort of Red Sun device to even the odds, I just thought it would be fun to have Superman unharmed and Kirk roughed up even though I truly believe that Kirk would do one of those flying kicks and flatten Superman.

So there you have it.

The Birds/Double Take: An Alfred Hitchcock Themed Double Feature

2011-05-01T20:46:00.001-06:00

So this is the last poster for the 2010/2011 season for the Calgary Cinematheque, and it is a double feature for "The Birds" and a film called "Double Take". Double Take is an interesting film based on an incident that happened to Mr. Hitchcock while he was filming the movie "The Birds", in which he apparently saw his doppleganger and states that if you see your double you should kill them - there's a lot more to it than that, you'll just have to read the reviews. I decided to treat each film with their own poster and then bridge them with an image of the master - plus the middle section was a good place to put all that text. The movies play on May 19th at the Plaza in Calgary.

So with the whole "kill your double" in mind, I could think of no better image for "Double Take" than to have Hitch as the target. I played around with several different ideas, one of which was a Rorschach test that would include every murder weapon found in a Hitchcock film - but this image was one that worked the best, and it was the one I could visualize completely. For the title I wanted to pay homage to James Bond (don't ask me why, in my head it made sense) by having the title treated in a similar fashion to the movie "You Only Live Twice" (that poster has an illustration by the great Robert McGinnis). For the record I think this would also be pretty cool to print up about a hundred leaflets and spread them everywhere. I could even see a whole construction site plastered with these.

The image for "The Birds" is pretty straightforward, I wanted to play off of the classic Hitchcock silhouette for the raven image, and the black area was a perfect spot to have the frightened Tippi. I did add something that one might not notice on a web sized image -I put the scene of the bird covered playground in the raven's eye.

It's been a fun run and I have had the opportunity to watch, or in some cases re-watch, some great films. I have also had a lot of fun experimenting with some design and illustration styles that I never seem to get the opportunity to try out very often.

Calgary Expo Roller Derby Poster

2011-04-28T13:03:00.005-06:00

The upcoming Calgary Comic and Entertainment Expo will have a Roller Derby on Father's Day. The theme is Super Heroes vs Zombies. It was a lot of fun to do the poster. I titled it Battle at the Saddle because the Expo takes place on the Calgary Stampede grounds and one of the city's claims to fame is our saddle shaped arena, and Battle at the Saddle has a much better ring to it than Battle at the BMO Centre. It's still awaiting some copy but I wanted to post the image now because I'm pretty happy with it.

I wanted to use a super hero who doesn't wear a cape and I thought Wonder Woman would be pretty cool, and eye catching as well. Nice bright colors to offset the grays and greens of the zombies. Wonder Woman is based on Lynda Carter, of course. And as far as I'm concerned she was, and always will be, Wonder Woman - although I'm not sure I could watch the show now (tastes change), but I remember loving it when I was younger.

Frak Yeah!

2011-04-19T15:24:00.000-06:00

I changed the billboard headline on this one (I did it for me, no word yet on if we are going ahead with these concepts). I liked the feel of the headline now, it has more energy and I also added more dimension and texture to the type. As it stands I am pretty happy with the whole series, I would be even happier if we use it, but for now it's a nice addition to my portfolio.

Expo Billboards Round 2

2011-04-17T20:01:00.003-06:00

After talking over the original concepts for the Calgary Comic and Entertainment Expo billboards, based on old pulp magazines, I presented the next round. Taking into consideration all the feedback I received - and here they are.

I decided to keep the rough edges because we were still thinking of using the first group in a local magazine as a series, so I wanted them to all tie together as a unit. I wanted to keep the headline simple, a catch phrase or an expletive or a single word that can be associated with the attending celebrity. Kirk got Khaaaaan! (I even did two, the composition using the original series image works best as it leads you into the board, but I like the Wrath of Khan version better), Starbuck got Frak, Tia Carrere got Schwing, and Elvira got Unpleasant Dreams. Everything boiled down to something people can absorb in the 5 or 10 seconds that they look up to see a billboard.

It didn't meet with the level of enthusiasm I was expecting. I certainly wasn't expecting people to name their child after me (although Dean is a hell of a good name, and only the coolest people have it - Dean Martin anyone) but I was expecting a certain level of compliments, or a smattering of applause would have also been nice - I tell you, egos suck. But anyway, it is a work in progress after all. We'll see where it goes from here.

Redd Skull Comics ad

2011-04-17T19:30:00.005-06:00

I'm going to start working on the Calgary Comic and Entertainment Expo program in the next few days and I thought I would take care of an ad for Redd Skull comics (which I was going to have to do before the program went to publication anyway). When I asked the owner if there was anything he had in mind for his ad he said "whatever" - he had a cold that day so I cut him some slack. By the way, I want to mention that Redd Skull is the best shop in town in my opinion, and I'm not just saying that because I did the ad. Go to Redd Skull.

Anyway, with that creative direction firmly planted in my mind I decided to look up some images of the character Red Skull and see what I could do. I found a concept illustration for the movie that I really liked and I modified it (hopefully I modified it enough), it's a fairly standard hero/villain pose so hopefully people don't think to poorly of me. I sketched out a version of Red Skull's head that I liked, and I put it all together basing it on an old propaganda poster that I really like…this post makes me sound extremely derivative but really I'm not. Anyway, I pieced it all together, threw it all into Photoshop and began playing with my brushes (not a euphemism).

I was very happy with how it turned out. The store owner was also very happy, the only things he asked was that I add a monocle, because his logo has one to differentiate it from the Marvel character, add the Captain America shield in place of the stars I have in the text (I didn't like it, that's why this version is the way it is - the shields were tooooooo much), and lastly he wanted his booth number for the upcoming Expo put on the ad (Booth 615 if you go to the show, he has a lot of amazing stuff).

So this is it.

Solaris

2011-04-12T21:31:00.003-06:00

My latest poster design for the Calgary Cinematheque is for the movie Solaris, by Andrei Tarkovsky. A fascinating film that starts off a little slow but it does hook you. I've linked to the IMDB page so I won't bore you with the plot details, but I will say it uses science fiction to full effect, much like 2001: A Space Odyssey did before it, making it worth seeing and talking about.

I had been tempted to watch it for a number of years (the local library has several copies of the Criterion Collection version) but until I worked on the poster I didn't see it – I think it was the Russian subtitles that may have given me pause, but that's probably just an excuse. I had watched the George Clooney version, directed by Steven Soderbergh (I've been a fan of his since Kafka), and found it to be an outstanding movie. It doesn't have the trappings of a lot of contemporary science fiction, but I liked it anyway. It's a thought provoking film that will have you talking about it long after you've finished watching it.

I wanted the poster to have a sense of zero gravity, and a feeling of "things aren't as they seem".

Super Punch: X-Men First Class Art Contest

2011-04-02T22:11:00.001-06:00

Super Punch has a design a better poster Art Contest for the upcoming X-Men movie and I decided to participate and…Ta-da! This is my entry.

You would not believe how much fun I had doing this. I always have fun participating in John's contests – and no, it's not because there are 4, count em 4, Last Exit to Nowhere shirts on the line (my fave shirt is Nostromo, with my Nexus 6 a very close second). I do it for the challenge and for the fun of it all.

Okay, this may sound like a tangent but hear me out, let me start by telling you how awesome I think my daughter is. She will sit at her computer and open up a program and play. She doesn't ask how do you do this, or that. She. Just. Plays. And she makes some amazing and creative stuff.Where as I tend to be the type who ponders about stuff and I try to find a book that will help me/guide me/show me/inspire me…whatever. So I decided to just see what happens when I open up photoshop, trust my instincts and play – now I am hooked.

Now on to the poster. Most of the current available imagery for this movie is pretty bland, you might find a nice shot of the helmet, you might find a nice shot of the actor but usually not the same shot. So I sketched out several ideas based on the available imagery, then I found an okay shot of Michael Fassbender (an awesome and versatile actor by the way) and I found a nice shot of the Magneto helmet, merged them together and then, as I said before, I just played. So this poster ties into my love of painted posters and my desire to keep things simple, and yeah it's a big head but I like to think I did it with style. I could have probably done more with the title treatment but for me this was about painting and playing.

The one thing I added was a cooler tag line. I understand where the powers that be are going with the whole "before they were this, they were that" approach, but right in the trailer is this cool line where Erik/Magneto says "Peace was never an option". I think that adds a little menace to the big head shot.

So there you go.

Cruel Story of Youth Part Deux

2011-03-23T20:59:00.007-06:00

Well, I got censored. I totally understand why, the whole depiction of violence against women. I get it. The thing is the whole movie is about male domination/control over women. There is probably some political subtext that has flown high enough over my head to have achieved orbit, but I think my first poster is a more accurate representation of the explosive and violent nature of the film.

Anyway, enough with the sour grapes - here is the final version of the poster for Cruel Story of Youth for the Calgary Cinematheque. Like I said, I understand the hesitation so I, begrudgingly, changed the image to be a contrast of the main characters before and after, a kind of "that was then, this is now" approach. Click here for the original, I still think it's the stronger one.

I guess my next poster featuring four mop top lads with doll parts and raw meat will get censored too.

Oh well.

Cruel Story of Youth

2011-03-20T09:15:00.003-06:00

A new addition to the posters I've been working on for the Calgary Cinematheque. This is for Cruel Story of Youth, a 1960 film directed by Nagisa Oshima (who also directed the movie Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence with David Bowie).

I like to watch the movie before designing the poster to see if there is anything that will inspire me, or if there is an underlying theme that I feel I should expand upon, and this was an interesting movie to watch because the film is done in such a frank way – it's an extreme version of Rebel Without A Cause (a movie that was made 5 years earlier) – misunderstood youth trying to figure out their place in this world sort of stuff.

I won't go into the details of the movie, I have provided a link to the imdb site for that, but needless to say I was struck by the energy of the film and I tried to convey that in the poster.

The Cagary Expo Billboard Concepts

2011-03-17T15:16:00.003-06:00

Click on the above images to get a better look.

I decided to develop some billboard concepts for this year's Calgary Comic and Entertainment Expo. There will be plenty of items (posters, flyers, ads, etc.) around the city that will speak to who is coming, so I wanted to focus on the experience that the visitors have when they go to this fantastic event. I wanted to keep the boards simple, make them memorable and tie them to the history of comics.

One thing that has always fascinated me are pulp magazines, their illustration style and their energy, and the fact that they were never just stories…they were AMAZING, THRILLING, FANTASTIC or ASTOUNDING stories. So I grabbed all of the adjective-based pulp covers I could find (there are still more but this is a good start) and I built this series of billboards. I did restrain myself, you will note that there were no exclamation marks used in the making of these billboards.

The jury is still out right now as to whether or not these will see the light of day. I hope they do. I think they are AMAZING billboards, if I say so myself. But I just couldn't wait to get them on my blog.

Seven Samurai

2011-02-16T11:22:00.001-07:00

The next presentation for the Calgary Cinematheque will be Seven Samurai. This is one of the first foreign films I had ever watched and it is outstanding. I wanted to give the overall poster an expressive feel to tie in with the action of the film, plus I prefer posters that have a more illustrative quality, that's something that I find is missing in poster design these days. So the first thing I tried doing was a Drew Struzan approach, with the gessoed board and the pencil crayons, but it wasn't working for me -I'll keep at it though because, after all, it just takes time and patience, and the Drew Struzan "how to" dvd that I've watched more than a few times already (Thank goodness for ebay, because otherwise it's a pretty pricey flick).

So with press time fast approaching I decided to use the technique I used for the Expo Volunteer poster I had just finished. I took photos of paint strokes and created a variety of masks out of them and then layered pieces of the larger image over top of each other to give it a layered, painterly look and applying color in select areas to give it more of an expressive feeling.

I'm really happy with the end result. I can't wait to see it out in the world.

Kyle Cooper lecture

2011-02-10T11:57:00.007-07:00

I just finished watching a lecture by the one and only Kyle Cooper - a man who, in my opinion, reinvigorated main title design, on the Boston University web site. It's from November of 2010.

I first noticed his work on the movie se7en, as did pretty much everyone on the planet, and after seeing that particular piece I took notice of everything he was doing afterwards. But as I watched this lecture I was surprised to see pieces I hadn't been aware of.

I tried my hand at embedding the video but it didn't take (the BU site says I can share but it won't let me), I ended up just doing a screen cap so please don't try clicking the image up top. You should be able to check it out if you go here: BUniversity

So sit back, relax and enjoy.

2011 Calgary Expo Volunteer poster

2011-01-28T17:10:00.001-07:00

The Calgary Comic and Entertainment Expo is beginning the process of recruiting volunteers for this years Expo and I was asked to come up with a poster idea. I had designed a series of propaganda posters that I was really excited about for the Expo last year but they never saw the light of day except as re-purposed graphics for the various volunteer, media, celebrity badges…maybe this year we can use them for their intended purpose. But in the mean time I decided to pull this one together based on an image that was shot for the upcoming outdoor posters that I worked on, designed to announce a portion of the guest line up (I'll blog about that another time).

Can you tell I like propaganda posters.

I had this idea in my head of doing an Uncle Sam style poster ever since the photo shoot for the above mentioned outdoor series - our model had an amazing, screen accurate, ANH Vader costume (once he was in it I'm afraid I geeked out a bit). I got him to do a couple of "I want you" type poses which worked out really well. I used most of the same elements on the previously mentioned poster series, so on this new recruitment poster I decided to take a cue from a series of posters made last year to promote the movie Kick Ass, which gave the imagery a bit of a painterly feel.

I quite like how it turned out, and I hope that we end up using it somewhere. We'll see. But for now, at least I have it on my blog.

Tokyo Story

2011-01-23T18:18:00.000-07:00

The Calgary Cinematheque will be presenting the film Tokyo Story, by Yasujiro Ozu, on February 1st and 5th, and here's the poster I designed for the presentation.

It's a movie that will stick with you after viewing.

I have to admit that when I saw it I didn't think too much of it. I can't say it's a film everyone will like, Hell, I don't think I really like it, but I am glad I saw it, and as I watched it I could see things in it that I could relate to, things like how, no matter what, families do grow apart in varying degrees. You try to keep the family ties, you want to keep the family ties, but sometimes, they just come untied. We all grow into our own lives, and it's up to us to make the best of the time we have. At least that's what I got from the film.

Like Joni says: "Don't it always seem to go, that you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone".

Stanley Kubrick's - The Lord of the Rings Part 2

2010-12-29T21:38:00.002-07:00

So here is my book end piece that I did for the current Super Punch contest. This time the focus is on The Beatles. Composition-wise I like it, I also like some of the textures I was able to achieve, but I think I might try re-doing it someday down the road, tighten things up a bit and maybe attempt a Drew Struzan style of poster (one of my favorite poster artists ever).

Stanley Kubrick's - The Lord of the Rings

2010-12-27T12:13:00.002-07:00

Super Punch is having an art contest this month and I thought I would throw my design hat in the ring, so to speak. The project is to design a movie poster for a project that might have been - based on the fact that John Lennon had apparently wanted to do a Beatles version of Lord of the Rings to be directed by Stanley Kubrick. So I was trying to decide whose ego would win out on this dream film project, and inevitably it would be Stanley's. The Beatles would have hired him, but it would be HIS film and I don't think he would have wanted a picture of the Fab Four on his poster just to put bums in seats.

So I decided to incorporate Kubrick's love of san serif type and simple iconic imagery, I wanted it to have a little Saul Bass flavour and I also decided to play with the billing block at the bottom to incorporate some of the people, both actors and technical staff, that Kubrick either worked with in the past, or wanted to work with on his failed attempt at a Napoleon film (which was being developed around the same time), I also wanted to include The Beatles good luck charm in the form of Victor Spinetti. And I figured that it would be a United Artists film since The Beatles were still under contract to give them another film.

A lot of fun, I may have over analyzed it all but that's what I do sometimes and that is where the fun is at. I hope to be able to do up another one, before the clock runs down, that would highlight The Beatles - you know, bookend Kubrick's ego with theirs (although I don't think The Beatles would have brought an ego to the project, but I'm sure the film company might have said "where the hell are The Beatles?").

Ugetsu

2010-12-17T21:17:00.000-07:00

The Calgary Cinematheque is presenting a wonderful film by Kenji Mizuguchi from 1953, titled Ugestu. It's a film that deals with greed, ambition, love and loss. Until I was asked to create this poster I had never seen this film before and I really enjoyed it.

I have to say that I am thrilled to be able to work with the Cinematheque on their posters. I feel the same way now as I did when I was in art college. Back then I would talk to friends and they would recommend films that I had never heard of. Often times I would be pleasantly surprised, sometimes I would be amazed and sometimes I would wonder what the hell they were on, but I digress. So the Cinematheque is like a friend asking me if I have ever seen (insert movie name here)? Sometimes, with a smile, I can say yes and I know exactly how I want to represent it. Sometimes, with I smile, I say no…and that's the challenge.

Through the Olive Trees

2010-12-17T20:50:00.000-07:00

A recent poster design for the Calgary Cinematheque presentation of Through the Olive Trees. It's the story of a director attempting to make a film about two people who marry shortly after a devastating earthquake destroys most of their village. As it turns out, the male lead actor that the director has hired is in love with, and wants to marry, the lead actress.

I came away from it feeling that the director was somewhat like a god figure in the film, manipulating both the movie he is making, and his actors. Which is how I came about the image I created.

While I did enjoy some of the performances, and I appreciated the ambiguous ending, I have to be truthful here and say that it's not really my cup of tea. That's just my opinion though.

The Wizard of Oz

2010-12-03T21:25:00.002-07:00

The Calgary Cinematheque is showing the Wizard of Oz on the big screen on December 18th, and I wanted to represent the movie in a way I hadn't seen before. I had already created a poster with the Wicked Witch of the East under something not long ago with my Fairy Tale Fiascos poster for the Alberta Dance Theatre, so my wife suggested I do a travel poster and I really liked that idea. All Roads Lead to the Emerald City was the approach I decided to take. A second version was suggested, again by my wife, to remove the characters and the cliffs – I have to say that I like that one the most right now.

After I had presented the poster with the Dorothy and the gang, I was asked to make the text at the bottom more prominent, which made sense because they want people to bring food donations to the Food Bank, so I decided to ditch the "All Roads…" and the "See the one, the only…" lines to accommodate other information that would allow me to bump up the bottom text a bit more. I don't think it has the same travel poster feel, I'm still happy with it, but I kind of like these better.

Here is the final one by the way.

METROPOLIS

2010-11-19T12:35:00.000-07:00

Last night was the Alberta premiere of Fritz Lang's masterpiece Metropolis. It was presented by the Calgary Cinematheque, with live musical accompaniment by the world renowned Alloy Orchestra.

All I can say is WOW!

This was the first film I have ever seen with live music and, I'm not sure but, I think I'm converted.

To see the film (I have always been a fan of this movie and the image of the robot, in particular, has stuck with me over the years), now as close to Lang's vision as possible, was amazing- there were only a few minutes worth of intertitles explaining some missing scenes - but to see it with the Alloy Orchestra made for an incredible experience, you could not just hear the music you could feel it. Here is a quote from their website: "An unusual combination of found percussion and state-of-the-art electronics gives the Orchestra the ability to create any sound imaginable. Utilizing their famous "rack of junk" and electronic synthesizers, the group generates beautiful music in a spectacular variety of styles. They can conjure up a French symphony or a simple German bar band of the 20's. The group can make the audience think it is being attacked by tigers, contacted by radio signals from Mars or swept up in the Russian Revolution."

Before the performance began I got to meet the Orchestra and they signed a copy of the poster I designed (see above), which was very cool, so you can guess what will be going on my office wall as soon as I get it framed.

The orchestra has been to Calgary before but it took a film like Metropolis to draw my attention to these very talented performers. All I can say is that the next time they come here I will be in the front row of whatever film they are accompanying.

I also hope to check out a few more films with live music in the future since there is a theater in town that does this every once in a while around January, so I will be on the lookout for that.

Rainn Wilson: SoulPancake

2010-11-02T09:15:00.000-06:00

There is a brand new book by Rainn Wilson, Devon Gundry, Golriz Lucina, and Shabnam Mogharabi called SoulPancake, based on the web site of the same name, available at Amazon (com and ca) and Rainn Wilson put a challenge out to the Threadless community to create a cover. Here is mine…and no, I wasn't inspired by the grilled cheesus episode of Glee. If anything I would say it's more like the Jesus in Surrey naan bread, or any other image of a religious figure found in everyday things, that's what made me think of this. And while I was sitting there thinking "damn, this is too obvious" I also had to say "what the hell".

The photo is a royalty free image from Shutterstock, and Mr. Wilson's image was supplied. Don't shoot me because of the crudeness of my photoshop, there was an extremely tight deadline imposed on the project…nothing like fire under the ass to get one moving.

The long list of entrants can be found in Rainn Wilson's profile on Threadless (mine is on page 3).

Vulcan, Leonard Nimoy and R2-D2

2010-10-30T16:15:00.008-06:00

Good dad that I am I took the day off from work and made my daughter skip school so the two of us could drive out to Vulcan to witness the homecoming of Mr. Spock/Leonard Nimoy. It was all so nerdy of me, but hey, that's because I'm a nerd, or is it geek…whatever.

So we drove the two and a half hours out to Vulcan and it was pretty cool, it's always cool to do something with my daughter (insert awwww here). As we motored along we got passed, periodically, by news vans and other vehicles that were decked out in Star Trek accoutrements because, as far as things go, this was a big deal. You may not remember this but Mr. Nimoy campaigned to have the new Star Trek movie premiere in the town of Vulcan…and they don't even have a theatre.

All in all it was a lot of fun, and it was a very sweet gesture on behalf of Mr. Nimoy. And the citizens of Vulcan are a good group of people in my book.

Me in my Spock/Obama designed homage shirt in front of the Vulcan starship landmark.

So here are some of the things we saw.

Leonard Nimoy exiting his vehicle to go into the Star Trek museum in Vulcan. I managed to get a series of "action shots" as he made his way into the museum. The first was him getting out, the next was him raising his hand to do the traditional Vulcan salute and then, of course, him lowering his hand after completing the traditional "Vulcan" salute. Everyone else in attendance got the hand gesture but me. For the record, I gave myself my own little mental finger gesture for having missed this photo opportunity.

The museum. For a limited time they have the last known pair of Leonard Nimoy's original series ears on display (they are from Mr. Nimoy's own collection). He went into the museum with a select group of people and everyone else waited outside, and it was pretty cold that day, for Mr Nimoy to re-emerge and lead the parade to the unveiling of a Spock bust.

The local Enterprise float. And YEAH BABY – IT'S A HEMI.

Mr. Nimoy in the lead vehicle that drove the few blocks to the grand stand where he delivered a very nice, heartfelt speech to the citizens of Vulcan. The town council sat in, or walked beside, the smokin' hemi float that was pictured above

A parting shot of the starship that welcomes visitors to Vulcan.

One last item of note. Someone showed up at this event in Star Wars costume. Now this will sound mean but bear with me. Do you remember the final episode of Seinfeld where they got arrested for seeing something and doing nothing about it…now that you have that mental picture, here is the story. My daughter and I were waiting along the parade route (so there is our alibi), and as we were standing there, waiting for Mr. Nimoy to drive by, we saw R2 descending the gradual slope. At one point, R2 lost footing and fell. I was immediately reminded of the line from A Christmas Story - "Randy laid there like a slug… it was his only defense" (a minute twenty into the linked clip). As R2 flailed about like a turtle on it's back I looked at the multitude of Star Trek fans looking at the incapacitated unit and doing nothing and, YES, I admit it, I laughed. Then, as I saw that no one was going to help, I decided to get off my perch (which was perfect for viewing Mr. Nimoy, so you know what I was about to give up here) and go help. By the time I finally decided to do this I saw a few people approach R2 and help out, thus saving the droid™ and allowing me to keep my prime spot.
So you can go ahead and judge me now, but I think one really has to question the motives of someone who comes to a Star Trek event like this dressed up as a Star Wars character…I think they were looking for trouble.

The Calgary Expo

2010-10-30T13:04:00.012-06:00

So this is the post I should have done ages ago, considering the Expo was back in April. So here it is.

We, my daughter, my two brothers, my niece and nephew, and I went to the Expo and had the opportunity to meet some of the coolest guests yet (every year seems to get better with this event, and next year promises to be even bigger).

Here are a few of the photos, some of them are a little blurry but I never claimed to be a photographer.

The one and only Malcolm McDowell, one of the nicest people I have ever met. He signed the items I had brought and then we talked briefly about Stanley Kubrick and films in general and he even directed some of the conversation to my daughter, who was probably rolling her eyes at her fanboy dad. She has seen Time After Time but is not ready for some of his other films. I'm sure I sounded like a gushing idiot to him, but he didn't say anything, the shoulder in the photo is mine but the look on my face is scarier than anything I saw at the show, so I cropped myself out, I'll photoshop a different expresion someday and then only my hairdresser will know for sure.

Mr. Leonard Nimoy. The signing had an assembly line feel and he didn't personalize anything, but if you saw the line you would understand. I'm pretty sure out of the 20,000 fans who came to the show about 19,993 came to see Leonard Nimoy. I can't imagine the writers cramp he must suffer after each and every convention he goes to.

Bill Sienkiewicz came to the show and did a fantastic Batman drawing for me, he also signed my Venture brothers DVDs that he did the cover art for. I grew up reading his Moon Knight books and I followed pretty much everything he's done from Elektra Assassins to the conspiracy theory trading cards. The best part about meeting him was when he was about to hand me my sketch and then he said "wait a second", took the drawing, set it on the floor, grabbed a brush pen from his tool box, removed the brush and proceeded to splatter the drawing with ink. My initial thought as he was about to do this was "Noooooooooo" but DAMN! That just made the drawing a Bill Sienkiewicz.

Brent Spiner was there. Coolest story I have for him doesn't involve me or my daughter. There was a little girl and her dad ahead of us in the line, the little girl was clutching her Master of Disguise dvd for dear life, I can only assume it's her favorite movie. I guess her dad didn't realize there was an autograph fee until he got deep into the queue, so when he and his daughter got to the front of the line the father explained it all to Mr. Spiner and said that he just wanted his daughter to say hi to him. Mr. Spiner looked at the little girl, asked if she really liked the movie Master of Disguise, then asked if she wanted to hear his evil laugh (for those who haven't seen it he always farted at the end of the laugh). She said yes, he started to laugh, and then he said he had to stop because he didn't want to finish the laugh in public. Then he asked to see her dvd, which he then signed, gave it back and told her to treasure it forever. Very cool.

Billie Dee Williams, it was kind of anti climactic for me, to tell the truth. Probably because we, everyone in the line up, had been kept waiting about an hour/hour and a half longer than his "I'll be back at" sign said we would be waiting. As the volunteer kept coming back to adjust the time I got to the point of saying "10 more minutes and I'm out of here". When he did arrive he seemed a little grumpy and when I asked him to sign "may the force be with you (I know, I'm lame) on my Empire Strikes Back British quad poster (Drew Struzan's artwork was the only thing good to come of the "special edition" re-release) he just gave me kind of a squint eyed look and the signed his name and wrote "Lando" under it. I talked to my brother, who came to Calgary with his kids for the show, and he proceeded to tell me about his son's great experience getting his Lando mighty mugg signed. Which made me think I just happened to catch Mr. Williams at a bad time.

Super Punch - Red Sonya Contest

2010-10-28T16:01:00.001-06:00

John Straun at Super Punch ran another contest that was a lot of fun to be a part of, Red Sonya. Again I busted out the watercolour paints, worked on what I thought would be a typically defiant Sonja type pose and away I went.

My family thought I was having too much fun drawing boobs - like I've said before, I just need to practice…

Super Punch - Kick-Ass Contest: Hit Girl

2010-10-28T15:54:00.002-06:00

John Straun ran a contest some time ago on his site Super Punch and all I can say is - this is why I need to practice on my illustrations.

I would have to say that John's contests have inspired me to break out of the rut I was in creatively. I'm one of those types who needed a reason to do something (it's a lame excuse but it's the only one I have). So whenever he would have a contest (and this started over a year ago when he had a nose art competition) I would enter, not because I wanted to win, but because it was fun to do.

To tell the truth I forgot how much fun it is to just pick up a pencil and draw. For the most part, when I do something for John's contests, I like to use traditional methods (watercolour, pencil, etc). Although I did go digital for the Knight of Wands piece I did for his Tarot Card project but that was because I wanted to create something that looked like an airport information card.

The Calgary Cinematheque - Metropolis

2010-10-28T15:40:00.000-06:00

Okay, when I first got the call from the Calgary Cinematheque that they would like me to help out, I was given a brief list over the phone of the upcoming movies. The third film on the list was Metropolis - complete and uncut, and as the rest of the list was being read all I could think about was the line from Jerry Maguire when Renée Zellweger says "you had me at hello".

A tough movie to do a poster for, in my opinion, because there have already been some amazing, iconic posters created. I wanted to do right by this film. I worked on a few graphic treatments that looked a little design-ee and then I thought that what I would really like to see is something like what Ludwig Hohlwein might have done. I also wanted to homage to the original poster with the rays of light behind the false Maria. So there you have it. I really need to bust out my paints and practice.

The film is being shown on November 18th at the Uptown in Calgary. It will have live musical accompaniment by the world famous Alloy Orchestra, and it has been fully restored with scenes that have long been thought lost.

Below are some of the early poster drafts I did too.

The Calgary Cinematheque - Ikiru

2010-10-28T15:16:00.000-06:00

This was a movie I had never seen before. I picked up the Criterion Collection dvd to watch so that I would get a sense of what it was about. All I can say is WOW. Crushing bureaucracy and beneath it all a little hope. On top of getting to design posters I am being exposed to films I have either not seen or, not seen in a while.

Here is Roger Ebert's review of the film.

By the way, if you have ever worked for government, there is a scene at the beginning that made me laugh out loud (I don't know if that was the intent, probably not, but I thought it was funny anyway) in which a group of women are trying to get a park built and they get told, and I am paraphrasing here, "not my department. That scene is as true today as it was in 1952.

The Calgary Cinematheque - Easy Rider

2010-10-28T15:00:00.000-06:00

Up next for the Cinematheque was Easy Rider.

I wanted to create a different look for this poster than what had been created in the past. Usually the artwork focused on the road, Dennis Hopper, Peter Fonda or Jack Nicholson. I wanted to focus on the symbol of their freedom, the bike, and in particular, Captain America's bike. It has such an iconic shape to it that I thought those who know and appreciate the film would hone in on it. And aside from the black and gray bits I wanted to keep the overall look very red, white and blue.

The Calgary Cinematheque - Rashomon

2010-10-28T14:47:00.000-06:00

This year, on top of volunteering for the Calgary Comic and Entertainment Expo, I decided to volunteer for the Calgary Cinematheque. I have always wanted to design film posters and the Cinematheque runs classic films at local theatres. So when I contacted them they were willing to give me a shot.

My hope is to create a poster that I, or someone like me, would rip off of a construction site wall and put in a place of honor in my own office.

First up: Rashomon. I'm very happy with how it turned out. I think what I need to do though is grab my paints and practice illustrating again because I'm too used to trying to create things in the computer and I really wanted this to look like an old 50's era painted poster. I think that compositionally I captured that feel but I need to work on it.

The Calgary Comic and Entertainment Expo continued

2010-10-28T14:25:00.001-06:00

Here's the ad I mentioned in my previous post. I never claimed to be a copy writer but I kind of liked the headline and sub head that I came up with. Simple and directed at a specific group. We wanted to make Malcolm McDowell the focus on this ad because Leonard Nimoy had been getting most of the attention for the show and we just wanted Alex DeLarge to have his turn.

The Calgary Comic and Entertainment Expo

2010-10-28T13:51:00.002-06:00

I volunteered to help out with some of the design elements for the Calgary Comic and Entertainment Expo this year, it was through the Expo (thanks Kandrix) that I was given the honor of working with the town of Vulcan (thanks Dayna) on the Welcome Home project for Leonard Nimoy.

With the Expo I got to work on the program, develop badges, T-shirts, some advertising components and some of the booth materials. I also developed some propaganda posters that didn't see the light of day aside from my blog here.

It was afantastic event that allowed me to meet some very cool people that I have idolized since I was a kid. Leonard Nimoy was fantastic (I still remember tracing, then drawing freehand the image of Spock off of his "Leonard Nimoy Presents: Mr. Spock's Music From Space" album), Billie Dee Williams was pretty cool (he wrote a whole bunch of stuff on the box of my nephews Lando Mighty Mugg, and he signed my Empire Strikes Back poster). But in my book Malcolm McDowell is the coolest guy on the planet, he signed my Clockwork Orange and Time After Time posters and my Stanley Kubrick Archives book and my daughter and I got to have a nice, but brief, conversation with him (my daughter hasn't seen Clockwork but she has seen, and liked, Time After Time).

Iron Man (the first one)

2010-10-28T13:38:00.000-06:00

I can't believe I never uploaded this poster I did a while back. This was before the first Iron Man movie came out (which I liked better than Iron Man 2). The type is something I played with in Photoshop and the background is made up of about 5 stock images.

I was, and am, pretty happy with the end result. I wanted to show the original image I grabbed off of Allmoviephotos.com (the photo is by Jamie Bivers) so you can see I played with the colours quite a bit to make him really shiny. I have another one that features big floating heads but I'm not too happy with it so I let it sit out this dance.

Anyway, it's an oldie but a goodie.

Final Spock Welcome Home Image

2010-10-28T12:54:00.003-06:00

When Leonard Nimoy came to Vulcan in April I was asked to come up with an image that would appear on T-shirts and posters. I originally did a rough Shepard Fairey imitation which I was happy with (see "Welcome Home, Spock" post) but it was nixed. So I did my Andy Warhol impression and come up with the final.

Here are some of the other attempts as well as my final Shepard Fairey homage which I made into a T-shirt for myself (and I got quite a few compliments, especially regarding the stardate).

Old Dutch/Fast and Furious promo

2010-10-28T12:37:00.001-06:00

I was given the opportunity to work on a cross promo a while back for Old Dutch Potato Chips and the movie Fast and Furious.

It was a lot of fun and could have been even more so. My original idea (I guess original is debatable) was to create character specific bags (kind of a collect them/trade them sort of thing). Five flavours, one for each actor and a fifth bag for either the car or the final key art (I thought the car would be pretty cool since it was featured so prominently). This idea met with some favourable response from the powers that be, but when it came down to the wire it was decided to tie in only to the key art for the film (created by Concept Arts).

I understood and I was looking forward to getting the full size, layered artwork for the poster but the only thing provided was the key art for the CD, and it was the flat file to boot.

So even with those challenges I think the end result worked out quite well. They were eye catching in the stores and it was one of the more popular promotions that Old Dutch ran (maybe the film had something to do with it too).

The Farnsworth Parabox

2010-03-21T12:53:00.004-06:00

My daughter got a box of kidrobot Futurama toys for Christmas and ended up with a bunch of duplicates, so she and I customized the extra characters and turned them into their parallel universe counterparts.

Welcome home, Spock

2010-03-20T14:35:00.003-06:00

In honor of Leonard Nimoy's upcoming visit to the town of Vulcan, Alberta, I've been asked to come up with some t-shirt ideas. This was an early concept that I proposed, based on Shepard Fairey's Obama poster (obviously). Everyone really liked it, but they decided against it.

I'm currently exploring other options (but I still like this one).

Volunteer Propaganda Posters

2010-03-20T14:24:00.007-06:00

I'm volunteering with the Calgary Comic & Entertainment Expo this year. I created these posters in the hopes of attracting more volunteers to this year's event.

Leonard Nimoy and Malcolm McDowell will be appearing at the expo this April! Woo-hoo!

Knight of Wands

2010-03-20T13:51:00.003-06:00

This is my contribution to the Endless Deck, a virtual deck of tarot cards created by various artists from all over the world and curated by Super Punch's John Struan.

The inspiration can be seen here:

[YouTube link]

Stampede Tickets

2010-01-02T16:52:00.003-07:00

Premium seating tickets for the 2010 Calgary Stampede.

I was thrilled that Thomas Allen allowed the use of two of his fantastic images in the Ranahans ticket design. I'm a huge fan.

She's Dead, Jim

2010-01-02T13:35:00.006-07:00

The December art contest at Super Punch was SciFi Fairy Tales. My wife came up with the brilliant suggestion to mash-up Snow White and classic Trek, and this illustration is the result.

Our daughter also decided to throw her hat in the ring, so she created this Rapunzel alien abduction illustration.

Even though neither of us won this time around, it was still a lot of fun and I'm looking forward to participating in the January contest!

Slave Leia Nose Art

2010-01-02T13:24:00.006-07:00

This was my entry for the November Super Punch art contest. The theme was nose art and I drew inspiration from classic World War II airplane nose art, with a sci-fi twist.

The plane shown is the B-29 Superfortress, the inspiration for the cockpit of the Millennium Falcon.

I was thrilled when my entry won. Thanks, John at Super Punch!

Dead Air

2010-01-01T13:18:00.003-07:00

Antibody Films, the producers of Dead Air, a Corbin Bernsen-directed movie, decided to run an online fan art contest for their movie poster. All assets were provided online and fans got to vote on which poster would be used for the cover of the DVD.

This was my entry. I didn't win, but it was still fun to do.

Jungle Book

2010-01-01T12:30:00.002-07:00

I did this poster for the 2009 Alberta Dance Theatre production of Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book.

Resume Poster

2010-01-01T12:00:00.003-07:00

A resume that features my love of movie poster design. The billing block at the bottom has the programs I used, as well as career highlights at the time it was created (click on the image to biggify) .

Be sure to check out my new online portfolio!

Chaotic Banners and Packaging

2009-12-31T12:09:00.001-07:00

With the can design in place I was asked to develop additional packaging for the product, this included a 4 pack case, and a palette wrap. I was also asked to produce banners and a barrel wrap design. The images are of the case, the banners and both the flat and the simulated 3-D palette wrap.

Chaotic Beverages

2009-12-30T12:16:00.003-07:00

A new product is being introduced to Canadian consumers. It's already in the United States and the distributors wanted the cans to look different than their U.S. counterparts. The elements provided were the key art for the character cards, the drink names and the Chaotic logo.

Rather than showing the environment the characters occupy on the cards, I decided to cut them out and have them shown at the stage of transporting into the world of Chaotic with a glowing logo beneath them. The effect is quite striking when printed against a rich black background.

Fight Banner

2009-12-29T12:41:00.002-07:00

This was a banner created for pubs in the States that were going to be showing the De La Hoya-Pacquiao fight. The banners were created to highlight Full Throttle as a sponsor and they had to reflect the branding of that product.

The key art for all of the previous materials/advertisements for the fight were very tech looking and blue in tone. The fireball/explosion helped distinguish the banner from all previous pieces and it unified the existing key art elements with the product, plus it helped give the piece a nice energy.

Australian Legend

2009-12-28T12:44:00.002-07:00

When my first attempt on this project didn't go over well (see FAIR DINKUM and FIGJAM) I was asked to create a few more concepts and some swag to go along with the design. For this one I opted to focus on Ned Kelley (a true Australian Legend) or someone just like him, and I used the tag line that was created previously – "Break Out The Legend".

I put in Lorem Ipsum to show copy placement (I felt it should be creatively written in such a way as to sing the praises of the outlaw and somehow tie it into the wine). And then I created a bottle hanger (that would share some of the same copy) and, even though it would not be used on this product, a bottle opener made to resemble an old skeleton key.

The verdict is still out on this one, but I like it.

W J Calendar

2009-12-27T12:48:00.004-07:00

For this piece I acted, primarily, as Creative Director (I got to boss people around). After a couple of brainstorming meetings with the Art Directors we determined that the main thing we wanted this piece to be, to whomever received it, was fun. We wanted the person to enjoy each month and maybe they would even keep that favorite as a piece of art for their cubicle.

I wanted each month to feature a local illustrator and the calendar would help promote them as well as the company. It would also foster good will amongst the design and illustration community so that in the future, when we needed to create another calendar, we could utilize a new group with different illustration styles. For the final artwork we used two illustrators who had a few different styles, plus the two Art Directors and myself. The end result was a piece everyone was happy with.

Fairy Tale Fiascos

2009-12-26T12:52:00.004-07:00

I was asked to develop a poster for the 2008 production for Alberta Dance Theatre, titled Fairy Tale Fiascos. It was a series of fractured fairy tales much like "the True Story of the 3 Little Pigs" or "the Stinky Cheese Man" so there was a lot of fun to be had. The key thing was that it had to look fun and appeal to their demographic.

When I presented the first round of concepts it seemed clear to me that I was over-complicating things so while we looked at the first concepts we started to talk about the fractured fairy tales that were to inhabit the performance.

I kept going back, in my mind, to the fractured fairy tales from the Rocky and Bullwinkle show and how the Fairy Godmother was crushed in the pages of the book. This led to the idea of the wicked witch from Oz being crushed under the weight of a book, with only her ruby slippers and striped stockings exposed. The client loved the idea and requested some additional elements be added to show context for the scene.

When all was said and done, though, it was apparent to me that as a poster it would work best if it was as simple as possible, so setting disappeared, as did extra characters, and the book became the only element floating in a happy sea of blue.

The finishing touch was adding a spot foil to the shoes (which doesn't translate very well here) to make them look more like the ruby slippers of the Wicked Witch. The end result is a poster I'm quite proud of.

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles

2009-12-24T12:58:00.004-07:00

20th Century Fox had a contest. I couldn't enter because it was only open to citizens of the U.S.A. so I downloaded the assets they provided, designed a series of posters and entered anyway.

I never heard from Fox and I have since given up hope of hearing from them. Especially since the series has now been canceled. But regardless, it was fun to do.

(images copyright 20th Century Fox)

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford

2009-12-23T13:03:00.003-07:00

I really want to design key art for films, so any chance I get, I give it a go. I liked this movie a lot and I saw a lecture by the photographer, Kimberly French, and was inspired. So I gathered up some images and developed this poster.

It's actually quite a literal interpretation of the events if you ask me. The Robert Ford character is lurking about in the shadow of the iconic American outlaw behind his back. The top of Jesse's head is gone (attempt at foreshadowing). I know distributors would not want to show just half of Brad Pitt's head because that just doesn't sell a movie, I guess, but I wanted to do something different with the images and not make it a floating head poster.

(images copyright Warner Brothers Pictures)

A Hard Day's Night

2009-12-22T13:07:00.003-07:00

This is one of my favorite movies. I have been a Beatles fan for quite some time and I had been sketching out some poster ideas for awhile, on and off, and I finally decided on a direction I was happy with.

It retains the flavor of the original yet it feels contemporary. I wanted fun images (aside from the Ringo shot which comes across as a little serious - but I liked the look of it). I wanted it to have a sense of hierarchy as well, since Ringo has a little more screen time than John, Paul or George I wanted his photo to be larger.

(images copyright Miramax)

Coke: On Par...

2009-12-21T13:16:00.002-07:00

The ad was to appear in a golf publication. Coke wanted their brand properly represented but the ad didn't have to use Coke Red as a dominant element. I was given a sketch of what was wanted and then asked to come up with something else if I had the time.

I came up with this concept and I presented it, along with the client's requested piece, to the Account Coordinator who "didn't get it". They saw the bottle, they saw the golf course, they saw the sand trap but they still "didn't get it." They felt it looked a little too abstract. So the AC asked for other golf course shots.

I sent along what I could find and I fought for this one. I fought for it because I felt the idea was strong enough, and the angle of this photo (once properly manipulated to have a specific green shape) was the right angle to go with. The AC reluctantly agreed.

When the client saw it they loved it and it was published (it even ran again with another golf related headline).

Coke/Disney

2009-12-20T14:05:00.004-07:00

Here are two pieces where Disney did a cross promotion with Coke. Disney supplied the images and I added the odd touch or two and then, after it went into Studio for production, off it went to press.

The Toy Story piece was never used by the client. I wanted to bring an element of Andy's room to the poster, so the text would have a space to occupy without covering the image. This was not what Disney wanted so it was revised in such a way that the image of Toy Story Mania ended up taking up 75 per cent of the poster. I didn't work on the final piece so it's not included.

For the Quencinera poster I added an old fashioned frame to the border to give it a story book feel. It was a simple idea but it worked, and that made both Coke and Disney happy (and I was okay with it too).

The Bike Show

2009-12-19T14:13:00.004-07:00

An interesting creative brief on this one. The client knew full well their demographic — bikers — but this year they wanted to focus on family, yet keep the feel of their primary target audience.

So I thought what better way to say family than to show a kid, and what better way to show biker culture than with a tattoo. The two ideas seemed perfect for each other and they had the added benefit of shock value.

This particular piece was developed for the media package. The client wanted an 8.5 x 11 printout sent by mail, but they were eventually convinced that a digital media kit would have more impact. It would save the receiver of the package time, in that they could simply copy and paste information directly from a supplied word file, and it had a far more professional feel.

The end result was an attention getting piece that the client was very happy with.

Australian Legend

2009-12-18T14:18:00.002-07:00

(unpublished)
I was asked to come up with a couple of ads for the white and red varieties of Australian Legend wine. The client wanted something that had a western feel. They actually wanted the ads to feature a cowboy and cowgirl (because the logo has an Australian rough rider), so I provided one concept with that direction.

But the concept I liked featured an old fashioned (maybe a little cliched) look for wine but with a headline that spoke to the uniqueness of Australia and their ability to create fantastic, fun words for anything. So after looking through several Australian/English dictionaries I found these two words (there are more, trust me) that acted as great attention getting headlines (the definitions are to the left of the bottle and upside down).

Harry Potter

2009-12-17T14:23:00.007-07:00

I was asked to produce a poster and program booklet, among other things, for an Alberta Dance Theatre production of Harry Potter. The only request was that it look nothing like the existing books or the movie. I think it turned out quite well. Above is the program cover.

The back of the program features the invitation letter that Harry received from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

The final poster. It all started with an idea to make a circus poster.

Oscar Party Invitation

2009-12-16T14:33:00.006-07:00

This was a poster invitation to an Oscar-themed fundraising party held every year by Theatre Calgary. I had suggested a full 27 x 40 poster featuring a full size Oscar statuette but, when finances were established, concessions had to be made and we decided on an 11x17 that highlighted the statuette's torso.

The poster is comprised of movie quotes (thank goodness for imdb.com). I researched all of the quotes and typeset the piece.

The quotes are not all Oscar winners, or necessarily Oscar nominated films, but they were films I wanted to use, plus a few special requests from the client. A quote from each Marx Brothers movie was a must, as was the "Take your stinking paws off me" line from Planet of the Apes. The poster was very well received.

High Fidelity

2009-12-15T14:39:00.001-07:00

A make-work project for myself that ties into my appreciation of movie posters. Since high resolution images of John Cusak were not available to me I opted for a more conceptual approach that, I feel, also tied into the novel quite well.

Verbotene Begierde

2009-12-14T14:42:00.003-07:00

A wedding invitation poster that I created for a friend. The title, Verbotene Begierde (German for "forbidden love"), stems from his German heritage and his fiancee's Jewish roots.

He originally wanted a pulp novel cover and I convinced him to do a film noir poster. The title was set in German to give it a foreign noir feel. I did borrow the poses of the bride and groom from two existing noir posters featuring Ava Gardner and Rod Steiger but the heads are of the couple — sort of.

The Show Off

2009-12-13T14:45:00.002-07:00

A poster advertising the "Show Off," which is an exhibition of advertising and design for a southern Alberta awards show called the "Ad Rodeo Anvils" (the award is shaped like an anvil).

The theme was "Flex your design muscle" and I opted for my pop culture roots. This piece won an anvil award for the best use of illustration and an award of merit for best poster in that year's award show.

Fresh

2009-12-12T14:48:00.002-07:00

A bus shelter poster design for a local clothing boutique.

Aaaaaaaa-eeeeee!

2009-12-11T14:50:00.003-07:00

Both of these ads were given to me as a concept pencil sketches for a Calaway Park advertising campaign. I created all of the final art for the printed pieces.

Please Slow Down

2009-12-10T14:54:00.005-07:00

Each year, because of all of the construction throughout the city, more and more road workers for The City of Calgary were getting injured by frustrated drivers speeding through construction zones.

The City of Calgary wanted an effective road side campaign that would slow down drivers while going through construction zones. A similar campaign had been started in the United States that utilized an orange construction sign that featured child-like type, complete with backward "Rs". We wanted something stronger.

So I got to develop a campaign that made people aware that the City workers were like everyone else, and that they too had family to go home to. This effective campaign ran for over two years.

CAPP

2009-12-09T15:01:00.002-07:00

A statistical report on the oil sands for the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers.

Publications Unbound

2009-12-08T15:02:00.002-07:00

Logo design for a web company that supplied pdf travel pages that people could simply download and read off their palm pilot so that you could hold a library in the palm of your hand.

Orthodontics logo

2009-12-07T15:08:00.002-07:00

The only real restriction for this logo was that the client wanted to use the word Surrideo — Latin for smile.

The use of traffic signs to represent corrective orthodontic work was well received and unlike any other orthodontic clinic.

Public Art Program Logo

2009-12-06T15:11:00.001-07:00

A sculpture, located in downtown Calgary, called "The Conversation" seemed an obvious choice to symbolize the Public Art Program. Because, with art there is usually discussion.

Resume

2009-12-01T16:00:00.007-07:00

Click the image to enlarge.