Wednesday, April 11, 2012

no foolin'

This is a logo for a campaign I did this past summer for METRO RTA.  The lettering comes from House Industry's PLINC http://www.photolettering.com/. I did the gas gauge and can. I can't remember if Molly or I came up with the concept.

Thursday, April 05, 2012

almost

Sometime in the early 1990's, the Cleveland Indians management decided to update their logo to something politically correct. They contacted various American Indian/Native-American organizations to see what they would come up with. Enter me. I recently graduated college and started doing some graphic design work with my friend Seb. It was just some small jobs here and there, I kept my day job at Twin Value. One of the small jobs was for the NAICC, North American Indian Cultural Center, to design the program for the 20th Anniversary Spring Pow Wow. When the Cleveland Indians contacted NAICC, Claire of the NAICC, contacted me and asked if I would design some logos. Note, this was before desktop publishing was widespread and most everything was done by hand. I didn't have a computer. My roommate had one I could use for simple text but not artwork. I did my work with markers, matted them, put them in a nice hand-made box and sent them in.

Some days later, I get home from work and find out Seb and Claire have been trying to reach me to tell me that TV and radio reporters have been calling. Our logos were in the top choice and Cleveland Indian management and the various American Indian organizations were meeting at that moment to decide what will be the new logo.

I never spoke to any reporters. The meeting had disintegrated, one of the organizations didn't even want the name "Indians" used, and wouldn't back down or compromise. I guess the Cleveland Indians management decided they couldn't please everyone and kept their current identity system.

A few weeks later, Claire sent the logos back to me with a note from Bob DiBiasio.

The next summer I saw the Cleveland Indians put out some jackets with the vintage and even more politically incorrect Chief Wahoo. Hmmm… was that a little F-U to somebody?







Here's the vintage Chief Wahoo that was resurrected after all this.
I think he's taunting me.


Wednesday, December 07, 2011

it's sticky

After doing several comic strips for METRO's Stick with Bus campaign, I have a lot of emotional faces for him. Here's a matrix of them.



Today, I did another ad for First Night Akron and a flyer for my children's school.
01:00

Tuesday, December 06, 2011

what's in the box?

Two years ago I did a Santa Shop illustration for my kid's school newsletter. Pictured first is the original rendering.

The idea is the cute animal students are in line buying the presents. The rabbit bought a teddy bear and is hugging it and winking at the cute boy bear behind her. The boy bear is distracted by her and doesn't notice his Jack-in-the-box popped open scaring the kids behind him.

I show my wife the finished drawing and she says - Uh... Is that his penis? A la Mickey Rourke's popcorn box in the movie Diner.


Here's a detail of the alleged inpropriety. Two years later my wife still sees it.



I did change it. I think it looks better anyway.

Thursday, November 24, 2011

stick with bus

METRO RTA has been running a Stick with Bus campaign which I drew. It has been one of their most popular campaigns. Below are two comic strips, one of which never ran for fear of offending the University of Akron.



This is a tshirt advertising METRO's mobile website.

Saturday, November 19, 2011

it's stopping traffic!

This is an ad displayed on the exterior of buses for the bus company. It is a movie theme campaign for METRO RTA's website.