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We’re exhibiting in the “Where’s My Jetpack?” group show for Social Media week. 1.19.12No Comments

We’re excited to be part of the upcoming “Where’s My Jetpack?” show. The show, at Cyber-NY in Manhattan, 23rd & Madison, opens on Friday, February 17 for Social Media Week with a moderated panel discussion at 4pm, “The Collision of Social Media and the Arts,” with representatives from fashion, music, interactive, and the arts, followed by a reception at 6pm.

Our contribution is an installation featuring treasures from the Roc Jetpack Laboratories archive, recently discovered in a Chicago warehouse.

Please come out and share a drink with us, while you ponder why we don’t have the future we were promised.

Go here for more information.

Friday, February 17, 4pm–9pm

Cyber NY
34 East 23rd Street, Fourth Floor
New York, NY 10010

Former students featured on the Dieline 1.13.12No Comments

Packaging blog The Dieline featured the work of two of my former students, Melissa Deckert and Emily Hale this past week.

More of their work can be found here at Salt and Seed and here as well as here. They’re graduating soon, so if you’re looking for fresh talent and gutsy poise, hire them.

We’re participating in a Kaiju-themed art show at FOE gallery. 1.5.12No Comments

One of our favorite discoveries in Western Mass is the FOE gallery in Northampton.

We’re excited to be participating in the upcoming show Garamaniacal, curated by FOE co-owner Jim Shea and Garamania’s Michael Nordstrom. The show does homage to the iconic 1960′s kaiju Garamon (and its tiny incarnation, Pigmon). I was first introduced to this creature, and his cohorts, as a kid. Growing up in Chicago in the 70′s, I got to watch a slew of Japanese shows most kids in the States were denied, like Ultraman, Spectreman, Johnny Socko and his Giant Robot, and Space Giants. Thanks to the interwebs, I’ve been able to introduce my son to these old school gems. So I leapt at the opportunity to join in the show at FOE.

Please join us at the opening, February 10th, or stop in to see the work, which hangs through March 4th.

There’s also a cool coloring contest, which raises funds for the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children.

Image thanks to http://jbwid.com/art63.htm

Popcorn Noir on NPR 12.2.11No Comments

Our first Western Mass client, Popcorn Noir, was featured on NPR recently.

It is a wonderful addition to the area, a free movie theater showing an eccentric variety of good films. And it’s an inspiring re-invention: a former storefront church transformed into a comfy Art Deco space. Listen to the NPR piece, then join me at Popcorn Noir for a flick.

USAdopt website launches 10.17.11No Comments

The USAdopt website has been launched.

USAdopt fills an ecological niche that was astonishingly vacant: an organization that calmly, warmly, and professionally, helps people navigate the confusing domestic adoption process. Founder and CEO Amanda Grant was inspired by her own (ultimately happy) quest to become a parent. Her personal experience, coupled with her career as a senior officer in the institutional investment business, made her uniquely qualified to create USAdopt. Our task was to capture this delicate balance in an identity: competent and caring, personal and professional, and to craft a website that enables its clients to benefit from Grant’s expertise.

Former student Arianna Toft a finalist in the American Batik Design Competition 10.14.11No Comments

Another talented former Pratt student is distinguishing herself. Arianna “Pika” Toft is a finalist in the I ndonesian government’s first American Batik Design Competition. Her design is an impressive hybrid of Native American motifs, traditional Indonesian elements, and a contemporary sensibility that channels mid-century modern hipster flatness.

On her design, she writes, “Totem poles are among the most recognizable symbols associated with American cultural heritage. As the first inhabitants of the country, the Native Americans played a significant role in helping European settlers survive by providing food and valuable knowledge of the land.”

Her site is filled with good stuff.

Video intro to the Lunch Post project 10.9.11No Comments

I’ve made a short video intro to the Lunch Post project.

Every day of school, from kindergarten through third grade, I have sent my son off with a sticky note fixed to the inside lid of his lunchbox. Each of these little pieces of colored paper bears a half-completed drawing and a half-written story. I anxiously await picking him up after school to see how he finishes these miniature comics. We post the results (almost) daily at Wandermonster.com

Former student Anthony Cudahy in Juxtapoz, the Converse blog, etc… 10.8.11No Comments

I’ve had the great fortune to teach a small army of talented students at Pratt Institute the past several years. Many of my former students have gone on to impressive careers. Some came in to my classes with natural talent that far surpasses my own, and I can only hope that my insights help them to channel their abilities a little better. Anthony Cudahy is one of these. Since I don’t teach illustration, I didn’t see much of Anthony after he was in my sophomore-level Visual Communication class, but I’ve kept an eye out and am thrilled to see him getting some press. Hire him.

Here he is in Juxtapoz.

And on the Converse blog

and in booooooom

and on his own site.

The Lunch Posts & Wandermonster blog in the Wall Street Journal 10.4.11No Comments

Our blog, Wandermonster, and the Lunch Posts are featured in a piece in the Wall Street Journal today. My son Ben enjoyed his first interview and is quoted in the piece. Some images appear in the video piece around 2:07. Please come explore our blog—which has a great new thumbnail archive, thanks to the talented Mr Arlo Guthrie.

Popcorn Noir 9.30.11No Comments

Popcorn Noir is our kind of project. Motivated by love of film and community, it’s an exciting example of a crazy idea brought to life, and one sure to become a fixture.

We’re just getting settled here in Western Massachusetts, even while I’m commuting weekly back to Brooklyn to teach three classes at Pratt. And we are continually reassured by the signs of creativity all around us. Like in Brooklyn, there are a lot of folk here doing projects, giving form to ideas. One of those projects is Popcorn Noir, a free movie theater taking shape in a formerly-vacant storefront. With a powerful guiding vision and a troupe of volunteer laborers, this funky little Deco jewel box of a theater is almost done gestating. I’m excited to slide into one of the sleek leather seats and see what movies—they promise a fertile mix of classics, indies, and locally-produced films—they will be showing.

I crafted a logo for Popcorn Noir, drawing on film reels and the lunar cycle in the darkened sky, with a popcorn full moon and Art Deco-inflected type.

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