Wedding Invitations!

I had the joy of designing and printing wedding invitations for two dear friends of mine, Amanda Dodson (now Amanda Hays) and Christian Hays. 

I was given a stack of these blank cards with a green border on them. After many roughs and mock ups that just were not working, they described what they wanted for the invites as "simple and woodsy" and bam. that was all the information I needed.  And so I printed over 300 of these suckers each (so around 600 cards total) from my printer for nearly 14 hours straight. Fun and nerve-racking, but incredibly rewarding.

I also decided to hand letter all of the text. I had no idea how long that was going to take me, but I really didn't want to do the traditional extra-scripty typeface. They wanted the cursive script, but the long flourishes of the run of the mill wedding invitations just didn't fit them. The hand written type fit that balance and they and I both were very happy with the results. Plus the wedding was in a barn. awesome.

 I also had the pleasure of learning and then  playing mandolin for their wedding. Also nerveracking as crap since a month prior to the wedding I had never played a stinking mandolin in my life! But the same goes; nerve-racking but an incredible honor. Thanks for asking and trusting me to play in your wedding Amanda, and Jana for helping me out with the songs!

Nick Coward and the Last Battle- CD release!

Nick Coward and The Last Battle had their CD release show last week at The Camel in Richmond VA. I designed/illustrated the album art and hand lettered the type. It was a very long but very rewarding process and seeing them play again was the cherry on top. The final printed cover was much darker than the original colors, but I was totally ok with that.

 It came in a sleeve like a record would.

It was a great show, I'm really close with the bands that played before them and there was lots of friends in attendance. Heres their mypace: http://www.myspace.com/nickcoward

They wanted something based off of the midevel era woodcuts; simple, almost naive. Their lyrics are full of mythology, metaphors and epic narratives so I had a TON of ideas and just gave them a slough of ideas and thumbnails and they decided on the idea that is seen here. So I went with it.
Any time I started planning out anything, placement of the figures, the type, what was going to be in the picture, I would get super frustrated, so I just started drawing at the bottom with a 6B pencil and worked my way up the page and it turned out pretty ok!

The Young Sinclairs/ The Diamond Center- poster

I had almost a day to do this poster, but I had a lot of fun with it. I would like to revisit the type. But nevertheless I got it off in time, and turned out pretty ok. I left a little bleed at the bottom, because i liked it for some reason. Of course I still find the sketch more interesting than the final

I'm really excited to play at this show. I've been with The Diamond Center for almost a year now and been all over the place touring and playing shows and meeting alot of great musicians and people and things are going really well. Some projects and deals are possibly in the works with us.

I'm working on another poster for a show that got canned, but I'm still going to finish it and post it soon.

Some sketchbook stuff coming soon also!

Thao with the Get Down Stay Down

This was a screenprinted tee shirt design commissioned by Thao and the Get Down Stay Down. They are one of my favorite bands to see live. Just before leaving on tour with the Avett Brothers and Mira, Willis Thompson, their drummer and also 1 of 2 drummers in my band The Diamond Center, saw The Listening Room poster i did and asked for a poster and tee shirt for Thao's summer tour. (sorry long story) Both had supersuper tight deadlines and just as I was putting the finishing touches on this one, because of pre-tour unforseen difficulties, it got canned.... I was bummed. but. here it is. Thanks so much to Willis and Thao for the opportunity!!

Beastie Boys Type Poster

This is an expressive type poster with the complete discography of the Beastie Boys. After a ton of Reasearch, I think I got everyhting they did, but I probably didn't, because they do, and have done so stinking much. For the "Beastie Boys" treatment, I wrote out their name well over 20 times, scrapped the bad ones cut up the good ones and collaged what was remaining. Then I wrote out all the content straight with ink. Somehow, all the content fit perfectly and their was just enough room in the bottom corner for my initials. As one the longest lives hip hop groups with a tenacious DIY attitude, I hoped to bring some depth to the poster, and do it by hand. I was happy to be the only one to turn in a poster that wasn't printed. I left some edges unglued/ hanging off to further the rawness and attitude of the BBoys, but some people didn't really get it. too bad. 18x24" Sumi ink on paper. and glue.