Threadless & Absolut Vodka: Can I Get Your Vote?

As a Chicago fan, I couldn’t resist submitting a design for the Threadless/ABSOLUT Vodka Design Competition. The challenge was to create artwork for a limited edition bottle that “distills what you love most about the City of Big Shoulders into a fresh, inventive design that will give Chicagoans a reason to raise their glasses.” So I had to do a little research. I know what I love about Chicago, the summers, the city just comes to life, but I had to find out what is the ABSOLUT style. I looked up previous bottle designs and discovered that their style to me has a sketchy free flowing feel, nothing too technical/intricate.

So I started sketching. This is actually my second one where I was still working things out. I started to draw another more cleaned up version, but I just loved the energy and composition of this one that I decided to take this into Illustrator instead.
absolut_chicago_sketch 001

Here’s the result. I wanted something bright and full of energy and movement. My design is currently up for voting. If you like it please take the time to score it and check out the other designs too. There’s some good stuff.
absolut_design_spinder absolut_chicago_shirt_spinder absolut_chicago_bottles_spinder

P.S This is my favorite ABSOLUT Limited Edition Bottle Design: London by artist Jamie Hewlett.
absolut-london-jamie-hewlett-2

2013 Free Wallpaper & the Best of 2012

2013wallpaper_screenshot_crop2

Happy New Year Everyone! I’m excited for the year 2013 and I hope you are too. Thanks goes out to my new subscribers and to the ones that have stuck with me for the past 3 years. 2012 was a major year for me filled with highs and some powerful lows, but I’ve learned that it’s how you respond to those lows that makes a difference. I accomplished some of my goals from last year and some will be a continuous effort, like blogging more (at least once a week) and producing a monthly wallpaper. Here’s my design for the month of January celebrating the new year. I wanted something strong and dark, but at the same time pops. I also wanted something that both genders could appreciate. My wallpapers so far have leaned toward the feminine. The font I used was Old English Text MT and the outlines were constructed in Illustrator and brought into Photoshop.

2013 Free Wallpaper 1920 x 1080

2013 Free Wallpaper 1920 x 1080

Whether it’s due to color profiles, some system setup, or the fact that I’m working at different scales, the image in my psd file is slightly different from the final result. I’ve included a screenshot. I like the stronger red tones.

2013wallpaper_screenshot

A new year triggers a review of the previous in a culmination of “Best of” lists. Here are a few “Best of 2012″ from some blogs I follow:

From up North – Best of Digital Art & Typography
bestof2012_fundigitalbestof2012_funtypography

Line25 – Best Web Designs of 2012
bestof2012_line25

Good.is – The Best Smart Products of 2012
bestof2012_goodis

Architnect’s Top 12 for 2012
bestof2012_archinect

Blogspoon Graphics – Greatest Tutorial Hits of 2012
bestof2012_spoon

Digital Arts – Best Creative Tech for 2012

JUST Creative – Popular Posts of 2012

Wising Everyone a Bright
and Prosperous New Year!!!

 

 

Who I’m Following on Behance: Yuta Onoda

Yuta Onoda is a brilliant illustrator from Tokyo, Japan, presently residing in Canada. He received his bachelor’s degree in Applied Arts Illustration from the Sheridan Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning. Onoda has won numerous awards and his clients range from Scholastic to Wired Magazine. Paying great attention to layout, the way typography will be integrated, and balance in his pieces, his style combines the use of graphite, ink, paint, and photoshop. “My work is mainly a mix of linear, detail, and decorative elements. So, the advantage of using ink and graphite over mixed media for me is that they fit with my illustration/painting approach.“- from 2012 EK Interview. Onoda discusses some of his commercial and personal work on his blog and of course you can see more of his work on Behance.

The Behance Network is a major online tool for creative professionals to showcase their work. Access portfolios from a plethora of talented artists from all different genres. If you create a portfolio or a follower profile you can keep track or “follow” artists that you like. You receive updates whenever they upload a new project. The Behance Network has many perks for it’s users like job postings, competitions, and networking. Check out My Own Portfolio on Behance.

Free Wallpaper: Beauty

So here is April’s wallpaper in May. It’s been a pretty crazy couple of weeks ( in a good way). This wallpaper actually happened in stages with no set plan, completely unlike the others. It started off with me falling for this font called Colonna. It was a possibility for a logo I was working on, but it didn’t really fit. Yet I didn’t want to let it go, so Beauty was born. The challenge I gave myself this time was to compose a piece made of vectors. It needed to be striking and flow. Most of the vectors were files I had already collected from various sources. They’ve been repeated, reflected, rotated, and re-sized and it was harder than I thought it would be to make it work visually. Some placements just clashed horribly and had to be reworked. Let me know if you think it was successful and if not what would you do to improve it? There are 2 versions; one with slight color and the other is primarily black and white. Enjoy!

Free Wallpaper: My World Without Art

What really inspired me to create this March wallpaper was an article I read; Thanks to One Los Angeles Nonprofit, Budget Cuts Haven’t Killed Off Art Class which in short talks about the benefits of being involved in the arts and the program Inner-City Arts. Inner-City Arts offers an immersive well-rounded art experience to every Los Angeles public school student even if they can’t afford it. I didn’t grow up in the American school system, so I can’t speak personally about how cutting art programs has affected me. However, I can tell you that my life would be pretty empty without art. No exaggeration. My right brain dominates. I’m good at math and science, but subjects like chemistry and accounting never appealed to me. I took them out of necessity. Art was the class I lived for.

I still remember the first time I realized that I had some creative ability. It was in 6th grade and I drew a green cyclops with 4 arms and pincers. It was chosen to be in my school’s art exhibition. It wasn’t earth shattering, but imagine if I didn’t have that experience or the art classes and teachers that encouraged my talent.  I believe I would still be a Graphic Designer because art is at my core, however I would have to battle an intense learning curve., not even knowing the basics. When I made the career decision to leave Architecture behind, I had the confidence of taking years of art classes in my belt. I knew I had potential. So I think it’s sad that creative programs are the first to be cut.

In a survey conducted by IBM last year, 1,500 CEOs identified creativity as the number one competitive edge” of the future. And Secretary of Education Arne Duncan recently wrote that dance, music, theater, and visual arts “are essential to preparing our nation’s young people for a global economy fueled by innovation and creativity.”Read more…

Now, more about the wallpaper itself. I did a rough sketch of the splashes, took it into Illustrator, and copied the shapes in separate layers in Photoshop. View my project on Behance to see details and the screenshots of the process. I’m fascinated by airbrushing in Photoshop and I love how the splashes turned out. The objects represent what came to mind when I think of art, the tools to create, travel, colors, music, dancing, architecture etc. Enjoy! Of course constructive feedback is always welcome.

Wallpaper Size 1680 x 1050

Wallpaper Size 1440 x 900

Wallpaper Size 1280 x 800

View Project on Behance!

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