Design

Not all projects are created equal. More specifically, not all projects are super fun and creative collabs like this one. We recently created the new logo and overall "look" for friend and photographer Embry Rucker. To promote this and his new website, we designed a series of four promo cards that were mailed out over a period of two months. If you send him a photo of them all together he'll send you a signed custom print. We also got to have a hand in creative direction of the new website, loaded with new work, a refreshingly interesting blog and several site-viewing options.

Each of the four cards has a URL and corresponding QR code printed on the back that links directly to each card's creation video - one less reason to toss a postcard right in the trash. Below is the 4th video and in Embry's words, "just a little tour around the shop with the sweet sounds of Joy Division in the background." Photos by Rucker.

I've always found inspiration in good album art & design. Here's a selection that I'm feeling at the moment - whether it be for the typography, imagery or graphics. A good cover is a good cover.

It was an honor and good fun to collaborate with friends at Keep-A-Breast. As a non-profit, they have and continue to do a great job promoting breast cancer awareness and prevention. The now famous "I Heart Boobies" bracelet has raised good amount of money and really kickstarted KAB to the next level. Building on that momentum, they decided to create a line of apparel merchandise to supplement their product offering, which premiered at the recent Agenda trade show.

Here's a sampling of the Look Book we designed for the merchandise line. Big deserved success in 2012 for KAB.... keep rocking Shaney Jo!

Our friends at Cuker Interactive (pr. Soo-ker) have been busy the past couple of years - developing sites for DC, Quiksilver, Plan B, XTerra, Alpine Stars... on and on. They just launched an iPad App for PacSun in time for this year's US Open of Surfing at Huntington Beach.

If you haven't heard of this agency yet, you probably will in a minute.

Boys To Men (not the 80's boy band) is a non-profit organization that mentors mostly fatherless teenage boys on how to "become men". The majority of these kids have little or no self-esteem, don't feel loved and have no direction in their lives. Check out this video to see a few of these brave kids who are feeling for the first time in their lives that they have a chance - it's very inspiring.

I had the privilege to design all of the print collateral for their 2nd annual "100 Wave Challenge" fund-raiser event. Last year's collateral looked pretty poor, like most non-profit marketing materials, so things really needed to be elevated. The end result has a retro-modern surf movie feel with a unique color palette that pops, with the hero wave image being a composite of an illustration and a barreling wave photograph.

Our friends at Nixon, Oakley and Bird's Surf Shed have all generously offered their products for the prizes and giveaways, giving the surfers some big incentive to meet or exceed their pledge goals.

Of course I had to sign up as a surfer/participant in the event and have been successful pulling in several friends to do the same. It should make for a fun day for a great cause. The question is, will I actually catch a 100 waves? It's for the boys, so I'm up for the challenge.

Here's a recently designed ad for Snapple promoting a new flavor of tea, a collaboration with Maroon 5. All proceeds go to benefit Feeding America, which makes me feel better working on a project for a (very) large corporation with a history of selling sugary beverages to millions of people. Apparently the singer has diabetes, so the flavor contains no added sugar.

The concept, in collaboration with Deutsch LA, was for the artwork to have a rock poster feel. To take it a step further and give it a real-world usage and added depth, I "applied" the poster to a plywood wall with staples and a peeled up corner. Whether or not the tea has better taste than the band is up for debate.

Jon Ritt, the design director of the Deutsch LA, invited me to lurk during a recent photoshoot of the new VW Beetle at Qualcomm Stadium - one of several ongoing location shoots. The hero images, all shot and retouched by Markus Wendler, will thread together to tell a visually interesting story in the new dealer catalog which should be impressive. The mood was surprisingly low-key for such a high-level shoot. One of the better moments was spending some time in the empty stadium with no noise but the camera click, an occasional airplane passing over and some random fake sports commentary.

British designer Vaughan Oliver created some great album covers for the Pixies, Cocteau Twins and the Breeders while he was art director at 4AD until 1988. He collaborated with photographer Nigel Grierson on most of the projects. Some of his cover designs for the Pixies continue to inspire...

Most billboards are a large-scale assault on the eyes. It was refreshing to see this one from Nixon on Hwy 101 in Encinitas, right in their own backyard.