I had the pleasure of answering a few questions for Meghan over at The Creative Unconscious. Thanks for the opportunity Meghan!
Filtering by Category: IC Feature,Speaking
Last year we received a call from our favorite software company, asking us if we'd like to preview the soon-to-be-released Illustrator CC. The one caveat was that we had to create whatever we wanted and document how we did it. Our answer? A resounding 'Awesome!' and "Uh-oh, what are we going to create?" There were no guidelines, save for a few key words: Modern, fearless and reborn. Adobe's theme for the new release.
Since we had just recently bought a farm outside of the city, we were in the thick of having our normal lives turned upside down - yet at the same time, we were having a blast with our new lifestyle. 'Reality. Reborn.' is inspired by that personal transition ... blended together nicely with the amazing new features of Illustrator CC and Adobe's willingness to give us carte blanche on creative direction.
We've been using Adobe's products for almost 20 years now and rely extensively on their tools to create our projects. Huge thanks to Terry Hemphill and the Adobe team for asking us to do this. We had a lot of fun with CC's great new features.
Without further ado, download Adobe's awesome iPad magazine, Inspire to check it all out - or read it online. And to top it all off, grab the mega-huge uber-limited 25" x 46" poster in our shop now.
Read about how we went from sketch phase to final color blocking ... and how our process always evolves as we work.
One of the coolest new features in CC is the Multiple File Place tool, allowing you to adjust the size of your file before dropping them on the artboard.
CC's new Touch Type tool is especially great as well, allowing you to manipulate and edit individual characters without creating outlines.
Those are just 2 of my favorite new features. Read about the rest. A few details below:
... and pick up the giant 25" x 46" poster in the shop now for only $40.
It's an absolute honor to be interviewed by The Great Discontent. Cozy up with that brand new iPad from Grandma and have a read. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
We had the great privilege and honor of speaking at LEGO's internal Design Camp last week - a day away from the office for the creative team in beautiful Enfield, Connecticut. Scott Decoteau, along with the talented and generous crew at LEGO, were gracious hosts during our time in New England. Highlights of the trip included the LEGO HQ tour (wow), dangerously delicious indian food, bowling and sharing sentimental stories about the infamous drawstring denim LEGO bag.
To commemorate our talk, we decided to make some things. One of them being a poster of us creating our new mark out of 4,236 bricks - flown in from all over the world. After 2 hot days, 1 broken mallet (don't ask), 6 iced coffees and 3 blisters, the mosaic came to life. Extra special thanks to LEGO for supplying the baseplates.
Unfortunately these posters and prints are not for sale, but who knows - we may throw some in future IC poster orders ...
Is there still a role for designers in the music industry? We're honored to be amongst 7 studios interviewed and featured in IdN's Music Graphic issue.
Recorded music has always been packaged, from the very earliest days when wax cylinders came in cardboard tubes, and has therefore always involved designers. In the palmy days of vinyl LPs with sometimes stunning cover art and often erudite liner notes, the presentation was almost as important as the product.
But with the industry morphing so rapidly into the field of digital-download delivery, where do the graphics come in now? This is a burning question for all those working in the area of visually representing music. To see what their answers are, read this feature story, which solicits the views of seven specialist music designers.
Featuring: Telegramme Studio | Invisible Creature, Inc. | IWant Design | Daniel Reed | Matteo Meta | Leif Podhajsky | Giottographica
// Grab a copy here.
We're honored to be part of the fantastic new book Kern and Burn: Conversations With Design Entrepreneurs curated by Tim Hoover and Jessica Karle Heltzel. Featuring Aaron Draplin, Heads Of State, Arman Vit and many others.
'Kern and Burn: Conversations With Design Entrepreneurs' is a beautiful two-color book that features candid conversations with 30 leading designers who have founded startups, channeled personal passions into self-made careers and taken risks to do what they love. In this book they share their failures, successes, and perspectives. Our hope is that you can learn from them — not to follow in their footsteps, but to chart your own course in parallel, one that allows you to thrive, add value to the world and love what you do.
The entire Kern and Burn project was brought to life by a successful Kickstarter campaign, but here's where it all started. Tim and Jessica's spirit and passion for this book is an inspiration, pick up a copy if you can!
Honored to be featured in Print's 2012 Regional Design Annual. Gigantic thanks goes to our favorite clients over at Target inHouse.
Our gracious friends over at 
Design Bureau Magazine asks us a few questions in their latest issue. Featuring K-Rash like a boss on the cover.
Well, The Spit Swap has come and gone. The 2-night stint with yours truly in Portland and Mr. Draplin laying it down in Seattle was one for the record books. Portland, I can't thank you enough for cruising out to The Ace to watch me sweat it out up there as I attempted to tell our scattered story. It was a fun night of sharing great conversations with real folks. I had a blast. And Portland - your art, design and illustration community is one to be envied. Hats off to you nice people ... Massive high-fives to Eric Hillerns for the hospitality and for dreaming this baby up. Seriously. Aaron Draplin (and family!) for the obvious reasons. The man has talent in about a zillion areas, including the English language. But you guys knew that.
And of course The Ace Hotel, Lloyd Winter, Duane King, 52 Limited, Always With Honor, Portland AIGA, Fort Port ... the list goes on. Thanks to everyone who helped out, brought beer, food, tweeted, you name it. THANK YOU!
A few rad shots of the night, courtesy of long-time broseph Mr. Arges:
We stopped by the mighty W+K to visit one helluva guy Lloyd Winter and to apparently have our socks knocked off by the sheer awesomeness in that building. Wow.
"Yup, that's a bear"
Before the gig started, we stopped by Instrument's new spot to see our buds and visit the infamous teepees. Incredible space. Incredible talent.
J.D. and Vince giving us the tour ...
"Is this thing on?"
We meet at last ...
Tyler and Elsa from Always With Honor with a touching and funny introduction ... thanks again, guys.
Zac strong-arming folks into buying paper and sticky things ...
"It's just a theory" ... Duane, Josh and a few others hear me out regarding my thoughts on relativity.
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Anyways, it was a rad night. Thanks again, Portland.
We'll have 100 of these 3-color silk-screened posters for sale at our Spit Swap gig this Wednesday. Printed by the fine folks at Seizure Palace right there in PDX. Oh, and we've seen Draplin's poster. Get ready, Washingtonians.
It's 100% official and tickets are now 
Something awesome is unraveling. IC vs. DDC. Portland and Seattle. October 19th and 20th.
Our buddy Josh surprised us with a nice little gift last Saturday in San Diego. Killer engraving by Garrett Patz.
Last year, our buddy Josh Higgins asked if we'd cruise down to his city sometime to tell our story and flash some .jpg's on a big screen. We happily agreed, so here we are. We're excited to bring our dog and pony show to the beautiful city of San Diego on April 2nd. We'll be speaking at the legendary Casbah club, but what we're most excited about is The Black Heart Procession will be joining us to shut down the evening. Oh, and a little bonus for you early birds: The first 200 folks through the door get an 18" x 24" silk-screened poster, namely the one you see above. Tickets are $10 advance/$12 day of show and you can purchase them here.