Web Goods — Invisible Creature Speaks / Archive

I had the pleasure of answering a few questions for Meghan over at The Creative Unconscious. Thanks for the opportunity Meghan!

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!

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.

// 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 VSCO Film asked me a few questions about work and family.

Design Bureau Magazine asks us a few questions in their latest issue. Featuring K-Rash like a boss on the cover.

Well, it's about time. No more Flash. And we're pretty happy about that. Besides the obvious luxury of browsing our site on any platform, we've added quite a few new bells and whistles.

Here are the notable additions:

• Gift Certificates! Now you can purchase Gift Certificates in increments of $5 (up to $100) for that special someone ...

• Discount Codes! We'll be wheeling and dealing discounts in the shop from time to time, but we've got extra special plans for Lil' Happy Club participants. Stay tuned.

• New Blog! You'll notice the right sidebar has been given a facelift. Featuring new shop items, new work and coming soon: Flickr sets of our library, toy shelf and annual Lil' Happy Club submissions. All for the kids.

• FAQ! We tried to tackle the standard questions we receive on a daily basis, but I'm sure we'll be adding more in the near future (ie. Q: "Which one of you would win in a cagefight?", A: The cage)

Anyways, have a look around. We've buffed out the scratches and shined up the fenders for you. Enjoy.

Huge thanks to J.D., Phong, Kim and everyone over at the mighty Instrument for their skills.

10 Answers asked me 10 questions.

Just a reminder that Poster Cabaret carries a handful of our posters and limited prints, including many that we're sold out of. They also have a few pieces left from the 2009 Sasquatch! Festival, including the limited edition black/metallic gold/glo-in-the-dark character series (we're also sold out of these). We'll be announcing some limited exclusive prints and color variants available only through Poster Cabaret very soon.

We've had an incredible year at IC and feel like passing on a little love. So, we've gotten drunk on eggnog, whipped up a graphic and logged into the blog. From now until next Monday, December 21st, we are including a FREE set of our IC Throwback Series with any order $20 or over. Please note that we have a limited amount, so when they're gone, they're gone.

'Time Will Tell' and 'Prized Possessions' are now (finally) available exclusively through Velocity! Each print is a whopping 17" x 22" (with a 1" border for framing) and is printed on beautiful German Etching Hahnenmühle Fine Art paper. Hand signed, limited edition run of 50.

Sorry we're a little late on this info. With the new site launch, we lost a little time preparing for the holiday shipping rush. For U.S. residents, our cut-off day for ordering will be Monday, December 21st. For international orders, you might want to place your order now. We definitely can't guarantee it will arrive by Christmas, but we will try. Our next shipping day is this Tuesday, December 15th. Thank you for your support and patience! Happy Holidays!

Oh - and we'll be including a FREE IC button set with each order through the new year!

After 3+ years and countless new projects, we felt like it was time to give our site a makeover. And just like on Oprah, some things remain the same but many were given a significant upgrade. As you take a stroll around, you'll see what we mean. One of the big changes is that the work, shop and blog are all contained in one nice little package for your viewing needs. Another is that you get to see our work much quicker, with access points all over the homepage. We have gotten a few comments from peeps that were hoping for an html iPhone-friendly version. After much consideration on our part, we felt like the vast majority of our demographic would NOT be viewing it on a mobile device. However, that version may be something to consider if the demand is there. We aren't David Lynch, but the work just looks better on an actual computer.

Many, many thanks to JD at Gridplane and Instrument for making this happen. Oh, and please e-mail us if you encounter any glitches as we are still attempting to sort all of that out.

We're extremely honored to be part of Grain Edit's Holiday Giveway Bash! featuring incredible art and collectibles from peers, friends and heroes. We're donating two 16" x 16" Giclee prints as well as our new Winter Fishing Hole! Gift Card from Target loaded with $25 to buy your uncle that Die Hard DVD he's been wanting or the ear muffs your dog has been hinting at. If we could enter, we would! Winners announced December 18th.

I gotta be honest, apparently I've been living under a gigantic rock and hadn't heard of the awesome NOTCOT until today when they posted a really cool write-up titled Art Of The Gift Card showcasing some of the new holiday Gift Cards at Target. They even went above and beyond and devoted a special something to our 'Winter Fishing Hole' Gift Card/Game. We've actually been getting reports that they are selling out at stores (that's a good thing, right?) but you can find them online through 12/31.

Oh, and yes I'm multi-tasking by kicking myself while adding the NOTCOT RSS feed to my daily visits.

Hardformat has some interesting thoughts on album covers in the digital world.

Chip Kidd has a new website (finally!) titled Good Is Dead, which consists of his portfolio, blog, speaking engagements and other nuggets of goodness. I'm very excited about all of this, as I believe Chip is one of the all-time greats. If you don't own this, you need to.

Bookmark time! Apartment Therapy just posted an article featuring the 'Top Ten' online shops for vintage furniture and accessories. Now you know what to do this weekend.