Inspired by that great song that happens to be everywhere, here's our new poster for the one-man band Gotye. Light blue, metallic silver and black. We'll have these in the shop on April 11th.

Extra special thanks to the talented and gracious Mr. Foster for featuring us in his beautiful new book, New Masters Of Poster Design, Volume 2. Available now!

We're honored to be featured in Design For Music by Hans Lijklema and published by The Pepin Press - showcasing a nice little smattering of various music projects throughout the years + a lengthy interview with both of us. Also includes an accompanying disc featuring 'Collapsing' by some band we are affiliated with. Big thanks to Hans for asking us to be part of this.

Well, the second annual Lil' Happy Club was another fun success. Over 130 envelopes were sent in and we had a blast checking out each original creation. Thanks to all of you who spent the time to craft your envelope and send it off to our hood. We're a bit busy with a few projects right now, but we promise to return the favor soon. Oh, and check out our favorites here.

Kids. We love 'em. Teenagers ... well, we love them too. With both in mind, we're excited to offer 4 new stretched canvas prints and posters through Wheatpaste Art Collective. The stretched canvas prints are a whopping 24" x 30" and the uber-cool removable non-toxic "sticky" posters are an even more-whopping 28" x 35". We've got a few samples of both formats in the shop and we aren't afraid to tell you the quality level is perfect-o. The colors are rich and just as vivid as you see here. You can purchase them individually or collect the whole set. Seem them a tad bigger here. Enjoy ... here's to the kids.

"Afternoon Snack":

"The Visitor":

"High & Dry":

"Neighborhood Cookout":

Tommy Perez (see last post) blogged about his ultra cool Leroy C. Lil' Happy submission. Downloadable PDF (courtesy of Tommy) coming soon as well.

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.

Thanks to our good friends at the other Creature for including our work together with JanSport in their Communication Arts story this month.

It's that time of year again. What time is that you ask? Lil' Happy time. Last year was heaps of fun - we had a few hundred envelope submissions in a little over a month. We promised ourselves that if it was a success, we'd make it an annual thing. Well, here we are.

As Lil' Happy's new outfit may suggest, this year is a bit different. We've got a few tricks up our sleeve that may need to be 'decoded', but unfortunately you won't know what that is until you get your envelopes back. Cool, right?

For those of you that did not participate last year -- or are just now joining us ... here is why we created the Lil' Happy Club and what it is exactly:

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Do you remember real mailboxes? How about real mail? What about that feeling of excitement as you opened up that rusty old mailbox in hopes that something would be addressed to YOU?

It seems like much of that is lost nowadays. A letter addressed to us now means we probably owe someone money.

Well, we miss that feeling. So, we decided to start The Lil' Happy Invisible Creature S.A.S.E. Club. Inspired by our youth - when the simple task of addressing an envelope to ourselves, licking a few stamps and patiently waiting a few weeks could mean receiving anything from a signed baseball card from spring training to various stickers from our favorite skateboard company.

It's real simple. Send us a self-addressed stamped envelope and we'll fill it with goodies.

However, we thought we'd make it a bit more fun and interactive. Regardless of your artistic ability, your envelope addressed to us MUST be creatively designed or illustrated. No rules, anything goes - and we'll post the 'Envelope of the Day' (our daily favorite) on the Lil' Happy Twitter and Flickr pages.

So, that's it! Oh, and we figured we should set some ground rules and answer a few questions. Just in case.

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DEADLINE: October 15th, 2011 Please send us your S.A.S.E. by that date.

Please send your envelopes to: The Lil' Happy Invisible Creature S.A.S.E. Club, P.O. Box 375, Seahurst, WA 98062

Q: How many stamps should I put on the envelope that will be returned to me? A: Great question. Please slap TWO stamps on the return envelope.

Q: I can't draw to save my life. What should I do? A: Like we mentioned, it's regardless of your ability. C'mon, it'll be fun!

Q: What are you going to send us? A: We're not telling. It'll be fun though. We promise.

Q: When should we expect our envelope back? A: In the fall. It could take us awhile as we also run a full-time studio over here. If you send it, it will come. A little patience.

Q: I don't live in the U.S., can I still participate? A: Probably not, due to customs. However, we aren't international mail professionals, if you can find a way that works via USPS, we'll definitely send it back! If it involves anything more than dropping it in a mailbox, we won't be able to pull it off. Sorry.

Q: Can I send you more than one envelope? A: No, sorry.

Q: Can I send a poster tube? How about a large document envelope or soft pack? A: Sorry, no. Let's keep this old school. Legal sized envelopes would be the biggest/best option. Be sure to slap 2 stamps on that return envelope though!

Any more questions? Feel free to email us at lilhappy@invisiblecreature.com

Here's a glimpse at our poster for 2 upcoming Fleet Foxes shows here in Seattle. The concept comes from a song called "The Shrine" (from their latest record, Helplessness Blues) where the lyrics speak of an old dried-up fountain filled with forgotten pennies. In this case, the pennies are actually metallic copper ink. In the store soon!

Late last year we got a call from our favorite lunch spot asking if we'd like to help them out with their first-ever Food/Ideas/Music Festival: Chipotle Cultivate. Chipotle's unrelenting commitment to food with integrity (not to mention their ass-kicking burritos) is something we've always respected (and donated much of our lunch money to). Cultivate is happening at Lincoln Park in Chicago on October 1st. And the best part? It's free.

OK, now I'm hungry.

A few details:

Here's our new poster for Iron & Wine's upcoming show at The Paramount. In the shop September 11th.

Here's our poster for Ben Harper's upcoming show at Marymoor Park on 8/27. In the shop on 8/28.

If you're local, you've undoubtedly heard the buzz about Seattle's next great neighborhood: South Lake Union. With hot new restaurants + retail spots, Amazon's brand new HQ, a beautiful waterfront and loads of new modern living spaces - the 'SLU' neighborhood is definitely the new destination within the city. IC was challenged with the task of developing a simplified and whimsical take on the neighborhood by the fine folks at Vulcan in conjunction with their annual Block Party blowout. If you are familiar with the area, you may have a little fun locating a few hot spots.

Block Party posters are available at the event on August 12 and we'll have a few in our shop on August 13th.

You can grab (and unfold) the full SLU neighborhood poster (below) by picking up the latest issue of Seattle Met magazine, on newsstands now.

A few details:

Huge high-fives to Josh Lackey and Larry Asher for making this such a fun project to work on. See it a tad bigger here.

Here's a look at the poster we recently created for the Chicago date of The Decemberists' current tour. Looks like Chicago has some rough neighborhoods. Available in the store now!

What is Heartwork?

Heartwork is a project designed to raise money for art supplies within the art room at Target House—this wonderful home-away-from-home for the families of children facing long-term treatment at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

The whole idea started simply enough. We, along with a few other creative individuals, were asked to work on various design projects for Target House. But, in the process, we were so deeply moved by the experience that we didn’t want it to end. We witnessed first hand the special connection the kids had with the art room in particular. It was a place where we saw kids at all stages of health just being kids.

So, we began to wonder, “What if we could create a ongoing way to support more and better art supplies for these children?” It was then that Heartwork was born.

The idea is simple. Every year, a group of talented artists will create a series of prints to raise money for the art room. Each of the prints will feature a different interpretation of the Target House elephant mascot, chosen because it represents family, long life, strength and playfulness—attributes with special meaning at a place designed for families to live, play and heal.

Print details:

Archival giclee - printed with pigment inks on archival cotton rag paper Size: 11 inches x 14 inches Signed & numbered editions of 40

Purchase the prints here.

"Elephants Love Ooey Gooey Peanut Butter" by Johnny Yanok:

"Snailaphant" by Nate Williams and "When Elephants Fly" by Anna Chambers:

"Collaboration" by Don Clark

"Love To Grow" by Scott Thares and "Balancing Act" by Christopher Lee:

"Circus" by Katie Kirk and "Better Days Ahead" by Richard Boynton:

"Waterworks" by Ryan Clark:

"Tuskers Ahoy" by Michael Bartalos:

The Scott Hamilton Arts & Crafts Room at Target House:

We're honored to be part of this project and thankful for everyone who donated their time and talent.

When asked if we'd be interested in creating a poster for the new EMP exhibit 'Nirvana: Taking Punk To The Masses', we had to think about it for about zero seconds. After listening to each record a few times, I decided to base my concept on the song 'Scentless Apprentice', my favorite track from In Utero. Many thanks to Chris, Jacob and the EMP for asking us. Pick one up here (we only have 15 of these suckers) and be sure to check out the exhibit if you find yourself in these parts.

2-color (metallic silver and black) silk-screened poster on white stock.

A mighty big thanks to everyone who came out to our Full Circle show/Leroy C. launch party at Super7 on Saturday night. We had a blast. And as you can see above, Leroy did too.

If you find yourself in SF anytime soon, the show will be up for a few more weeks.

Photos courtesy of Zac Schwiet, Kaiju Chronicle and Toybot Studios.

Just wrapped up a new poster for Against Me! at this year's Sasquatch! Festival. I used my own vest for this one. Metallic brown and black. Check our store for this one in a few weeks!