Ox Studio

I’ve recently had the pleasure and good fortune to collaborate with a fantastic illustrator named Eleonora Marton. She’s part of the talented OX Studio which is based in Italy. The Ox Studio kids just opened an online shops full of zines (it’s so great people still make things like this), tote bags, t-shirts and more. It’s well worth visiting. Eleonora style is varied and brilliant. I even commissioned her to draw an image of our old (late) beloved cat, Gatto, sitting in her favorite spot – a window in the Summer house in Narragansett. Hands down the best present my wife has ever received.

Remember When Stuff Blew Your Mind…

Here’s my turtle obsessed son getting his mind completely blown. He ran back and forth along the tank and then had me carry him (as if he was swimming) along the side of the tank. It was well worth it to see his reaction to seeing a turtle in person for the first time.

New from JK5

My friend, Joseph Ari Aloi aka JK5, has a new site up. It’s the first site of his to begin to get close to showing how prolific this guy is. He’s literally saved every drawing, sketch, painting etc. he’s made since he was six. You can see much of life-work detailed in his book Subconsciothesaurusnex.  Anyway, tons and tons and tons of work up on his site: drawings, tattoos, products, paintings, etc. etc. Congrats Ari! Check out his site.

Panda Security Video

We just finished up the first of three new motion graphic pieces for the Spanish Computer Security company called PANDA. I wanted these to feel less technical and predictable both in content and color. I used a softer, retro modern palette to counter balance the bold blue in the Panda logo. The beautiful, elegant and perfectly rounded ITC Avant Garde Bold is the typeface for this little piece. I created all the storyboard, graphics as well as overall creative and motion direction.  You can view the video on Panda’s Youtube channel. This was, of course, done at Something Massive.

Cooking With Her Kid

One of Something Massive’s founder, Rebecca Coleman, undertook a huge project when she decided to start Cooking with her Kid. Rebecca set out to cook one meal a day for 365 days with her son Gus. The aim was to open up Gus’ eyes, mind and taste buds to a whole new culinary world; while at the same time she was teaching herself to cook Behold – Cooking With My Kid. With more than 100 days in they’re going strong, cooking amazing food, taking super cute photos and racking up the Facebook likes like no one’s business. Rebecca and Gus have been featured on Daily Candy, Oh Deeh Doh, Prudent Baby, Craft and many other popular sites. I think all her followers (yours’ truly included) are hoping their is a cookbook in the works. Hats off to Rebecca for this great idea and we all read in awe as she is actually able to do this (on top of running an agency, oh, and tending to a new born) daily. I am honored to have designed the blog and created the little logo header up top. Bon Appetite.

Long Live The Pastels

After moving I’ve been going through boxes and boxes of old CDs and records. It’s been nice to put on some LPs I haven’t heard in ages like Pulp “Different Class” which is as phenomenal as ever. For the last week or so it’s been all about The Pastels. God damn. What a fantastic band they were. One of the highlights of my college radio days at KWVA was getting to interview the band when they came through the metropolis of Eugene, Oregon. They were all so cool and answered all our ridiculous questions of the new Scottish Indie scene of the mid 90s, why Patrick Thistle is the best team to support in Scotland and if and when The Vaselines would ever put out a new record. They even dined with us at Burrito Boy in Eugene (a place that Stuart David from Belle & Sebastian decided looked so bad that he preferred to eat at Arby’s). Anyway, here’s a gem off the Truckload of Trouble collection. I think I want to make some “listen to more Pastels” t-shirts or something.

Happy Birthday Mindy

Just came across this old lomo shot I took of Mindy several years back. I think it was the first time we went to SF so she could meet my folks. The rest, as they say, is history. It’s her bday tomorrow. Happy Birthday Babe. I hope it’s a great year for you. Thanks for being so great.

Farmers Market With Jack – 08.01.10 Atwater Village

The little man wasn’t that into the Atwater Village market and only took a handful of photos. He did have the camera on video setting (inadvertently) for about four minutes so much of his photo time may have gone to that. Regardless, here are four photos. The one of the taqueria’s yellow/orange wall is my favorite.

Farmers Markets with Jack – 07.25 Hollywood

All these photos were taken by my son, Jack (2 years 9 months old), while in his stroller. They haven’t been edited other than my adjustment of the levels and contrast.

That's me buying some peaches.

Jack and I checked out the famed Hollywood Farmer’s Market at Hollywood and Vine this morning. It was incredible. The variety of produce, the colors, the quality – just amazing. Everything you’d expect from a big farmer’s market in this part of this World. The little man did a nice job being patient while I walked up and down the aisles. He’s taken to carrying a camera around and taking pics of random things. Sometimes, he gets a winner here or there. So, I thought I’d start cataloging our Farmer’s Market trips with some of his photos. It’s a nice thing to look forward to all week. Mindy gets to sleep in while he and I head off to the market. Lots of stuff for him to sample which will hopefully help him vary his food likes. Enjoy these snaps.

First Thoughts on Los Angeles

It’s been about three weeks since we left Brooklyn and moved out to Los Angeles. So far so good. The driving is still a novelty and having a car is kind of fun. Howard Stern and Sirius XMU make the time in the car fly. I’m in the car at least 90 minutes a day and am still trying to be very “zen” about crawling through downtown on the 110.

Silver Lake is as great as everyone said and it’s an easier transition moving here than somewhere on the West Side. It feels somewhat like Brooklyn (at least the Brooklyn we lived in), young families, nice local shopping and friendly neighbors. The main difference, of course, is you drive to get stuff rather than walk.

The food here is amazing, but the bagels are really bad. Suggestions? Dodger Stadium is an awesome place to watch a baseball game especially when the Dodgers are losing the Giants. One of my bosses, Chris Gibbin, is in the process of making a movie called “City of Jerks” and I checked out one of his location shots near the top of Runyon Canyon which was another cool new experience.

That’s really the best part about all of this. Every day it’s something new. New places to eat, new places to buy groceries, new people to meet, new roads to drive on, new places to see my kid super happy. He’s loving it here. Having a backyard, frontyard and a roomy house is making him a happy little man which is really what it’s all about anyway.