I am super (mega!) excited to share this commission I did for Google Germany last November. It's a 24 page booklet about Google's services for small businesses, and it was created for markets in Germany, Switzerland and Austria.
Bernhard Hörlberger, Greta Boekhoff and Theresa Kneuer at Serviceplan, the agency leading this project, were terrific to work with. The art direction was solid, and I had lots of freedom to play around with the drawings.
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(Click image to enlarge)
I made some drawings for this month's Wired magazine for an article about Kickstarter. The article describes three pairs of Kickstarter project descriptions, and you have to guess which one is real and which one is fake. Fun to read, and fun to illustrate (especially Chanukah sweaters)! (Designed & art directed by Matt Rancatore)
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You pick the object and the book, and I'll draw it. That's right. I'll draw whatever object reading whatever book you want, and I'll paint it too, all on a nice 8x10 inch piece of acid-free watercolour paper.
After I made the original series of objects reading books, I started thinking about creating custom versions. Books are such a personal thing, and if you get to choose what the object and the book is, well, you end up with a bit of an interesting portrait. It could be a nice gift.
This is the first time I've offered to do personal commissions. I've stayed away from doing them in the past, mostly because I simply haven't had the time or I'm worried they don't work out as well as I'd like (I worry a lot). But making them in a format like this works for me.
More details about ordering custom drawings
See more drawings of objects reading books.
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(Click image to enlarge)
I drew this two-page spread of a 'dating' map for National Geographic, which you can now see in this month's issue (Feb. 2012). They combed profiles from dating websites all across the US, and pulled the most commonly used terms from each zip code and mapped them. What ends up surfacing are some regional stereotypes ('oil' in Texas, 'retired' in Florida), as well as some amusing terms (Cleopatra? Yodeling? Marshmellow, anyone?). This was a really, really fascinating project to work on.
Here's a closer look:
Here's the cover of the magazine, in case you're looking for it on the newsstand or in your local library:
Check for available drawings and signed prints in the shop.
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I did this drawing for National Geographic, for a little article about a koi fish named Hanako that was reportedly over 200 years old. Now that I look at it, he sort of looks like Mordechai Richler. The drawing is small, but I'm super excited about it anyway. Oh, and don't tell anyone, but I've got another drawing in an upcoming issue that's going to be LARGE.
Hanoko even shows up in the table of contents! Check it out:
Read all about Hanako the Koi fish.
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This is a set of drawings I did for Say Media, to use internally on t-shirts. Friends of the company can even order one on their schwag page.
I need to say this: Say Media folks are nice people. I've gotten to know many of them over the years, including back in their Six Apart days (Six Apart is what they were before they merged with VideoEgg to become Say) and they're all super swell. They are the company behind Typepad, the blogging platform I use for this site, and I feel about good using it (and happy to pay for it) knowing that there are such great people behind it. And no, they didn't pay me to say that — just for the t-shirts :) I just think niceness needs to be recognized.
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Gah! Super excited to share this. Last year I was approached by the fine folks at Tommy Hilfiger about creating some post-it note drawings for t-shirts. They're part of a much larger collection called 'Tommy', which is a younger, more playful line of clothing and accessories than what you'd expect from TH, so the idea was to take the preppy lifestyle and play around with it. What was amazing for me about this project was that I got to use my post-it note format, complete with highlighter pens for the colours, and use the exact same approach I use in my personal work. Super fun.
I don't know exactly where these are available, but if you have a Tommy shop in your area, stop in and have a look.
One more thing, my what to focus on drawing was also made into a t-shirt as part of the Tommy collection. @katherinecarney spotted it in Toronto:
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A while ago I did a series of illustrations about fuel efficient airplanes that appeared in the July 2010 international edition of Newsweek. You can read the article on their site.
The immense weight of an airplane is pretty much the main hurdle when trying to improve its fuel efficiency. I was fortunate to have the freedom to inject some humour into the project, and give the airplanes the same anxieties humans have about weight. Thanks for giving me fun commissions, Newsweek!
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I recently did a commission for Hollands Diep, a magazine that's been described as the Vanity Fair of the Netherlands. It's a beautifully designed publication, art directed by Jaap Biemans (who was awesome to work with). I wish I could read Dutch!
Left: the cover. Right: my drawing of cutlery in the table of contents layout.
Here's the spread of the article, written by Ronald Giphart. The article is about a nasty customer in a restaurant:
Closeups of the drawings:
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Singer/songwriter/musician/producer John McVey got in touch with me ages ago about licensing my kite drawing for his CD cover, and the final product is finally out.
It's still strange for me to see my drawings on products and in magazines, since I was not part of the process of putting it all together. I'm a graphic designer by trade, so I'm used to specifying and setting up all the nitpicky details. That being said, I'm really happy with how the drawing was reproduced on this.
Here are the liner notes:
John is a super nice guy, and gave me a generous shout out in the liner notes. You can listen to his album on his website, and also buy it on iTunes.
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