Design Crisis Writer Finally Gets Act Together

Quite some time ago, way back in the beginning of the year 2009, I made a list of Design Crisis New Year's resolutions.  Some of them worked out (I'm pretty sure I painted a lot of stuff gold last year); some of them are still in the pipeline (where is all that money this blog was supposed to make us?); and some of them are finally being wrapped up today.  Yes, 419 short days after last year's new years resolutions, I'm putting some of my own work up for sale.

photo by our own lovely Erin

You dudes may remember this horse I designed way back when.  Well, I finally screen printed him and I'm trading the prints for cash-dollars.

Fun Facts:

This print is HUGE.  Monster huge.  It took me almost a month to find the 3-foot-square paper it's printed on.  You know what that means?  You can actually have a giant piece of art without paying Michelangelo prices.

Fun Fact 2:  I only printed 30 of these.  7 of them are gone.  math math math... that means there are 23 left.

FF3:  Yes, there was only one picture in today's post, making it relatively short, but the news is huge and that's what matters.

FF4:  You can get your print HERE.

go forth and make momma proud, ya'll.

Smoke and Mirrors

This weekend has brought on a blitz of furniture rearranging, thanks in large part to your awesome enthusiasm for Friday's post asking for music suggestions. You'll be happy to know that we're busy listening to lots of your picks, and that all the fresh and new happening up in here has inspired me to do something about the big black box wall. So while we're busy employing every sleight of hand trick in the book to conceal, disguise, and reconfigure, our now staggering collection of AV equipment, I am hoping to wow you with some trickery of my own. Watch as this post unfolds before your very eyes, with hardly a word to distract you from its glamor and mystery. See two artists and one interior photographer reinvent the color wheel, turning it into a blaze of kaleidoscopic glory.

Contemporary artist Eileen Quinlan:

Barbara Kasten's compositions felt stale when I was first starting out in photography, but the sudden resurgence of abstraction in photography has breathed new life into her super 80s imagery.

Funhouse style interiors shot by Christoph Theurer:

Well kids, that's about it for today. Hope you enjoyed this peek into some crazy parallel universes. I've got tons more work to do before my own little world is inhabitable, so I'm gonna scoot on out of here. Don't worry -- I'll update soon with pictures of the big black box solution.

Phillustration

One of my favorite art forms is staged photography.  I love when sets are built and photos are taken of a reality that could never truly exist.  I love when a medium that's used primarily for documentation captures something that's purely fantasy.  This juxtaposition between fantasy and reality also captures my wee little heart when photography and illustration are combined.

images via the cool hunter

You know I will never shy away from layered patterns.  When they are combined with some optical-illusion photo trickery, I pretty much want to pee my pants.  I've yet to see anyone do it better than Nikki Farquharson, the self proclaimed mixed media girl.

Be sure to cruise over to Nikki's website for a boatload more photo / illustration genius.

On a decidedly more rudimentary level is this photo / illustration combo of Kate Moss holding a cartoon doll.  Of course this exists.  Things don't really happen in photography until they happen to Kate Moss, right?  Oh, this here artist is un-the-f-known.  sorry dudes.

Alberto Seveso takes the photo illustration combo to the extreme.  While the design is striking, I feel like it may be just a hair too computer generated for me.  The patterns within the girls skin, however, are right up my alley.

Much like the Kate Moss cartoon image, Chloe combined Disney characters with actual photos for a campaign several seasons ago.  Do you guys remember this?  I never could get on board with all the Disney stuff everywhere.

via trendland

Ok, so there's actually no illustration in this photo / illustration image by Thomas Lelu.  It' paint.  It's my blog.  I like the image, sue me.

I know I've shown you this Antony and the Johnson's album cover before, but I really love the photo / illustration combo here.  And, look!  No paint!

via a glam little project

Here's a sweet little version of drawings on photographs.  I especially like the leaves in the upper left corner.

And another subtle example via fashion line Permanent Vacation

And bringing up the rear we've got one of my favorite examples of illustration on photography.  Illustrator Florence Johann spiffed up these images for Jalouse fashion magazine.  Did you see the girl in the middle has a goose for a hand?!  Holy lord that's good.

Lately I've been drawing over lots of found paintings, but I think it's time I start setting my sharpie on some photographs, clearly that's where the magic's at.