Post Christmas Stretch...

Now that Christmas is two days past, we face the winter months like a long, barren stretch of highway laid out before us. The rain is falling outside my second floor window. It's terribly cold outside, but not enough to create snow.

It seems like it would be the perfect time to hole up and accomplish some creative work. Unfortunately it's never quite as easy as that. There are a dozen things that could be done, but it's tough to find the drive to get going when it's so damn grey outside. I'd love to go for a long hike in the woods, I suppose that'll have to wait.

Fortunately I have a Wii and a sketchbook, as well as this computer here in front of me. I need to utilize the time during winter break to get a good chunk of my thesis pre-production done. Besides that I have a couple client projects and my new design website. I'll keep plugging away and some good stuff should start appearing, that's how it usually works.

The Spirit Beetle

Although I've been using Photoshop regularly for over 3 years now, it feels like she's just starting to give up her secrets. The true power comes with the integration of both Illustrator and Photoshop together. Illustrator has much better typesetting and vector capabilities. Photoshop can take paths from illustrator and create amazing effects with them. It blows my mind what's possible with this stuff. I'm done with Fall term of my senior year, winter break is upon me. I really hope to get some good experimenting time in.

Embracing the grid...

Lately I've been attracted to cleaner, grid-based design. Above is my final project for my Contemporary Art Theory class, a tribute to the great Swiss Linguist Ferdinand De Saussure. I tried to embrace the grid in order to set up a format that could be multiplied across a series of posters showcasing notable theorists and philosophers that inspire my thought process. I want to explore a cleaner design style. Basically my New Years resolution is going to be "No flourishes in '08." I have the vision to push my design work in a new direction, and I intend to carry it out. Fresh is the word for the new year.

Heavens...I've done it again.

but I won't apologize. It's been a long and hectic week down at school. Focus week is over and now it's on to final projects. I presented my thesis proposal, in which I plan to create a motion graphics piece telling the story of the birth of the internet. I'm going to be making my own creation myth. More details to come.
What you see above is the result of a couple hours worth of sketching and collaging. Lately I've felt the need to grow my style. I've found myself slipping into habits and techniques that are tried and true, but getting old. I want to get messy with my work. Precision works but sometimes chaotic works better. Experimentation is crucial for anyone who wants to keep developing as an artist. Keep checking in here if you're interested in how this premise develops.

Snow Patrol - Shut Your Eyes 7"

All apologies for being away from the blog for two days, I know I promised I'd be better. The past two days were a time of much doing and little writing. You see today is the deadline for the Snow Patrol 94/7 NRK contest to win a Scion. I've been literally working since I woke up. I sure do want that Scion xB, so think good thoughts for me. I'll try to post a "making of" tomorrow.

Wallpaper...

Here's something I started working on yesterday, for use in an upcoming project. It's essentially a wallpaper design gone mad. It needs a bit more work before it's on to phase two.

Daily Updates

Since uploading my new blog header, my intentions to update this blog daily have been called into question. It should be known that I do have the best of intentions to do so, but sometimes work or life can get in the way of important activities such as sketching and blogging. This past weekend being thanksgiving holiday, was a good example. As a note to anyone who is actually reading these posts, I shall try my best to be more consistent from here on out. After all, Dailey is quite literally my middle name.

Yesterday a quest for "something to zone out on during these cold, short days" resulted in a trip across town and the acquisition of a Super Nintendo. Sarah and I split the cost as a Christmas present to each other. For games we got Donkey Kong Country 2 and Dr. Mario + Tetris combo cartridge. We spent the rest of the night zoning out as intended. In my down time I was able to to sketch out my friends as their hypnotized expressions worked perfectly to draw.

Kickflip nosegrind

hands across america...

Starling Rum

I've finally finished my logo for the Design Studio III packaging project at school. This term our main project in the senior design class is to create a luxury liquor brand to compete with the current top shelf rulers. My liquor is rum, so I've been researching both rum and the essence of luxury brands over the past few months. It's finally coming together and I'm pretty stoked on where the logo has come to.

not a test...

possible screenprint?

Micron Hero November Report...

November is underway and there's no end to the work to be done. PNCA Fall Focus is at the beginning of December. Being a senior, I have to present my proposal for my thesis project. The presentations are open to the public, so anyone reading this is invited to come and see me sweat through my proposal. I'm planning on creating a motion graphics piece, a modern day fable. The piece will draw from my variety of interests: design, typography, storytelling, illustration and comics. I'll to create memorable character designs to tell a story relevant to todays constantly changing technological environment.

Aside from thesis work I've got my liquor branding project for my Design Studio III class. The goal is to create a standalone luxury brand, to compete with existing top-shelf liquors. I'll post my logo and type treatments once they're finalized, which needs to be very soon.

On top of schoolwork, I'm collaborating with my dad on an illustration he's doing for National Geographic Adventure magazine. I'm doing the digital production work: setting up the file, layering the artwork and digitally colorizing it. I can't wait to see the piece in print, National Geo. will be a good resume piece for sure.

On a closing note, I've been making some characters as a way to gear up for my thesis project. This guy is a little something I've been working on:

Los Muertos is up in the running...

Hit up Threadless and give the design a holler:
Los Muertos on Threadless.com

Pim Cola

For a good while I've been fascinated by the advertising character. Folks like Mr. Peanut, the Bic Pen Schoolboy, Tony the Tiger. This is just a little illustrator sketch I knocked out in the period of a half-hour or so. He's here to introduce a brand new carbonated beverage: the pimento olive infused Pim Cola, it's amazingly refreshing. I suggest you try it.

Animator Vs. Animation

This little piece was sent to my by Daniyel in the C4D. It's by a Flash animator named Alan Becker. It turns the act of animation on it's head, pitting the animated character against the animator. It's an amazing piece, so give it a look:
Animator Vs. Animation

Micron Hero Motion

this may not seem like much, but I'm finally starting to figure out After Effects. I can't wait to do more and more motion stuff.

Ladies and Gentlemen we are floating in space...

Buenos Dia de los Muertos!

To commemorate the Day of the Dead I made this t-shirt as a submission for threadless. Once it gets approved I'll post a link so y'all can go vote it up.

5vs.5 B-Boy Battle and Jim Greco

This here is a poster I finished yesterday for my newest client: Amplified Techniques. They're a Portland B-Boy Crew with crazy skill. Every November they host a battle at Reed College. They tapped the Micron Hero for this year's event poster. I'll definitely be there next Saturday, show up if you're looking for some excitement. Word.


Ever since I've been riding around on my skateboard, I've been a huge fan of Jim Greco. He's undoubtably one of the major icons in the skate universe. His parts in Zero's Misled Youth, Baker2G and Baker 3 are benchmarks of gnar. As a tribute I thought I'd give Mr. Greco the vector treatment. I've finished the main figure, but I'm gonna go back in and work on the background a bit more. Also I've got to give credit to Slap Mag contributing photographer Yoon Sul for the original photograph that I worked off of. Peace.

To be a zombie...

Design is...

What's the purpose of all these pictures? Why is art relevant? Why do I design?

I try and answer this for myself on a daily basis, whilst scribbling in my books and tooling around on the computer. I love drawing, and design gives the drawings I make structure. If anything, design is a powerful language that communicates worldwide.

I get stoked when I see that someone as far away as Moscow stumbled upon my website. It could be a bot for all I know, but who cares. I put my heart and soul into my work, and the work means nothing until it's viewed by an outside source. I hope to be drawing and creating graphics for the rest of my life. If there's anything I want to reveal with my work, it's that every day is an adventure. It may sound cheezy, but honestly, boredom is a killer. Try to see things in a new way each day.

Today my adventure involves making a mask for halloween. I've got some cardboard boxes, tape and acrylic paint. I'll be documenting my process like usual, so expect to see it up here soon. Hope everyone has an awesome Halloween, get in touch with your macabre side right?

I remember Halloween...

Halloween is just around the corner. I'm not usually so macabre, but I figure it's a good chance to play around with some horror movie themes that I don't usually get a chance to use. My good friend Sean needed a flyer for his Karaoke night's Halloween party, so I offered to knock one out for him.
For the flyer, I utilized the monsters I'd created for the Tender Loving Empire art piece that on display this month. I didn't have a chance to scan the piece before it was hung, so I had to make do with a lower-res photo I had taken. I did my best to sharpen the images in photoshop, but gave way to any resolution issues under the reasoning of making the poster old-school. I just tried to have fun with it, I'm pretty satisfied on how it turned out. It's nice to work on something that doesn't need to be over-conceptualized for a change.

Squirrel...

Today I discovered the amazing www.icanhascheezburger.com. It's a rolling blog of brilliant wildlife photography coupled with artful captions. I could spend hours looking through the pictures. I looked out my window today and saw this guy, and decided to give it shot. Sometimes I take an ok photograph.

Voxtrot Via Art Chantry

Art Chantry is speaking at PNCA tonight. As an exercise for the C4D, each of us in the studio produced a poster for the upcoming Voxtrot show in December. The image above represents my latest efforts. We showed our posters and Mr. Chantry gave us his thoughts, interspersed amongst anecdotes about working in the poster design field.
To design this poster I started by listening to the band. Their sound is an appealing sort of indie pop, that draws from the likes of Morrissey, Belle & Sebastian and Ted Leo. I have enjoyed every track I have listened too. I listened to the music and picked out instruments I heard, illustrating examples with silhouettes. Taking it to the next level I outlined the silhouettes on vellum paper, working backwards from my usual process.
From the critique, Mr. Chantry suggested that the hand drawn type was working well, it just needed to be further integrated with the linework. It got me thinking that the design itself might serve a better purpose as a t-shirt graphic. I'm now planning on restructuring it as a t-shirt, rather than a poster.

Bird's Nest

Command Centre

This is my studio, Micron Hero HQ, or the Command Centre. Everything happens here at this desk.

Lately, I've been reflecting on the world of design and my place within it. Design is such an epic universe, populated by such amazingly talented folks that I can't help but feel like a small fish in a very large ocean. I've been surrounded by design my entire life, watching my dad cutting photocopied type from antique novels to paste into layouts. I've been on roadtrips and abroad. Design exists everywhere, from vernacular typography on general stores to the most exlusive haute couture clothing items. The rabit hole goes so deep, and there are so many corners of the design world. I try to assume nothing, I'm just a guy with a sketchbook. I'm trying my best to make a name for myself, but all I really want to do in life is continue doing what I've been doing since I was a kid. I'm just trying to make sense of this world we live in.

Back in action...

This is my first day back in the real world after spending the weekend at the Oregon Coast. After Cut & Paste wrapped up I felt a weight off of my shoulders in terms of stress, but I wasn't completely unwound until this weekend. It's crucial in this digital age to spend some time away from the computer, getting in touch with reality again.


This is a piece I drew while at the coast. It's funny because even when I'm drawing on a piece of bristol with no computer in sight, I'm still thinking of how I'm going to color it once I get the line art completed. In a sense, the software exists in my head while I'm drawing analog style.

Speaking of software, in the middle of writing this entry, the FedEx truck pulled up to deliver my CS3 Master Collection. This signals a turning point here at the Micron Hero Design & Illustration Studio. I now declare this here studio a full service shop. Now it will take me some time to get up to speed on the new software, but I now have video editing and effects capabilities. What does this mean? Two words: Motion Graphics. Word.

Headless Body at a Topless Bar...

Last night, being First Thursday, was the opening of the Headless Body in a Topless Bar show at Tender Loving Empire. It's a monster themed group show, with contributions from over a dozen local artists, illustrators and photographers. For my piece I channeled everything fearful I could think of, getting into the Halloween spirit. It was a fun piece to make. Unfortunately I didn't get a chance to scan it before turning it in to the curator. Hopefully I'll get a chance to get a high quality scan up on my website once the show is over. The show will be up all through october, so be sure to stop by Tender Loving Empire (NW 18th & Lovejoy) and check it out.

I like this one...

This guy will probably show up a bit more in the very near future. Painting perhaps?

A Week of Calm...

The Cut & Paste Tournament is over. It's been a calm week since then, I've been slowly settling the nerves that were built up in anticipation of the competition. It was an amazing experience getting up there to crack out a design in 15 minutes. Now deadlines seem a lot easier to meet, having proven I can work fast. I battled to the semifinal round and was honored with the Audience Choice prize. I should be getting Adobe Creative Suite 3 Master Collection in the mail pretty soon. I can't wait to delve into After Effects. I've had a desire to design motion graphics for a long time now, it looks like it's finally about to happen. Keep an eye out for some motion pieces in the near future.

I just completed my piece for Tender Loving Empire's upcoming October show: Headless Body in a Topless Bar. The working theme of the show is monsters. For my piece I got in touch with my morbid side, channeling my fears into a gruesome tribute to Halloween. I didn't get a chance to scan the piece, so you'll have to show up at TLE in October to check it out.
It's finally looking like autumn outside my studio window. This is a sketchbook piece I did a couple nights ago. I've been drawing clowns and mimes a bit lately. I'm not sure why I've been exploring these themes, perhaps it's because I used to be afraid of clowns and mimes that I now want to use them for my own purposes. They baffle me still though.

Featured Blog

This week I've been commissioned by PNCA to do a featured blog about my experiences preparing for the Cut & Paste competition. I'll be blogging there up until the 22nd. So go to http://www.pnca.edu/ and check it out. And be sure to make it out to Cut & Paste at the Wonder Ballroom on friday the 21st. You can buy tickets online for $5 cheaper than at the door, so it pays to plan in advance. http://cutandpaste.com/events/portland.html