Sudden Impact!

It is not that I have nothing to say.....
or Don't call it a comeback ('cause it ain't)!

Work has interfered with life (and blog postings). The office has been flooded with projects including a really cool museum-type installation, a Flu-shot campaign, a bunch of websites and a few other things. I am not complaining- it is a good problem to have- I just want to get a little more free-time, so I can blog, sleep, stay away from the computer, etc.

So stay tuned sports-fans.

To keep you tied over- here is the latest rock poster I did for another rockin' Wolf Tickets show. This one has a great 1960s-era LIFE magazine photo of 'Broadway" Joe in stripclub prior to NY Jets Spring Training that year. Oh, the horror and the beauty of it all.

Then there is this.......


BONUS VIDEO BEATS: from Mick Jone's basement!

Box Set

Wide Margins: An Exhibition of 'Zines and Self-Published Works from the Sublime to the Silly is currently on view at the WNY Book Arts Center. It runs from July 16-September 3, 2010 & includes hundreds of home-made, self-published works of literary and graphical self-expression. Zines were the blogs before the internet. They were made with typewriters, glue, scissors, tape, copy machines, old computers, press type, pencils, paper, markers, photos, stats, stickers and often staples.

Both my 1990-era pubs -- the Sign O' The Times (SOTT) and Slack Magazine, done by Wizard Graphics-- are highlighted in a glass display case. Thanks to WNYBA's Amy & Jessica for curating this super show. This is really a fine collection of hanging, stacked and piles & piles of literally a shit load of publications. Make sure you get down before Sept. 3 to check this show out- it is very cool!

I missed the opening reception as I was out of town, but I biked down the Saturday afternoon to check it out. I was pretty psyched to see the show. I took these snapshots -- heavy on the Wizard Graphics case -- for your viewing pleasure.

HELPFUL LINKS-
Facebook page- click. BuffaloSnooze preview- click. WNY Book Arts page- click. Slack Magazine online website.



The full Slack & SOTT case. Click on this image collage for big view....very nice. This display includes tee, Slacker in Space original comic art in stat & negative form, a poster, business card, watch, rubber stamp and original issues of SOTT and Slack Magazine.


Side view of full SOTT- Slack case- protected under glass!



Edits to Issue #1 of SOTT includes hand notes on laserprint proof.



Poster for Slack fundraiser at 3rd Room & one-of-a-kind original SLACK watch.


Various SLACK Magazines with Slack in Space comic by Don Keller.



SOTTs from 1991.



Zine case 01- colorful, fancy zines.


Zine case 2- very professional looking zine-age.


Hanging row of the great Duplex Planet zines.



More colorful Duplex Planets.



Hanging zines and tools (electric typewriter & 'pre-zine' print press).



Beer Frame- a classic from back in the day.


Artbabe!!



Stacks-o-Zines.



Event posters in WNYBAC window on the corner of Mohawk & Washington, Downtown Buffalo, NY.



Saturday morning, post opening party clean up.


BONUS BEATS- WNYBAC is a great addition to the Queen City -- they have been around for one year now. Please support this non-for-profit if you are a fan of the printed arts-- especially the antique hand-made, letter-pressed versions of book and all things printed. Become a member!

Start Choppin'

Born in the Summer of 1993, Slack Magazine flourished in Buffalo NY's underground Zine world alongside such luminaries as the Sacred Cow, Snot and The Avenue Player. Sputtering out in February '96 with one last great splash (The Beer Part II), Slack Magazine lived it's life for 20 issues and included slam-bang-gonzo journalism, reviews, ridicule, satire & early computer graphics littered with scans from borrowed postcards, magazines & newspaper clippings. Written and edited by some of Buffalo's greatest creatives (writers-DJs-photographers-drunkards) of the 1990s, Slack has finally dusted itself off & entered the digital age right here.

I gathered all the digital issue of Slack and posted them in it's very own URL at SlackMagazine.com Slack now lives in the digital age, enjoy this slice of Buffalo, NY 1993-1996.

Check it out, kids!

R-E-S-P-E-C-T

Don't squish that logo. Don't flatten it down, don't bring the sides in. Please never re-size that logo misproportionately. Stop puling on a corner when you have placed it in Illustrator, or (God forbid, you are designing in) Photoshop. Side note: Photoshop is a photo editing program, not a layout program. You should stop designing in Photoshop, while we are on the subject....

Back to the logo you are hurting..... Don't force it to fit. Don't manipulate the logo in any way.

Show some respect to the designer who developed the logo. If you cannot get the logo on the page without changing it in any way-- besides scaling it proportionately-- then don't. You are showing disrespect to the craft.

It you can't do this, then please stop practicing graphic design. If you don't know that this is wrong-- screwing with that logo the way you are-- then you have no business doing what you are doing.

And I mean it. Just stop it.

Bustin' Loose

I am joining DJ Jeffro for a little night of music at Staple's this Saturday night in historic Allentown (across from Nietzsche's). Come on down folks! Funk, funk, funk and (mostly) all vinyl, baby.

Doing It To Death

Featuring DJ Jeffro with guest DJ Dr. Wisz of Deja Blu

According to the creator of this funky night, DJ Jeffro:

What is Doing It To Death? Nothing crazy, just a laid back night of hard hitting horns, snares that are mighty tight and alright, and ridiculously raw grooves that are pure dynamite. Aided and abetted by The Funkmaster Generals.... Otis, Stevie, James, Sly, Curtis, Zig, Booker, Maceo and Arlester.

Grooves that are so ON the money that you'll be amazed you got in for NO money.

4+ hours of classic soul & funk music from the 60's, 70's and early 80's. Stax, Motown, Curtom, King, Tamla, Desco, Hi, Daptone, and more.

Saturday, July 26, 2010

11pm- close

100% free, 200% funky

keep on keepin' on.

Do You Believe in Magic?

Ideas That Work MAGIC

While thinking about designing some new self-promo materials, I dug out an early self marketing piece from way-back-when. This is probably the 1st 'mailer' I ever did for myself. It was from 1990 & it was a small folded postcard that opened to reveal the magic of Wizard Graphics-- my first company.

The cover stars the WG Wizard! State-of-the-art, art! My wizard dude was an early computer illustration chunkily mouse-drawn in Adobe Illustrator 88 by building simple shapes over scanned clip art (borrowed from a Clipart book-- hey, I told you it was 1990!). I added some shading (available in percentages of 10), shrunk-down star art on a black background and a very magical font exclaimed: Ideas That Work Magic. Bam! Impressive, eh? These were printed at the copy shop on glossy card stock, roughly hand-scored (as you can see below), folded and scotch tape sealed.

Looking back in time, the other side seems like rather bold & brash filler. The plain back was meant to look like a real postcard and includes a decorative script that read:

Having a great time, wish you were here! Business has boomed and we are quite successful. Call us and find out how we can help you and your business get a new, sharp look for the '90s. See you soon...!

Oh baby...!

The inside is all black like the cover and has a clipart top hat showering money (!!!) and a sharp-dressed 70's clipart dude. These pieces of stock art were both once used in a cut-and-paste sales flyer I had created at my first graphics job at Appliance Parts Distributors, late 80s (see back when here).

The fancy WG business card pops out since it has that expensive purple gradient on it (again, see old post about the history of my own personal biz cards including the original wizard, of Wizard Graphics). The sharply written, prince-esque marketing hoopla reads "Wizard Graphics Can Create Magic 4 U," "Design & Layout - Appearance & Appeal," "Creativity is the Key To Make It Happen," and the hit-'em-while-you-got-'em, call to action "Call Today."

My first design business supplied the following graphic design services (we have come so far):
promotional pieces
advertisements
business cards
business forms
newsletters
letterheads
invitations
brochures
envelopes
posters
menus
slides
fliers
logos
signs
and
much
more!

1990- there were no websites as of yet and the 'slides' mentioned were for event presentation (because Power Point was in it's infancy). I was starting to use computers back then and Pagemaker made laying out 'business forms' a snap. I once did an order form for Kreher's Egg farm -- my roommate was an Egg Farmer for a bit in the early '90s.

I sent these out in the US mail, maybe 50-60 pieces, to business addresses I looked up in the telephone book. I don't remember how I gathered this hand-made, targeted list of potential companies deserving of 'magic design'... but I sent them out and waited. A good portion of the list were bars and nightclubs in the Elmwood Village and Allentown, as well as a few existing clients. I think I had officially had a part-time job as a freelancer for about 4-5 years at this point.

Was the first self-mailer a success? Well for 1990 standards, not bad really: marketing-wise there is a loose concept, it delivers the list of services, it displays the fancy biz card and the call to action. I remember, I did get some work from an existing client, so it did win me a design project... You know, it was first stab at self-promo and I am still doing this 20 years later.

FOOTNOTE: This is not the earliest example of graphics I have dug out, did this poster from 1987-- the pre-computer days of Buff State....

Who Loves The Sun

Cool It Down -- Twin Fair, 8-Tracks and the missing CDs, that one's that really hurt...

I think back about all the CDs I used to own that were stolen, borrowed and never returned, disappeared after a party, you moved out-of-town and you traded them to me in exchange for your share of the utility bills, and the otherwise misappropriated. The ones that you remember most are the ones you really miss.

Of the first 2 cds I ever bought -- LL Cool J's "Bigger and Deffer" and B.A.D.'s awesome first record, "This is Big Audio Dynamite"-- only the BAD remains in my collection. Kinda sucks not to have the first 2 cds I ever owned. Not for nostalgic purposes, because they both rocked. I have the first ever record I purchased- 1975's (bought new in 1978) Aerosmith 'Toys in the Attic" (but then again, it might have been Joe Walsh's "But Seriously Folks" LP....). Good one... probably bought at Twin Fair or Cavages at the Boulevard Mall.

I don't have the first cassette tape I ever boughtm and know I don't have the first home-recorded cassette I ever made-- but I do remember it was The Beatle's blue LPs (didn't bother with the red one, for some reason..). I know I don't have the first 8-track tape I ever duped. Before moving all the way to cassettes at an early age, I did have a nice collection of 8-tracks when I was 14-15 years old including Steely Dan "Aja", Cheap Trick "Live at Budakon," Alice Cooper's "School's Out," and the first Boston & Foreigner records. Hey, I was 15 years old.

But I must bring this back to the misappropriated CDs of the past. The ones that really get me, are the CDs I have completely forgotten about. They are the ones that pop-up and make you say "damn, now I have to buy that for a second time...". I have one CD of the 2-CD set New Order "Substance" in my collection... that really burns me, someone stole one half of the collection. Loser. That second one was the good CD too! I am also missing-- and if YOU have them, please return them-- the Cure's "Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me", "LA Woman" by The Doors and/or U2's "Joshua Tree"... I already replace the first two, so on second thought-- if you got 'em, keep 'em!

The real painful ones are the forgotten ones that sneak up on you like this: I recently read the 33-1/2 book about the "Velvet Underground and Nico" LP and decided to dig out the vinyl version so I could burn it to CD (for myself only, of course...). I haven't found it yet, but I know (hope) it is still in the record collection someplace. Then it hit me. I used to have the CD of VU's commercially-pleasing, hit-filled "Loaded" - quite a fine recording, I might say. It's gone... a long time ago. I forgot I even owned it, it has been gone for so long. I probably bought it 24 years ago and owned it for about 10 years of that time. I found a real beat-up and unplayable vinyl copy that wasn't mine to start with... I may have 'misappropriated' this one.... (not on purpose).

But when you have a bunch -- some may say, too much -- music like me, you can get a surprise once in a while. The exact opposite happens. I had a hankering for the live Kinks double LP "Two For The Road," and bammmmmmm-- there it was! Awesome. Then a few mysterious ones will creep in like Electroman's "KookaKook" 12" record... who's was this? Thanks!

Mirror in The Bathroom

Once again I have a painting included in the Western New York Book Arts Member Gallery Show. The opening is this Friday, May 21st from 6-9PM. Come on down, support the arts and check out my latest work of artwork (that is not graphic design).

For last year's WNYBA's Member Show, I included an old painting that I thought would be fitting as it had 'words' included in it. It was something that I created when I was producing a lot of artwork: 10+ years ago. For this year's show I got my act together and completed an entirely new piece of art. It is a painting that is a more 'built up' that painted -- it includes acrylic, old presstype and powdered graphite. It is currently untitled, but I hope to give it a catchy title before I turn it in in a couple of days.

Hope to see you folks at the opening, for more info click the link!


2nd Annual WNYBA Member's Exhibition
On view May 21-July 9th.

Opening Event Friday May 21 6PM-9PM

Location:
Western New York Book Arts Center
468 Washington St.
Buffalo NY 14203

NOTE (05.18.10): Last minute entry with a new painting created last night- Now I have to decide between 2 submissions. Let's see how it looks this AM.

Spin Me 'Round

People always come over and seem to enjoy visiting our studio space (especially other artists). I was thinking on working on a series of blog posts that would be about some of the graphic artists and creative folks I know-- so see if I could get them to let us get a peek into their studios. Creative people often have the best spaces to work in- packed with designs, inspirational material and just plain cool stuff!

Earlier back, when this blog started, I did a series of posts which were brief interviews with some local Buffalo design-folks. I'll see if I can get the time to get into this sort of project. I'll start to see what sort of interest there is from you, the loyal readers, and the artists themselves.

In the meantime..... a peak into the OtherWisz Creative office space (top floor).

O My Soul

The family spent the afternoon printing. This morning we went to the Western New York Book Arts to learn about printing with wood type, the way they did it hundreds of years ago. Today's hands-on class was to combine wooden block type letterforms into animal shapes. See some photos from our experience below.

This was a fantastic experience. It started with picking letterforms, setting them up in a galley, using wood 'furniture' to lock it all in, and then printing using equipment from the 1880's. The girls came up with some nice designs which I will pick up in a few days after they dry.

Designing with your hands really made you feel like an ancient craftsman. The smell of the ink, the rolling of the hand-press and the results made for a great time. It doesn't get an 'real' that graphic-designing by hand with woodtype. Good for the soul.



Some of the wooden type we used to print with in a variety of styles, typefaces and sizes.


Our host Rich Kegler showing some past work for inspiration.


Leftovers from a previous print job.


Young designer looking for type specimens to start with.


The young designers designing with woodtype, setting up on their trays.


Rich inking some letters for a proof.


Some wood block type all 'purpled' up with ink.


Young designer peaking through window in basement of Book Arts.

What's Going Ahn

In a world rendered only in back & white, there were few graytones and bitmapped reigned supreme.

I remember the olden days when everything was on black and white (unless it was printed on colored paper stock). Before color printers were all the rage (and affordable), us event-marketing types (aka poster-flyer makers) did all our posters in single color: black on white. Simple graphics for simpler times, they were....

While searching back for some deja blu flyers, I unearthed some rock show flyers I had designed back in the early '90s.

This collection includes:
> 808 State at the ICON
> Ladies Night Saturdays at the ICON
> The Headhunters at Nietzsche's
> A 1991 double bill of The Headhunters & the Steam Donkeys at the Little Harlem
> Gil Scott Heron at the ICON

These flyers were build on a combination of either a band's press photo or something scanned from a magazine-- usually vintage Life magazines or a '90s rock rags like R-Stone-- and some typographic magic. The one up top-- the Double Hoedown (at the Little Harlem, a vintage Buffalo soul & jazz club that burned to the ground and was demolished in 1999) has titles generated in 'Typestyler', an early font manipulation program that was used to create effects now common in ALL graphic design programs. These crazy effects included: drop shadows and outlines. Wow. Heady stuff back in 1990. The graphic computer tricks that seems so basic on computers today, were a byte-churning event back then. Typestlyer was known to take a few minutes-- yes, a few MINUTES- to create a text effect! This DBHD! poster includes a hint at my early obsession of stars on rock posters. I still haven't kicked that habit.

For a band building a reputation at the time on the blips and bleeps of early acid house-techno-- 808 State-- I tried to get 'super electronic & computery'. This flyer was built upon a photo scanned from a science textbook that had some state-of-the-art Photoshop magic -- a noise filter, glow and drop shadows-- added to it. Wow (again).

This other Headhunters poster was a simple one, but it is my favorites from this bunch. Not a lot of computer tom-foolery on this... just a simple closeup of rock legend Chuck Berry lighting a cig, darkened to give it's shadows a bit of a sinister undertone. It had the most basic of event details overlayed in a blocky font. I remember going for something to compliment Terry Sullivan's band's real rock-&-roll sound and I wanted a paste-to-the-wall vintage feel- I think this one has really stood up over time. As the Ladies Night -- with a cleavage peaking, cig-smoking Isabella Rosalinni-- looks dated (Good God Stretched Type! Argggh!!), I think this one and the Gil Scott still look good. They might look nice printed in a 20 x 30 format?

To think these were created on a Mac SE-30, often transferred by floppy disc to my job at a local service bureau and printed to Photostat Paper to create a 'master' hard copy ($8 each). You couldn't print your own-- laser printers wern't all that good back then.... they were printed by the bar owner (or the band) at Kinkos on 8-1/2 x 11" white bond paper. Though I think the futuristic 808 State flyer was printed on neon yellow paper.

Did I get paid well to do these back then? Ha!

No, but I got to see alot of great free rock shows...

Click for larger views:


The Headhunters at Nietzsche's (updated)- Classic rock image for a great Buffalo rock band.



808 State at The ICON (1993)- British electronic comes to Buffalo early '90s.


Double Bill Hoedown featuring The Headhuters & The Steam Donkeys (1991)- Great late night show of local Buffalo bands in an unlikely venue. Nice giant rock hair, Mr. Matt Smith!


Saturday Ladies Nite at ICON w/ DJ Unlimited (1992)- alternative, progessive, wave! club flyer, Buffalo, NY. "Gals," "Girls," "Women" & "Ladies" drink free!


Gil Scott Heron at ICON (1992)- The revolution was not televised, it was live! This was one of those ICON shows where the garage door was open and the side room was filled with folding chairs.

Tiny Bubbles

Easter Sunday 2010! Cousins with bubble guns!!