Last Nite I met Reverend Billy Talen, http://www.voterevbilly.org/ the green party candidate running against Weiner and Bloomberg for Mayor. He's a trip. I like him. Only problem: he likes Blue and Orange (C'mon, you didn't know Blue and Orange were the official state colors?) Any how I just fired myself from his campaign.
"Love-A-Lujah!", his suggestive, seductive mantra is pretty solid. So is his act. Which is no act. He lives it. It's a shame I couldn't convince him to embrace this green idea, but I sincerely wish him the best running for Mayor of New York.
My parting advice to one of the campaign organizers: Remember who came up with Micheal Jackson's single white glove? Was it Micheal? No. It was a graphic designer (Mike Salisbury). What are your thoughts and have you ever an experience similar to this? Maybe I'm a jackass but I just can't do free work I don't believe in.
Blue Talen amongst his (green) flock
Here is the photo i used to quickly render his likeness. Rev Talen has been around doing this for a long long time. Like 20 years.
Check this out this you tube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGi21YQFjMM
hilarious
Upper Crust Side
OK, here are my final thoughts. Serious William uptown, preaching to the unconvertred.
Go Gourd
When I asked what kind of campaign was to be waged I recall "Ideas. We want ideas. Smart, creative ideas. We want to show New York how different we are from Bloomberg." Which, from Leo's comment, led me to this. Praise be to GOURD (I'm out of mine).
thumbed the $7 SI Swimsuit issue? you probably didn't notice some ads for Rockport with my linear "jazz" scrawled here and there. Keep an eye out if you're peeping Esquire, Outside or Marie Claire too.
the fellas
Celine is the granddaughter of the renowned oceanographer, these guys are winners of Brad Pitt's architecture contest. Don't they look like they just won? I tagged along to the Mathew Rolston shoot on Canal Street and had lunch and met the clients and agency, Hill Holiday (Boston). I ate half a plate of noodles and 23 skidoodled. I'm a sucker for free lunch, (and jobs in advertising).
Marc
This guy Felato is famous in Theatre, He rounds out the trio of notables.
top sider
We also did some shoes. This isn't the final. Hell I don't even know what the final ended up looking like. Most of the scenic material came from pics of Central Park. The designer/ art director Sue and I got along fine but butted heads a few times toward the latter stages of the assignment. I'm a total bastard. You knew that.
woman's shoe
another scenic one... there were around 12 ads in all and I'm now working directly with the client.
carpet exploratory
this was part of the initial exploratory. There was a good deal of it. In this scenario I had the wearer pulled to the foreground to give emphasis to the shoe. It was received with the boot.
expl 2
This was an early attempt to evade the evenly stroked line weight. I have been trying to go more this route lately with a wetter, more fluid feeling line. Striking the right note between whimsy and elegance is a tough line. Maybe I'l save the idea for later.
fish
I had a good time finding real fish to hide in the coral.
detail
This is a detail of the Felato theatre scene. Probably my most best moment came in describing this wormy moping fellow soon to slip past the street light on the left. He probably works in NY in advertising. And has no job.
so began the task of drawing a Miles Davis (w/ Charlie Parker) mural for a building in Harlem. The mural is go inside the Putnam building around 125th sometime soon (hopefully I'll be paid then, the bill is 6 months late!). Anyhoo, this process (finding likenesses) is a bit mundane, but lets go thru it, K?
here are the secondary thoughts. The art director, Molly Wilkie at And Partners, NY was pretty cool and we got along fine (can't say so much for their accts payable dept)
more sketches
the project, initially a mural, became more, involving type and charlie parker and a skyscrape and hell, i threw in a logotype for free. things were going well (no complaints from anyone) so for something like a mural for Miles Davis I wasn't going to complain. It's a fucking Miles Davis mural!
links
a close up... linked...
inverted
panning out... it was to work something like this along a wall inside the building, on brochures, web, etc, etc
this was a bit of an accident. I kinda like the way the colors do a Jim Flora thang. Or not.
the end
this image, the best of the bunch i think, was left on the cutting room floor.
I really enjoy listening to jazz as i work. there is no beginning or end. its a groove. you get in and get lost- not a bad way to live.
i was never much of a jazz fan until burton morris at blue note sent me some
art blakey and the jazz messenger CDs. Weird how things transpire. I'm about
to start on another jazz piece for a new client... no complaints...
