5/29 Cover

Like many of the more slightly "out there" cover illustrations I am tasked to do, this was created becaus no-one could find a solution they liked. The story revolves around Bassam, an Iraqui immigrant who witnessed the first surge of the war in Iraq, and now watches the war from Philly. After one meeting (and trying to decipher the writer's mixed explanation of the story), I came up with the idea of a man looking back from a serene setting, on the bad dream of the past.

Originally I wanted a realistic "dream bubble" like in a cartoon, but realistic. For obvious reasons this did not work. Instead I mixed photos I took of green a city street, spotty green grass and mud, and the Iraq digital collage, to make it look like the modern time eroded into a wartime scene. Thankfully it printed well.

New Illustrations!

This was for a story about a naughty book-reading salon night set in a local bar/club. Thus the naughty librarian. Very speakeasy.



This was for a collection of 2007's most notable wierdos. Those included: Anna-Nicole Smith, Senator Larry Craig (in tutu), astronaut Lisa Marie Nowak (in diaper), and local ham-fister Alycia Lane.

Lost and Found

I had frequented this Olde CIty (Philadelphia) clothing store, and when they contracted an ad, I had an exact idea of what they needed. For a small, slightly missable place, Lost & Found has a great deal of modern/classic style, and a great wooden floor.

Hilliard : Inside Out

A few years ago I lived with the bassist of the band HILLIARD. We exchanged a few ideas concerning their second records sleeve deisgn. They didnt use this one. The other ideas i had involved a fifty foot tall businessman wielding a wooden club chasing a village of amazon women. I like that one better. Would have taken a long time to paint it the right way though. Oh well.

MORE COVERS!

Nerml : Echoes

The second and last album cover I created for the now defunct group NERML. I have always loved using photos of television screens. I always find a use for the abstract texture it makes of the projected image. This was taken off the Nosferatu remake, but Werner Herzog.

Skindog posters

From the Never Odd Or Even Production of SKINDOG. Here are a few variations on the main theme (5 "boring" guys posing like heros). To create this poster, we all (the five and I) went on a mammoth photoshoot across the city. From doing jumpingjacks in an upscale hotel brunch, to running through a parking garage screaming, we were never kicked out of anywhere. The final photo seemed perfect, despite its being so calm. Who would have known serenity can be found in a Banana Republic alleyway(next to the dumpsters).







Never Odd Or Even

GAWK! 2006.

The three inclusions in the 2006 Gawk! group show. All gone now.



The three inclusions in the 2006 Gawk! group show. All gone now.

Almighty Enome!

If I had a brand, it would be enome. In high school I used it to make stickers and t shirts for bands(usually my own only). Through college It lay dormant, except for the creation of the logo, and the initial Untossable Salad issues, which were my "bad taste" illustrated literary zines. Here are thee Enome logo followed by a few older enome illustrations. Haven't done anything for the enome label lately. Although More issues of "Untossable Salad" will come in the future. Possibly a collected paperback aas well. Gotta love Lulu.com.

A peer commissioned these koi fish for some restaurant that was opening. Not sure if they were actually used, although they should have. Either way I was paid...happy enough.

Music Issue...

I created several logos for this cover package, but these two were the final choices. I wanted to incorporate more than typical music instruments, singers etc, and go back to musical notation, music machine elements (thus the cassette tape parts for the second logo). The powers that be ended up choosing my secong choice, as shown in the official onesheet below.

Nerml Album Cover.

The first cover i designed for the self-titled first album. The band released one more album then disbanded.

Onesheets!Onesheets!Onesheets!

Fall Guide 07...

Here are a few compositions for a Special Fall issue. The first two are the official onesheet and cover (containing the official "Fall Guide" logo) respectively.





Heres a "failed" experiment for the onesheet/cover package preview.

6 trumpets...

Im making a comic book...finally. Initially I had an idea for a story about the seperation of Pangea. It was a war epic with lots of magic and mysticism, and evil empress and a world made out of iron. The world in the story revolved around these six massive horns that sprung out of a mountain, spewing the bellow of heaven or god or the gods. Originally this idea was to be a novel, but I was far too interested in drawing the characters. So now its a comic book.

This is an initial logo/concept that was created while the idea was still in novel form. I still like it, so it survives.

"How We Work" Cover Package...

Here is an entire cover package, illustrated by me and co-designed with my art director. In this editorial, a panel or writers worked a different blue collar job and reported on their day. I tried to convey each highlighted job through simple, iconic cropped images using a minmal (1-2) color pallette to each.

Design Philly

Here is an older ad for a specialty issue/ collaboration with DESIGN PHILLY. I Went back to some simple design-school comps for inspiration. Logo design class, never fails.

A few Older Cover Illustrations

One of the pleasures of working for an alt weekly, is the ability to tackle broad illustrations for covers and feature stories. Working with the writers and editors, giving my personal view of the stories they write, feeds that need to collaborate.

Here are a few of such illustrations. Above is one of the first illustrations I created for the City Paper. Its also the first professional all-digital photo collages I created. Although an in-house job, I was able to take my time, teaching myself the rights and wrongs of digital manipulation. Although I am able to see the problems with this illustration now, I still think it was a successful illustration. I also won a 1st place SPJ award for it.



The first "boy in a box" cover demonstrates a mixture of photo collage and old fashioned hand drawn characters( a style I use in most illustrations anymore). The second "The Prodigy" Is probably one of my top 3 favorite illustrations. I also won a Keystone award for it. 2nd place this time...


One of the jobs Im called on for most is medium to heavy photo manipulation, or "Frankenstein-ing" as I like to call it. The cover above "never mind the sequins" was a bit of a challenge. The task was to take an indoor, dark, populated shot of people dressed like fish, and put them underwater. As always I immediately said "we can do it", much to the confusion (still after all this time) of my coworkers. Then came the task of figuring out how to do it. After some hours, it was done. I love the way it came out, and through the screw-ups (many) I managed to learn a great deal from it.