kind of like spitting 2015 tour
Printed posters and social media image posts for Kind of Like Spitting‘s 2015 US Tour.
Printed posters and social media image posts for Kind of Like Spitting‘s 2015 US Tour.
My friend David D’Andrea and I were talking of how we love Barney Bubbles / Colin Fulcher’s work last time I was in Portland. With Nik Turner’s Hawkwind headlining the approaching Fall into Darkness Festival in Portland, Davey offered up the idea of a collaboration. Davey and I published a few collaborative zines back in the day and have kept close contact over the past few years. Davey has since become a legendary illustrator and poster designer whose work is highly sought after and collected. See his work at dvdandrea.com.
Bands that performed at Fall into Darkness 2013:
Day 1: Hedersleben, Billions & Billions, White Manna, Nik Turner’s Hawkwind
Day 2: Lazer/Wulf, Lord Dying, Holy Grail, Orange Goblin
Day 3: Eight Bells, Botanist, Behold…the Arctopus, Agalloch
Day 4: Mike Scheidt, Uzala, Hammers of Misfortune, The Skull
A set of ten tour guides of the Kanto region, each by a prominent foreign member of the Tokyo community for Shibaura House. You can read all about it at the project’s home page here! This project was really fun, as it was co-designed with ace hybrid designer/developer, Thien Huynh. Each guide was printed on different colored paper stock using a complementary ink color using Risograph printing.
The tour areas and guides:
・Tour 1:東海道(日本橋~品川)by ルーカス・B.B.
Tokaido by Lucas Badtke-Berkow
・Tour 2:杉並 by ジャレド・ブレイタマン
Suginami by Jared Braiterman
・Tour 3:世田谷 by アレックス・ ソンダレッガー
Setagaya by Alex Sonderegger
・Tour 4:渋谷 by ヴィヴィアン・モレリ
Shibuya by Vivian Morelli
・Tour 5:新島 by スザンナ・ベア
Niijima by Susanna Baer
・Tour 6:横浜 by キム・ミンジョン
Yokohama by Kim Min Jung
・Tour 7:沢井 by クリス・バーテルセン
Sawai by Chris Berthelsen
・Tour 8:有楽町 by ジャン・スノー
Yurakucho by Jean Snow
・Tour 9:港区 by カーレン・クンツ
Minato City by Kaaren Kunze
・Tour 10:横浜 by プジ・ナタジャヤ
Yokohama by Puji Natadjaja
A set of 4 collaborative posters created with designer Ed Fella. The set was released in an edition of 100 at our one-night exhibition at 35 Minutes Gallery in Araiyakushimae in Tokyo.
Understanding Cancer Genomics through Information Visualization is an international symposium at the University of Tokyo focusing on how information visualization approaches, methods and tools can be used in the understanding of cancer genomic data. We designed a three-color poster, three-color postcard and provided art direction for the symposium website.
Poster for Portland’s NW Film Center‘s Japanese Currents film program.
Tour CD for Kind of Like Spitting – listen to it here.
A pair of custom whisky labels designed for Whisk-e using custom patterns, fluorescent Pantones and our house typefaces.
My latest deck graphic for Lesque– Junichi Arahata’s latest pro model. In use: my font Pompeian Cursive.
Simultaneously the easiest and hardest project ever: designing invitations to your own wedding. Just as daunting- do you put it on your website? I thought not, but we’re really proud of how these turned out.
We picked up the squirrels sharing an acorn from an old book of German trademarks, the initial caps from hand-lettering by Bavarian communists, and were forced to put the damn venue’s logo on the map card by the damn venue. Nonetheless, it turned out beautifully. Fine-tuned bilingual typography, lovely printing and blind debossing, custom paper and even the ol’ ‘Rubine Red gradient in the gutter trick’.
Design for the CD “The Reminder” by Tokyo/Toronto-based band The Universal Moment. The CD is designed with my typeface family Clobber Grotesk.
Metallic button set released with the Space Is The Place exhibition.
Space Is The Place is an exhibition in Portland, Oregon at Land Gallery. It is a curated selection of graphic design work from the past decade.
Featured are a series of new oversize metallic posters, assorted editorial designs, identity design, type designs, music packaging, assorted broadcast work and other projects.
A limited edition booklet printed in a series of 1,000 containing design-related writings is being given away for free to complement the exhibition.
A set of 4 custom buttons was produced for the event, as well. Assorted projects designed by the studio are available for sale at Land throughout the run of the show, as well.
Accompanyingthe exhibition was a West Coast lecture tour in which I waved my hands around and gave glib, incisive commentary on Japanese typography, recent projects, writing on graphic design, and the state of Design in Japan today.
The lectures:
New installment in the Poster Initiative series- this time a collaboration between myself and artist Bwana Spoons. Bwana drew a series of cats in hats and I collaged together a series of drawings of moles with wings. Printed in 2 spot colors.
Latest self-initiated poster in the Poster Initiative series. An abstract composition using found and drawn/generated imagery. Printed with 3 spot colors.
Three new collaborative posters with copywriter Chad Rea for Electricity Showroom.
Poster for Fukuoka Flower Party concert.
New Ian Lynam “pro model” deck out via Open Skateboards.
Latest self-initiated poster in the Poster Initiative series. An abstract composition using found and drawn/generated imagery. Printed with 3 spot colors.
Latest self-initiated poster in the Poster Initiative series. A sarcastic look at religions popular in Japan. Printed with silver and purple spot colors.
Illustrative poster based on the theme of exploring graphic and conceptual space. Printed using metallic and fluorescent inks as part of Roland’s Metallic World campaign. Utilized globally as the key art for Roland’s 2010/2011 metallic printer campaign.
Illustrative poster depicting a modular future. Printed using metallic and fluorescent inks as part of Roland’s Metallic World campaign.
Illustrative poster depicting a dystopian future populated with robots and traditional Japanese characters. Printed using metallic and fluorescent inks as part of Roland’s Metallic World campaign.
Homage poster to R. Buckminster Fuller. Printed using metallic and fluorescent inks as part of Roland’s Metallic World campaign.
Brochure design for the Dill Pickle Club.
A collaboration between myself and Austin Whipple at Scout Books/Pinball Publishing, it’s a trio of type design sketchbooks with modular grids for designing letterforms.
The inside covers feature illustrated essays showing users how to properly draw letters (overshoot, ascender ratios, type anatomy), as well as showing samples of type design that I find particularly intriguing).
At $12 a pop, they’re cheap, as well. The perfect gift for the type nerd closest to you. Pick one up here.
Poster for Walls of Pride, a tour of African American murals in Portland, Oregon held by the Dill Pickle Club.
The tour encompassed visits to over a dozen works of art. Adriene Cruz and Isaka Shamsud-Din, two of the featured muralists, were guest speakers at the sites of their work.
CD design for Bureau Export, the French music industry advocacy non-profit. Includes a 24-page booklet in French and Japanese.
Newest edition of 1,000 two-color posters in the Poster Initiative series of posters distributed for free around Tokyo. Printed in fluorescent yellow and bronze.
A preview version of Type Sketcher for TypeCon. A collaboration between myself and Austin Whipple at Scout Books/Pinball Publishing, it’s a trio of type design sketchbooks with modular grids for designing letterforms.
The inside covers feature illustrated essays showing users how to properly draw letters (overshoot, ascender ratios, type anatomy), as well as showing samples of type design that I find particularly intriguing).
At $12 a pop, they’re cheap, as well. The perfect gift for the type nerd closest to you.
New limited edition three-color print (signed series of 200, hand numbered) for the BetterLetter X Artalking House Industries presentation in Tokyo available now for $20 postpaid via Paypal. Email to pick one up.
Greeting card for Portland, Oregon stationer, Tenth & Grant.
Greeting card for Portland, Oregon stationer, Tenth & Grant.
Notebook for Portland, Oregon stationer, Tenth & Grant.
Greeting card for Portland, Oregon stationer, Tenth & Grant.
Greeting card for Portland, Oregon stationer, Tenth & Grant.
2-color journal design for Portland, Oregon stationer, Tenth & Grant.
Coaster designs for Portland, Oregon stationer Tenth & Grant. Each boxed set contains 5 each of 2 designs.
On occasion, I like to do assignments alongside my students at Temple University Japan, as exploring more abstract approaches to work is fairly rare in Japanese design pedagogy.
The assignment:
Literary Metaphor
Design a poster for an author or critic from the list below whose writing interests you and whose ideas you find
thought provoking. The poster should be large scale (at least 20 inches by 30 inches), in color, and should include the usual who, what, when, and where information that would be appropriate for a book signing, reading, or lecture. The poster must include images as well as typography.
The challenge is to create a visual metaphor for literary ideas that is intelligible without being a trite one-liner, as well
as seductive without relying on usual overworked stylistic trickery.
Potential texts:
Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri
Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris
Fires/Where I’m Calling From by Raymond Carver
Labyrinths/Dream Tigers/Ficciones/The Book of Sand by Jorge Luis Borges
Who’s Irish by Gish Jen
Stripping by Pagan Kennedy
The Periodic Table by Primo Levi
Collected Stories by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Kavalier & Clay/The Yiddish Policemen’s Union by Michael Chabon
Natural Disasters by Al Burian
For my own poster, I chose a book not on the list that students might be familiar with- The Silent Cry by Kenzaburo Oe.
I included 30 different visual metaphors within my poster design, as well as allusions to Oe-san’s recent legal troubles due to his reporting on a WWII massacre in Okinawa.
The poster was printed 60 inches wide by 110 inches tall using a variety of metallic inks, usual CMYK process, and white ink.
New poster for Blunt Mechanic, on Barsuk Records
Newest edition of 1,000 two-color posters in the Poster Initiative series of posters distributed for free around Tokyo.
An edition of 20 prints of each color was exhibited at the group show Staying Put at Grasshut in Portland, Oregon in February, 2010.
Latest version of the Poster Initiative series.
New skateboard graphic for Open Skateboards.
Spring 2010 line of skateboard decks for Lesque.
A long time in the coming: season one of Open Skateboards. What started out as a flight of fancy turned into a full-on skateboard company helmed by Trevor Sias. Two decks for the first season: the Ian Lynam “pro” model and another one I designed in homage to Kiyoshi Awazu, one of my favorite Japanese designers who passed away last year. Screenprinted (not cheesy heat transfer) on super-solid wood in the great state of Pennsylvania.
New CD design for Blunt Mechanic, the latest on Barsuk‘s roster. Blunt Mechanic are ex-Kind of Like Spitting and others. I drew a lot for this one, especially on the train. I drew a few hundred characters to make the CD and upcoming LP, as well as the tee shirt and the stickers and the buttons, et cetera. People look at you weird when you draw on the train in Tokyo, especially when you have a good idea or are wringing out an old one while you are standing. You take advantage of those moments when the train stops. Then you draw vikings. And turds.
I work closely with the Five By Fifty team to develop collateral for their client presentations. This often takes the form of ideation/inspiration posters, worksheets, digital presentation files, and workbooks. This workbook was designed to help explain the workings of the Japanese economy for an American client.
New promotional postcard set designed for Bespoke Tokyo.
Installment #3 in my self-initiated offset-printed poster series. The posters are produced in editions of 1,000 and distributed around Tokyo.
Packaging and product branding for BudSock. BudSock is a nifty new anti-tangle device for mobile devices’ cord systems. I worked with company founder Jeffrey Wescott to develop the product’s identity and packaging, as well as beef up their web presence as of late. It’s a nifty sleeve system backed up by a 110% money-back guarantee.
Self-initiated offset-printed poster series produced in editions of 1,000 and distributed around Tokyo.
Coaster designs for Sapporo. Commissioned by the kind folks at Dentsu Canda,
Button set for Néojaponisme
Wedding invitation set for Anastasia Alto and Corey Blodgett
Self-initiated offset-printed poster series produced in editions of 1,000 and distributed around Tokyo.
Set of a dozen promotional trading cards for Bwana Spoons’ book, Welcome to Forest Island.
Art direction, design, and illustration for Lesque Skateboards’ Summer 2009 line of skateboards. Lesque is an independent skateboard company based in Tokyo.
Poster for the Experimental Filmmaker Karaoke Throwdown, a PDX Fest event. Filmmakers were invited to create unique karaoke videos for the song of their choice for the public to sing along to. Printed by Eberhardt Press and E*Rock.
Theatrical poster for MIIB.
Self-promotional card featuring an English-to-Japanese katakana/hiragana syllabary chart.
Promotional card for Pinball Publishing, my very favorite print shop in Portland, Oregon. Printed using two fluorescent Pantone soy inks on post-consumer recycled card stock.
Packaging for Pause Original Blend Tea, a limited edition tea packaging concept by Cafe Pause in Ikebukuro, Tokyo.
Announcement card for the Meeting Modernity exhibition in Portland, Oregon at Reading Frenzy Meeting Modernity is a traveling exhibition of found photography documenting Japan as it engaged with modernization and commercial photography in the Meiji and Taisho Periods of history. The Meeting Modernity series is comprised of portrait photography in particular. Meeting Modernity is the focus of my online cultural journal Néojaponisme’s first traveling exhibition.
Art direction, design, and illustration for Lesque Skateboards’ Winter 2008 line of skateboards. Lesque is an independent skateboard company based in Tokyo. One design features the work of illustrator Toshiko Kimura.
Logo, English naming conventions, key art, and print campaign for the feature film The Clone Returns Home, directed by Kanji Nakajima and executive produced by Wim Wenders. Producer Hikari Ohta and I collaborated to bring the film an updated name and identity informed by JAXA’s early identity explorations as much as Dutch Modernism.
Skateboard graphic for Lesque. Rejected design that I liked so much I had some manufactured.
Limited edition ghetto blaster design for Lasonic and Rap-Up magazine. I designed the unit graphics, as well as all packaging and advertising.
A series of 4/1 postcards reproducing eight select images from Meeting Modernity, a traveling exhibition of found photography documenting Japan as it engaged with modernization and commercial photography in the Meiji and Taisho Periods of history. The Meeting Modernity series is comprised of portrait photography in particular. Meeting Modernity is the focus of my online cultural journal Néojaponisme’s first traveling exhibition. The postcard set was produced in an edition of 300 for the Los Angeles debut of the exhibition at Young Art. The rice paper envelope was designed and produced by Kate Hillseth and Paul Forney of Young Art.
CD packaging for Tokyo-based American singer/songwriter Adrían Zapata.
Self-titled EP for Kind of Like Spitting.
Poster for ImPosters, a group show at Gallery Visio, the University of Missouri-St Louis’ art space. The show concept: posters for fake bands playing fake shows.
Mine is for a Misfits-y horror rock band named after the first director of the Bauhaus Design School in Germany, playing a show in the school’s first location.
Poster campaign for West Seattle Aikikai, an Aikido dojo based in Seattle, Washington.
Event design for Red Bull extreme snowcross event.
Mailorder catalog for Portland film production company Peripheral Produce. The catalog was printed using a split fountain technique, causing the two inks to gradate.
Promotional wall supergraphic for Nike World Cup parks.
Posters, postcards, and site graphics for Nike’s 2003 promotional parks. Collaboration with Carole Ambauen, Yoko Tsukuhara, Joshua Berger, Pete McCracken, and Shawn Wolfe at Plazm.
POP posters for Nike’s Ken Griffey signature shoe based on baseball card designs.
Key art-stye ad for Nike Japan Soccer.
Identity, website, and package design for my record label, Mold Recordings. The first record released is a 7″ of the song “Day Ditty”, recorded by Craig Wedren (Shudder to Think) & E#Vax (Ratatat). A music video for the release can be seen here.
LP and CD design for Kind of Like Spitting‘s “Bridges Worth Burning” for Barsuk Records. Assorted promotional items such as tour shirts, buttons, and posters were designed, as well.
Logos for WKTokyoLab/EMI artist Hifana’s latest CD, “Connect”.
Various posters designed at California Institute of the Arts. Printing methods included screenprinting, oversize xerography and blueline. The poster for Yehudit Sasportas’ lecture at CalArts won a 2004 Adobe Achievement Award.
Skateboard deck graphics for Lesque Skateboards, an independent skateboard company based in Tokyo and Transworld Skateboarding Japan’s 2008 Team of the Year.
CD design for Néojaponisme co-founder Marxy’s latest full-length CD on New York’s Music Related label. A mix of declassified files, xeroxing, and sumi ink spills was recombined to create the ominous look of this long player.
Identity and print design for Zone 5 In The City, the Arroyo Arts Collective’s temporary site-specific installation exhibition in Los Angeles. The exhibition ran from April through May 2008. “Zone 5 in the City” refers to permaculture’s classification of “Zone 5” as the wilderness zone from which we learn the important lesson of working with nature not against it. The exhibition is a project that brings professional artists together with Franklin High School students to explore the issue of sustainability through the construction of site-specific installations on the grounds of the Audubon Center at Debs Park.