Thoburn Design & Illustration

No, not the old 2005 Daniel Powter song (although it’s been playing in the back of my head since I started this post). I’m sure I was subconsciously inspired by Pixar’s short “Partly Couldy” (the one shown before “UP”) when I had this thought about happy clouds floating along until one storms by in a really bad mood. As he spreads his lack of cheer around, the other clouds just try to stay outta his way. I wonder if Bob Ross ever painted “happy clouds” to go along with his happy trees. (for personal use)

I’ve long been a fan of high contrasting black and white design. When done properly they can create an optical illusion of sorts as our minds begin to fill in what’s “missing”. They’re stark, bold and make the statement: “I will not be ignored”. Add in a splash of red and you’ve got a guaranteed captive audience. Recently, I was asked to design a logo similar in style to the Oceans Eleven poster. While researching, I noticed this tried-and-true formula has been used for years in designing movie posters. Below are some of my favorite examples. Feel free to add any suggestions I may have missed!

Amazing poster, for an amazing film!

I love the way this “updated” version plays off the original but using simple “cut outs”.

Not the official movie poster, but I loved how it tied all of the Bond movies together using the iconic swirled circle “eye” and silhouette of 007.

Love the hint of red on the small red rose.

Ok, not red, but in the same family.

Quite possibly the best example of them all.

Frank Miller is a master artist and storyteller, and his masterpiece is Sin City. I would race to my local comic store to pick up the next issue. I couldn’t take my eyes off his artwork. The movie was a nice homage to his work.

Every year I create an invitation for a non-profit organization’s national conference (not spec work). The invitation is typically 16-20 pages, 8.5×14 saddle stitched. It includes the typical conference stuff, like a brief write up on the host city or state, event schedule(s), guest speakers, registration forms and special sessions. Each of these special sessions require a logo of sorts. Below are three of logos I created as well one for the host state, Colorado.

Like all good wives mine drops hints all throughout the year of what they want/need for special occasions. She’s been telling me for months that she needed a new purse. When she didn’t get one for Christmas I was in serious hot water. Although the water quickly cooled when she opened her brand new MacBook. I had escaped the doghouse, but I hadn’t forgotten the purse. I put it on the list for her birthday. Rather than any old boring bag I decided there had to be a company out there creating custom purses suited to each individual. I was sure they’d charge plenty for it as well, but she’s worth it, right? Enter Snaptotes.com. I was immediately impressed with their website. It was clean and user friendly. I selected the bag that best fit her needs, and painlessly uploaded her custom artwork, a comic character named Frisk based on one of our cats. First the front:

and then the back:

I ran into two snags in the ordering process, both of which were my fault. I called their 800 number twice and each person I got was courteous and patiently walked me through the process. Once it was done and paid for, which was shockingly reasonable, I waited with great anticipation for it’s arrival which they calculated at 7 to 10 business days. When it arrived I secretly unwrapped it and was completely blown away. I cannot even begin to describe the quality of their work. The outside is digitally printed on a thick nylon material and sown tightly to the bag. No visible snags, scrapes, loose threads or scuffs. The purse itself is leather while the handles are nylon. I was so impressed I decided to order more. A large wallet:

Again, I was blown away. Excellent craftsmanship and one of the most unique gift ideas I’ve ever found. I can’t recommend this company highly enough. If you’re looking for a unique gift, or you want one for yourself, check out SnapTotes.com. You won’t be disappointed

I wasn’t done. I thought, if you can put anything you want on a bag, how about a watch? Sure enough, there’s www.timissimo.com. Unfortunately site design wise, this ones in need of a face lift. It’s a bit clunky and busy, but it works and I couldn’t believe all of the customizable options. Not only can you put whatever you want on the face but you can choose, the time-markings, watch body and band. Theres multiple options in each of those categories.  You can even add customized writing to the back, all included in the price.

(A note on the back, it’s not engraved. It appears heat stamped).

Again, I was completely taken aback by the product, this time more-so than SnapTotes, strickly because of their website. I was not impressed, however all that disappeared after the watch arrived. I would highly recommend them. Super fast, the watch arrived in 7 days, and professional. Needless to say, I was a superhero. My wife said it was the best gift(s) she had ever received, and she was quick to show them off to complete strangers. Unfortunately this has put me in a quandary. How will I top this next year?

Scot Lienke with the Washington D.C. area band Oz Revue contracted me to design a set of gig posters. He provided me with their logo, a link to their site and a couple photos of the band in action. I noticed that front man “Oz” had a signature hat he wore in all his performances. I chose to build the bands “image” off the hat and color in the bands logo. I wanted the posters to flow and almost “move” like their music which I sampled on their site. At the last minute we added “Soul, funk, blues & rock” to clarify the style of music. I carried the white lines from the top to the bottom and used them to form the words. Space was required at the bottom for writing in the time, date and location. Also featured at Gigposters.com

For the San Diego Zoo

Here’s a practical tip you can use to “scan” artwork using MacBook’s built in isight camera. The process I use when beginning an illustration is to do a quick pencil sketch,

scan it, place it in Illustrator, set the opacity to 50%, lock it’s layer and “trace” over it.

Recently my scanner, printer all-in-one deal, gave up the ghost. It wasn’t exactly high quality but we had a good relationship and I was sad to see it go. Before I had a chance to replace it, I was up against a tight deadline. I grabbed my Moleskine and did a couple of quick sketches. Then I remembered, I had no scanner. How would I get the sketches into Illustrator. I considered snapping a digital photo of it but with multiple cords and unintuitive software my camera is more trouble than it’s worth. It could work in a pinch, but then that tiny little camera staring at me from above my laptop screen caught my eye.

I launched “Photo Booth” and grinned gleefully as the LED lit and my ugly mug appeared on screen before me like some kind of Jetson’s inspired mirror. I grabbed the Moleskine, held it up to the camera and snapped a perfectly traceable, albeit flipped, image for me to trace.

As you can see, I’ve been using my isight camera in this capacity for awhile. So what do you do if you don’t have a MacBook? Get one, it might be better than a new scanner!

Just a couple of twitter icons I created. Right click on image and select “save link as” to download zip file that includes all PNG and two Photoshop files for easy customization. All for free . . . enjoy!

You might not recognize the name, or the face but you’ve probably seen his work. Dan Merchant is an Emmy Award winning writer and filmmaker. His most recent project is a documentary, and companion book titled, Lord Save Us From Your Followers. While I haven’t seen the documentary (yet) I have read the book. Its an honest and personal look at his journey as “Bumper Sticker Man” probing for an answer to the question, why is the Gospel of love dividing America.

Dan and I exchanged a few emails and he was very complimentary of my avatar. He hinted around that he might commission me to illustrate him after he sold enough books. I decided not to wait and surprised him with this.

My second entry in the Mini E competition. (see previous post)