MidwestLove Art & Design

I don’t think I can say enough about Cursive to justify their place in my musical memory. I recently went and watched them perform up in Milwaukee and was re-converted once again into a full time fan. I’ve been listening to their songs for over a decade and it’s an honor to put my artwork around their name. Hopefully this does them justice. The inspiration came from the line “we were better off as animals” from the song From The Hips on their latest album.

This will be getting a three color screen print on French Paper.

Thanks to John at Kickstand for continuing to give me excuses to do posters for awesome shows.

-marky

This just sold to big time indie-arena rockers Paramore. It will be sold in Hot Topics nationally. This is one of about a dozen designs that I submitted to them. They also asked to get a version with a giant gnome for tour. Ha…

-marky

Here’s a cool event poster for a local festival held annually in Byron, IL aptly titled Byronfest. My band Venna is playing, so I had to do something to help promote. Heather drew the awesome Polaroid One Step which inspired the whole thing. We may have to work together more often!

This is getting a three color screen print on French Paper Pop-Tone Berrylicious and will be sold alongside a bunch of my other prints in an online store very, very soon. Scout’s honor.

Which reminds me, if you haven’t seen Up yet, go now.

-marky

In March of 2006, at a little legion hall in Milwaukee, WI some of my friends in an relatively unknown indie rock band played their last show. Their band was called The Meteah Strike and it is a crime how few people got a chance to know and love those guys the way my friends and I did. They were a band comprised of some great musicians, but better songwriters. At that time in the Milwaukee indie rock scene, no one was making anything as endearing, heartfelt or genuinely magnetic as The Meteah Strike. Their music had the wry accessibility of Death Cab For Cutie, the clever edge of Elvis Costello and the gentle, off kilter experimentation of The Notwist. I still listen to their small collection of songs on a regular basis as part of my musical diet. One of my bands even re-recorded a cover of their song Big City Story. I miss those guys.

But, what’s this? Out of the ashes of one of my favorite bands, the founding members formed a new musical entity this time called Fable & The World Flat. This is nothing like their previous musical endeavor. This is neo-motown soul with an indie rock back-bone and some trip hop flavor. In other words, it’s fantastily different and incredibly engaging, with even more personality. Dance music for the disengaged, drinking class. Sign me up!

When I heard from the guys that they were putting together a full length record, I asked if I could lend some art direction. They obliged, and even gave me free reign to do whatever I wanted. I thought it would be appropriate to give this project a laid back, old school Blue Note-esque vibe. So I spilled some coffee on a few sheets of paper in my office to get some “authentic” looking age stains. (I know, I know… sacrificing perfectly good coffee? That’s dedication to one’s craft is what that is.)

My friend Brett suggested the use of Stilla for the “Fable” on the front cover, which totally made the whole thing come together. It also led to this sweet wordmark, which I’m secretly hoping they’ll put on a tshirt for future wearing potential-

I’ve got to say that there’s nothing better than being able to do work for your friends and be even a small part of the music you love to listen to. Seriously.

Let me know what you think.

-marky

Old bros and past clients, The Color Morale recently signed a deal with mega-metal label Rise Records, and they commissioned me to design a logo for the front of their debut CD. They instructed me to make it intense, but still legible. Their music is straight up brutal, new-school hardcore wrapped around some fairly melodic guitar work, so I figured I should do something a bit more customized by hand instead of going with a typeface. Plus I really like these guys and wanted to do something special that would work for them for a while.

Now I only had one day to turn this around in order to make thier print deadline for their CDs, so I just ran with my first idea and threw out the rough sketch approval process. I painted out a good 13 or so logos until I had one that felt right. To make sure I got as much movement and “violence” into the strokes as possible, I got out my wife’s antique calligraphy nibs and india ink (please don’t tell her) and scratched and drug the nibs across some heavy weight textured watercolor paper getting all of that violent, splattery effect. Heather… nothing was damaged during the making of this logo and I washed off all of your pens when I was done. Please don’t kill me.

After a few minor changes in Illustrator (moving the “The” down), they were totally pleased with it, and it is now being used all over their myspace page and CD artwork and promo stuff.  The actual CD packaging and layout was done by the awesome guys at Synapse. Check it out -

On a personal note, I couldn’t be prouder of these guys watching where they came from, starting out in the scene a mere 3 or 4 years ago. I was at Garret and Steve’s first show (as a fairly different band) in a little record shop in Rockford, IL and I remember being blown away by their conviction to their music even back then. They are incredibly hardworking and talented and genuinely nice guys and they deserve all the success in the world. Congrats dudes.

-marky

Former client and friend Rick Bisenius asked me to draw up some custom illustrations for his and his fiance’s wedding invitations. They suggested a theme of “Robots In Love”. How could I resist that opportunity? I was pleased with the final results, so here they are…

Invite and RSVP Card-

Custom Envelope, Back and Front-

Feel free to print these off at will and RSVP to their wedding! I suggest getting the vegetable neopolitan.

-marky