Secret Still

The day before I leave for a short vacation is always the most stressful, what with the packing, the repacking, the getting-things-done, and getting-there-on-time, the planning adventures and the figuring out what to do in my downtime. So today I’m just gonna slip into a nice, warm, comfortable Wayne White painting and relax my cares away. And after 30 minutes of that it will be back to holding my breath until I’m actually on the plane. Tomorrow around this time you will hear a very loud sigh from SFO, and then some nap noises directly after.

Wayne White

I’ve always just assumed that when people say something “shows promise,” they’re saying that it “isn’t good enough.” I mean, yeah, it includes that unsaid addendum that whatever it is has the potential to be great, but it says first and foremost that it isn’t great right now. At the same time, I find myself thinking that things “show promise” all the time, even though I think it’s kind of a dick thing to say. I look at tons of portfolios and only a few of them are any good, but a few more are almost good, they have some good ideas, and some interesting methods of execution, but the artist just hasn’t gotten to the point where what’s in their head is coming out clearly in their medium. All that being said, Conor Whelan’s recent work is fantastic, professional, clean and simple. But if you go back a ways into his portfolio you’ll see some work that “shows promise.” His portfolio, then to now, is a good example of how that promise can turn into perfection given time and diligence. That’s a whole other kind of inspiration for you. And if not, well that’s only because as a writer, I still only “show promise.”

Conor Whelan

I’ve been sort of doodling type in the margins of notes and things at meetings recently. I’ve always held pretty firmly that if I’m in a meeting, I should be paying attention, and it’s rude to doodle. Opinion changed. If I’m gonna sit through meetings where I’m needed for about 5 minutes of the total hour, then I’m going to be using that time to make some pretty/interesting/gross/blasphemous. Possibly all of those at the same time. Not possible? A flower with an E8 sequence in the middle shitting on a baby Jesus. That’s just off the top of my head. But none of what I’ve casually been doodling is close to being as wonderful as the work of Dana Tanamachi. Of course, she isn’t doodling, she’s making fully-formed, kick your teeth out through your eyes works of awesome. But she is making them in chalk, a very impermanent medium. All it would take was one drunken Kiefer Sutherland to bump-slide his way past that wall, and whammo, all fucked up. It’s like sculpting with soap bubbles. “But Brad,” you’re saying, “couldn’t she just seal it with something?” “Readers,” I reply, “go fuck yourselves; I don’t have to take that kinda crap from you.” Here’s to hoping that someday my shitty doodles even resemble Tanamachi’s work. Should take me another five or six straight years of meetings.

Dana Tanamachi

Now this right here, this is some delicious texturing. And from digital work? We’re talking skills unmatchable. I’m gonna spend a couple more hours dissecting this, and then cry myself to sleep.

Fantastic Hysteria

I tend to shy away from cliches for the most part. Usually because they don’t contain a lot of swearing, and swears are a large part of my mystique. Powerhouse is not a word I use regularly, this may in fact be the first time, but powerhouse indeed is Jeffrey Docherty. Design, illustration, type — the man can do it all, and better than you probably can in your dreams. I wouldn’t be surprised if he was better looking than me. Some people are just better. If we can learn to deal with that, then we can probably end world hunger and reality television all at the same time. Lead us there, Jeffrey.

Jeffrey Docherty

Maybe there is something special about the icier parts of the Midwest, but there are some fantastic designers there. Is it the oppressive Winters? You get trapped in the house for months at a time because of inclimate weather, and there’s nothing else to do but get really really good at something? I’ve noticed there are some great artists/designers in Portland, too where it rains like a bastard for most of the year. Damn the pleasant environs I’ve lived in throughout my life, no wonder I’m not very good at anything. Whatever the reason, the results are still clear, and Allan Peters is a great example. The Minnesota-based designer is as talented as they come, and within the first five seconds I had already added his site to my “inspiration” bookmarks. Lots of ideas zooming around the old brain box after combing through his portfolio. Simple design, great color pairings, excellent font choices, and a classic aesthetic; plus he’s been shot before. Apparently I need to think about living somewhere a little more challenging.

Allan Peters

More than a few years ago, when I was still in college, I was home from school for the weekend and me and my friends, as usual, were taking extremely high doses of LSD and seeing how long we could survive. For some reason a consensus was reached that we should go to a house party where there were people we knew. I drove at night in the rain and only avoided crashing because the lines on the road reflected the light back so severely that I thought the road was on fire and I was trying not to melt the tires. We walked in to a breakdance battle where I believe someone mimed throwing a Street Fighter style fireball at their opponent. It cemented my understanding of the innate ridiculousness of being anything at all. One good thing to come out of that party was that we re-met Staci Janik. We knew her from high school, but she was there and she UNDERSTOOD us; not easily done by a many people at that point. We adopted her into our group (whether she wanted it or not) right then and there. She became The Girl. We already had The Little Girl, and Staci is too tall for that name anyway. We all loved her (did you know that, Staci?) in our individual ways, and she brought us new ideas in return. You would think that after all that, I would be biased, but luckily for me I’m too much of an asshole to ever be biased by love.

SO. It gives me nothing but joy to tell you about the design work of Staci Janik, a person who can never stop being a part of my family. Her work is simple, uncluttered, and beautiful. I can nerd out on her type choices, I can sit back and enjoy her layout, and more than that I can see her style in every stitch. It’s all classy yet playful and beguiling, like an Audrey Hepburn smile or that one little cloud sailing all by itself in miles of empty, bright blue sky. I don’t need to say much more than that. The Girl understands.

Staci Janik

What I needed this morning was a few thousand cc’s of handrawn type delivered via opthalmic injection. Thankfully there was a steady supply in Jen Mussari’s portfolio, and my eyes got the essential vitamins and minerals they needed to keep functioning. Things were touch and go for a few minutes, but my retinas are just humming along fine now. Thanks, Jen, you’re a life saver.

Jen Mussari

Jordan Gray seems like one of those guys that wakes up in the middle of the night with a fantastic idea, and then doesn’t go back to sleep for the next few days while working on it. That’s how I think of Spike Jonze, too. There are a lot of people with great ideas for projects, but only so many who absolutely have to see them made. Jordan definitely has the great ideas, just take a stroll through his portfolio and that will be clear. But he clearly has the follow-through. How else could he have made a feature film? Or a badass comic? Or such great type choices? If we’re separating the men from the boys here, Jordan’s chest hair is curling out of his flannel shirt. I’ve really got to stop making my metaphors sound so homoerotic.

Jordan Gray

Damn, them some good logos. He good.

Yeah, I know I’ve mentioned him before, but it’s too good to not mention again.

Ben Pieratt