Devils Everywhere

Recently I had the opportunity to illustrate a cover story by the talented—and often very humorous—Dustin Waters on the history of the Satanic Panic in South Carolina. It’s a great read, detailing how public fear of devilish dealings in the Lowcountry went as far back as the 1800’s with a hoax perpetrated by a French writer attempting to get on the Catholic Church’s good side by libeling the Freemasons. According to the writings, their Satanic temple was located in Charleston.

The article goes on to discuss the panic of the ‘80s and ‘90s when parents feared that rock, movies, and games like Dungeons & Dragons were swaying the children over to the dark side. 

I approached this illustration with the idea of a riff on the classic x-ray specs ads that were found in comic books when I was a kid. The glasses falsely claimed to allow you to see what wasn’t there, so I naturally felt that this would be a great analogy. 

These ads used to be all over comic books.

Living in the Holy City, I aimed to make Baphomet and the other devils as non-threatening as possible—who knows what kind of reader fallout there would be if they were depicted as less family-friendly devils? But even so, reports were that my cheery demonic depictions, at the very least, caused a couple of delivery drivers to refuse work that day. You can’t please everyone.

City & Paper: Mouth of the South

We should all take a moment every now and then to look back at past projects. Just over a year ago, I attempted to turn the City Paper into a parody of Garden & Gun magazine.

In addition to the layouts, I created the cover image, interior photo collages, several of the interior illustrations, and black-and-white renderings of the contributing writers to match G&G’s visual style.

Overall, I think it went pretty well.

Coasters galore

I’ve been fortunate enough to work with the Coleman and Maybank Public Houses for several years now. My latest project with them is a coaster design to start their new year—drink rings-free, that is.

For this design, I took an existing design that had been created to represent the combined locations’ identity (respect to whomever created the original) and tweaked it for better and more consistent reproduction on future collateral, as well as making some minor design adjustments I felt were needed for a more harmonious overall product.

The clients and myself were very pleased with how they turned out!

Simple. Elegant. Cardboard squares. 

DB's Is A Winner

I’m so happy to announce that one of the first ads I created for my client and friends, DB’s Cheesesteaks, won 2nd Place in its category at the 2018 SCPA Palmy Awards!

It’s always a treat to work with a client who trusts you and your skills enough to give carte blanche for the project. Thank you DB’s.

So, if you’re in the Charleston area and have a chance to check them out, I strongly suggest you do. Super. Delicious.

As an aside, my ad was second only to a design created by my uber-talented Production Director, Dela O’Callaghan, at the Charleston City Paper—so congrats to her!

Charleston Youth Soccer Club

A quick logo created for the Charleston Youth Soccer Club's summer camps. The Club is a new and developing nonprofit providing soccer training opportunities and academic enrichment for kids.

It's owned and run by some great folks with a true interest in teaching kids and working within the community, so I'm really looking forward to seeing how the organization grows.

The Bomber

A new photo illustration I just finished up for the cover of Charleston City Paper's Literary Issue. It's part of the alt-world (junkpunk?) series I’ve been dabbling with on-and-off the last couple years. I’m working with no set direction on these, just seeing where it takes me as I go. 

College Student Guide

This wound up being one of the more fun projects to put together. Not only did I have to create the photo illustrations, but I also did much of the wardrobe styling and creation for it. These two illustrations were part of a larger package of 6, all playing off of the impending total eclipse and what would happen as it occurred.

Orange Spot gets a new home and look

Orange Spot Coffee, one of my first clients in the Charleston area, is moving into larger digs after four years in their current location.

As part of their move, they're also getting an identity overhaul--courtesy of yours truly. 

While I'll share the entire package later on, here's a look at some of their new signage, painted by the very talented Alison Ross (pictured). 

Parody Romance Novels

I just finished "quickly" crafting these parody romance novel covers for the Charleston City Paper's 2017 summer guide. I took the assignment idea and created the fictitious 1990's Charleston smut writer, Ravenel Steele — who authored the books based on the city and it's favorite pastimes — so we'd be able to wrap a tiny narrative though the editorial package and lend it some continuity.

The models were photographed at Pixel Studios by LeRoy Mazyck, one of the most knowledgeable photographers I know and one hell of a creative guy. He made everyone feel comfortable and we had a lot of fun during the shoot.

After completing the photo illustrations, I quickly realized along with the editorial staff that creating parody for something so over-the-top was a taller order than we all had thought. I can (unfortunately) see some of these as actual novels on bookstore shelves ... if they aren't already.

But hey, having said that, I'm definitely available to any romance writers who need a cover created for their next steamy title. :)

Probably my favorite cover out of all of them

The cover of the issue

DB's Cheesesteaks Brand Design

My branding project for the spring wound up being DB's Cheesesteaks, Hoagies, & More. The new eatery in Charleston's Avondale neighborhood was the return of a beloved local restauranteur who had owned an award-winning steak shop previously in the metro area.

To date, this has been the most visually bare bones branding I've created, and I have to admit it took a lot of restraint to not go overboard. The client wanted simplicity and boldness—I hope that's what I created—with a dash of memorable of course.

The brand wouldn't be complete without a newspaper advertising campaign

The to-go menu

Best Of Charleston 2017

Every year the Charleston City Paper strives to do a bigger and better Best Of issue than ever before. I think for 2017 we visually outdid ourselves. I used one of the many visual styles I've been developing for photo illustrations and added a dash Terry Gilliam inspiration for good measure. Here is a sample of a couple of the full-page section intro illustrations I created with winners based on our fairy tale theme.

Crab Claw took home the award for Best Locally Produced Video, the Little Mermaid sang to me for the illustration theme

Charleston Burger Week No. 2

Sometimes I impress even myself. Of course, bragging rights is part of the reason for this blog—what, good business sense and all—and so I present the poster and ad art for the 2016 Charleston Burger Week event campaign.

This took me about two days of Photoshopping, it's composited from a couple different stock images, and a little from scratch. The patty is derived from a shot of a standard round patty. All in all, I think it turned out pretty well.

View fullsize

The poster

Art Direction: The Small Details

I'll admit it: I was flipping around on Netflix the other night and I settled on an episode of Murder She Wrote. What can I say, 1980s nostalgia runs through my veins. (The show actually holds up rather well, BTW.)

So, while watching the show something caught my eye, something small and seemingly trivial. A bulletin board in the sheriff's office. I don't think it was something that most people would stop to think about. It was in the background. It was completely unimportant to the story and the world of Murder She Wrote. Or was it?

I noticed the number of missing children fliers hanging up. A total of eight. Eight ongoing missing children cases in the small town (population 3,500) of Cabot Cove, Maine. That seemed like an awful lot.

I looked up the actual Maine State Police website, and today it lists state-wide open missing person cases (both child and adult) from 1971. Most years have no more than 2 cases listed, the most is four for 1986. But, in the show, Cabot Cove had eight children in 1984—not even counting adults since we know half of them are murdered somewhere for Jessica Fletcher to discover later.

My point is, this overzealous act of set decorating caught my attention and took away from the experience that I was supposed to be having and enjoying. Once noticed, it became an anomaly in the world I was viewing (supposedly one that was, relatively, akin to my own world).

Good art direction, in whatever form it takes, is about ensuring all details are considered—no matter how insignificant they might seem at the outset—for the world and experience you're creating for people. Not every aspect needs to be acted upon, just stopped and considered as it may make a difference down the line.

Art direction is an important part of any project. Because someone somewhere will take notice.

For Designers: Making Mockups Easy

Some clients, the dream clients, are easy. They're the ones that can visualize the project outcome with only some rough sketches of designs placed in front of them. We love these clients because they reduce the amount of explanation our ideas require.

But then there are the other clients, the clients who can't picture things in their heads for the life of them. And, as laws of the universe would dictate, they—nine times out of 10—have absolutely no idea that they are lacking this ability. We love them anyway. Most of the time, at least.

Two-dimensional designs are easy to get across. It's what we're moving toward anyway, so we don't end up going too much out of our way. But what about when we need a 3D mockup, say for a packaging project? Traditionally, designers would have two options:

1. They would have to produce a tangible object: printed on an office machine, cut out, and pasted up onto a blank package (and that's if the package itself exists in the first place).
2. The would have to render a realistic-looking image of the final product, ready for the store shelf.

Either way, it's a big pain in the behind and takes up valuable time and resources.

Now, I'm not one to normally shill for any old company. Sure, I have my favorites that I'll endlessly proselytize to friends and colleagues. I want these companies to succeed and stay around.

YellowImages.com is one of these companies. This site offers some of the best packaging mockup templates I've encountered. These hi-res, layered Photoshop files are highly customizable and utilize Smart Objects, so adding your graphics is extremely easy. Plus, images start at $15ea. for those who don't need (or want) to buy into their yearly subscription service.

These templates have saved me a lot of time and headache pitching ideas to clients.

Sales pitch finished.