The Rocketeer Deluxe Slipcase Designs

The original design for the slipcase of the deluxe edition of "The Rocketeer," had die-cuts in the case, so you could see part of the image of the actual book inside (see earlier entry). I was trying to be clever and use some of the same design elements, except flop the colors. I wanted the slipcase to feel like an extension of the cover. After it was designed and approved, the vendor suddenly decided they could no longer do die-cuts. Huh???

Well, it was back to the beginning. Since the slipcase no longer had the die-cuts, I felt it wasn't as necessary to create a design that repeated the book cover aesthetic. This was an opportunity to create a whole new design. I headed into two different directions, one was to maintain some of the elements of the book cover (color palette, lightning bolts, and type treatment), the other was to try a new approach but continue to stay true to Deco/Streamline influence.

The designs have to go through an approval process, and by showing several different versions, it helps everyone to narrow things down to their first and second choices. The danger is, sometimes other people pick something different from your own personal favorite. Design is such a personal taste issue, that it's good to get specific feed back. What do you like, and what don't you like, and why? It's also good not to have a big ego.

In this particular case, I had no problem accepting the choice that was made. I think it works well with the book cover, it's consistent with the design vision, and it's a logical extension. It's the last image posted that was decided upon (the Rocketeer flying at an angle to the corner).

To make the slipcase feel a little more "special," the lightning bolts will be de-bossed and the title, lightning bolts and image of the Rocketeer will have a spot varnish applied.

Both versions of the book should be available in early December.

Cowboy Culture Paintings

Cowboy Green

Cowboy Red

Cowboy Blue

Pulp Cowboy 1

Pulp Cowboy 2

Here's five painting that I did for my Cowboy Culture show in April. Please forgive me for the crudeness in the execution, I don't really consider myself a painter. When I got the opportunity to have a gallery show, I felt like I had to add some paintings to fill up the wall space. These canvases are actually pretty large, I think the smallest dimension is around 36". It was a great exercise to force me to put out some artwork in a very short amount of time. I did these five, and an additional painting, in three weeks time. These were all done with that cheap craft paint that comes in the cylindrical bottles, that cost about 97 cents a bottle. Believe me, I don't know any better.

The top three paintings, so cleverly titled as "Green," "Red," and "Blue" were meant to be very graphic and contemporary, as if they were silk-screened. I liked the idea of creating a series, and working relatively fast. These are meant to look like "real" working cowboys.

The bottom two paintings, equally cleverly titled, as "Pulp Cowboy 1," and "Pulp Cowboy 2," (maybe I should work harder on those titles!!??), were basically me copying pulp magazine covers from the '40s. I did want to make them more dynamic and artsy by cropping them dynamically. I like that, part of the titles from the magazines, are still in the painting. I always believe that type is really an added design element. These two paintings are a contrast to the other three, in that these are a perceived idea of the old west. The colors aren't flat, they are modeled, to give the illusion of depth. This was a great learning tool for me, to paint by looking at a painting. These paints really don't blend very well, so I had to paint wet. With this kind of water based paint, it usually lends itself to looking very flat as it is applied. It worked well in the top three paintings, but not so great with the bottom two.

All in all, I'm pretty happy with the results, but then again, I'm not a painter. I really have a new found respect for those artists that can paint well. I tried something that I had previously been afraid to do, because of the fear of failure, and found out that I not only learned something but enjoyed the process immensely. Giddy-yup! Oh yeah... the paintings are for sale.

Scion XA

I've always wanted to take my car and paint it in a unique way. It's such a temptation to look at it as a blank canvas. Why aren't there more interesting paint jobs on cars, why aren't people personalizing them more? Cars and houses and furniture have become so "safe" and bland, what happened to style and creativity? Look in neighborhoods and count how many houses are painted gray, brown, beige, or combinations of those colors. Everything looks the same, doesn't it? It seems nobody is willing to do anything that their neighbor isn't doing. What's the fear? The same applies to colors on cars. Open up a car sales catalog from the '50s and check out the great colors and color combinations. Have you seen any turquoise or salmon or peach colored cars lately? How about two-toned? What is the most popular color of cars these days, silver or blah? Of course, my car is silver, but I wish it wasn't. I took a photo of my car, and applied a color combination and style from a '50s era car, and created my "what if." Maybe someday I'll have the opportunity to paint something fun on my car. But, then again, what would the neighbors think?

Dinosaur Discoveries

Cover to Dinosaur Discoveries

Spread from Dinosaur Discoveries

Cover to New Dinosaur Discoveries A-Z

Spread from New Dinosaur Discoveries A-Z

Spread from New Dinosaur Discoveries A-Z

After completing the William Stout Prehistoric Life Murals book, Bill immediately had ideas to put together another book. He had approximately fifty paintings he had done of newly discovered dinosaurs, and he thought it would make a great follow up book. John Fleskes of Flesk Publications agreed. After a discussion, it was decided to take the information along with the paintings and create two books. One would be aimed at a juvenile audience, and A-Z was added to the title. The book would approximate the size and feel of a Little Golden Book. The design, bright colors, and writing are all more playful. This is a new direction that Flesk Publications has never gone before. It seems to make perfect sense, dinosaurs, education, and entertainment, what a perfect combination to attract the attention of young readers (and their parents).

The second book is aimed more at an adult audience. The approach to this is, to create a timeless look, to base the design on the style of the old Scribner books, to turn it into a contemporary classic. I wanted the cover to feel old, as if this was a lost document from an unidentifiable period of time. This is a book you might find in the basement or attic of your grandparent's home. It's a very formal design, using classic Garamond type fonts.

The design styles of both books go in complete opposite directions, one is formal and rigid, while the other is playful and loose. After it was decided what direction these books would take, Bill also decided he should complete approximately sixty more paintings, to really make these books complete! He actually re-did several earlier images, to relay new information that had been discovered since he had executed his initial designs.

The Rocketeer: The Complete Adventures

Spread for The Rocketeer: The Complete Adventures

Spread from the deluxe version of The Rocketeer: The Complete Adventures

Slipcase for the deluxe version of The Rocketeer

Cover for the deluxe version of The Rocketeer

Dust jacket to The Rocketeer: The Complete Adventures

It's been a while since I posted, so I thought I should take some time to update things. I've been extremely busy putting all the contents and design work into four new books. Two of them were for Flesk Publications. They are two new dinosaur books based on William Stout's artwork. The titles are, Dinosaur Discoveries and The New Dinosaurs A-Z. For these books, Bill has created well over one hundred new paintings of new species of dinosaurs which have been discovered in the last decade. John Fleskes writes about the process of development of these two books, on the blog portion of the Flesk Publications website.

The other two books were done for IDW publishing. The first is, the complete collection of the Rocketeer stories. These have never before been published as one collection. The Rocketeer was first published in 1982 as a back up feature in Starslayer #2, it became an immediate hit. Taking the time period of 1938, and adding elements of Saturday Matinee Serials, Dave Stevens created adventure stories inspired by the streamline era and the golden age of aviation. The publication of the stories was an adventure in itself, going through four publishers, it took nearly thirteen years to finally complete the story of the Rocketeer. So attractive was this property, that Walt Disney Studios created a film based on the Rocketeer which was released in the summer of 1991.

When designing this book, I wanted to approach it the same way that Dave approached creating his stories. I wanted to incorporate design elements that were reflective of that particular period of time. I love the Deco/Streamline era of design, and I wanted this book to feel as if the stories, characters, set designs, fonts, color palettes, and book design all came from the same source. I certainly wanted to do justice to what Dave had created and I tried my best to channel his thought process. I want the end result to be elegant, sophisticated, and tastefully executed.

The second book I designed was a real "behind the scenes" look into the creation of the Rocketeer. This is a limited edition over-sized slipcased book. Not only does it contain the original story, but also Dave's notes, sketches, layouts, preliminary designs and an explanation of his design process. This book is 274 pages with two gatefolds and plenty of never before seen material. The attempt was to create the definitive Rocketeer art book. I'm very excited at the results.

Cowboy Culture Art Show

Here's the announcement and some of the art pieces that will be at my first ever gallery art show. I've been working day and night trying to get as much done as possible before the opening. Right now I have close to 50(!) individual pieces. The work consists of paintings, collage, sculptures, furniture, journals, magnets, wooden boxes and tank tops. It's a real mish mash of items. This is not a vision of the true "old west," but my vision based on sugary coated cereal and Saturday morning cartoons. It's kind of a cross between Roy Rogers and Quick Draw McGraw. This show is meant to be fun and entertaining. After all, what's better than running around not taking a bath, wearing a cowboy hat, brightly colored cowboy boots and firing off a six-shooter? Please come and participate in the opening night celebration, at 7:00 pm Friday, April 17th. Everyone who comes on the first evening, receives a free limited edition Cowboy Culture play set (no kidding!).

GameWorks, what it should have been...

One of ten logo designs I presented to DreamWorks SKG.

This was one of my designs, that the design team took, and had embroidered on the back of jackets and gave out to everyone involved in the project.

In 1997? I got a call from Bill Stout, asking me if I would be interested in doing some design work for DreamWorks SKG. He was part of the concept and design group creating video arcades for the team of Universal Studio, Sega and DreamWorks SKG. The original idea was to create a game arcade that had a futuristic retro feel, along with the idea that children had taken over a giant warehouse and created this play space. It was, in a sense, an indoor amusement park, with a Disney inspired feel, for creating artificial imaginative environments. 

The lead designer was John Snoddy, who was one of the imagineers for the Disney theme parks. John wanted me to design some retro styled logos that would give the arcade an identity. I also worked on some graphic images that were to be scattered around the inside of  the building. I got a chance to visit stage #35 at Universal Studio, and to see some of the concepts, artwork and scale models of the plans they had. It was pretty exciting. They had actually created miniature poster versions of some of my artwork, and included them on the inside walls of the model of the arcade. It was truly humbling to be amongst these incredibly talented designers, and to have them accept me as one of the team.

Bill was so generous with his time with me that day, he had stacks and stacks of watercolored illustration boards showing designs for kiosks and proposed interactive themed games. One of the ideas he had, was to create a kiosk called "the filling station," this is where you could get your favorite beverage. The great thing about this was, the servers were all dressed in vintage style gas station attire, including hats and bowties, and would dispense your drinks via a gas pump. It was very clever and witty. This was just the beginning of the all the incredible ideas he had. 

Unfortunately, GameWorks in reality, became just a shell of what the original proposal was. DreamWorks SKG actually pulled out, and GameWorks ended up pretty much like any run-of-the-mill arcade. They kept none of the unique feel or the atmosphere that would have made this stand out amongst all of the other cookie cutter ideas. It's a shame, it was such a waste of all those brilliant ideas and incredible talent.

One other story of note during that day. When I was hanging out at Bill's desk eagerly going through all his stacks and stacks of fantastic ideas, he received a phone call. After he hung up, he told me that on the phone, were people representing "Steve," they had asked Bill to do some design work of a bug creature, that would "scare the heck out of Steve." This was for a movie that was in the works, based on a comic book property, that I had never heard of. At dinner that night, I got to watch Bill sketch out his ideas with a Sharpie on some napkins. It was fun to see his wheels turn as he drew some nasty looking insects. It was several months later, when I actually got to see the movie that Bill had created that creepy bug for, it was called "Men in Black." There up on the screen, at the end of the film, was that big bug creature, that I'm pretty sure did, scare the heck out of Steve. Oh by the way, the reference to Steve in the story, was actually Steven Spielberg. I wish I had those napkins...