2011/04 Christoph Niemann from CreativeMornings on Vimeo.

Saw this fun video on this blog. Good times.

2011.30/52

Ohio Valley Cyclocross Poster

I created the OVCX logo as well as the posters and aesthetics for the website back in 2009. You can see some of my past posters here.

With the logo I wanted to pair a contemporary, clean logotype (with a hint of speed and sportiness) with the idea of a caution tape containing device (a cyclocross race course is typically lined with caution tape, watch some racing here).

In previous years I wanted to hint at nostalgia by mimicking a classic cyclocross poster using illustration. Last year I gave it a bit of an aggressive street art edge. But this year I've been very busy and I wanted to make it easy on myself.

So I collaborated with Dion Easthouse of VeloVivid.com, who has an incredible eye for the dramatic. Dion shoots incredible photos with shallow depth-of-field and vibrant colors. Like myself, he also captures images with a nostalgic edge. The image we selected for this poster shows a rider grinding through the mud and snow, captured in a warm black and white which compliments the yellow caution tape quite nicely.

I gave it a bit of an exaggerated trompe l'oeil effect by having the rider interact with the caution tape holding device. I thought this would be fun bursting off of a bike shop window.

2011.29/52

Scoffing Escoffier Blog

I was creating fancy type for a project so I re-used it and created a fun header for a blog where I keep and share my favorite recipes. I thought "Scoffing Escoffier" has a nice ring to it, but in some ways it's a bit pretentious. I'm not that much of a foodie!

2011.28/52

Dandy Portrait, version 1

A year ago the design firm I work for (LPK) hired photographers to shoot portraits of us doing things we dig. I like retro stuff, photography and cycling so I put it all together in a "All Creatures Great and Small" portrait of a Tweedy Dandy out for a spin on his 3-speed.

My Sister drew a portrait of her boyfriend for his business card, and I also dug some packaging I saw from Upton's Naturals. I got jealous so I thought it would be fun to draw my own. I plan to create different versions similar to how Andy Warhol or Shephard Fairey works. This one features my personal motto, which one could interpret as "I live for life's little pleasures."

Stefan Strumbel | "macht heimat" | Düsseldorf 2011 from HELLO RHEIN & SCHWARZ on Vimeo.

I have watched the Deutsche Welle TV station for many years and Euromaxx is one of my favorite shows. Highlights of rad culture in Germany and across the globe.

A few weeks ago they featured Stefan Strumbel, a cool graffiti artist that experiments with very traditional imagery.

I was helping out on a project at work where a team of co-ops and interns came up with a problem and a solution. The problem is everyone at work comes in and gets their work done, but in a creative environment is there room to break out of your comfort zone, get away from the computer and work with people you typically don't work with.

So the team created a Social Not-Work event where we got away and sketched together, created a mural together and starred in funny Facebook-inspired profile pics. It was really fun and liberating. I'm thinking of carrying on the torch for them, maybe inviting fellow designers to craft lunches where we create random things together.

I'm working on some fun posters for an October fun race at Devou Park. I'm inspired by some of the work of Jay Ryan and Bird Machine, although my work (bottom right) is a bit looser and less cute. There is still some time to finesse...

I'm just trying to get back to the hand-drawn work I was experimenting with earlier. I have an idea about it being Halloween but I might be missing the mark on what the event it about.

2011.27/52

"Never Go To Bed Angry" Film Poster

So for years I have been developing these films about a character named Dede Nerveux. They are my love-letters to my French heritage and the work of the Nouvelle Vague films of the 1960s. I tend to borrow a lot from Truffaut (and his alter ego Antoine Doinel), Romer and Godard with a Noah Baumbach (à la "Mr. Jealousy") romantic comedy with a dark vibe sometimes.

Like Truffaut and Doinel, Dede acts as my alter ego and although these works are fictional the writing and creating of them offers some insight and education into and of my personal views.

For this poster I was inspired by a poster for Truffaut's "Jule et Jim," mixing hand drawn elements over photography. I used interior decor elements such as wallpaper to create a pattern in the background. I also created hand-drawn type to for the word Angry to tie into the wallpaper and linework over the photography.