Get Your Shit Together!

Today was one of those days where I felt a bit...unsettled. There was no obvious root cause, and (knock on wood) there's nothing too earth-shattering occurring in my life right now. All in all, compared to what I went through a few years back (cancer diagnosis combined with economic chaos), things are downright peachy on this end. But as of late, I've felt this internal nagging to 'tighten things up'.

I should recognize that I usually get this feeling when the seasons change. This is especially true as we transition from August (everyone is either on vacation or mentally checked out) to September (back to school, back to work).

So, as I'm sketching this morning, the mantra 'GET YOUR SHIT TOGETHER' entered my brain. The sketch was done quickly. I spent the rest of the day GMST (Getting My Shit Together®) and then revisited it tonight with this tracing in Illustrator.

'Make Excuses or Make Money' Lettering Study

Another lettering project with a phrase captured in the sketchbook from an unknown source. I'm sure this phrase was born from some podcast or book or blog post dealing with time management or procrastination and I felt the need to capture it, because it's so spot-on. Making excuses just takes away from time you could be doing. There is no try, only do. I sketched the letters quickly with a loose set of characters, then took a photo of the sketch. This saves tons of time when your're tracing the sketch in Illustrator and not cleaning up lines in Photoshop.

john-suder-make-money-skecth

I shot the sketch at my drawing table with my iPhone, and since I had Photo Stream turned on, the sketch was already in iPhoto when I was ready to start tracing. I simply pulled the photo from iPhoto into Photoshop, cropped and resized (to make the file smaller) and then dropped the photo into Illustrator. I locked the photo onto it's own layer, set up a new layer for lines and begin tracing.

Since I used a very loose (and not very detailed) style of lettering, the tracing went very quickly. I only made a few modifications from the original sketch, capitalizing the letter 'A' throughout and the 'E' in 'Money'. I colored the letters in Illustrator until I got just the right color combo. This color selection was pretty much arbitrary, but I liked it. Obvious choices of shades of green just weren't working for me.

I then dragged the grouped letters into Photoshop as a Smart Object. This way I can compose a high resolution file and backgorund in Photoshop and then export to whatever size I need. I also still have the separate file of the the traced letters to repurpose or use on another size document.

'Mod Zone' Lettering Study

The phrase 'Mod Zone' somehow made it into my sketchbook a few weeks ago. I thought at first the influence was from the old Dodge 'Super Bee' logo, but the only things similar are the curved letterforms within a circle:

ag_07superbee_beedecal

mod-zone-sketch

mod-zone-ink

I made a quick inking of the letters, then scanned them into Photoshop. I didn't spend much time on cleanup, since I knew I was just going to trace the scan in Illustrator. Once the letter outlines were complete, I placed them within the circle, then adjusted the shapes of the letters to conform to the outline of the circle. As for colors, this selection was random. I didn't want to get too hung up on gradients and textures, but rather focus on the shapes of the letters.

Once the lettering was complete in Illustrator, I opened up a doc in Photoshop, created the background and added a subtle texture. I dropped the lettering in as a smart object, resized, added a slight shadow, and called it a day. I could have spent a lot more time tweaking, but I'm thinking I'd rather just crank out a bunch of these studies to work on technique.

Meh.

Today's drawing: Waving my apathy flag proudly. Hand-lettered. Yawn. You probably don't care, but prints are available at Society6. Buy some. Or not. Whatever.

Lettering Portfolio of Pablo Delkan

A short video by artist Pablo Delkan showcasing his hand lettering. Beautiful work.

[via Kottke]

Sneak Peek: New Project Launch

Preview of a new personal project launching soon.

Plymouth Shutdown 1969 Slot Car Set

Yesterday this little beauty landed in my inbox courtesy of my old buddy John Skidmore. It's the front panel of a 1969 slot racing set called Shutdown! Plymouth Super Stock Racing Set. It was sold by Republic and manufactured by the Tool and Manufacturing Co. in LA.(An all-American product!) These sets were only sold at dealerships, so they're a pretty rare find.

What's not to love about this box illustration? Given that it was made in '68, we see the psychedelic poster style influence and big typography that was common in the day. It's even got the Road Runner character in one of the cars. Plymouth licensed the Road Runner character in the late 60's to early 70's for their advertising and for the emblems and styling of the classic Road Runner car.

I love this box cover, and since I was a big slot racing fan in my youth, I wanted to learn more about the set. The first thing I found was this video that shows the unboxing of a vintage set. I'm blown away by the level of detail this set has. Since the set was featuring Plymouth branding, the cars themselves were perfect in every detail. What really got me was the level of design in the supporting print materials. Unfortunately, we don't get to see the set run, but I can understand why – this set has all the original packaging, including the poly envelopes and car decals, full intact.

I couldn't find any of these for sale on eBay, but I'm told these can go as high as $400 (a mint set was up for bid at $725, but we're not sure if it sold at that price).  I did uncover an ad for the set that appeared in Life magazine on November 8, 1968. Just $14.95!

The Dog Days of Summer

We're in the home stretch of the Summer of 2011.

It's been hot as hell's door hinge here in Philadelphia. Many days spent indoors (thankfully) air-conditioned.

We curse these days. I'd rather be out and about and my dog would rather go for a run than sit looking wistfully out the window all day.

But, it beats shoveling snow.

August 2011 graphic: A quick type study done in Illustrator August font: Air (modified) 2011 Font: Avant Gard EF Medium

The Wisdom of the Llama

”The Wisdom of the Llama", the misunderstood genius of Carl Spackler. Illustration by N.C. Winters.