Darwinomics

No, it's not the survival of the fittest analogy that springs to mind immediately. This piece for the New York Times Business Weekend section involves a more subtle interpretation of Darwin's writings.
What if we thought of the marketplace as adaptive, finding more efficient methods of wealth creation and distribution, and move beyond Adam Smith's 'invisible hand'
Food for thought. Makes for some good reading, you can see the article here. The article 'Darwin, the Market Whiz' is written by Robert H. Frank.
What a treat to draw Darwin! I worked with Minh Uong on this, sketches below.

Video Primer

One of the nice things about assignment illustration is the great people I get to work with. And one of the nicest is SooJin Buzelli. I was able to meet her in person at ICON 6 in Pasadena last July.

I always enjoy having creative freedom, and SooJin always brings out the best in the people she works with. Here is the latest illustration for Planadviser.

The concept for this piece was a primer on getting started in shooting video, and getting eyes focused on your finished product.

I had another piece 'run' in the spring edition as well. More robotic fun!

Crime Wave

I was neat, clean, shaved and sober and I didn't care who knew it."

 
That's when the phone rang.
Getting work via email these days takes all the drama out of assignments.

"It was a blonde. A blonde to make a bishop kick a hole in a stained-glass window."

No, it was actually Dave Bamundo from the Wall Street Journal. The topic was crime, and we talked about creating a good Noirish image for an article on a wave of new Crime novels and imprints.

"I needed a drink, I needed a lot of life insurance, I needed a vacation, I needed a home in the country. What I had was a coat, a hat and a gun. I put them on and went out of the room. "

In truth, I went to my studio and got to work. An overnight deadline and a looming trip to New York the next day.

"Throw up into your typewriter every morning. Clean up every noon."

When I woke up the next morning, the assignment was done. No one was harmed or lying in a pool of blood on the floor. Dave B. got his artwork and I was able to work in a new genre.
 
- apologies to Raymond Chandler.

Mecanismos

Creativity can be daunting at times. Sometimes it's like reading a compass without a needle. What direction to take? I am working towards filling sketchbooks with drawings, but I struggle with the routine. When I am busy working, the sketchbooks sit on the shelf and gather dust.
Most of the work that I do is digitally based, so I do find the time to experiment with vector-based images. A sense of play that I have used in the CMY-X series and Retrobots. This series springs from my digital sketchbooks.

 Over the past couple of years I have been working on a series of screenprints. These are collages based on my collection of dusty old science textbooks, hardward catalogues and do-it-yourself magazines. Animating the inanimate. Bringing out the mad scientist in me.

 

When I started this series, I felt a strong need to experiment. I've worked on a number of small edition prints, working towards consistency. With this series, I wanted to produce 100 unique prints, using the same elements throughout, but mixing and remixing the different pieces. The heads and bodies are mixed and matched, in and exquisite corpse kind of way. It was exciting to play with different combinations of color, shapes and expressions.

Sixteen heads
Sixteen bodies
45 background elements
7 colors
100 prints

Thanks to Chrissy Poitras and Kyle Topping at Spark Box Studio!
I am putting the first ten in the series up at Illogator.  Or you can contact me directly and I'd be happy to send one along to you.

Bamboo Bike

Bamboo is the material of the future. Strong and lightweight, it grows like a weed over most of the habitable earth. Designers are finding more and more uses for it everyday, from flooring to clothing. It has been in use for a long time as well, in construction, furniture, and food. Carbonized bamboo filaments were used in the development of the light bulb. I owned a 1925 CCM bicycle that was originally equipped with bamboo rims.

Taking things one step further, high-end bicycle builders are crafting their own custom frames from bamboo. As a cyclist the sight of these designs makes me drool. I would love to get the chance to work on one of these!

In remote parts of Africa, transportation options are limited. Getting bicycles into the hands of the locals increases mobility and opportunity. Using bamboo, locally grown and inexpensive, to build bikes is the aim of the Bamboo Bike Project. The objective also involves creating a bike building community to help develop the local economy. Very smart!

Great to work with Gail Ghezzi on this assignment, from OnEarth Magazine!