Key Arena Illustrations

These are the illustrations I did in December for the Key Arena in the Seattle Center. The concepts were conceived and approved before I even got involved, so I was basically executing existing ideas. They printed as large banners for a section of the arena that seems to be a KeyBank-branded sort of lounge area. Not sure if they actually serve any sort of refreshments there, but there are stools & tables as well as banking kiosks. If I make it to Seattle any time soon, I'll have to investigate it further. It would be interesting to see if you can actually mix some beer drinking with your banking.. seems pretty obvious that the two should go together!

They also used the campaign ads I made for mags and billboards around the perimeter of the lounge area. And they even used the wallpaper pattern I created for the TV spots on some portions of the walls, which is kind of cool. Check out some pics below that Key Bank sent to me:

Death & Co. Menu Illustrations

I worked on this menu for Death & Co. last June with my wife, Kate. She did the page design while I created the spot illustrations and the cover crest. It was a super fun project.. working with Kate and our friend Dave Kaplan, the owner. Plus it has given us more of a reason to go in there more often. Not that we really need more of a reason, since the food and the drinks are impeccable. If you still haven't gone, GO!! jeez..

Since I was pretty busy at the time, I needed to recycle a couple of the illustrations that I made for D&C for their cocktail catering (see the post). The actual menu has changed a bit since this Summer menu, but the general design is the same. You can download the latest menu here.

p.s. those are rye sprigs in the cover crest. rye whiskey is yummy.

Men's Journal - Chuck Yeager & Jon Voight

Here are my two most recent portraits for Men's Journal. The Chuck Yeager piece was in the last issue (January), which may still be on stands. Shaquille O'Neal is out next. Each of these portraits are appearing on the very last page of the mags, in the "Exit Interview". I especially liked Chuck's answer to the question Who's the toughest guy you know?: "In my profession, it'd be the guy who kills you."

Paris Envy

So I'm feeling pretty inspired after a wonderful trip to Paris.. where I got to witness the most jaw-dropping display of beautiful architecture and artwork. Anyone who's been there knows what I'm talking about, but it was my first time and I'm still a bit awe-struck by it. I mean, I knew Paris would be beautiful, just from seeing all of the photos and movies over the years.. but I didn't think it would hit me the way that it did. Why don't we make things like that anymore (and by "that", I mean pretty much every single structure in Paris)? It seems like the art of masonry has been lost to utilitarian modernism. Don't get me wrong.. I love the general influence of modernism on architecture. But it also seems to have given license for every uninspired, drab, concrete, character-void structure out there (see: strip malls, apartment complexes). It seems the post-modernists were lamenting this as well, but I think they overstepped their rebellion a bit. OK, I don't know where I'm going with this, but just want to basically say that the architecture and sculpture of Paris is... Bad Ass!! And that I'm going to miss it.

If you go to Paris, you must go to the Musee d'Orsay to see the impressionists. I seemed to have forgotten how varied the work was from these guys, and was left with a new found respect. There was a special exhibition of Pastels that was mind-blowing in it's examples of mastery. These guys must have had just huge amounts of time on their hands. Oh, and if you go, it helps to bring along a crafty Parisian who can get you past the 1 hour+ line out front.

By the way, the illustration above is one I did a couple months ago for a group Friend & Johnson promo mailer, which was all about Paris!

End of 2008 Update!!

I realize that's it's been quite a while since my last update. Thankfully, it's due to a huge amount of work in November and December, and not just complete laziness. In November, I worked on a project for Nike & Footlocker making artwork to be animated for 4 TV commercials. The work was added to live footage that had already been shot, with the animation going on in the background, but unfortunately the job was killed right before starting on the 4th spot. It's a long story which I will cover later when I post some of the work.. but it was still a great project to work on. For now, here's a teaser image:


On top of this project, I've been creating much more work for Key Bank to go along with the current campaign I created over the summer. I've been doing collateral work for in-bank posters, brochures.. even for the backs of ATM displays, as well as getting tons of requests from individual banks for direct mail pieces. One of the coolest applications of this collateral work will be as large-format banners inside the Key Arena in Seattle. All of this Key stuff has worked out to be around 24 illustrations in 2 months, many of which I will post soon.. but here's a couple to start with:


Also, in the past 2 months, I've created an ad campaign for IBM, made another 2 Men's Journal portraits, 2 more Spirit Magazine portraits, a piece for Dwell Magazine, a couple portraits for Walden University, and started work for some Patagonia t-shirts. More on all of these later...

Happy New Year to everyone!
- Tim