Dwell Illustrations

I have these 4 illustrations in the new April issue of Dwell Magazine, which should be out on newsstands in a few days. The article deals with the history and future of manufacturing. The art director let me get a little more experimental with these concepts, perhaps to help liven up the subject matter a bit. The added leeway made these illustrations a lot of fun to work on. (Thanks Brendan!)

"Adrift"

Patagonia T-shirt design

I did 2 t-shirt graphics for Patagonia in January of 2009, followed by 3 more over this past summer. It takes quite a while for the shirts to finally make it out for sale, and this 1st one is finally available as of today. It's been dubbed "Platform" for the oil platform I depicted in the middle of a very hostile sea. In the words of Patagonia:

"Mother Nature always wins in the end - we hope. Imagine the problems of oil dependency and global warming being swept away - for good. Featuring original artwork by Tim Tomkinson, the Platform T-Shirt carries an inside message about The Southern Environmental Law Center (SouthernEnvironment.org), a group leveraging the tools of environmental law and policy to promote energy efficiency and renewable resources that will lead us to a new, cleaner future. The shirt is recyclable through the Common Threads Recycling Program. "

I'll post the other t-shirt graphics as they become available. Click here to purchase this one, and to see some of the other great t-shirts they have available. They've been having some cool designs coming in from The Heads of State, Geoff McFetridge, and even Shepard Fairey.

Arrive Magazine Illustrations

Last week I worked on these 3 illustrations for Amtrak's Arrive Magazine. The article's headline is "You can go your own way", and the subhead reads "The entrepreneurial spirit is alive and well in these hard economic times." For the opener illustration, I wanted to come up with a metaphor that tied in with this. I thought that the visual pun of swerving headlights could suggest that entrepreneurs are thinking ahead and avoiding disasters when they seem imminent. The 1st spot illustration (with the butterflies) will be in a section that discusses how to get the word out about your (the entrepreneur's) product or service. And the 2nd spot (with the horse) will accompany one of the sidebar sections – "Are you running away from something or running toward something?" If you ride on Amtrak's Acela line in December/January, be sure to flip through the mag to check these out!

I included my sketches below. For the opener, I was actually kind of hoping they'd pick the sketch of the guy on the stilts avoiding the bear traps.. but it in the end I think the one they picked works better. That 3rd one shows a beaver making a dam out of all the "For Sale" signs out there (doing something constructive in a bad situation). As for that 3rd spot sketch, it would have been for the sidebar section titled "Can you sell your vision?" I think I was channeling Magritte a bit on that one..