UPDATED: Wild Things, You Make My Heart Sing…

The poster for the upcoming movie "Where the Wild Things Are" was just posted online and it's glorious. It does everything I want, hide the monster and focus on the child.

I love posters that feel like you can touch them. I used to only like clean and simple, but more and more I'm drawn to images that evoke tactile emotions. The hairs on the monster, the costume, even the fonts all feel real and non-photoshopped. At this point I'm beginning to feel that clean and simple just mean quick and sloppy. Add an image on white, nice text and done. No finesse, no artistry.

Another great aspect to the poster are the fonts. I first saw this done on the opening credits to Stanley Kubrick's, Dr. Stanglelove. Somebody, whoever they were, hand drew each and ever titl and name in this exact same style. It set the whole film up to be a work of art, which it was. It's fitting that they chose to this in the same way, since it is a children's book. Check out the YouTube video below and speed ahead about a minute.



Well, I can't wait for this film, the story behind Spike Jonze's movie is totally bizarre. But the images have been completely captivating.

Just released today.

Did you Know

It's a little long, but worth just to show how fast this crazy world is going.

Watchmen UK Stunt

Nicole and I went and saw Watchmen this weekend. I loved it. It was everything I remembered it to be and it made me want to go back to the graphic novel just to stay within the world a little longer. I was surprised to see how faithful it was to the source material and it makes me even more excited to get the insanely uncut special special version down the road.

Much like you I'm sure you've been inundated by Watchmen advertising over the last couple months. Every website has had a chance to unveil this or that and it didn't matter what tv channel you turned on, all you saw was Watchmen. I didn't mind it to be quite honest. It was all done tastefully and executed with great craft.

Up until yesterday I thought I had seen all that could be done to promote the movie. Then I ran across the UK stunt which is absolutely amazing. Check out the YouTube video and be amazed. If this doesn't make you want to watch it, I don't know what will.

It's a Silver Addy for my Wonder Woman

Woo-Woo, I won a Silver Addy for my Wonder Woman poster!

Yes I wish it were a Gold, but there were many flaws to the whole thing so I think it deserved the Silver. But to be honest I didn't really care if it got an award at all, the whole point of it was to make a buzz. To which I succeeded very well and it gave me a little lift in my step.

The awards were owned by Wray Ward, and every other good agency in town. So when Megan Fox came up on the big monior she got a nice applause from all that were there. Afterwards a lot of friends, designers and Creative Directors came over and complimented me.

Overall it was a great night seeing old friends and making new ones. Like I said the night was owned by Wray Ward for Best of Show for a well imagined print campaign. But the agency that swept the most awards had to Studio Banks, congrats to both.

The only downer to the whole thing was that it was a smaller awards show with only half the number from years previous. The vendors didn't really show up and most of the designers brought their own mini bottles in with them. It's the sign of the times and the Addy committee should recognize that. The awards and the tickets are too expensive so most Freelancers don't bother going. Kara Hollinger and I were the only Freelancers there. WIt's funny when you think about it because in a couple more years there will be more Freelancers in Charlotte than the sum of all employees of agencies put together.

Anyway, like I said, it was fun hangin' out with old friends and Megan as Wonder Woman got to enjoy one more moment in the spotlight.

AIGA Buzz: Design and Freelancing

On March 4th at Estelle's Coffeehouse I was given the opportunity to host a local AIGA Buzz. The subject of my Buzz was on Freelancing in these current economic times. Here was the intro that was placed on the local AIGA site:

If you lost your job tomorrow, could you make it as a lone freelancer? The current economy is forcing businesses to downsize and make tough decisions, but businesses still need creatives. To become a successful highered gun we have to remove the uncertainty of what's coming tomorrow, by learning new tools today. All to become the fastest rootin' tootin' cowboy in the west.

Join John Howard, freelancer graphic designer and blogger, for a discussion on what it takes to be a successful freelancer -- learn how to prepare for the worst and shoot for the best.

So for four weeks I set myself to learning as much about Freelancing (while Freelancing) as possible. It makes sense the local AIGA chapter would suggest this topic because it's something that we as designers are ever increasingly having to do. We are losing our jobs to the Recession and having to figure it out for ourselves. I myself lost my job last year and now I'm doing fairly well. I wouldn't say I'd go to Vegas and blow a grand on "red". But I feel confident to say that all my hard work is paying off. Since I've been laid off I've seen the Freelance community double here in Charlotte. Agencies and In-House companies are all downsizing just to stay in business. In reality it's grim and many friends of mine are really wondering what they will do.

With this in mind I began to work on the Buzz and I realized through talking to friends that I didn't want it to be doom and gloom. I wanted it to be educational and optimistic. I thought back to what got me interested in design and I remembered that I used to love the comic books drawn by the french artists Morris and Goscinny from the 70s. It told the story of a cowboy roaming the west and always teaching the bad guys a lesson. It made me think of how designers really are like cowboys. We live on our own luck and go from one place to the next trying to find work.

With the concept beginning to come together I wrote and outline and began to draw pages to match the messages I wanted to get across.

They were:
1. The Economy: Adapting to the new world
2. Taking a Deep Breath: Looking back over the years
3. The Plan: Figuring out your Rate
4. The Dangers: Taxes and Health Insurance
5. Saddle Up: Getting it together
6. Networking: Find work
7. Getting Clients: Learning to work with new clients
8. Ongoing: To live and fight another day

With my comic book drawn, written, printed and ready to go I prepared myself to speak at the Buzz.

Click here to view the pages on Flikr.

It began early (7:15am) and like everyone that made it that morning, I too was a little tired and not quite there. I'm not a good speaker, more so someone that doesn't know how to shut up and just go off in to tangents. So I feel bad for everyone that was there for the first 15 minutes. It was a little blah, but it got better once we made it past the Economy. Everyone really enjoyed the handout and once we got to the pieces about Taxes then everyone began to chime in.

It was surprising how many people were Freelancers, it was at least half the group. There were designers that had just been laid off, about to be or were afraid that it was coming soon.

Once we got into Taxes there were a lot of angles to discuss This was probably the biggest talking point because it's the most unknown to designers. We've all heard various ways to do it, but nobody is 100% sure. For me and some of the other designers a tax accountant seems to be the most helpful. It seems to be the most worry free approach and gives you the most options. Once that started it became; how much a state and federal percentage, how do you write other stuff off; how do you use an tax accountant; and on and on. You see most of us have had a full time job so our regular job has always balanced out the Freelance. But with so many designers suddenly stepping into this new arena it's kinda overwhelming. You don't want to screw with the IRS.

Well the meeting went for and and a half. Everyone seemed to like it and I was just happy to get out of the spotlight. Surprisingly a lot of people stayed afterwards and I didn't get back to work until 11am.

It was fun and I'm very happy I did it. It's all because of the AIGA board members Rachel Martin and Nikki Mueller. So a big thanks to both of you for letting me speak and I'm looking forward to listening to Rachel speak at the next Buzz titled, "Design for a Greener Future". Knowing Rachel it's bound to be good.

Oops, or no oops

Oops, or no oops mistakes in advertising happen all the time. Sometimes it's an accident and sometimes it's not. The "not" doesn't happen all that often, but when it does we all pay attention. In this case it was done by some fella who isn't too happy with Poncho's, funny at first, then really sad.

So sometimes we don't realize what we've written. And when you put that copy next to an image it can look really bad. There are other times like when you mean to write "public" and instead write "pubic. Those and a host of many mistakes happen all the time in print and on the web. But this was like premeditated to murder.

Who ever did this must either really hate what he does, or he's just a stupid moron. Either way, he shouldn't have done it and I'm sure he's not doing it anymore. I've heard many stories of someone purposefully trying to self implode and do it with a piece of advertising or a website. It usually does everyone associated with him a lot of harm and if that person doesn't care about that, then he deserve everything that happens to him.