An Update. I haven't died or disappeared.

Dear friends and readers,
I want to post a quick update to let everyone know why there have not been any posts in the last month and a half.
The website I use to post to my blog is canceling the service that I use. As a result, I am working to organize a new database, and code another service to look the same. Until I can get it all figured out, with the help of some web-back-end savvy friends, I won't be writing any updates until I get get everything transitioned over, preferably to a word press blog.
For the RSS subscribers, the Atom will probably change when I make the switch. So I will give this one last update before I switch over, to let everyone know about the switch. But the URL will likely be the same.
Thanks!

Waking Up Teaser

This is the teaser for the short film that was shot on location in my old apartment before I moved back to Ohio. I posted photos about this a couple of months ago. it was co-directed by Steve Hoover (Endeavor) and Luke Ewing (Mothlight), both were my neighbors at the time. I guess they can't show the entire short, because it's part of soon-to-be-announced TV show that's going to be pretty awesome. I've seen it in its entirety, and it's really impressive, not to mention shot in one day, in one location. And the morning shots were taken late at night, with a light system rigged up, hanging out of our bathroom to shine into the bedroom window.

Write-Up in the Michigan Daily

It's always nice to find good reviews of your work online. Jared from The Dirty Birds just sent me a link to this Michigan Daily Review, which speaks highly of the artwork we did for their album. Definitely really encouraging when the reviewer includes the artwork in the review.

"It is equally impressive when an album’s cover art perfectly matches its tone. How the Cause Became the Cure’s cover impeccably suits the almost melancholy and subtle nature of the album’s contents. The muted, water-colored hues of a winter scene, dominated by a solitary and solemn old-fashioned house upon a hill, invite the listener into The Dirty Birds' foreboding haven. The house’s many windows, lit with a sickly greenish tint, convey the dampened brightness of the album’s sound. This house is not only the perfect setting for where an album like this may have been born, but also for where this album should ideally be listened to."

Kollaps Tradixionales

I had nothing to do with this artistically, aside from all of the inspiration that this band has provided for me over the years. Eagerly anticipating February for Kollaps Tradixionales

The Best of 2009

It's that time of year again, and everyone is gathering together their "Favorite Albums of 2009" lists, and I just put mine together. I have also put together a playlist with some of my favorite songs of the year, and highlights of the records listed. Download the playlist HERE.

15. Various Artists - Dark Was the Night: This 2 disc benefit compilation was curated by members of the National. Some killer unreleased tracks from great artists, as well as some really great collaborative songs from artists we can't help but love. Grizzly Bear & Feist? The Books and Jose Gonzalez covering a Nick Drake song? yeah.

14. Califone - All My Friends Are Funeral Singers: As always, Califone provides some good folk. Enough said.

13. Grizzly Bear - Veckatimest: For some reason, this band always creates Dr. Seuss'esque images in my head. One song from Yellow House seemed like it was used in 'The Grinch,' and the Organ parts on "Two Weeks" create that same vibe. Not to say it is a bad thing, the harmonies are layer, its all very rich with so many parts, and complete with great build ups and poppy melodies.

12. Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion: First, I was actually a little disappointed in this album. I missed the screams and yells and banter that AC brought with Feels and Strawberry Jam. But it is still a great pop/dance record, and as a result, their most accessible.

11. Loney dear - Dear John: This band always makes me so happy. The first time Adam and I saw them open for Low, we wanted Low to stop playing and LD to play more (nothing against Low.) They are just always so happy. This album is complete with Emil's usual un-ending layers-upon-layers of tracking different instruments, but this time adding some synth and technical parts as well.

10. Vetiver - Tight Knit: Talk about a summer record. It took me some time to really get into Vetiver, and it finally happened on a road trip during a hot Ohio summer day.

9. Why? - Esikmo Snow: Alopecia was my record album of last year, and this quick follow up was pretty damn good as well. However, I do miss Yoni Wolf's slinging hip-hop lyrics, but they still bring the great harmonies and vulgar honest lyrics. Not to mention catchiness.

8. Efterklang - Performing Parades: Parades (2007) was a record built up on incredible instrumentation and beautiful orchestration. They came back with a re-interpretation with the Danish National Camber Orchestra. The performance is beautiful both visually (as a DVD) and musically. The percussion on this sounds crazy.

7. Dirty Projectors - Bitte Orca: Who doesn't love this record?

6. David Bazan - Curse Your Branches: While I don't agree with everything this man has to say (at least on this record), I still am amazed by his songwriting skills. Ex-Pedro the Lion frontman has always written detail-specific, well-written lyrics, and there is nothing less on this record. Accompanied with full instrumentation, proclaimed "one of the best records this label has ever put out" by Barsuk.

5. Bonnie 'Prince' Billy - Beware: This main never fails to put out straight-up, damn good folk, and usually at least a record and a handful of EP's per year.

4. Ramona Falls - Intuit: Brent from Menomena's new solo record (with Danny Seim on drums), everything you could want from Menomena ('07's best record,)'s lead. The music video is beautiful as well.

3. Bill Callahan - Sometimes I Wish We Were An Eagle: He has done is again. As he states in the first song, "I used to be darker, then I got lighter, then I got dark again," his last record 'Whaleheart' was significantly poppier than his previous works as Smog. Though that record was great, it's great to hear him transition back into the sound that was Smog.

2. mewithoutYou - It's All Crazy! It's All False! It's All A Dream! It's Alright: These long-time friends never cease to improve with each release. This album, significantly happier than their earlier work, is my favorite to date. With Neutral Milk Hotel as a definitive influence, this band, as always, mix folk, rock and tons and tons of lyrics about Jesus. Often metaphor'ed and driven by stories of Sufi Islam Mysticism and ancient Monk sayings.

1. Akron/Family - Set 'Em Wild, Set 'Em Free: This record just rules. Their last album, Love is Simple, only did it for me with a handful of songs, and this album is just more complete, and built up with all the characteristics I loved from the last record. I will say this: they were the most disappointing show I saw all year (after a 5 hour drive), they strayed from every song (only 6 total) with 15 minute Grateful Dead'esque jam sessions. Not a fan, but this album has just the right amount of that 'wild' element. Personally my favorite album of the year.

Astronaut Cow

I wanted to post some of the recent work I've been working on at Lunar Cow. First is a huge Astronaut Cow wall decal that I illustrated for our new office. We just moved into a new building, and wanted to brand the office with the company's identity. Adam and I came up with some new graphics us use as wall decals. Secondly, are the covers for 2 visitors guides I am working on. One of the main things we do at Lunar Cow is destination marketing, which includes visitors guides, maps, websites, etc for different Convention Bureaus. Some of the clients I've been doing work for in this field include Butler County Ohio (where I grew up), Chicago Southland, Fond du Lac Wisconsin, Huntingdon County Pennsylvania, and a handful of others.

The Fray Merch

Not sure why I didn't post these until now. Several months ago, a dear friend requested that the bears submit some designs for his band. We sent a handful of designs over, and had a few of them picked for possible printing on future tours. Here are the two that I did that were chosen. Needless to say, this band gets a lot of shirts printed, but it feels good to at least be paid, as we await for these to get printed.

The Black Keys Benefit Show at Musica

Tonight at Musica, The Black Keys will be playing a benefit concert to celebrate the life of Alfred McMoore (1950 - 2009). Alfred was an artist from Akron, "As a self-trained artist, his works fall into the ''outsider'' category — a term used to describe nontraditional art created outside the scope of official training, often by someone who has been institutionalized." He is responsible for inspiring Dan and Pat with the name "The Black Keys"and as a result of his recent death, and desire to honor his legacy, The Black Keys are playing tonight at Musica, and all of the money from the proceeds will be donated to Community Support Services. With tickets from $50 - $100, the show is long sold out. I was responsible for handling the design for all of the press materials (programs, vouchers, passes, etc).

Hatching Owls

As part of Crafty Mart two weeks ago, I debuted a new handmade item for sale. These little guys ended up selling so well, that I have made a handful more, and will be selling them in a few venues. Revival will be carrying these, for those in the Akron area. Additionally, we will now have them for sale in Our New Online Store. Go check 'em out HERE!

Buy Katie Herzig Merch Online!

Katie Herzig just got home from tour with Brandi Carlile and Over the Rhine. Her band member and screen-printer, Jordan, just sent me this photo of their merch table, after I asked how everything printed up and sold. Now that the tour is over, these items are for sale exclusively with a pre-order package of Katie's new live record. You can get the Moose Poster AND shirt when you pick up the new music. Click HERE for the page to purchase said items.

"Above the Earth" Pre-Orders are Up

Good friends at the Mylene Sheath just launched the pre-orders for If These Trees Could Talk's "Above the Earth, Below the Sky." The first pressing will be on two different color variations. Here's what Lindsay and Joel have to say about the record, and the artwork:

"Artwork design and layout for this one was handled by Three Bears Design (Caspian, MewithoutYou, Gifts from Enola, Unwed Sailor, Giants). The jackets are a heavy, thick 350gsm weight cardboard stock with matte lamination and spot gloss, the inner sleeves are printed in full color with additional artwork, and the vinyl comes on two different colors (translucent ice blue out of 100 and translucent mint green out of 300). All preorders will begin shipping in January =) Now... let's do it!!" Click HERE to be taken to the Pre-order page.

Summer

It's about time I got these rolls of film developed. Here are some summer photos that I just got processed.

Akron Crafty Mart!

Three Bears is pleased to announce that we will be one of the vendors at Akron's new, annual, Crafty Mart. "The first ever and first annual Crafty Mart will have Handcrafted Accoutrement and Attainable Art made by local, independent artisans. People you know and love, things you need and gifts you want. There will be some food, some drink, some music provided by DJ Moose Malloy and a fabulous venue provided by Musica!" The event is on November 14th, so if you're in the area, be sure and mark your calendars.

Twenty2wo Blog!

Adam Beneke over at Twenty2wo has always done nothing but support the Bears. He's posted about us before, given us the cover spot of their magazine, and is still interested in doing features on our work online. Click HERE to see the recent post about the work that we did for the Dirty Birds and David McGhee. Thanks Adam!

Parting Waves CD Release

Tomorrow is the CD Release show for Parting Waves, by Clemens. If you live in the Northern Ohio area, come hang out for the evening. It's a Musica, $7. Come pick up a CD, and there will probably be some sort of after party.

More Mylene Sheath

I just received The Mylene Sheath e-mail letter, and they were pimping out a decent amount of my new artwork. The preorders for If These Trees Could Talk 12" should be up by the end of this month. And as their newsletter surprise; the Giants LP with screen-printed jackets are available now. Click HERE to get one, extremely limited!

Black Bear River CD Release - TONIGHT!

Tonight is the CD release show for David McGhee's "Black Bear River," that we designed a few months ago. Here's a poster I created for the show. When making the artwork for the CD, we thought it would be too obvious to actually include the bear, but with the poster, David was dying to see a bear incorporated into the artwork. And it doesn't take too much convincing for me to use bear imagery.

Parting Waves

After a year of recording, a ton of ideas and mind changes for the artwork, here is the cover for Parting Waves, by friends and roommates, Clemens. This is one of the few times where I work directly with the band, with them literally sitting next to me. the artwork is comprised of a ton of toy camera photos, either by me or by Niv Tishbi. I love the interior of this package so much, that i had to post a couple of cropped captures for everyone to see.

Trimmed. Folded. Done.

Today i finally got around to trimming down and folding thef Giants' "They, The Undeserving Record Sleeves." They are all ready to ship out to the label and to the band. There they will hand-insert the records and everything into Plastic Sleeves. Check the Mylene Sheath in the near future to pick up this limited run.

Going International

Here's a little snapshot of one thing I've been working on this week at Lunar Cow. One of our main clients is the International Marine Animals Trainers Association (IMATA). Being an international organization, I have been taking translations of their membership invites, and translating it into different languages. Never before have I done this much design utilizing other languages. Thus far I have worked in Japanese, Chinese, Dutch, French, Finnish, German, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish. I was once fluent in Spanish, from living in Mexico, and reading through the translations made me feel even less competent in the (once) second language.

They, The Undeserving

This morning I spent too many hours screenprinting new sleeves for a limited run of Giants' "They, The Undeserving." The record has been out of print for several months, but the band has an extra 100 un-packaged LP's, and they had me screenprint a run of new sleeves for this limited run. 100 hand-numbered, hand-pulled sleeves. I'll post more photos when they're all assembled.

Katie Herzig Fall Tour Merch

Here is a poster that I just completed for Katie Herzig to sell on her fall tour with Brandi Carlile and Over the Rhine. Her band-member Jordan is going to be screen-printing these, as well as a t-shirt version. Also, Jordan's printing company is called 'Prints of Whales,' hilarious.

New Job. New Work.

As some of you may know, I recently moved to Akron, Ohio to be close to my girlfriend, and part of a great community of friends. As a result, I applied and was given a job at this awesome design firm called Lunar Cow, just a couple of miles from my house. I started last week, and have done work for a slue of clients thus far, including Six Flags, the International Marine Animal Trainers' Association, Fond du Lac Wisconsin, and a few others. Above are some screen shots of a Media Invitation that I did for Six Flags' FrightFest. My co-worker Adam came up with the Coffin-Roller Coaster idea.

Waking Up

Today our apartment is just completely filled with a film crew and equipment. The short film is co-directed by Steve (Endeavor) and Luke, and written by Samm (Mothlight). They asked to film in our bathroom and bedroom. Needless to say, there is equipment everywhere, and despite how big our place is, it's still hard to move around.

weddings weddings

I haven't been updating lately because I have been super busy. I just drove to and from Pittsburgh and Ohio 4 times in 5 days. Spent some time with mewithoutYou and Damien Jurado in Akron, scouted out a new house where I will have my own bedroom and my own studio space. And lots of wedding stuff. Speaking of weddings, above is the main piece to some wedding collateral I designed for Jeff and Jenna, two of my friends from college. That's the cover of the wedding program.