Still Pending

My boy Key Soto is a man of many hats. He is Key Melodics, MC to your hearts, but he's also Key Soto, film director, producer, editor, screenwriter and the man behind Enigma Films. And yesteryear, on a cold winter night, he shot Still Pending, of which I was the Art Director for.

He has Still Pending on Key's YouTube page, along with music videos and PSAs he shot. Watching this in its fruition makes me think it a prologue for a series of movies causing mayhem and "shitting the fan." Still Pending's ambiguity, which I feel might make question marks to some people's faces, is really the verve of its mystique. Favorite bit:

Nevin: Fucking psychos.
Teddy: That's the cost for survival.

Check it:

I'm Not Here

I did some storyboards for a long-time friend of mine Karly Beaumont. I'm Not Here is a very short but very potent, 4-minute film, so how can I summarize without spoilers? Let's just say that it drags a very real but very abusing reality to your pupils, one that we all know somewhere in our hearts occurs every single fucking day. I'm happy to be part of the message it brings, and to work for such a great person. I'm also happy to say that I'm Not Here was accepted to the 2006 NY International Latino Film Festival, and "has been screened nationwide at various, educations institutions, conferences and festivals."

But hey, dig the storyboards:








Below's the storyboard to still frame comparison. I was happy to see some of my storyboards make it to the final shots (like this one). Makes me feel like I did my job. Melissa Cruz knocked out her debut role. She literally was the star of the movie.



Also, if you're already itching to see this short, here's a YouTube:


Can't wait to see what feature Karly's got next.

Hys

This is Hys; talented MC. Check his tracks. It's rare to bump into an MC that actually has flow and energy throughout. He has a very interesting indy music video directed by fellow comrade Key Soto. Key has a few tracks of his own (by the name of Key Melodics), one of which is a Hys track featuring he. They seem to be a natural together.

I was strolling the group of photos from Hys's page, while listening, and just saw this montage in my mind' eye. Theme Art's photographs really exercised the various angles and poses Hys can evoke.

Theme Art has a style where he controls light by obfuscating anything that he doesn't want shown. Most of his work consist of portraits and portraitures and headshots, bodies flowing in darkness... very distinctive.

Between them two, this piece had to be done. It's a web exclusive piece, since it was in the spur of the inspiration, and limited to 72dpi, alas. It needs tweaks here and there, but all in all, it was a good exercise.

Two Logos, Out of Five-Hundred

For some 'really good' news, the Rammer ambigrammatic logo and the Seven Up logo (not to be confused with 7UP) are published in Rockport Publishers' Really Good Logos Explained, written by Margo Chase, Rian Hughes, Ron Miriello, and Alex W. White. This makes this heap of flesh a happy designer.


Seven Up is a logo for a column by a prominent news site for comicbooks and its ilk, The Pulse. Seven Up was an interview column orchestrated by fellow comicbook writer Len Wallace where he asks seven questions to up-and-coming comicbook artists. I figured I'd do the logo in black & white since most comicbook artists that're starting out print their comics in black & white for the cheaper price. Check out Len's latest endeavor, Love Buzz with Michelle Silva.


This is the spread featuring the Rammer ambigram, its neighboring logos, and critique from three out of the four authors/designers. I wonder why any of them didn't suggest to put the logo upsidedown for those whom aren't privy to John Langdon or the advent of ambigrams.


It's good to see that all the attention to negative space and my attempt to take Blackletter away from its current pigeonholes got recognized. The two logos wouldn't be in the book if it weren't for Alex W. White. I took the Electronic Design 2 class and there he was, ready to turn the class into a design bootcamp. Not only did he introduce me to the existence of John Langdon, or the Type Directors Club (of which White's currently serving as President), but he openned my eyes wider, and I began to see the negative space all in the world.

JetBlue Vector Magic

You saw the Lavalife vector ads at the NYC subway. (Done by Marcos Chin, the guy does good work) In a similar vein, here's some vector magic as a hypothesized gig:

JetBlue ad


Yo JetBlue, get at me if you like the looks. The latest ad campaign was good (as I look at the NYC subway ads. Can anyone tell I'm from NYC?).

Fun is there if you see close enough. Done 100% vector.

Comments welcome and ilcome.

a Poster or two

Yo yo yo. Whatup? Here's a poster for a fictitious reading event by David Mamet called Gems from a Gambler's Bookshelf and other Stories.



Below is a poster I did for City College of New York's SAME-TV for a fashion show they were throwing. I was art directed, so no one get any assumptions, ahem, ideas; 'very ghetto' is what we were going for. This was done with watercolor and color pencil, tabloid size.

some Book Covers

Here are some Book Cover exercises I've done. These are from existing books, so they weren't gigs but still fun to do.

E.B. White's Here is New York front cover


E.B. White's Here is New York back cover and spine


The following two book covers were exercises to abstract the design to an indiscernible stage, and yet showing some kind of abstract relationship between the book and the design, and the different visual elements it bears:

Gabriel García Márquez's Living to Tell the Tale book cover


Thomas Mann's Transposed Heads book cover

Christopher North's Forever Waltz and Renquist

Christopher North's Forever Waltz CD package design:
front


back


CD


Christopher North's Renquist CD package design:
front


back


CD


Let me just say that Christopher North took a chance working with me and I can't thank him enough to have had the opportunity. Go clickedy-click his site and take a listen. He's in iTunes, CDBaby, and all those musical places. He has done music for off-Broad shows as well as films, on top of his personal albums. And, guess what, yup he's at work on a double CD, Spacebar, that will be designed by whom...? Wonders of wonders, will this particular wonder turn into fact? A fourth dimension will have to tell.