I've started a new company called CAN-CON and it's even got a web site to showcase my strictly professional wares. I decided that, instead of distracting from what 3EIGE is (record label graphics and more organic stuff), I'd start a company that focused more on the commercial art direction and 3D illustration/retouching that I do. So, if the stuff here is too freaky, go there and you find that stuff too polished, stay here! I'll still be updating both sites and my new graphics blog and writing regularly for Ars Technica. Yes, I have too much going on.
Finally got a chance to put some photos from my recent trip to Japan in some CD/LP cover designs. First, well-know Montreal Jazz man Chet Doxas's Big Sky CD and then two other images for the new generic 12" sleeve for Cynosure.
Bad, bad webmaster! I haven't disappeared – just working hard on a number of projects (and a new site exclusively for my commercial 3D/art direction work) and haven't updated the site in a while. Take a look at some fresh EP covers and designs in the Design/Illustration section and head over to the Ars Technica writing link above to see my lastest articles. Congratulations to Mike Shannon and Cynosure for selling out every last copy of the Under the Radar double 10" in the first day!
Check out my lastest print work.
Head over to my Ars Technica articles page for some techie goodness.
New cover for new label Haunt Records. Putting my Maya 3D skills to work for an epic piss-take on the Dutch still life. Hard to do but only 1/1000th as hard as painting it for real. Check it out.
Just finished a first-ever cover for Richie Hawtin's Plus 8 Records. I think the first two records I ever mixed were two copies of Plastikman so it was a great opportunity to do some visuals for this legendary label. Don't let its minimalism fool you into thinking it was easy though - this was version fifteen. Check it out.
Haven't updated the front page in a bit but the portfolio pages have been updated with some significant additions: Tactile label series and SLG's Slapback EP for Cynosure and Deadbeat's latest, Journeyman's Annual, on ~scape. I need to update the writing page with some recent reviews for Ars Technica but you can check them out there if you're adventurous enough for a click-through: Adobe Photoshop CS3 review, Adobe Illustrator CS3 review. Keep your eyes on the Ars site for my coming Indesign CS3 review.
Finally got a chance to do a cover for a local favourite producer: Deadbeat. I remember buying his first release – Cesium Beam on Hautec and then learning that it was a guy I had known through friends all along. His latest EP – titled Random Brown on Cynosure – with brilliant German producer Monolake is coming soon and the two tracks are both monsters. Early sneak peek at the covers.
New sleeve for Cynosure heading to press soon. Managed to use some of my own photography from Tulum, Mexico too. Look closely and see how it worked out that everyone's paying attention to the dye cut centre. Stare if you dare.
Busy week. Just finished the poster for upcoming international graffiti documentary film NEXT: A Primer On Urban Painting. Check it out.
Visit the official Next Web site.
Jetset records Japan is reissuing the pop house hit Data80 and I thought it would be good to update the artwork I did for Force Tracks. I'm pretty pleased with the results. Go forth.
I've recently had the privelage of doing Mike Shannon's cover for ~scape, a label I've been a huge fan of for years. The design has been added to the portfolio. The release should be out some time in March in Europe and the US.
Visit the ~scape site.
Finally, I'm getting back into doing LP covers and I'm pretty happy with the latest results. Funny how pouring your heart and soul into making stuff for friends at a whopping $10/hour can make you happier than all the cash out gigs combined. Czech it out. Keep an eye out for more stuff forthcoming on the terrific Cynosure label. Now I just need to get them to fly me to Spain for a meeting...
Next: A primer on Urban Painting title sequence animation added to portfolio. Let me save you some time looking for it: click to see.
Visit the official Next Web site. Congratulations to Pablo Aravena on a great film and an ambitious undertaking.
Vice recently published a Vice Guide to Montreal and they asked me to do the map, in which I did my best to offend everyone possible, if only for the nostalgia of working as their art director. Did I succeed? You be the judge. You can zoom into Flash images by right-clicking.
For those looking for the medieval madness on the mountain video mentioned in the guide, y'all can look here.
I know what a lot of you are thinking: "Why the change to this minimal HTML look from your crazy Flash site?" Well, as you can see by the top bar, I do a lot of things and web design is not one I do for a living or even enjoy doing for fun. Flash is a terrible way to build a site that needs to be updated with a minimum of hassle. It used to take me an hour just to add one piece to the portfolio since the menus were a horrendously complex setup. Anyway, I am doing animation work that stands on its own and is more sophisticated than what I can do with Flash and I'd rather show more of that than a dated Flash design. For those of you that think my menu bar screams "LOOK AT ME, I"M A.D.D.," then you are right. I am but in my day we didn't take Ritalin, we took on a new program to learn. That and we distracted people around us that were trying to get work done. Which brings me to my latest endeavour (get used to the Canadian spelling): my map for Quake 3. If you're as frustrated as I am in the lack of genuine creativity in the gaming industry (or the film industry built on gaming), then you'll appreciate Babyboomer Quakedown, an ironic tribute to all the mom rec-rooms in the Western world. It took me three months of spare time, which I apparently had too much of.
Visit the Babyboomer Quakedown subpage for download
