INCREDIBLE ALBUM PACKAGING…

Stefan Sagmeister is a genius.  Never afraid to push the envelope, and it always shows in the quality of his work.  This album packaging for David Byrne and Brian Eno’s album “Everything That Happens Will Happen Today”, comes out of the NYC studio, Sagmeister Inc.  Sagmeister teaches graduate classes at my alma mater, School of Visual Arts.  Anyways, I’m gearing up to do a few album packages myself…and I was looking for some genius inspiration.  Found it…this is designing at its finest.  By the way — this album packaging has been nominated for a Grammy Award.  Yeah, you can win a Grammy for album art and packaging.  Legit, right?  Does anyone else think of “grandma” before “music awards” when you hear “Grammys”?  Just thinking out loud…..

LOOKS LIKE THIS SHIRT IS GETTING PRINTED…

Thanks for all your votes everyone.  Looks like the “These New Bones” tee is getting made… I’m stoked.  Stay tuned.  I will be giving some away…. Love you all ~

MY CUSTOM iPHONE SKINS “JUST FLANNEL” & “SURPLUS” ARE UP FOR VOTING…

I like these contests.  I feel like I’m in school again, with a slew of assignments (honestly, I wish I had applied myself more when I was in school, but that’s besides the point).  Anyways, check these iPhone skins out guys….and please sign in a vote if you like ‘em!  I’ll be giving some away for free if either of the 2 designs win!  I know I like free stuff……

CAST YOUR VOTE HERE FOR “JUST FLANNEL”

http://www.infectious.com/voting/graphicsoul/just-flannel/6278

AND HERE FOR “SURPLUS”

http://www.infectious.com/voting/graphicsoul/surplus/6292

Love you guys….hope your New Year’s are all off to a great start….

“A DOUBLE MINDED MAN…”

Many of you know Shepard Fairey for his Obey Giant street artwork and brand.  More recently, the american public knows him as a staunch Obama supporter during the campaign for the 2008 election, and the creator of the “iconic”, red, white, and blue, photo hack-job, color-by-numbers looking portrait of the current – er – president.  Well, here’s what good ol’ Shep had to say about the president recently on his blog:

“The escalation in Afghanistan, the weak health care reform, detainee abuse not being shared with the public… on a number of issues I’m very disappointed in Obama. I hate being in a position where I’ll either be characterized as having “turned” on Obama for speaking out, or for being a “brainwashed cheerleader” if I give him more time to get it together. The last thing I want is to do is de facto strengthen the Republican’s position by attacking Obama, but I think he needs to be pushed. I don’t think Obama is a bad human being, I just think he is not being brave enough. In some regards I think Obama is just the messenger, letting us know he’s caved in to corporate and political forces we have all done too little to keep in check…”

Thank you Shep.  Spoken like a true liberal.  Don’t admit a mistake was made.  Don’t admit you’ve been had.  Talk yourself in bigger circles – its quite amusing…

I know exactly what to say to Obama, Shep: In the notoriously awesome and correct words of Congressman Joe Wilson, “You lie.”

THE SOLSTICE PACKAGE…FOR THOSE WHO HAVEN’T SEEN IT…

Hey guys!  So its come to my attention that there’s some confusion as to who designed all the artwork you see when you buy Future of Forestry’s DVD package (aka, the design work, branding, imagery – inside and out, front cover, back cover, and even the photo reel you see in the special features on the actual dvd).  That’d be yours truly.  Chaz Russo.  I spent a while on it, like I do all my work.  I never just “throw together” stuff.  I was really proud of this one… It looks even sweeter in person, printed in digipak form.  Anyways, just wanted to share with you the whole design…HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

STAND OUT STICKERS…ARE DOPE…

Looking for a good place to get custom stickers made?  Look no further.  Stand out stickers = Great stuff.  Hit the link and check them out:

http://www.standoutstickers.com/index.php

The prices they offer for the type of quality is pretty dang good… Just looking out for my people out there…

Merry Christmas guys and gals ~

“THESE NEW BONES” IPHONE WALLPAPER…

Here’s a little Christmas gift from me to you guys.  For all you iPhone users…I give you this pretty dope iPhone wallpaper, based on the t-shirt design spoken of in the post below… (if you haven’t voted already, get over there and DO SO!!)

http://www.invartistnetwork.com/artists/chazrusso/artworks/51

Enjoy ~

NEW “THESE NEW BONES” TEE UP FOR VOTING…

I hope everyone is doing well so far this holiday season~  Here is something new for all of you to feast your eyes upon (and possibly play a part in being produced).  This “These New Bones” Tee is one of my latest designs (you may recognize the Ezekiel 37 type treatment – I did that a while ago, but never applied it to anything), but it is incorporated in this new tee and this design is up for voting here:

http://www.invartistnetwork.com/artists/chazrusso/artworks/51

This new site is pretty darn cool.  INVartistsnetwork.com.  Legit designs, legit designers (Barton Damer, for example: http://www.alreadybeenchewed.net/), and a pretty strong faith base. Cool, right?  I’m pretty sure you don’t even need to sign up for an account.  JUST VOTE.  If it wins, I’ll be working on giving a few away.  So keep watching and waiting….and spread the word to everyone you know!  In the meantime, eat lots of Christmas cookies.  I’m pretty sure these tee’s will come in XXL’s…

Peace guys ~ love you all…

2009 CHRISTMAS CARD…

Here’s my Christmas card design for 2009.  It’s crazy…I’ve been designing a card each year for the last ten years or so.  Wow.  Anyways, the broken Christmas ornament was an image I created a while back.  I just modified it a little — in case you were wondering, I create all my vector images from scratch, like any paid, professional designer should.  And this verse on the inside, John 3:17 (the all-to-often-forgotten-sibling to John 3:16, as a good friend put it), is the perfect compliment to the front image.  One of my favorite cards, by far… Can I say that about my own work?  Sure, why not….

MOVIE POSTERS OF THE WEEK…

Ok, so I guess Hollywood movie poster-making has its dry spells, and then its torrential rainstorms.  BUT…it wouldnt surprise me if these posters (or the majority of them) werent done by Hollywood studios.  Sorry Hollywood, I cannot and will not give you the benefit of the doubt.  Anyways, the poster of “Greenberg” is superb. The hand-drawn elements are just enough and not over-done.  The “Tron Legacy” poster is beautiful and as tastefully done as far as blockbuster posters go.  Its perfect.  Nothing more to say.  This “Buried” poster is one of three posters created for the movie.  This one and the other good one were passed over for a more conventional and “expected” movie poster (and when I say “expected”, I mean not clever or creative at all).  I like the throwback to the classic style pioneered by the likes of Saul Bass (if you have no idea what I’m talking about, look him up).  The last is one of the posters for “Creation”.  I love the trees.  I think its gorgeous… I’m still trying to figure out why they call a movie about Charles Darwin “Creation”, though…

THE EVOLUTION OF THE HIPSTER…

Yea, I think we all know at least one person that fits each category.  Maybe even two… Either way, ALL of them are oh-so-terribly cliche… I’m tired of this overly-indie, flaky, attention-whoring, daft movement.  Frig.  I think this article says it best…

https://www.adbusters.org/magazine/79/hipster.html

Hipsters are the new hippie.  And yes, they still smell.

NEW “LOOP MAGAZINE” HOLIDAY COVER…

So here’s Loop Magazine’s cover for the holiday issue.  Pretty swanky if I do say so myself.  In all seriousness, people are saying its their favorite cover yet.  Eric from Future of Forestry graces the cover, in a beautiful shot by Peter Dawson, designed by yours truly… The entire issue will be available this week–both printed, and online.  Check it out…

NEW ATOMIC TOM GIG POSTER…

So Atomic Tom is hitting the road again, with pals The Click Five, for a three show mini-tour (ha…sounds like minotaur).  Anyways, trying to nail down the “look” for these guys…rumor has it some good things are about to happen for them.  They want to fuse two very distinct looks together to create a new one of their own… Let me know what you think…

MOVIE POSTER OF THE WEEK, SECOND HAND GENIUS…

A lot of people haven’t even heard of the movie “Moon” with Sam Rockwell.  In fact, if you google “Moon movie poster” it actually brings up “The Twilight Saga: New Moon” search results.  It’s like this movie kinda doesn’t exist.  ”Moon” is a science-fiction indie flick that was released this past July.  It was fantastic.  Brilliant.  Beautiful.  The main movie poster was pretty gorgeous too.  Making my search rounds today, I stumbled across a couple of unreleased posters made for “Moon” that are 100 times better than most posters today.  Seeing posters like these give me hope that commercial design isn’t without talent and creativity.  Then I remember that these were trashed ideas.  And I feel sad again.  Enjoy work like this…while it lasts…

“SOLSTICE: FUTURE OF FORESTRY’S ADVENT JOURNEY” DOCUMENTARY ON SALE NOW…

After weeks of blood, sweat, and tears (ok, maybe not tears) it’s finally here.  I am so stoked.  There’s already been hundreds of tweets about it.  Guys, I say this as unbiased as I can — this film truly is awesome.  Now you can get it in 3 digital formats and a Collector’s package with some pretty cool artwork by yours truly… My good friend and co-owner of QNTM Studios, Chris Loope, did a superb job directing/editing this film.  Kudos my friend.  You’re aces in my book….

This DVD comes with the full-length documentary, complete live performances, the beginning of the Travel tour, and a vintage photo slideshow (again, by yours truly) of the making of this documentary.  Totally worth it weight in gold.  Don’t hesitate.  Get your copy while they last…

http://futureofforestry.com/store/solstice/

Christmas Cheers ~

THE POLAROID REPLACEMENT…?

Polaroid died and has been reincarnated.  I think this is a great update to the novelty Polaroid camera.  I’m actually a fan of the camera’s body and from what I hear, it comes in a more formal shape, which takes “horizontal polaroids”.  Look for it.  This is already on my Christmas list…

GOAL 3. NOT HAPPY ABOUT THIS AT ALL…

For all you GOAL! fans out there, I know we all loved “GOAL! The Dream Begins” and “GOAL! II: Living The Dream”.  But this??  This sorry excuse for the closing of a trilogy?  What the heck happened?  Supposedly, Santiago isn’t even the main character in this installment.  And NONE (I repeat NONE) of the other original characters are in this movie.  Not to mention the story line from the first two films just <POOF> disappeared.  No Roz, no Glen, no Gavin Harris…none of them.  This is actually very depressing.  I really don’t know what to say.  Oh, and did I tell you that most of this film is poorly shot green-screen?

Well, there is a glimmer of hope.  There is a petition to remake this horrid excuse for a film.  Sign it.  See what we can do:

http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/goal3isadisgrace

FRESH.AND.BONES FASHION BLOG HEADER…

I really like how this project turned out.  Been working on it for a while…  This was for someone close to me.  She’s got a pretty kick-butt blog that she blogs about fashion, food, and will soon be posting her very own artwork (which is very, very cool–to say the least).  She is a very talented, creative individual… So glad I know her ~

Check her out and follow her daily at www.freshandbones.net

WINTERCAMP 2010…

It’s that time of year again…  I love the cold weather.  Too bad its JUST NOW getting a little colder where I live in Arizona.  You would think November would mean the end of 80 and 90 degree weather, right?  Nope.  Anyways, Wintercamp 2010 is right around the corner.  Here’s the finished branding for it…

AWESOME ALBUM, AWESOME LOGO…

I recently gave a listen to Oh, Sleeper’s new album “Son of the Morning”.  The album is incredible.  Such a driving force of an album.  And so spiritual.  Wow.  Get it.  If you’re not into buying the whole album (which is a mistake) at least buy the songs “Son of the Morning” and “Reveries of Flight”.  They’re both giving me chills as we speak.  And to make it all even more awesome, is this dope album artwork.  Makes me want to go storming the gates of hell…

FANTASTIC MOVIE POSTERS…

I used to blog and do a “Movie Poster of the Week”.  I haven’t been lately, pretty much because there haven’t been any really great posters worth blogging about (for all of you who disagree, prove it).  These two have been out for a while, but since The Fantastic Mr. Fox opens nationwide in less than 2 weeks (mind you, it has already received a 92% rating on rottentomatoes.com), I feel this blog was appropriate.  Thank you Wes Anderson for your masterful craft.  Your movie posters are always as interesting to look at as your movies are to watch… Plus, I’m always a sucker for your standard (but never overdone) usage of the typeface Futura.  Simply fantastic.

NEW MUSIC: “THEM CROOKED VULTURES”…

Check these guys out.  Just got their single off iTunes.  The band is Dave Grohl (Foo Fighters), Josh Homme (Queens of the Stone Age), and John Paul Jones (Led Zeppelin).  How these three came together, I have no clue–but I’m not questioning it.  Wow.  The whole album drops November 17th.  Good, good rock…

THE NEW BACK COVER…

Ok, so I re-designed the back cover (see the post below for the original version).  The composition is a little more interesting, the quote is a little more legible, and I feel like the overall piece is more effective and emotional (maybe?).  Any thoughts?

P.S. — I want the quote to be “a little” difficult to read.  I want people to engage themselves, reeeeeaaalllly look at it, and digest what is being said.

LOOP MAGAZINE BACK COVER PREVIEW…

So I just threw this together with a few moments of free time today.  Not sure if its the final piece, but i like it.  Wanted to share…  Who doesn’t like a little C.S. Lewis to end one’s day?  ”The safest road to Hell is the gradual one…the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts…”  So amazing.  That man had some serious wisdom.  Oh…and its from The Screwtape Letters.  Which, I was just told by my friend Maris, just so happens to be an on-stage production this weekend in Phoenix.  What are the odds?  Yea, get there…

FUTURE OF FORESTRY DOCUMENTARY ARTWORK…

Here’s a sneak peek at a pretty in-depth project myself and Chris Loope have been working on.  It’s an official “QNTM Studios” project.  An entire documentary for the band Future of Forestry called, “SOLSTICE: Future of Forestry’s Advent Journey”.  Comes out in November.  Here’s the artwork I created… The band loves it.  One member even said he almost “peed his pants” when he saw it.  Hope you do too.  Enjoy ~