Here's a little recap of the Spring/Summer crossover period. First, a design I created for The Dip. They wanted a fun Space Needle-focused design for their Miir travel mugs that integrated their song title "Slow Sipper" and this is what I came up with for 'em. Next, a poster for the band Babe Corner, as they toured on their album "Cry Baby". I integrated the lavender colors of their tour poster along with some tissues as a play on their album. I was asked to create a diptych style poster for Thrice's shows at the Showbox here in Seattle. I wanted to come up with a design that looked good and made sense on its own while looking even better with it's other half. I was asked by Good and Well Supply Co. to create a series of candle labels that would be named the "Destination" series, paying homage to different cities in the style of mid-century travel posters. See 'em and grab 'em here. I don't consider myself a videographer, but I do occasionally make videos. I filmed and edited this video for Tomo Nakayama and his new song "Contigo". Take a look! It's no secret that I love working with The Head and the Heart. I've created a lot of merch designs for the band and this summer I designed their Fall tour poster. These two months brought on a lot of photos! A couple road trips and then some. See even more at the Porchlight Photo Journal.
This spring I designed the festival poster for the Bothell Block Party and Brew Fest, a small festival hosted by the University of Washington to showcase bands and breweries. The poster needed to convey the fun and blooming of the small town as well as springtime flowers, while incorporated UW school colors. My design turned a sunny spring into a a hi-fi system, with the sun as a turntable, connecting through the flowers to the speaker system. I met Laura Stevenson over a decade ago when we played a house show together here in Seattle with Jeff Rosenstock's Bomb The Music Industry. Ever since I first heard Laura, I've been blown away by her songwriting, voice and musicianship. She's truly one of the most talented musicians I've ever known. When she asked me to design some new merch for her, I gladly agreed. Here are the results. Vie & Vin is a new wine shop located in Edmonds, Washington. The couple that opened the shop also came up with the concept of the main logo, but wanted some help bringing it to life with some charming wonkiness. I helped them do that and also created some alternatives to accompany the main logo. On the anniversary of the eruption of Mount Saint Helens, Pacific Northwesterners Joseph played the Showbox. The venue asked me to create an eruption-based design for the show. This is a three-color screen print, printed here in Seattle by Broken Press. It's rare to be able to produce a fully custom, made-in-Seattle tote bag...but it happened thanks to Moop. The Seattle-based bag makers made this short run of Happy Sun Handmade Totes that I designed and you can find them at Porchlight Design Co. Printed on a burnt orange rust with off white ink, it looks even better in person. Located in Eastern Washington, Spokane Pavilion is hosting the likes of The Head and the Heart, Billy Idol, Incubus and more this summer. I branded the Falls Club, the VIP area of the venue and created signage as well. It's no secret that I love neon signs. My favorite being the Elephant Car Wash in Seattle, created in the 1950s. In true mid-century form, I made some small 5oz juice glasses with a "Seattle" version of the neon sign. Grab a set of two right here. As a big fan of sports and all petty games, I also occasionally play bad golf. A while back, Golfer's Journal, got in touch with me to talk about the city of Seattle, casual golf and coffee. The Journal is an incredibly handsome magazine, with great photography and writing. It's miles above other sports magazines and it was a real treat to be featured. Here are a few photos. And here are a few of my favorite photos from April and May!
A little rundown from February in March includes some show posters, some bumper stickers and some photos! First up, a Death Cab For Cutie poster, for their shows down in Little Rock and New Orleans. Hope you like pencils. This three-color screen print is available in limited remaining quantities at PorchlightDesignCo.com I was recently asked to take some photos of a beautiful 1957 mid-century home in the Laurelhurst neighborhood to help promote a new real estate listing. The home's original architect was Robert McDaniel and the recent interiors were done by Emily Foster Henry. Almost exactly a year ago, I provided branding for East West Machines. The company was started by the folks that run a great big growing apparel printing company called Night Owls. They not only screen print, but also provide direct-to-garment printing which requires a heat press. They decided to make their own heat presses as East West Machines. These cheeky bumper stickers were made to give away at a trade show. I love designing for the historic Fillmore in San Francisco. The venue has a rich history in show posters dating back to the 1960s. My design for ALO's sold out show was a fun one with rollerskating, monsters, astronauts, divers, rockets and the beach. Because the original Smith Tower print had been sold out for a little while, I decided to do a short run of a different colorway. Find the Smith Tower print in blue at Porchlight Design Co. Keeping up with keeping Porchlight stocked with merch and designs in general is a big ol' task, but I managed to make some new shirts. The Porchlight Platter shirt is available online and in-store. Tomo Nakayama and Bryan John Appleby headed out on tour together and I got to make 'em a poster. Beep beep. Last, but certainly not least: The Head and the Heart / Revivalists Tour posters! Lastly, some of my favorite photos that I took during February and March...
In December I published my 7th volume of Mid Seattle. I started the annual as a way to thoughtfully display the still-standing mid-century architecture in Western Washington. Luckily, folks seem to enjoy it! Each volume is approximately 40 pages and is accompanied by a related enamel pin. This year's pin is a miniature Rainier Tower, which is seen inside the pages of Volume Seven. You can find it at Porchlight Design Co. Next, I designed stickers and enamel pins for Glazer's Camera. I've been working with them for years now, periodically designing shirts, enamel pins and stickers. This design was modeled after a Rolleiflex camera as if it were overtaken by mushrooms. You can find both the pin and sticker at Glazer's Camera in Seattle. I made another visit to Take Care Yoga to provide some updated interior shots. Over the years, I've designed apparel and taken photos of the yoga studio, their teachers and students. The goal was to capture how inviting this community space is as a whole. Towards the end of 2022 I got to design for the famous film company Ilford. The goal was to make a fun illustration that would translate to shirts and stickers, while going a little outside of the brand's comfort zone. Using their slogan, I illustrated some type in the form of an unraveling film roll. Sticking with the photography theme, here is a poster I designed recently called "35mm Film Parade". It's pretty self explanatory and very fun. Grab one at Porchlight Design Co. At the coffee shop, we recently sold out of all of our diner mugs. Keeping tabs on all the coffee shop ordering plus merchandise ordering can be a little overwhelming and some things slip through the cracks—but it's not really allowed with mugs (says me to myself). I luckily ordered these guys just in time though! Grab one in-store or online at Porchlight. Lastly, here are some of my favorite photos from the cold months of January and February and a quick escape to Southern California.
This fall brought some new designs and a rare week-long vacation for me to Southern France, where I visited family that I hadn't seen for over 25 years. See the photos at the very end of this post. I designed two posters for the Head and the Heart in Oct/Nov. The first is an 18 x 24 silkscreened print for the band and their fundraising show. The theme of the poster revolves around what makes Washington home. The second is a 16 x 20 traditional poster, designed for the band's in-store at Easy Street Records with a moody nighttime theme. I also converted the "Home" design to a t-shirt for the band: In November, I did a small run of these hats which are burnt orange cotton caps with a Happy Sun in off-white embroidered on the front. A few are still available in-store and at Porchlight Design Co. I was asked to design some posters for Seattle Theater Group's "Silent Movie Mondays", putting my spin on some early 1900's movie posters. It was a fun project and here's what came from it! Golf is many things—dumb is definitely one of them, but so is fun. I made some fun little golf ball markers to bring some music (kinda) to the course. Below, you can see the marker, the packaging and the promotional photos I took on the course at Nile up near Mountlake Terrace.They're available at Porchlight Design Co. Lastly, some photos from the months. Some are from a quick Thanksgiving weekend to the Washington Coast, a couple from Palm Springs and others from Aix-en-Provence See the Photo Journal entry at Porchlight Design Co. for more from Southern France too.
Finally catching up on a busy end-of-summer / early fall... Lots of posters: Death Cab For Cutie, Novo Amor, Lake Street Dive, Polyrhythmics, and more. Take a peek below. I "developed" a funny little fake film shop t-shirt that pays homage to my former Porchlight neighbor, 60 Minute Photo. They're now mostly sold out, but some sizes are still left at Porchlight Design Co. The other shirt I designed at the end of summer is that Happy Sun tee. It features a simple small print on the breast of a soft vintage style black tee. Some sizes are still available at Porchlight Design Co as well. Lastly, I came up some branding for a small vintage-based business in Chicago, Casa Bazaar.
This summer was a busy one... First, two candle label designs for Good + Well Supply Co. These are the beginning of a series of city and neighborhood candles with labels influenced by vintage travel posters. The Ballard candle shows the Ballard Locks, while the Seattle candle has Gasworks Park on a sunny day. Find 'em in-store at Good + Well's retail shop in Ballard or online! The summer also brought some fun branding projects. Trip Kloser, a beer industry veteran, started Trip's Beer Trips and Trip's Bourbon Trips to give folks a chance to go on fun and informational booze trips around the world. My boozy branding was meant to show influence from classic Bavaria and mid-century design while appealing to contemporaries of all ages. Next, some branding for The Almanac, a digital alt-weekly with no ads or gimmicks, launched by Alma in Tacoma! Taking a cue from classic one-color logos, this was intended to evoke art-deco radio towers and airwaves along with the flipping of book pages. The Almanac wasn't the only work for Alma this summer, I also created the branding for their secret concert series, Off the Record. While the use of a vinyl record is a bit obvious, I added the turntable tone arm shushing to complete the branding. Keeping it in a classic one-color design, it can be implemented easily into various types of print. This poster is one of my favorites for one of my favorite performers of the last few years—Orville Peck. If there's one thing the world needs more of, it's gay country music. These posters are four-color screen prints made here in Seattle. A few are still available via Porchlight Design Co. Next in the land of show posters, two designs for the local folks Ivan and Alyosha! This next poster was for a local concert series on Beacon Hill. In its second year, the Jefferson Jumpstart shows happen in a relaxed atmosphere in Jefferson Park and I wanted the design to evoke the fun, but family-friendly and culturally diverse shows happening there. I created another pin for the fine folks at Pacific Bonsai Museum. This one is a purple wisteria pin, available via the museum's online shop and in-person at the gift shop. I helped Yonder Cider "pin-a-fy" one of their cans. They already have a beautiful typographic logo, which the design was based around. Grab one here! Lastly, here are some of my favorite photos from June and July!
The slow catch-up of recaps continues... First, I did some branding for East West Machines, a project of Night Owls Print shop in Houston, Texas. As veterans of the print world, Night Owls continues to grow beyond screen printing and into providing other print and apparel shops with the machinery they need. The project called for a single color logo printed directly onto the machinery. Learn more about the company at East West Machines. I was lucky enough to design a poster for the young pop star Olivia Rodrigo. Her show here in Seattle at WaMu sold out in seconds. This run of posters was only available internally to the tour, with a small number available at Porchlight Design Co. Next, a series of square posters, used mostly as digital content for a Fast Times concert series in San Francisco. Porchlight just recently turned lucky THIRTEEN. To celebrate, I designed some limited edition commemorative tees! You may notice the Porchlight Dandy man is wearing his lucky devil suit to ring in the thirteenth year. Ellenos Yogurt has been taking the greek yogurt world by storm and even competes with ice cream as a delicious dairy dessert. Ellenos started here in Seattle but recently expanded to Los Angeles. A few months back they asked me to create some enamel pins for them based on two different styles of their greek yogurt. If you need pins designed and produced, just let me know! These posters were designed for the Fillmore and their sold out Palace show. The venue has a rich history of show posters, so it's always a pleasure to be asked to create a poster for 'em. Of the number of diner mugs I've designed at Porchlight, this one might be my favorite. A coral pink mug, with a seal balancing a record. You can find it right here at Porchlight Design Co. or in-store at Porchlight Coffee. And lastly, a few of my favorite photos from April + May.
Still playing catch-up getting to these monthly recaps, so here is a slightly condensed February and March. First off, a poster for one of my all-time favorite bands since high school—Jawbreaker. Their "borrowed" Morton Salt girl imagery has long been associated with the band, so I played on that, with a close up of the very recognizable girl and her umbrella. These prints were limited and available in small numbers. A few are left at Porchlight Design Co. These posters were designed for local soul guys The Dip and they're two shows at the Showbox. The band has a few copies remaining via their webstore. This next print was a cowboy-inspired one for all those that need some pink on their walls. The print is available exclusively at Porchlight Design Co. Over the years I've come up with various designs for Take Care Yoga, a community-based yoga studio in Seattle. Recently they asked me to take some photos for their marketing and social media use. Here are a few of my favorites. With so much mail order going out these days, it's important to house it nicely. I designed some sunny tissue paper to accompany all these orders. I also took some time to paint a little figurine. I've always been inspired by Alexander Girard's wooden dolls and this was my simplified iteration. Lastly, a few of my favorite photos taken in February and March...
January brought some fun ones. I spent months in late 2021 helping out with the iconic Eames Office House of Cards. I was tasked with laying out the cards using historic Eames Office photos and I also created the House of Cards packaging from scratch to match previous iterations from years past. This deck contains 54 cards celebrating different memories from 80 years of the Eames Office. Each card has multiple slots so that the cards can be stacked in countless ways, perfect for children and adults alike. Inspired by travel posters of the past, I created three posters for places that I love—Seattle, Palm Springs and the Oregon Coast. They're available at Porchlight Design Co. This month also brought some subtly branded Jesse Butterworth posters. Instead of the traditional show poster or band poster, we decided on more of an art print with "JB" illuminated in the windows. Next is a square show poster for Fast Times Presents! Lastly, some branding for Marketing/Sponsorship company The Dugout. At the helm is a Philly Phanatic, Jay Cox. The Dugout has worked with Trans-Pecos Music Festival in Marfa, Topo Chico, Mr Moxey's Mints and more. And of course...a few favorite photos from the month.
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