Fine Lines

I'm always impressed by artists who can just sit down and draw a smooth, consistent pattern or texture as if they see it clearly before them and are just tracing over it.

I just discovered the beautiful work of Luke Ramsey. His stuff has a great range to it, from graphic semi-cubist stuff, to more sketchy street-art.

Ramsey's work reminded me of Theo Ellsworth, a sequential artist with a similar feel to his lines. Theo's compilation of Capacity comics was of the most wonderful indie comics I'd had the pleasure to read in years. I just found his new comic Sleeper Car and was very happy to be allowed back into his intricate, touching and kooky world yet again.

The Sadness of Bare Walls

Nothing weighs my heart down with bittersweet emotion more than flipping through "SOLD OUT" posters on the Aesthetic Apparatus website. They barely even give you a medium-size jpeg to pine after. The cruelty! Here are a couple of my favorites:

Graphic Mutants

Lately, I've been really inspired by artists who re-imagine the designs of books or films in a bold, classic style, like M.S. Corley and Brandon Schaefer. I decided to embark down a similar path and create a series of portraits of comic book characters! Behold!
I also set up an etsy shop where big, beautiful prints can be purchased. :)
www.roganjosh.etsy.com

THE GAMES PLACE

I've been working with The Games Place, a new boutique game shop, to develop their visual ID and marketing material.  The idea was to brand the store like Apple, but for board games. Modern and hip, but as clean and open possible.

Logo Design

Web Design

Postcard Series (4 fronts, 1 back)

A couple big posters for the shop!

I also took the game photos and helped develop the copy. I'm very excited for Zach and Jeof. They opened this store in Bryant Park just last week!

Stitched Poems

Jess Hutchison finds a new dimension within cute. Her fabrications have a real life to them, that gives them an emotional resonance lacking in resin toys and 2D cartoons which aim for a similar aesthetic. The photography's also beautiful. View the whole series of her toy collection here.

Vic Thrill And His Circus

I just saw Vic Thrill perform an amazing late-night set last night at Glasslands in Williamsburg along with BamIAm on video projections and trapeze luminary Tanya Gagne (or T-Pow) of the Wau-Wau Sisters. It reminded me that I need to post the poster I did for their last gig at Galapagos in Brooklyn, as TEAM SPIRIT ANIMAL SQUAD. I was quite proud of this one. I hope they can take the logo design onward to T-shirts, etc. I also did a poster for Tanya's follow-up show with her students at the Trapeze Loft.

My Lifeline

I'd like to give a shout-out to CG Textures, probably the most useful digital art-making resource I've found on the net. I'm nothing without my textures, and they make it easy and free (with a generous download limit) to find hi-res materials, all search-able and clearly grouped.

Po-Mo Pillow

Pillowmaker BennyandHeidi favorited me on Etsy and I immediately favorited back after seeing the vibrant and creative patchwork sewn into every item for sale.

GET LOST

I'm not much of a font design sentimentalist, and type-as-art isn't usually for my taste. I tend to find it kind of self-indulgent, even if it's pretty smart-looking. That said, I was totally won over by this GET LOST print by Douglas Wilson. Every one is printed on a different vintage map. You can buy them here.

The Badger

I happened on the beautiful art work of Eduardo Recife and found myself entranced. His work uses familiar themes and images in ways that feel very whimsical but haunting at the same time.

Architectural Mash-Up

This incredible series of posters entitled UTOPIA by Richard Sabatini, took my breath away. This is one Utopian vision I'd sign up for!
View the whole series here.