Category Archive for ‘Commercial Art’ at GOST

Archive for the 'Commercial Art' Category

Smasher!

Published

on April 11, 2011

. 5 Comments

I made a new logo for Ernie Reyes, Jr. whom some of you may remember from a previous posting on this blog. In short, he was a child star, martial arts prodigy who was featured in films like “The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” and “The Rundown,” and he is also now married to my ex-wife.

Now well into his thirties (join the club!) Ernie has remained active in the entertainment industry. Lately Ernie has been developing some cool new projects of his own and he approached me about coming up with a logo for his company, “Smasher Entertainment.”

Since Ernie’s background is in martial arts, and in particular martial arts tailored for entertainment, that naturally is the primary focus of his company. When briefing me about the logo Ernie mentioned that it might be cool to incorporate a fist. I started working on some sketches (in between random doodles, “how absurb!”) and after seeing them Ernie gave me the okay to go ahead with the design.

I took the sketch into Illustrator to make sure I got all of the curves and lines just right. I took a snapshot of my Illustrator file with all of the guides on.

I showed Ernie several treatments, including a final Illustrator version with a Kung-Fu color scheme, but the one we settled on was a black and white, distressed kind of MMA/Comic Book hybrid that was the opening photo for this post.

Arlo

Unwanted Production!

Published

arlo

on February 10, 2011

in Art, Commercial Art and Uncategorized

. 6 Comments

I mentioned the tiny window I was working with trying to get these “Unwanted” tees printed in time for the “No.76 Special Edition” show at We Are 1976 in Dallas, Texas. There was only one week (not counting the two weeks prior that my sister spent calling me everyday to ask if I’d started yet), just one week to come up with an idea and get it printed and shipped to Dallas.

On top of everything else, I just started a free lance job that requires me to go to Laguna Beach everyday, so the time I had to work with kept getting smaller and smaller. Fortunately I was able to hatch an idea (“Unwanted!”) and get it drawn and illustrated and ready for print over the weekend. That was well over half the battle. With my art done and at least a few more days to work with I knew I had a fighting chance.

I got up early on Monday morning and put in an order for 24 blank T-shirts (thanks Jeremy!). After I went to work I had Nikki drive to Anaheim and pick them up for me (thanks Nikki!!). Nervous about the prospect of distressing all the tees by myself I said to Nikki, “Hey I know! Tonight we can watch a movie while we grind the shirts!”

“Um…no,” she said. So, I grinded and bleached all 24 shirts myself until about 2AM (thanks Nikki!).

Grinding is easy by the way, since a few people have asked. Just take sand paper and sand the edges: around the collar, on the sleeves and around the bottom. You don’t have to sand all the way around, just pick a few spots. The nice thing about distressing a shirt is that you can’t really mess it up because, well, you are trying to make it look messed up. As for bleaching, I just diluted some liquid bleach with water and sprayed it from an old spray bottle onto the shirt.

Since I’ve been going into work everyday at an office in Laguna Beach (Fuse Interactive), most of the production on “Unwanted” had to happen early in the mornings before work. Fortunately there is a great printer (Lucky Relabel) right around the corner from my house in Santa Ana.

I packed up all of the distressed shirts and took them to the printer on Tuesday morning.

I had a mad scientist moment and grabbed some old GOST V-neck tees on my way to the printer to have the new “Unwanted” graphic printed on them.

They actually came out really neat, but I don’t have a great photo as of this writing. I’ll include one with the wrap-up.

After some minor snafus trying to get the films (for the screens) right, my production was completely finished by Wednesday morning in time for me to pack it up and ship it out 2 Day Air to Dallas.

Here is a close up look at one of the distress details.

And here is the final shirt (modeled by Randy Spizer!). It came out great, and in record time! Each “Unwanted” shirt was hand treated by me (no thanks to my girlfriend) and will be available exclusively at WeAre1976 in Dallas, Texas. The opening reception will be this Friday, Feb. 11th starting at 7PM. Hope you can make it!

Visit WeAre1976.com for more info.

Arlo

GOST

GOST x We Are 1976! Unwanted!

Published

arlo

on February 8, 2011

in Art, Commercial Art, Poster Art and Uncategorized

. 7 Comments

There is a great little boutique in Dallas called We Are 1976 that specializes in all kinds of indie art stuffs. I was invited to be a part of a show they are having this Friday (February 11th) called No. 76 Special Edition. The show will feature exclusive new T-shirt designs and art prints from many of the top independent artists from the Dallas area. I was born and raised in Dallas, so guess I still make the cut.

My design contribution is titled, “Unwanted.” I wanted to make something that paid homage to Texas, so I took inspiration from old West “Wanted” posters, and of course I had to put a GOST spin on it. I just finished the graphic over the weekend. This will be no small feat (miracle!) if I can pull off designing a brand new shirt, from first sketch, to final design, from the printer in Santa Ana to the show in Dallas, all in one week!

As if I wasn’t cutting things close enough, I got the bright idea that I would hand grind the edges on all of the shirts (with sandpaper) and hit them all with some custom bleach embellishments. I am only making an extremely limited quantity of these shirts (about two dozen), so I figured why not give them all some hand-made, custom love. I guess I just didn’t think very much about how much time I would be adding to the process.

I do this to all of my own personal shirts and love the way it looks. Unfortunately after grinding and bleaching 24 shirts my hands were a little worse for the wear, but I think the shirts are going to look great! Tomorrow the shirts will be dropped off with the printer and if all goes as planned I’ll get them back in time to ship them to Dallas by Friday.

I can’t wait to see how the finished product turns out and I hope that anyone who is in the area will show up for the reception Friday night at We Are 1976. Unlike Franky you are all extremely WANTED!

We Are 1976

1902 N. Henderson Ave. Dallas, TX 75206

Arlo

GOST

GOST by GOST!

Published

arlo

on January 31, 2011

in Commercial Art and Uncategorized

. 9 Comments

A graphic goes through many stages before it ends up on a shirt or hoodie. Typically the design will be modified and refined all along the way until it makes it onto the garment in its final, most polished form.

Usually I will start out with a sketch. And then I will either ink the drawing before scanning it into the computer or I will scan the sketch straight into the computer and rebuild the drawing (with the pen tool) in Illustrator. Once the drawing is in Illustrator I can start working out the color story and the final composition.

After I am satisfied with the graphic I will place it into a matrix (or spec sheet or CAD) to sort out placement and to assign specific colors (Pantones) and dimensions. Sometimes I will have to make some tweaks to the graphic based on its placement or the color of the garment. Once my matrix is complete I send it to the printer and that is what they use to print the tees and hoodies. By the time a graphic has gone through all of the stages, from sketch to matrix and from my hands to the printer’s, all of the imperfections have usually all been worked out.

It wasn’t until our most recent release came back from the printers and I was going over it with Steven that I was struck by something sort of peculiar. I couldn’t really understand why I’d made the decision to tag the “Petty Criminals” graphic with a GOST logo in the lower right corner when the graphic already featured the word GOST in giant type across the top.

I kind of know what I was thinking, I guess. I mean, I think I was probably trying to brand the graphic with one of the “staple” logos. I have the “GOST N’ Knives” logo and I have the “Rider” logo and they can be used either together or separately, but I always like to have at least one on every graphic.

It’s just that when I tried to add the GOST Rider logo to the Petty Criminals graphic it ended up looking kind of redundant, like, “GOST by GOST.” Steven found this very funny and had a good laugh about it

It wasn’t until I was waiting in line at the grocery store when this Gucci ad featuring James Franco caught my eye that I finally felt vindicated. It seems that my fashion instincts were right on point. Far from being the befuddled, redundant designer that Steven was trying to portray me as, it turns out I was actually (once again!) on the cutting edge of fashion!

GOST by GOST!

Arlo

GOST Bowl! Tonight!!

Published

arlo

on January 13, 2011

in Commercial Art, Music, Poster Art and Uncategorized

. 1 Comment

GOST is sponsoring a big party tonight at Lucky Strike Lanes in Orange, CA featuring Arabian Prince (one of the founding members of NWA)! RSVP for free entry and bowling.

Click here to find GOST Bowl on facebook.

Arlo

GOST

Super Company!

Published

arlo

on November 17, 2010

in Commercial Art, rollerblading and Uncategorized

. 8 Comments

OMG! Check out this graphic I made for the new GOST Holiday line that is about to drop! Taking it back to the roots.

Speaking of the roots and the good old days of skating guess who stopped by the GOST offices recently. It was none other than B Love Hardin. If you don’t remember B Love from the Hoax 2 Days (you need to study your history!) then perhaps you might remember him from his insane drunken exploits as documented here on the GOST blog.

B Love stopped by to chop it up and talk about some new business ventures. Let’s just say he wants to become a kind of white trash Bill Gates.

Look for the new GOST Holiday line this December!

Arlo

GOST

Dude Alert! Suburban Legends!

Published

arlo

on November 3, 2010

in Commercial Art and Uncategorized

. 3 Comments

Just finished this graphic for my good friends in the ska/pop band Suburban Legends. I met the guys several years ago because their practice space was in the warehouse right next to the old Franco Shade warehouse in Santa Ana. Whenever I would work late, which was often, I would always hear them jamming into the night.

On one fateful night their guitarist Brian Klemm came over and offered me a 40oz in the spirit of being a good neighbor. I don’t know if I ever drank the beer, but we struck up a friendship and have been buddies ever since.

Brian and Vince (the lead singer) approached me recently about creating a shirt graphic to support their new tour. They gave me the concept and the tagline, “Dude Alert!” and I just had to make it happen.

Suburban Legends are playing with the Aqua Bats and Reel Big Fish at the House of Blues in Los Angeles this Thursday. See you there!

Suburban Legends on MySpace

Arlo

GOST

Blood Bowl feat Fatlip! New Poster Art!

Published

arlo

on October 19, 2010

in Commercial Art and Uncategorized

. 3 Comments

Just finished a new poster/flyer for an event coming up October 28th at Lucky Strike Lanes at The Block in Orange. The event is being put on by a couple of friends of GOST, Erik “Rockberry” and Jeren Walker (a Walker&Berry Event). G-MO will be DJing and Fatlip (from the Pharcyde) will be headlining. You can get free entry and free bowling, but you have to go to the facebook page and RSVP (by clicking the “I’m Attending” button). Mark your calendars!

Blood Bowl at Lucky Strike Event

Arlo

GOST

Fuse Interactive! Freelance Work!

Published

arlo

on October 5, 2010

in Commercial Art and Uncategorized

. 2 Comments

Randy Spizer and I have a lot of history. Our time together at Senate has been pretty well documented in the annals of rollerblading. But in the years since those freewheelin’ days of world tours, fat (phat!) paychecks and Ultra-Wide™ jeans Randy and I have continued to forge memories together.

It was Randy who told me about the opening at Paul Frank (where he was working at the time) and suggested that I apply, thus steering me into my first “real” job post-rollerblading. And so it went a few weeks ago when Randy asked if I would be interested in taking on some freelance work for his current employer, Fuse Interactive.

As fate would have it, the lease on my car expired the very weekend before I was to start the new freelance job at Fuse, so I was without a mode of transportation at the very moment that I was suddenly in need of one. After years of commuting from my bedroom across the hall to my “home-office” (while my Volkswagon GTI sat dejectedly in the driveway), I was suddenly faced with a commute from Santa Ana to Laguna Beach and had no car to get there.

I leaned on my girlfriend for rides (thanks Nikki!) and imposed a lot on Randy. One of the nice perks about having a fledgling clothing company is that I have a garage full of T-shirts that can be used when negotiating small favors. GOST clothing started to become more prominent around the Fuse offices and I found a way to get to and from work everyday.

I am primarily an illustrator I suppose, or at least that is what I have done the most over the past few years between Paul Frank, Franco Shade and GOST. But I consider myself a pretty well rounded designer and I know enough Photoshop to get by. At Fuse I got a crash course in Photoshop and color correction however as my work consisted primarily of transforming mundane shots of Kawasaki motorcycles into high-powered, high-glossed, super-kick-ass photo composites! I learned a lot from the designers there in a short amount of time and owe a huge debt (which I tried to cover with T-shirts, of course!) to Erick and Jake in particular for their guidance.

Needless to say the GOST blog suffered a little in my absence. There is plenty that has happened over the past couple of weeks for sure and I will attempt to catch up over the next few days.

Arlo

GOST