Saturday, November 28, 2009

Rock Collection


I received an email asking if I had any large poster proofs or original artwork from the Power Station project. Unfortunately I don't have anything saved from that project other than a few samples of the album and singles packages, the tour book and a platinum album. That was about 25 years ago and time has a way of consuming things. The email did remind me of something vaguely related -- and extremely obscure! In 1985, my studio Manhattan Design, art directed and designed a series of about 50 greeting cards called "Rock Collection" for a small card company in Virginia. These cards featured excerpts from lyrics mainly by musicians popular at the time, including: Sting, The B-52's, The Cars, Dire Straits, David Bowie, Madonna, Tears For Fears, Eurythmics, and Hall & Oates. The artwork was done by a range of illustrators and photographers hired or licensed by Manhattan Design. One of these cards featured lyrics from the Power Station song "Communication." I created a full-color illustration of the Power Station figure specifically to go with the lyric. Alas, as visually cool and timely as the cards were, they were unsuccessful and I doubt they were seen by more than a small number of people attending 1985 stationery trade shows -- and the artists involved.

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Barely Hungry Digital Nation


I just received printed samples of the Barely Digital and Hungry Nation posters. I am very pleased with the results. Thank you Next New Networks!

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Yearbook Page


Page design for the 1998 Parsons Illustration Department Yearbook. It includes a brief bio and creative advice from Jack Kerouac. It features the font I designed for Live Bait bar/restaurant.

Candy + Linda


Watercolor from the early '70s. Two of my favorite people ever.

Girls Rock!


Cover for Gerri Hirshey's book, We Gotta Get Out of This Place (2001).
There was some sort of legal "issue" and the awesome Courtney Love photo got nixed on the paperback edition (which I didn't design).

Shoes


Ink on paper. Date unknown.

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Rusty Cloud


Watercolor from the early '70s. Painting created for an LP that never came out. I don't recall the circumstances. The musician's name was Rusty Cloud (for real).

Monday, October 19, 2009

Punk Meets Dude (circa 1980)

"The future ain't what it used to be." -- Yogi Berra

Who's A Good Boy?!

After a short hiatus, more of my dog photos are appearing on the Dogs Waiting For Their Humans site. (Thank you Fred!)

Friday, October 16, 2009

Welcome To The Machine

Cover for A Friend of a Friend, the forthcoming Dave Rawlings Machine album. Available soon on Acony Records, the label owned by Dave and his partner Gillian Welch.

Monday, August 31, 2009

Hungry Nation


Basic logo design for Next New Networks' forthcoming Hungry Nation show. Final typography and colors to be determined.

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Jay-Z Cover Coincidence?


The cover of Jay-Z's forthcoming album, The Blueprint 3 (right), may have "borrowed heavily" from my concept and design for the Secret Machine's 2004 album Now Here Is Nowhere (left). See and read more here. What do you think?

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

So Summer


Just came across the "summer So" design (left) for So Percussion's summer institute. It is an adaptation by Kayrock Screenprinting of my original "Bell Guy" design (shown on t-shirt)

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Hungry Nation Poster


Latest poster from the series illustrated and designed for Next New Networks.

Monday, July 20, 2009

Moon Rocks!


In honor of the 4oth anniversary of the first moon landing I am posting Moon Rocks (1986). It was one of several illustrations I created for my book with Talking Heads titled What The Songs Look Like: Contemporary Artists Interpret Talking Heads Songs. The artwork is 20 x 20 inches and was created with cut paper, ink, gouache, spray paint and collage. The original is in the collection of band members Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth.

Hot + Sticky


Hot Club of Cowtown logo stickers. Their new album is titled Wishful Thinking. Thanks Elana.

Saturday, July 18, 2009

Prattfolio


While going through my flat files, I came across this little bio from the Fall 08 issue of Prattfolio, the Magazine of Pratt Institute. I had forgotten I was a sculpture major!
Click to enlarge/read.

Thursday, July 9, 2009

More NNNext New Posters



Here are my latest poster designs for Next New Networks: Barely Digital and TMI Weekly. They are the 10th and 11th from a series of 12 posters.

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Perelandra Green Bags



I stopped by Perelandra Natural Foods here in Brooklyn this afternoon to pick up some of their brand new reusable/recycleable green shopping bags. These bags feature the logo I designed "very, very long ago" for owner and dear friend, Steve Hoose. The Perelandra logo was based on the small watercolor painting seen above. The bags are only 65 cents so pick up a bunch.

Friday, June 12, 2009

Smashing Pumpkins Website Interview


I was just interviewed for the Smashing Pumpkins website. Click here.
I dug up some of Billy Corgan's faxed sketches and other things which have never been seen before. I was really moved when I read the following comment from Billy himself:

"Looking back now over 10 years, what sticks out most in my mind about Frank is he is total class. I am really fortunate to have been able to work with someone so talented, kind-hearted, and really someone who puts everything he has into his work. He really is a true artist thru and thru" -- Billy Corgan

Friday, May 29, 2009

Yo Howdy!


A recent "also ran" logo design for a band.

Sunday, May 24, 2009

Dogs Waiting . . . Since the 1970s?!


I just came across this photo I took in the early '70s somewhere around Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. Had a good laugh when I saw it and thought about my Dogs Waiting for Their Humans blog. Talk about a dormant seed of an idea!

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

The 100th Dog


I just photographed my 100th dog waiting for its human. It will be a while before it appears on the DWFTH Tumblr site but I wanted to mark the occasion.

Floodplain Released


Kronons Quartet Floodplain has just been released by Nonesuch. The latest in a long line of album packages I have had the great honor to art direct and design for Kronos and Nonesuch. The globe cover art is by Ingo Gunther. On Floodplain, the Quartet explores work from the Middle East, South Asia, Africa, and Eastern Europe with original arrangements of traditional music and newly commissioned pieces. There's vintage pop from Egypt, folk from Azerbaijan, electronica from a Palestinian music collective, and an ambitious piece from Serbian composer Aleksandra Vrebalov that has the contemplative grace of a Górecki masterwork.

Saturday, May 2, 2009

Border Tour


Poster/handbill design from 1995. The original art was created with cut paper.

Friday, May 1, 2009

Woodstock '94


Logo concept for Woodstock 1994. Don't recall who asked me to do this. Maybe nobody!

Monday, April 27, 2009

Indy Mogul


Latest poster for NextNewNetworks. Fifth in a series of 12. This one for Indy Mogul, the internet network for for DYI filmakers and moviegoers.

Thursday, April 23, 2009

Give The Drummer Some




Signed some ThreadBanger posters during a recent fun visit to Next New Networks. More preliminary skecthes and info behind the making of the poster here.

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Happy Feet


Another goodie created during a magical time. Made using old school analog technique and materials. Basic drawing was done in ink > photostat was made of the drawing > color was added using Pantone film.

Monday, April 13, 2009

Rock Star 69 Sketches


I am posting this work by special request from my old friend Fred Seibert. I hesitate to post too much old work, but a request from Fred is almost impossible for me to deny. These sketches were made in June 1969 for a series of sculptures/constructions of rock musicians. They were done on unlined, 3-hole punched notebook paper. Represented are Eric Clapton, Jack Casady, Janis Joplin, Jeff Beck, Pete Townshend, Pig Pen and Taj Mahal. None of these remaining sketches ever became sculptures. Musicians who made it into the 3rd dimension were: John and Yoko, Jim Morrison, Frank Zappa and Jimi Hendrix. I recall Jimi's hat was made from an upside down plastic cottage cheese container with a cardboard brim. His hair was made from steel wool spray painted matte black. Unfortunately these sculptures and their preliminary sketches got lost somewhere in time and space.

Dalai Lama Photo Book


Don Farber asked me to art direct a book of his photos of His Holiness the Dalai Lama. I have been working with the editors and designer at teNeues. The book is due out Fall 2009.

Thursday, April 2, 2009

Tomorrow Never Knows


Self-portrait circa 1969. Obviously inspired by Klaus Voorman's incredible cover art for the Beatle's Revolver album. I gave my Raidopgraph a real workout on this thing. The eyes were cut out from a newspaper, and I cut out and spray-glued acetate lenses on the glasses frames. The areas of discoloration are the result of aging spray-glue.

Friday, March 27, 2009

NNNext New Posters




My latest series of approved poster designs for Next New Networks. One for Ultra Kawaii, one for Channel Frederator and one for $99 Music Videos. See all my preliminary poster comps here.

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

One From The Vault


Camel cigarette pack on acid? (Where did the camel go?)
Watercolor with markers from sometime in the 70s.

Monday, March 23, 2009

Recent Discovery


I was recently contacted about a small number of posters discovered in a basement somewhere in Queens. I had all but forgotten about this Manhattan Design-ed poster until I received an e-mail with the above photo attached. The image was based on one of my line drawings from a comic. The brightly-colored and technically amazing poster was printed by Ambassador Arts in 1987. It was the seventh in a series of quarterly calendars. Fortunately the printing specifications were included in the lower left corner: Silkscreen printed on 10 pt. Chromolux in 13 match colors, including transparent, fluorescent, matte, glaze, frosted and opaque inks. There are only about 30 mint condition copies of these posters. I just signed them and they will be for sale online hopefully in the near future. Once the details are worked out they will be posted.

Thursday, March 5, 2009

That 80s Show


I'm mostly awful at promoting myself. Here's an exception from the vault. A large promotional print piece (measuring 24 x 17 inches when folded open) for my good old studio Manhattan Design. Shown above is the fashionista cover photo of my partner Pat Gorman and myself taken by Caroline Greyshock and the inside spread, which required my extreme x-acto blade typography work. Can you believe the copy?!: "Billy Idol sums up their work as 'fuckin' brilliant" and "The whole world looks to Manhattan Design". Whoa!

Daily Dogs


Dogs Waiting for Their Humans is currently adding one of my photos almost every weekday -- at least for a while.

Abecedary


An abecedary is an alphabet book. I created this one sometime around 1990 after attending workshops with Mayumi Oda and Peter London. Mayumi is one of my all time favorite artists. Peter is the author of No More Secondhand Art: Awakening The Artist Within. Shown above is the title page and the page for the letter "N". The caption reads: "N is for Now - There's no other Time." The artwork for this book was created with ink and xerox copies, and the lettering was created on an old typewriter. I made a few copies of the book and gave them to friends as a gift.

Sunday, March 1, 2009

Blues Brother


My author photo from What The Songs Look Like: Contemporary Artists Interpret Talking Heads Songs, a book I created with the band (mostly David Byrne) in 1987. Shot on film. No retouching. Just bright lights and face paint. Taken back at the good ol' Manhattan Design studio by my gifted friend Deborah Feingold.

Friday, February 20, 2009

Floodplain


Have begun work on package design for forthcoming Kronos Quartet album Floodplain. Cover features globe art by Ingo Gunther. More info as things progress.

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Saturday, February 7, 2009

Yo Howdy!


Brooklyn boy designs new logo for Texas Crab Festival.