Oblivion Digital Reissues

Cover designs for Oblivion Records digital reissues.
Read about them here.

No Way, Dude!

Yes way, dude! That is me with an unidentified young woman. The photo was recently unearthed and appeared on the cover of a booklet created in conjunction with the MTV 30th Anniversary Party at Bob Pittman's house in Mexico. Unfortunately I couldn't attend the event. You can see the booklet and more MTV stuff on my oldest friend Fred Seibert's site.

8.1.81

August 1 marks the 30th anniversary of MTV. You can read my story about the creation of the original MTV logo here.

Candy + Linda

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

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.

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.

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.

Dogs Waiting for Their Humans

The waiting is over! The Dogs Waiting for Their Humans site is now up. I don’t take that many photographs. The fact that this series even exists is still a surprise to me. The pictures were taken in and around my Brooklyn neighborhood beginning in the spring of 2007. I had started to notice dogs waiting for their owners to come out of coffee shops and delis. I also noticed how individually each dog was responding to this brief separation. I felt compelled to document this contemporary urban phenomenon.

Special thanks to Fred Seibert.

Velocity, Deborah Feingold, etc.

It was 1984 and one of the first album packages I got to work on with my studio Manhattan Design was Velocity by the Philadelphia band, The Vels. I still have a warm spot in my heart for this one. It was also the first time I got to work with one of my favorite photographers, Deborah Feingold. Her photos of the band appeared on the back of the LP (yes kids, vinyl). I illustrated the cover based on a portrait Deborah took of the band with odd bits drawn on fomecore and pasted on their faces. (The source photo appears very small on the lower left corner of the back cover.) Drawings of these facial bits also appear full size on the back cover. I also scratched out an inky black and white version of the portrait for a 12 inch single. The silhoutte portrait of Deborah in action is a recent digital recreation of the missing original art which was created with cut paper. The square shape was selected because Deborah shot in square format in those days. She also stood on a blue equipment box when she worked. I’ve been in touch with Deborah just recently. She’s working on a book of her photographs. It will be amazing.

ThreadBanger!

I am really pleased with this poster design and wanted to put it up on my blog right away. I was hesitant because it most likely won't be printed until sometime in the Spring. I didn't want to leak the image and possibly annoy my dear friend and client Fred Seibert for doing so. I just discovered that Fred had already posted the ThreadBanger and other poster design comps here on Flickr. Since it is already on the Web I figured it would be OK for me to post it here. This is one of a series of 12 posters I have been commissioned to create for Next New Networks. They are being mailed out one per month over the course of a year. The first poster for Barely Political was sent out just in time for the election. The drumkit was constructed from a spool of ribbon, spools of thread, buttons, needles, plastic sticks, and a switchplate. The lettering evolved from safety pins, needles buttons and thread. I have suggested a t-shirt featuring the lettering.

The Dedringers

Cover for the forthcoming CD Sweetheart of the Neighborhood by young Texas band, The Dedringers. Photo by one of my favorite photographers and dear friend, Keith Carter. We met on a photo shoot for the Jimmie Dale Gilmore album, Spinning Around the Sun in Big Bend, Texas in 1993. I have deeply enjoyed working with both Keith and Jimmie on other projects since that time.

Lynda Barry

I caught up with my old friend Lynda Barry at the Strand Bookstore last evening. So wonderful to see her again. She is truly an inspiration. Go out RIGHT NOW and purchase a copy of her incredible new book What It Is which features exercises from her writing workshop "Writing The Unthinkable" plus a ton of other stuff. Some of Lynda's meditating monkey paintings appear in the current issue of Tricycle magazine.

Oblivion Records

A flattering post related to this drawing and Oblivion Records by my good old friend Fred Seibert.
Click here.
Thanks once again, Fred!

Perelandra

A favorite painting of mine (197?) and logo design adapted by Perelandra Natural Foods Center for their new eco-friendly canvas bags. I asked my friend and owner Steve Hoose: "How long ago did I do that logo?" He replied:"Very very long ago."

Fredbot

Another construction. This one a robo-portrait of my longtime friend and media wizard Fred Seibert. It appeared on the Happy New Year 2006 poster for his company, Frederator.

Linda said . . .

Hi Frankie:
I looked at your blog I like it. I did this painting of you and thought you might like the image to use on your blog. It is a more recent image of you.... I don't know if you only are using ones where you are under 30... Love, L (Linda Pence)

Mark said . . .

". . . Fred is right."
Mark Larson has been my best pal since almost forever. He is a talented art director and graphic designer and an all around great guy.

Fred said . . .

". . . You should start a blog."
Fred is Fred Seibert, a lifelong friend and a media innovator whose accomplishments are legion. Fred is the guy who hired my former design studio, Manhattan Design, to create the MTV logo. He most recently hired me to design logos for one of his current projects, Next New Networks. Check out Bleacher Bloggers, Metal Chik, and Goggleburn to see them.