Online Retreat

Illustration originally created for Tricycle Magazine.

Head Shots

Fred Seibert sent me these screenshots from a recent interview with Next New Networks co-founder Tim Shey about the new original, exclusive programming for AOL. The images directly to the left of Tim's head are from a series of poster designs I created for Next New Networks. To view all the full poster images click here.

Denied

Recently rejected book cover comp.

HAI There

A portrait of me painted by Ray Lopez, a participant in the Saturday Studio at HAI (Hospital Audiences Inc.) I've enjoyed volunteering there for about six months.

Zingiber

Cover design for Sentieri Selvaggi's forthcoming CD Zingiber. Scheduled for release by Cantaloupe Music sometime next year.

Skin Trade

Check out the article on the creation of Duran Duran's Notorious album. It includes bits from an interview I did about the design of the album package and related materials. Above is a package for the "Skin Trade" cassette single which was banned in most places because the plastic case and photo of a woman’s naked backside made it look like a miniature adult video. Read more. Click here.

Byrne-ing Down The House

Cover design and my portrait of David Byrne from What The Songs Look Like: Contemporary Artists Interpret Talking Heads Songs (1987). The book was my brainchild and I got to collaborate with my very favorite band, Talking Heads. I was able to obtain work from many incredible artists including: Jean-Michel Basquiat, David Byrne, Sue Coe, Keith Haring, Jenny Holzer, Barbara Kruger, Duane Michals, Jim Nutt, Nam June Paik, Gary Panter, Robert Rauschenberg, Ed Ruscha, William Wegman, Tadanori Yokoo and others.

Money Never Sleeps

"Nine David Byrne tracks including several songs from his 2008 collaboration with Brian Eno, 'Everything That Happens Will Happen Today' are featured in the film and on the soundtrack to Oliver Stone's much anticipated sequel to the 1987 Academy Award winning Wall Street. Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps starring Michael Douglas and Shia LaBeouf hits theaters September 24th." (Amazon.com)

I was asked by David's management to put together the CD package. It had been awhile since I worked on a project associated with David. Always an honor.

No-No-Notorious

I just learned that the Duran Duran Notorious album was being re-released later this month in various formats. I always liked that album and was proud to be asked to design the package. Here is a piece I wrote earlier this year about my Notorious experience:

NOTORIOUS (1986)
After the Power Station album, John Taylor asked if I would be interested in working on the package for the next Duran Duran album, Notorious. He also asked if I was available to fly to London on short notice to meet the rest of the band. Next thing I knew I was at Kennedy Airport waiting for my British Airways flight to London. A short time later I was informed there was mechanical problem with the plane. I was upgraded to the Concorde SST. Talk about jet set! That was an experience I will never forget. I ended up in London hours ahead of schedule. My meeting the rest of the band members went well and the project proceeded. The album package was built around a black-and-white wraparound photo of the then-current band members (John, Simon, and Nick) plus a very young Christy Turlington. Unlike the Power Station package, the Notorious package didn’t use any illustration, although the singles did feature some graphic elements. The “Notorious” single (1986) marked the first use of my “Pan-with-horn” icon. This icon first appeared in the lower right-hand corner of the cover and also appeared on the labels. The “Skin Trade” single (1987) had a red-tinted close-up photo of a woman’s rear on the cover. The cassette came in a small VHS-like plastic box with the photo insert and looked like a miniature adult video. There were also vinyl versions that did not feature the photo at all, and had solid red covers instead. The “Meet El Presidente” single (1987) featured a black-and-white photo of the band topped with a Soviet Socialist Realism-inspired graphic that was used on the band’s 1987 Strange Behaviour world tour book.

How I Spent My Summer Vacation

Have a Smurfy day!

Who Let The Dogs Out?

After a break, more dogs are finding their way to my Dogs Waiting for Their Humans site.

Truckin'

Rediscovered this piece I created for The Art of Micky Mouse: Artists Interpret The World's Most Famous Mouse edited by Craig Yoe and Janet Morra-Yoe (1991). I was truly flattered to be asked to contribute something to be included along with work by such noted artists as Andy Warhol, Charles M. Schulz, Peter Max, Keith Haring, R. Crumb, Milton Glaser, R.O. Blechman, Gary Panter, Gary Baseman, and Rick Griffin. The book might be a distant relative of What The Songs Look Like: Contemporary Artists Interpret Talking Heads Songs which I co-created with the band in 1987.

Monkey Business

Promotional postcard for my good ol' studio Manhattan Design (1981). Yep, that's me in the gorilla suit.

Dean + Britta T-Shirt

T-shirt design for Dean Wareham & Britta Phillips' 13 Most Beautiful... project features the first names of some of Andy Warhol's Screen Test subjects. Available on their website this Summer.

Trike for Trike

Illustration for Tricycle: The Buddhist Review (2004). First created as a holiday card. Later used as key graphic element in a press kit.

Yo America

I was just interviewed for a forthcoming book titled StereoTyped: Hip-Hop's Unsung Graphic Design Heroes, Heroines & the Oral & Visual Histories of the Rap Record (1979-1989). I had almost completely forgotten about the Kurtis Blow cover designs for America and If I Ruled The World from 1985. Photos of Mr. Blow by one of my favorite photographers, Deborah Feingold, and collage by one of my favorite illustrators, Stephen Kroninger.

Neck + Neck

A pair of my unused CD cover designs circa 2005.

Skeptism?

Sketchbook oddity circa 2005.

13 Most Beautiful...

Dean Wareham & Britta Phillips's 13 Most Beautiful... Songs For Andy Warhol's Screen Tests deluxe limited edition double CD will be released July 27. Product details and ordering information can be found on their website. Pre-orders will receive an 11 x 17 poster.

I Want My... AIGA

AIGA NY is organizing an evening celebrating the creative history of MTV. I will be one of the speakers talking about the birth and early days of the MTV logo. Details here.

Pantone 333c

My previous post got me thinking about the Police. . . and the cover I designed for Danny Quatrochi's 1986 photo collection, Police Confidential.

Amazon Dot Calm

Watching the news just now I saw a story about last night's Rainforest Foundation benefit at Carnegie Hall. At one point the organization's funky, tribal-looking "R" logo appeared on screen. At that moment I remembered that I had drawn it. That was back in 1989 when Sting and Trudie Styler founded the organizaion. I don't remember how we came to do the logo, but my old studio Manhattan Design was working on a logo and some album package designs for Sting's Panagea Records at that time. Probably we just threw it in.

Andy + Dean + Britta

Poster and T-shirt designs for Dean Wareham & Britta Phillips' 13 Most Beautiful... The T-shirt features the first names of some of Andy Warhol's Screen Test subjects. Both will be available on their website this Summer.

Coming Attraction

Cover design for Dean & Britta's forthcoming album 13 Most Beautiful... Songs For Andy Warhol's Screen Tests. Available in July.

Attention Getter

T-shirt and CD package design for Richard Julian. His terrific new album is titled Girls Need Attention. Both available soon here.

Cover Versions

I was recently contacted by French photographer Antoine Quereuil ("modelising and shooting") who with his partner Bruno Perrin ("painting and shooting") have created a wonderful and imaginative series of interpretations of classic album covers called Hall of Fame. Included are their "cover versions" of album packages I art directed: The Smashing Pumpkins Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, and Sonic Youth Murray Street. Amazing work you guys.

Back In The USSR

I was interviewed for a Russian web publication called f5.ru by its "newsmaker" Roman Samokha. It is in Russian so I have no idea what it says but it looks pretty good. You can go there by clicking here. Thank you Roman.

So and Sew

Cover design of the forthcoming So Percussion EP Threads.

Attention

Cover design of the forthcoming Richard Julian album, Girls Need Attention.

Flipside

Something to add to all the recent blogging about the "MTV-minus-the-Music" logo. A design I came up with for a 2-sided version of the original logo. The idea was that it could be used on a glass door or window.

I Want My . . . Daily News

I found out yesterday via email from Christina Kinon at the Daily News about the revised MTV logo. We spoke briefly and her article about the new logo scheme appeared in today's paper. A small excerpt:

Frank Olinsky and his team at Manhattan Design created the MTV logo when the network launched. When the change was announced yesterday, Olinsky wasn't feeling much nostalgia. "I had no idea" the change was coming, said Olinsky. "MTV now is a whole other reality than MTV was back in the day. Things change. The fact that it doesn't say 'music television' anymore, that's appropriate."