Caleb Followill, Southern Livin', & Lessons In Publicity

I recently did an illustration of the skanky-yet-handsome Caleb Followill, lead singer of the Kings of Leon and apparently the reason they had to cancel the rest of their U.S. tour. I wish I had a crystal ball to see that one coming as I don't think these prints will sell as well as they might have under different/better circumstances. But as Donald Trump always says, any publicity is good publicity. Maybe the throngs of people googling his name for answers to why the tour is cancelled or for forums to post their disgruntled rantings on will stumble upon this blog because of it. If you want to see photos of the evolution of the illustration read a more indepth post on the Hoodzpah site. If you still love Caleb Followill despite his indescretions and want one of these pretty prints of your own, head to the store. They fit perfectly in a record frame. If you're looking for some tunes for this perfect Wednesday (all you fellow Orange Countians know what I'm talking about), check out KOL's recent CD, Come Around Sundown. I didn't hear much about it, but I really like it. It's mellow yet driving. Perfect music for drinking iced tea on a wrap around porch at dusk while the lightning bugs flicker around. Sometimes I miss Southern livin'.

Happy Wednesday.

- Amy
Listening to: Kings of Leon's "The End"

Retro Poster Design, More Logos, & How Zombies Are Like Totally The New Pink

 [Fig. 1: MM final logo (top center) with other options that were unused.] 

I've recently doing some work with my friend Kc's production company Modern Myth Productions. I posted a blog a while back with the progress of our logo design so I thought I'd post the rest of our progress as well as the final design. Our final logos were the simple MM (see Fig. 1) and then a more complex visual logo (see Fig. 2). 

 [Fig. 2: MM final complex logo (top center) with our progression below.] 

They also had me design a poster for their podcast "We're Alive." It's a wildly popular podcast about zombies and the end of the world. Sounds epic right? It is. You can listen to it here and its FREE! Anyways, they wanted to make some posters up that had a vintage movie poster feel for the show. Like Mad Men retro style. Here's what we ended up with. 

 [Fig. 3: MMP Poster. ©Amy Hood] 

Speaking of zombies, I just saw the new video for Cage The Elephant's "Around My Head" which is hilariously good. Zombies... they're, like, so hot right now. Finally my hometown of Bowling Green, KY can be known for more than putting out Corvettes and Fruit of the Loom underwear. We can now say we put out a great rock n' roll band thanks to these boys. Enjoy...


Amy
Listening to: Cage The Elephant's "Around My Head"

Cage The Elephant - Music - More Music Videos

New Logo Designs, HAMMERHOOD, & The Horror of Wipe Out

[ HAMMERHOOD logo ©Amy Hood ]

Here's a new logo I worked on for HAMMERHOOD, the collab between me and the great Timmy Ham. I did a blog on Timmy (a.k.a SLOTH) a while back that you should definitely check out. He is a graffiti artist/designer/customizer-of-amazing-Vans. Not only that, he's hilarious and he's my partner in crime for the above said art collab that we're currently working on and hope to finish the first installment of soon. Once the first one is done (which you can see the progress of by clicking here) we'll try to sell it and donate the proceeds to charity. It probably won't be much, but we're trying to give back in our own little way and every little bit helps! 


Now it's back to working on my portfolio. Guhhhh. Shoot me. Going though all of my files and trying to figure out which pieces are my best design work is the worst. It's worse than a Wipe Out marathon. That's pretty bad. Wish me luck friends. 


- Amy
Listening to: Otis Redding's "That's How Strong My Love Is"

Hoodzpah Logos, The Glory of Freelancing, & Pink Floyd

[All rights reserved. © Amy Hood.]

Life after The OC Gazette has been a wild and exciting (and busy) ride! Yes, I am no longer at the little local magazine where I got my start in graphic design those four years ago. It was the perfect ending to that chapter of my life though. I learned a lot, met a lot of great people, and grew a lot as a designer. Now it's on to new and exciting ventures where I can grow even more! The next chapter? Hoodzpah, baby. Jen (my lovely sister) and I's freelance art and design company is now at priority number one and we are readily accepting all the work we can get our grimy little hands on! Freelancing is a glorious, glorious thing. You get to make your own hours, work when you need to, take breaks when you want to, and you can choose your projects and workload. For that same reason it's hard too, because it takes so much discipline to stay on top of everything and to be diligent and keep a schedule. If it weren't for my handy planner, no work would be done - I'd just be vegging out at the beach, trolling facebook and conquering my Netflix Instant Watch queue all day. 

With a new company comes the daunting and arduous task of branding. Designing a logo for yourself as a designer is one of the hardest things EVAHHH. The glory of being a designer is that you get to try all different styles because you get to work with a slew of unique clients, but when you're designing for yourself you have to pick ONE style to define you as a graphic artist - and its TERRIFYING! It's like the first day of high school when you have to figure out where you're going to sit at lunch. That spot will define you for your whole life! (Well, for the next four years, which seems like your whole life at that age.) All that being said, here are some logo ideas I came up with for Hoodzpah last night. So far I think I'm liking the B series of designs best. All input and ideas are welcome! We knew we wanted to incorporate a diamond(s) in the logo somehow to reference Pink Floyd's mind-blowing and inspiring 13 1/2 minute song "Shine On You Crazy Diamond." If we had a theme song - this would be it. 8 minute intro and all. If this doesn't stir something deep within you, then you're just not human. 

Remember when you were young, you shone like the sun.
Shine on you crazy diamond.

Now there's a look in your eyes, like black holes in the sky.

Shine on you crazy diamond.

You were caught on the crossfire of childhood and stardom, 

blown on the steel breeze.

Come on you target for faraway laughter, 

Come on you stranger, you legend, you martyr, and shine!

You reached for the secret too soon, you cried for the moon.

Shine on you crazy diamond.

Threatened by shadows at night, and exposed in the light.

Shine on you crazy diamond.

Well you wore out your welcome with random precision,

rode on the steel breeze.

Come on you raver, you seer of visions, 

come on you painter, you piper, you prisoner, and shine! 

Alright, it's off to work on a poster for my friend Kc's awesome podcast We're Alive, a podcast about zombies and the end of the world. It's great, but don't take my word for it, take their 4 million listeners' word for it. Did I mention it's free? Nothing like free quality entertainment! Download it here. 

- Amy

Listening to: Pink Floyd's "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" (Duh.)

The Great & Powerful LOCALE Magazine, Some Recent Design, & Eating Brains

[ LOCALE Magazine flanked by the Cycle Zombies - participants in our Summer Guide. Photograph by Jonah Gilmore, our wonderful photographer for our feature. ]

I've been doing a freelance design project with my sister Jennifer for a rad local OC magazine called LOCALE. It's a really nice 200 page, thick stock, perfect bound magazine with advertisers like Blue Moon and LA Club Sport and really fun and interesting local editorial - so it's basically every editorial designers dream - or at least mine. After working at a smaller publication for the last five years where our covers were paid for, our demographic was suburban moms, and our page count never exceeded 44 (our big dream was to one day have a perfect bound magazine), I am having so much fun letting my creativity run rampant on this project! 

The feature we're working on is a guide to summer in Orange County. It's full of how-tos, lists, interviews with OC celebs on their favorite summer memories, summer fun ideas, and summer playlists from local bands. I really want to post some of the design I've been working on for said project, but I will wait till it is printed to show you the end result. I will give you a little teaser and show you this little beer cap I created for one of the segments. I even made little dew drops! No skimping on the design here, folks.

[ © Amy Hood ]

Yep, just a foreshadow to the greatness to come in this feature. Which brings me to my next point: this feature can only be as great as we envision it with your help. We're compiling a list of "summer musts" and we want to pick your brain and steal some of your genius. That made me sound like a zombie. I promise I won't eat your brain - that's not what I meant. So what do I mean? I mean we want to know what your favorite things to do for summer in Orange County are so we can include it in our list. You know - those things/pastimes you have to indulge in every summer, without which, it's just not summer: going to the beach, riding your beach cruiser on the boardwalk, slip n' slides with your friends, getting a balboa bar at the Balboa Fun Zone... and the list goes on. If you feel inclined to lend your thoughts, leave a comment with your favorite things to do. 

You guys are diamonds.

- Amy

Listening to: Wilco's "Outtasite"

Wilco - Outtasite by WBRNewMedia

Modern Myth Logos, Zombie Mania Sweeps The Nation, & 2 A.M. Design Playlists

[Click to enlarge.]

Here is a fun project I've been working on for my friend Kc. He has a production company called Modern Myth Productions and, among a slew of other things, they do a really popular podcast on zombies called "We're Alive". You gotta check it out. It's sweeping the nation faster than swine-flu hysteria. I like to think of him as a modern day Orson Welles, keeping audio drama alive and well. 

He asked me to design a logo for the company and the above designs were my first round of mockups. I really liked the "M"s on A1-A4. I also liked the simplicity of the first few options in B.  C1 and C2 may be my favorites though. They look straight out of a Russian propaganda campaign or a vintage horror poster. We all agreed that the "M"s in C3 will be a fun alternate text based logo to use. I only included type in some of them because I was mainly focusing on the graphics, so that part of it all is a little rough. We're still working on more options right now for the final logo. I am giddier than Perez Hilton over a new Lady Gaga song to see what we come up with! 

With all this freelance design I'm doing I've been putting in long hours and staying up till the wee hours of the morning. At that point, music is the only thing that keeps you going. Me and my friend Chris (who is a fine videographer I might add) recently trekked up to Orange for a licorice pizza (a.k.a. vinyl records) hunt. My friend Beatrice (who is a fellow blogger and fashion designer) had told me about a place with some epic deals across the street from Mr. C's records on Glassell street off the circle. She was SO right. Me and Chris dug through stacks and stacks of albums and it took all of my self control not to blow my paycheck. 5 records, 1 faux fur coat, and $70 later, we left the antique shop, mission accomplished. Here's some of what I got:

There's nothing like designing with the crackling of a great record playing in the background.

- Amy

Listening to: Black Rebel Motorcycle Club's "The Line" 

(best hidden track ever at the end.)

My New Book Cover Design, Humphrey Bogart, & My Grandfather (John Wayne's Long Lost Twin)

[Fig. 1]

I was recently inspired by a rad set of posters [see Fig. 2 - 3] my sister made up in dedication to one of Hollywood's greatest leading men, Humphrey Bogart (whom I adore). She's also been making some pretty fun mock book covers just to practice her design. So I decided to design my own faux book cover for fun. Having recently confessed to you all my very strange crush on Bill the Butcher I thought I'd design a book cover for a biography on his life. I limited myself to a little over an hour. Above is how it turned out [see Fig. 1].  


The author on the layout is Warren J., the name of my grandpa on my mom's side. We're all pretty sure he was John Wayne's long lost twin brother. Paul Harvey even told a story about his on his "The Rest of The Story" radio segment once. Belligerent after a night of drinking, Grandpa Jost rode his horse INTO the Best Western hotel in Bowling Green, KY and demanded a room for him and his horse. He even looked like John Wayne at a towering 6' 3" and never without his cowboy hat and snakeskin boots. He could build anything, tame any animal, and effortlessly woo any woman. He also never drove anything but a Cadiallac. Now that's old time Hollywood class right there. He was a true cowboy. 

[Fig. 2]

[Fig. 3]

Cheers,

Amy

Listening to: Cat Power's "The Greatest"

OC Gazette Logos, Bringing Back The Monocle, & Crushing On Bill The Butcher

[Fig. 1: Mr. G. He's wearing an monocle - see it? Doesn't he look so dapper and clever? Be cautious of him however - he's a man of mischief and mayhem. ]

Here is some branding I created for the magazine I work for, The OC Gazette. Fig. 2 is our masthead and Fig. 1 is our little mascot, Mr. G (for Gazette). I had help creating Mr. G. (Shout out to my former co-workers Jen Hood and Sara Wilkins!) Our plan in creating him was to make stickers and give them out at events so people could stick him all over Orange County. Then people could take pics of where they find Mr. G chilling around OC. Kind of like our own personal Where's Waldo. One co-worker intelligently pointed out that this is sort of akin to vandalism, but I figured as long as we gave them to others, we couldn't be blamed for how Mr. G was used after he left our hands. It should be noted that my co-worker is one of the smartest broads around and is always prepared because she thinks before she acts, unlike me who acts and then thinks. Thus, we listened to the voice of reason and held off on our brilliant scheme to deliberate further.

[Fig. 2: The OC Gazette logo I created. ]

In our minds Mr. G was a man of mischief. He lures you in with his gentlemanly charms and perfectly waxed mustachio, but behind that monocle are eyes glimmering with devilment, and beneath that cocked hat is a mind spinning with schemes and shenanigans. Someone should try to bring the monocle back. The Teddy Roosevelt style is already back with a fury, why not bring the monocle too? I read this hilarious blog post on GQ Magazine that took a look back at the mens' styles of 2009. The author, Mike Albo said, and I quote:

"The turn of the century called... and it wants its waistcoat, specs, and mustache back. Between gin-fizz-slinging barmen in suspenders and Brooklyn dudes in bowler hats, you couldn't swing a walking stick in '09 without hitting a Teddy Roosevelt look-alike." 

Hilarious.

 Mr. G also sort of resembles one of my many inordinate crushes, Bill the Butcher [see Fig. 3]. (I have a problem with being attracted to very strange men whom a woman of only 24 years should not find tempting; another key example being Adrien Brody and that big schnoz of his.)

[ Fig. 3: Daniel Day Lewis as Bill The Butcher. ]

- Amy

Listening to: The Pogues' "Streets of Sorrow/Birmingham Six"

My First Font, Ginger Baker, & His Heavy Metal Abortion Regrets

[ The beginnings of my first font. Click to enlarge. ]

The other day while working on an editorial layout and trying to create a type solution for the header, I began creating a pretty rad font if I do say so myself. It was this metal-esque but also sort of Urban Outfitters kind of type. Very angular, very hard, very rock n' roll. Here's a rough draft of it so far. I'm going to do some other options too: bold, thin, without the orange triangles, etc. Should be fun. I've got to figure out how to actually make it into a .ttf file. I think it takes a special software, which sucks. Maybe I can download a trial so I don't have to pay for it. I'm not too sure about the "Q". Anyone with ideas speak up! 

[ Fig. 1: Ginger Baker. ]

This reminds me of an article I read in Rolling Stone a while back on Ginger Baker [see Fig. 1] , legendary drummer of the supergroup Cream. I think they were telling him that he was the godfather of heavy metal, and his reply was this: 

"They credited us with the birth of that sort of heavy metal thing. Well, if that's the case, there should be an immediate abortion." 

Hilarious.

Here are some more rad photos of Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce, and Ginger. Enjoy.

[ Is Ginger sporting a mohawk? Good man. ]

- Amy

Listening to: Led Zeppelin's "Black Dog"

Constellation Tattoos: The Bear, My Current Muse: Marianne Faithfull, & Cat Fights with Kate Moss

Here is the second installment of my poster series/study on constellations for use as tattoos (available now on Etsy!). I want to get a tattoo of a constellation, but I want to make up my own, so I am sketching out my ideas which you guys will then vote on to decide which I will get! The first poster was of a reindeer. Which turned out pretty rad. Items I'd still like to try are a classic car, a motorcycle, a banjo or some other hillbilly instrument, and a jackalope. I think the jackalope is going to turn out amazing. I also really liked the gun constellation I drew in my John Wayne illustration. It's equal parts dainty and tough - like a sexy woman drinking a whiskey straight up. Vote for which of the above you like best. Like I said, We'll pick the best option from each poster and then have a final death match between those winners to see which I should get inked on!

Which Bear Constellation Tattoo do you like best? From top to bottom:

The First The Second The Third The Fourth

[ Marianne Faithfull in The Girl on a Motorcycle. ]

CURRENT MUSE: Marianne Faithfull

Speaking of dainty and tough, I present to you my current muse: Marianne Faithfull. Particularly Marianne Faithfull in The Girl on a Motorcycle directed by Jack Cardiff. Wearing a fur coat on a bike? She's my hero.

Marianne was equally as cool in real life however. Here are a few reasons why:

• She's the daughter of a baroness and a WWII spy.
• The first time f*** was used in a movie was by her in I'll Never Forget What's'isname.
• She was Mick Jagger's special lady. It's said that some of the lyrics in "Wild Horses" are about her and Mick's breakup.
• Went through some crazy ups and downs going from being a member of rock royalty to having a serious drug problem which left her homeless on the streets in SOHO.
• Not only has she collaborated with the Stones, she recently collaborated with Beck, Billy Corgan, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, PJ Harvey, Rufus Wainwright, and Lou Reed. 
• She made an album of covers called Easy Come Easy Go which included her version of songs by Morrissey, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, The Decemberists, Billie Holiday, and Dolly Parton. Great taste, Marianne.
• She's gnarly. She recently called Kate Moss a "vampire who stole my style." If you've seen her these days, that's a terrifying threat. The drugs didn't do her well. I love Kate Moss and don't think style is any one's to own, but it's kind of rad that ole' Marianne's still got some bite in her nonetheless.

Happy Friday people!

- Amy

Listening to: Beirut's "After The Curtain"

John Wayne Illustrations, The Hubble Telescope, & More Pleas To Hit The Voting Booth

[John Wayne Digital Illustration. Click to enlarge. ©Amy Hood, 2011]

I did this illustration for use in an upcoming issue for a local publication. The story was on John Wayne, and I couldn't find any good hi-resolution photos of the Duke, so I decided to illustrate something. Since I have been doing a lot of star illustrations lately, I decided to do the illustration with the theme of "Orange County's Brightest Star." I used a photo of The Duke that I liked and recreated his face in illustrator using the pen tool. I just made shape after shape after shape after shape until it turned into something slightly resembling Ole' John. I wasn't too sure about how it would look at the beginning, but now that it's done I think it's one of my best illustrations yet! I used to have an unnatural hatred for the pen tool, but once you get the hang of it, it's great. For the planets in the illustration I visited the Hubble Telescope website and downloaded a bunch of their BEAUTIFUL (and FREE) images to use as a pattern. I want to paint my walls a dark blue and paint some nebula and galaxies on it. Then I could let all my friends draw their own constellations on it when they came over.

[Here's a detail of John's head that I recreated using the pen tool in Adobe Illustrator. Click to enlarge.]

Also, don't forget, today is the last day to vote for me at ArtistsWanted.org. I need all the help I can get from you lovely folks. :)

Cheers
- Amy
Listening to: Cage The Elephant's "Shake Me Down"

Constellation Tattoos, My Love Affair With Stars, & More Shameless Self Endorsement

[Click to enlarge. ©Amy Hood, 2011]

My friend Ariel Kotsiris is an apprentice over at Newport Tattoo. The other day he posted on facebook that he was giving out free tattoos. Yep, I said free. I guess it's all in the spirit of "practice makes perfect" and "you can't complain if it's a shitty tattoo since it was free and I'm learning." Either way, Ari is a really good artist and I've already seen some of the other tattoos he's pumped out, so I have decided to place my life - and skin - in his hands. I just can't pass up a free tattoo. 

He's only offering solid black and script tattoos, so I figured it was the perfect opportunity to get the constellation tattoo I have long been pondering. [Side Note: I have a thing for stars. A big thing. When I say "a thing" I mean in the way that Steve McQueen had a thing for motorcycles; or the way that Joan Rivers has a thing for plastic surgery. Most of you who know me, know that stargazing is one of my favorite pastimes. Don't get me started on meteor showers.] At first I thought I wanted a tattoo of a real constellation, but the more I thought about it the more I realized how cool it would be to make up my own constellation. So for the next week-ish on this blog I am going to post a poster a day of the constellation illustrations I've dreamed up. Each poster will contain four illustrations based on a constellation theme. Above is my first constellation: "The Reindeer."

I believe in democracy, so after I've posted all the illustrations, I'll post a poll where you can vote on which one I should get forever emblazoned upon my skin. 

Check out Poster #2 in this Constellation Tattoos Series studying The Bear by clicking here! You can also purchase posters on Etsy.com here.

- Amy
Listening to: Whiskeytown's "Easy Hearts"

Which is your favorite Reindeer constellation?
	Top Left
	Top Right
	Bottom Left
	Bottom Right
pollcode.com free polls

Design Work, Art Competitions, & John Wayne

[ "Why We Love OC" Feature. Click to enlarge. ©Amy Hood ]

Here's a layout/special feature I did for the February issue of The OC Gazette. It's our annual "Why We Love OC" feature where we ask OC's finest why they love this great county we live in. It's always a lot of fun to layout, but gathering all the quotes and keeping the participants fresh is A LOT of work. Which reminds me of some other exciting news. I'll be interviewing John Wayne's widow for a piece we are doing on the American legend. It's going to chronicle life was like with "The Duke" from the eyes of one of the people who was closest to him. I think it is going to be very interesting. 

HELP A GIRL OUT!

Also, I entered a really cool looking art competition with a pretty hefty prize. Winner get's their own exhibit and $10k! It's called "A Year In Review" and it's being put on by Artists Wanted. Check out my profile here and vote for me! I entered a little late, so I need all the help I can get! http://www.artistswanted.org/amyhood

- Amy

Listening to: Nirvana's "The Man Who Sold The World"

Inspiring me right now: Coco Pitt. Check it out: