Shoe The Bear, Hot Chicks in Bunny Masks, & What I've Been Wearing

INSPIRATION OF THE DAY: Shoe The Bear

My friend (who is also a bitchin' - yeah, I said bitchin' - designer for Skateboarder Magazine) Chris Bywater sent me a link to this rad shoe company called Shoe The Bear. They're a Danish brand created by Thomas Frederiksen and Jakob Fugelsang and even more than I dig their shoes I dig their catalogs. Check out some of the photos from their FW 11 line. Makes me want to buy a bunny rabbit mask. I have a rad skin rug and set of horns in my room like the one in [Figure 1]. It must be my "redneck past nipping at my heels" as Ben Folds once bemoaned. Check out some of the creative shots/shoes below:

[Figure 1]

For The Ladies:

For The Fellas:

 Speaking of clothes and fashion, here's what I've been wearing. Disclaimer, the fur coat was from last week when it was cold and rainy, before it was 80 degrees and lovely out! Gotta love Southern California. Definitely taking a beach day this weekend.

Breakin' the rules with some jean on jean action. That's my hilarious coworker Guillermo doing Charlie's Angels poses with me. 

The fur fetish continues. Note for all you PETA members: it's faux!

Cue "Leather and Lace" by Stevie Nicks and Don Henley. 

I look like a bumble bee. Especially with the Jackie O shades. 

Happy Friday!

- Amy

Listening to: Airborne Toxic Event's "All I Ever Wanted"

Box Doodles, Social Distortion Tunes, & Why I Wish Mike Ness Was My BFF

It's that time of the month again. The time for box doodles. This month our entertainment writers Jill & Gary of TourBusLive.com covered Social Distortion (YEAH!). I have a special spot in my heart for these wrinkly old, tatted up, grease monkeys. Especially Mr. Mike Ness. Nothing makes me happier (or want to get in a bar fight more) than when a Social D song comes on my radio or iPod. He seems like one of those guys who has lived a million lives. He's the guy you want to sit next to at the bar because you know he's got some stories to tell (he'll be drinking the tonic water of course because he's off the sauce these days). He's the guy you want on your side in a bar fight. He's the guy you want sitting next to you in the drivers seat of a '36 Ford as you fly down Coast Highway listening to "Highway 101." He's the guy you want telling you how to buzz a proper mohawk. He's the guy you want as your BFF.

- Amy

Listening to: Social Distortion's "Story of My Life"

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.)

George Jones Illustration, A Pop Culture History Lesson, & Mourning The Loss of "Nashville's Possum Holler"

[ Quickie poster in dedication to ole' George Jones in his famous rose colored glasses. ]

I did this poster the same way I did my John Wayne illustration. Used the pen tool to draw shapes that eventually made a face that sort of looked like George's. This one didn't turn out AS cool, but it was a fun little project to get the creative juices flowing. No one had a country twang quite like George. Boy did he sing a good honky tonk love song.

POP CULTURE LESSON FOR THE DAY: George Jones

My friend, Andrew Peterson, lived down the street from George and his lovely, and ever-faithful, wife Tammy Wynette for a while in Nashville, TN. He said that one time when Tammy took the keys away from George so he couldn't drive to get more beer (George was ALWAYS on drank - he famously missed 50 concerts because of it and was thus dubbed "No Show Jones"), he saw George riding his riding lawn mower down their street to the local liquor store. Soooo classic.  Some other fun facts:

• George has a dog food and sausage with his name on it.
• He has a daughter named Georgette. (Now that's just cruel.)
• He's a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame
• He partied like a rockstar: Demolished hotel rooms (with the likes of Johnny Cash), unpaid bills, drunken antics, he even smashed guitars on stage. It was probably the cocaine or the bourbon, or both.
• He owned a bar called "Nashville's Possum Holler". Man I wish that were still around. 
• He owned his own theme park called "Jones Country". Talk about frivolous spending. Your own theme park?

- Amy

Listening to: George Jones' "He Stopped Loving Her Today"

Epic Collaborations, Introducing Hammerhood, & The Beginnings of A Rad Illustration

Im doing a really fun collaboration with my friend Timmy Ham (a.k.a Sloth) under the guise of Hammerhood. Get it? Ham and Hood cleverly combined? We're still working on our logo. I'll post some of the ideas I've come up with so far soon. Hammerhood is basically The Postal Service of art; Where The Postal Service provided you with the airy vocals of Ben Gibbard layered on top of electronic video game style beats, Hammerhood gives you grafitti/street art inspired creatures from Sloth mixed with random illustrations from yours truly. Just like TPS, we're sending the project back and forth via mail and we just keep adding to the drawing till  all the space is filled and it is something really random and amazing.

Timmy Ham is a living, breathing pun. He is, as his name infers, a ham - a big, fat, juicy Christmas ham. The only way you can fully understand this is by visiting his blog. I try to read it everyday because it never fails to make do both of the following: 1. laugh out loud, and 2. say, "what the hell?" He's a strange bird who seems to live a live full of magic and adventure. He's based out of Tempe, AZ and is a fellow graphic designer/artist like myself. He does graphics for motocross company, The Dirt Lab, and then has a booming business painting custom Vans under his alter ego/brand "Sloth". Check out some of his sweet kicks below.

How cute are the little baby ones?

Anyways, now that the collab is in full swing we are already entertaining dreams of grandeur. We're thinking we sell the drawings and donate the proceeds of each piece to a different charity. Then maybe we can even sell a few for some cash in pocket too. Should be a fun side project!

- Amy

Listening to: Chiddy Bang's "All Things Go"

LA Art Shows, Scott Pommier, and Stacie B. London

I really want to go to this show. It's called Shutter Speed and it's being put on by The Selvedge Yard (one of my all time favorite blogs) and is featuring some rad photos by Scott Pommier, an amazing photographer. It's going to be here in LA, so I really have to try to make it out; leave my Orange County bubble for a night and enjoy our neighbor to the north, L.A. The show will also feature biker babe Stacie B. London. Stacie is an exhibition production coordinator at MOCA in LA where I saw the Dennis Hopper photo exhibit, "Double Standard", earlier this year. She is also the founder of East Side Moto Babes, an all girls moto club. I want to be in a biker club so bad. Cycle Zombies, East Side Moto, The Outlaws, whoever! Maybe I can pull a Hunter S. Thompson/Danny Lyon and just travel around with them and document their vagabond ways seeing as I can't ride a motorcycle. Hopefully someone will let me ride bitch.


SHUTTER SPEED 
Saturday March 26th, 7-11pm
@Secret Service LA
710 Santa Fe Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90021


To get you pumped, here are some of Scott's great photos. You can find more at his website here.

- Amy
Listening to: Social Distortion's "Don't Take Me For Granted"

Jimmy Fallon as Bob Dylan, Charles In Charge, & Some Laughter Inducing Videos

INSPIRATION OF THE DAY: 

Jimmy Fallon as Bob Dylan singing the Charles In Charge theme song. 

How is he so good at these? I'll still never forget him impersonating Dave Matthews on one of the Celebrity Jeopardy skits. Hilarious. I think I might be the only person on this planet who doesn't like DMB. But I do like Jimmy Fallon. If you want another good laugh after this video, just watch this Jimmy Fallon and Will Ferrell in the Jeffrey's Clothing skit from SNL. 


Laugh on, my good friends.
- Amy
Listening to: "Evening Kitchen" by Band of Horses