Original drawing.

Leather jacket mock-up.

Over the last little while I feel like I’ve been mired in paperwork and administrative stuff. Necessary evil I understand, but I’m a creative guy and my interests will always lie in making things. The craft of it all. So when I’m forced to deal with taxes and forms and whatever else that takes away from my creating, it puts me in a quiet and pretty foul mood. Just want to make things, man.

That said, I wanted to create something a bit rebellious this week. Call it therapy or whatever, but a lot of times my state of mind translates almost directly into my work. Couple that with getting into SONS OF ANARCHY recently and we end up with the Signalnoise Biker design. I wanted this one to look like it was drawn by someone in an MC, then photocopied over the years. Degraded. Last thing I wanted was something “slick” for this one, y’know? A few people said it looked like Skeletor, which is fine. Was going for a laughing Reaper. Very inspired by the SOA patch.

I’ll be arranging a sticker and t-shirt pressing this week. Watch for this one in the Signalnoise Store soon.

I designed a little poster for this month’s E3C Meet-up (Twitter), the monthly gathering of creative people in Halifax. I started this event last year, then known as the Halifax Design Meet until it was taken over by my friends Alison Knott and Peter Greathead to become E3C.

This month’s gathering is on Thursday, May 10 at the Foggy Goggle on Argyle Street. Hit the Facebook Event for more.

Here is my new portrait piece, THE VILLAIN. If you’re new to these ones, I tend to do portraits in between full posters as a form of practice as I continue to explore this form of print design. Trying to sharpen my skills.

As with all my stuff lately, this is 100% vector. No brushes, or plugins, or LiveTrace or fancy “time-saving” tools either. Just hardcore bezier point scrutiny through lots of hours. Nuts and bolts stuff. If you want it to look right you have to get right in there and do it yourself. Really trying to simplify things too.

I wanted the colour palette to hinge on THE DARK KNIGHT film, but not exactly. This one is much grimmer than my previous portraits: THE SMUGGLER and THE SCIENTIST.

EDIT: This is the second version of THE VILLAIN. I did further work on it this weekend to mend some issues.

Here’s a quick one, a lost photo taken by my pal Chris Toms on the final day of FITC Toronto 2012. Dartmouth vs. Portland. Me and that Aaron Draplin. Having a good time on the streets of Toronto.

Look at that death grip, man. Draplin broke 2 of my ribs in this shot.

A couple of early digital concept studies.

Sketch of the alien gore on tracing paper. Ink and blue lead.

Here’s a poster for my favourite movie, John Carpenter’s masterpiece: THE THING.

I started this design hot on the heels of completing the BLADE RUNNER poster. I’m continuously learning new tricks and processes as I go, so I wanted to really dial in on the style I explored in BLADE RUNNER and simplify it. Really concentrate on the shapes that make up the highlights and shadows. The goal was to reduce the overall number of points, but really make them count. Smooth curves.

The over-arcing concept was to depict the alien taking human form, so I knew early on I needed some kind of weird abstract alien gore in there which proved to be the toughest challenge. I sought reference in the film, but I didn’t want hands, or tentacles, or a spider-head. I wanted a mess of scary “whatever”. I had to draw it all from the ground up (pencil and paper, kids) and on the third attempt it finally fell into place. From there it hit the scanner to be re-built in Illustrator.

Like my BLADE RUNNER poster, this is 100% vector. Not a hint of Photoshop in there. I see this and the BLADE RUNNER poster as kind of companion pieces since I did them both back to back with similar methodologies.

But again, it was all about atmosphere. I wanted this poster to feel like the movie. That was priority 1.

I spoke at Montreal Meets on April 9th and one of the big hooks in my presentation was revealing this poster onstage for the first time. Until now, it had only existed in cellphone photos on Twitter. But here we go, a poster for one of my favorite films: BLADE RUNNER.

This poster truly represents the new direction I’m forcing into my work. I’ve had a keen interest in designing movie posters for quite some time, and this was nothing less than a huge undertaking. From reference photos, digital studies to the final build it took about 2 weeks full time to get it done. Another big departure was building this thing entirely in Illustrator. There is zero Photoshop work in this piece, something I’m pretty proud of. If you saw my Influxis Voodoo Lounge presentation at FITC Toronto 2012 you would have seen an indepth process of how I planned and built this poster. Really long process, so long it ultimately changed how I work.

This poster needed to be treated with respect. I love the film and it has a huge following all over the world. It ultimately defined a new genre of science fiction in both story and atmosphere, and I needed to keep that intact as I worked through the design. High scrutiny was placed on every element in this poster to ensure I got it right. Pursuit of a proper representation of BLADE RUNNER.

“All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain.” – Roy Batty

Standing room only in the Toronto I. Taking the stage for DESIGN RENEGADE.

Onstage for my DESIGN RENEGADE talk. Waving my hands. Yelling. Riffin' about Illustrator.

Packed the Influxis Voodoo Lounge for my supplemental talk, the Signalnoise Poster Break-down.

The gang: Eric Miller, Paul Panfalone, random street vagrant and Chris Toms.

"You mess with Dartmouth, you mess with Buffalo!" - Paul Panfalone, setting the record straight.

Justin Erickson from the mighty Phantom City Creative.

Portland vs. Dartmouth. Hung out with the man, Aaron James Draplin.

Landed back in Dartmouth last night, head spinning and blurry-eyed from my big trip to FITC Toronto 2012. My entire year seems to revolve around FITC, biggest and best event I’ve been to and is the 3rd year in a row I’ve been a speaker. Walked into the event area to see my FITC artwork and logo design everywhere. Real proud, man. Those banner were HUGE.

Before I get into the recap, I want to send a giant thanks to everyone who attended the talks I did at the event. Both rooms were packed, standing room only. Good lookin’ crowd too, I gotta say. But seriously it means a lot that you’d drop in to hear my little story and see some art. Truly appreciate it.

So here we go. A 23-point machine gun list of moments, memories and wonderful meetings that have happened over the last few days. Lets get to it.

1. Travelled with my brother in design, Eric Miller of the Dartmouth Clothing Co.
2. Good friend Alison “Eraserheader” Knott made the trek from Halifax to rep the east coast!
3. Enjoyed a killer steak and colourful conversation with Aaron Draplin, Paul Panfalone and Big Eric.
4. Then Draplin threw down the heavy plastic to cover said steaks. Scholar and a roughneck gentleman.
5. Met the mighty “Ghoulish” Gary Pullin right before my talk. Horror poster hero!
6. Packed the house for my DESIGN RENEGADE talk, then sold a load of posters. HUGE thanks everyone!
7. Sat down with the Humber and Inspiredology crew for a no-holds barred interview session.
8. Hung out with Chad Mueller, Andrew Dertinger, Steve Schiavello and others at the Loose Moose!
9. Met Justin Erickson of the mighty Phantom City Creative! Holy crap! High regard!
10. Met tons of kind folks at the FITC Opening Gala. Questionable odours in that joint.
11. Many topics covered with the amazing Kat Gaskin. Failed attempt to sneak into the hotel pool.
12. Finally saw Aaron Draplin throw down live with Tall Tales from a Large Man. NAILED it.
13. Was given an AMAZING handmade “metal” belt by Malena Gonzalez. Beautiful!
14. Got to the bottom of stuff in a big ol’ interview with Canada.com. Also video.
15. Ate schnitzel for the first time. Loved it. Even love the funny name of it. Thanks Kat!
16. Met so many killer people at the FITC Awards Show. Many hands shook. You know who you are!
17. Mad handshakes with Jerry and Grant from Influxis. Streaming kings among men.
18. Took the stage in the Influxis Voodoo Lounge for my Signalnoise Poster Break-down talk. PACKED room.
19. Saw Draplin rip up the Influxis Lounge with his 20 Points to Wreck Your Life talk. Killed it!
20. Sung the intro theme to My Secret Identity with friend Riley. Tight harmonies.
21. Met a PILE of kind folks at the FITC Closing Party. You are all amazing. Many laughs had.
22. Spotted FITC’s director Shawn Pucknell sporting a Dartmouth Clothing Co. shirt. East coast!
23. Short but lovely conversation with the mighty and creative Jon Burgerman.

I’m missing all kinds of stuff in here. Lots of gaps. But I want every last damn person I met at FITC Toronto that you really made this trip an epic event. From the other speakers to press people, volunteers to timid students. Loved hearing stories about individual creative passions and answering questions. Keep fighting the good fight, people. You are all part of the Signalnoise Crew of Design Hooligans whether you like it or not.

And finally a massive thank-you to Shawn Pucknell, Lisa Walters, Lindsay Munro, Alfred Park, Erin Kelly and Alison Britt for everything they did to make this event a colossal success. For myself and everyone else. They raised the bar this year, saturating the event with inspiration, passion and downright fun. I’d take a bullet for those six … well, six bullets in total I guess. I’d take a RIDDLING of bullets for them. Not to be messed with. Thanks so much, gang.

And now the evil eye of Signalnoise shifts to you, Cleveland. Things will be ramping up for WMCFest real soon. June can’t come quick enough. You have been warned.

Photo by Aaron James Draplin. That's right!

Updating from the road, holed up in my Hilton hotel room at the mighty FITC Toronto 2012. One more day to this beast of an event and already my head is swimming with thoughts of who I’ve met, hands shook, laughs had and fires ignited.

First off, a HUGE thank-you goes out to everyone who showed up to see my DESIGN RENEGADE talk. Man, you guys packed the room, front to back. Couldn’t even believe it. Standing room only. Being the guy onstage harping about Illustrator and fonts your enthusiasm really drove the show. And then you destroyed my merch table, grabbing pins and posters. Thank-you so, so much everyone. Humbled.

Too many tales to tell at this point, but I’m keeping notes. Before I go, check out that 8-bit slice of awesome up above. That was done by Mike Gaboury DURING my talk. That bugger was listening while rocking that killer pixellated graphic. Floored. You’re the man, Mike!

Today at 12:25 I’ll be destroying the Influxis Voodoo Lounge with a complete Signalnoise poster break-down. Several designs will be displayed and I’ll rip apart my entire process for the masses. Also, apparently free beer in that joint. Lets pack that room, I want to see the walls sweat. On stage right after me is that Aaron Draplin. Double threat. Be there.

I’ll update with a nice FITC Toronto 2012 wrap once I land back in the Signalnoise HQ.