Record Envelope has become a favorite website of mine, dedicated to vintage vinyl sleeves. Simple shapes and typography, and in most cases one or two colors, make these designs effective and beautiful. I also love seeing the old-school record company logos from the 50s and 60s. The categories arrange the sleeves alphabetically and by design motif, which is extremely easy to view designs of a specific aesthetic.

Head over to Record Envelope to check it out.

Even though I liked the idea, I was never overly happy with how the original Varo Broadcasting Corp turned out. I decided to work on it some more to see what I could pull together with the existing elements.

I wanted something very 70s with a soulful, Motown feel.

‘Solid Gold Bomb’ is also the title of a Scud: The Disposable Assassin graphic novel that came out in the 90s. I absolutely loved that title. The typeface I used was prevalent in 70s advertising, and a version also appears on Tarantino’s Jackie Brown movie poster.

This is 18″ x 24″ and will eventually land in the Signalnoise Store.

I was approached to help out a graduate student with their thesis project by donating some artwork. He noted La Femme and Varo Special Presentation as his favorites, and I was presented with an interesting situation of mixing two of my pieces together. I’ve never tried it before, but I’ve always seen my art as an organic process where I can use previous elements in different ways.

The result was this La Femme, Varo hybrid.

In 1982, Drew Struzan received a panicked phone call from someone at Universal Pictures saying they needed a movie poster created for The Thing, due the following morning. Struzan launched into action, had his wife snap some photos of himself wearing a parka and stayed up the entire night to paint.

Even with the ridiculous deadline, Struzan managed to pull off a piece of brilliance with this poster.

Scott Hansen, the mighty ISO50, has been a constant source of inspiration for some time now. Hansen has a unique design sensibility drawing on cues from the past which make each of his works fresh yet somehow familiar. His mixture of photographic elements, typography, pattern and color treatment make each of his pieces instantly iconic and timeless.

Not only is Hansen a designer, but also a recording artist under the moniker Tycho.

ISO50 as a website serves as a stream of fresh inspirational materials he photographs and finds online, and generates dialogue with its readers about the origins of specific design pieces from the past and present. It’s a wonderful resource.

Being a designer with a hefty portfolio and consistent style, a packed online store with beautiful products, a constantly updated blog and a recording artist makes even Hansen’s work ethic a huge inspiration. If you haven’t seen his work, head to ISO50.com now.

I would like to send a huge thank-you to everyone who entered the Atari and Daft Punk poster draw. 251 entries by far exceeded my expectations. I’m a nostalgic guy so I was thrilled to read everyone’s stories and memories about their favorite video games and systems.

Because I was so happy about the positive response, I upgraded the contest to two winners instead of just one so everyone had a better chance to win. The winners were chosen at random, and here they are:

• Jason Hill from Phoenix, Arizona whose favorite game is Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.
• Bradley Beck from Wallingford, Pennsylvania whose favorite game is Robotron 2084.

Congratulations to you both, and thanks again to everyone who took the time to drop me a comment and enter the draw. You guys are awesome. Incidentally, my favorite games of all time are the original MarioKart, Bionic Commando and the mighty Super Mario 3 :)