Hey kids! Here is my Jay and Silent Bob Get Old: Colouring Book Edition. An outlined version of my Jay and Silent Bob Get Old Canadian tour poster launched yesterday.

Instructions are simple. All you have to do is click this link to open the PDF, print it on your home printer, crack out the coloured pencils or crayons and get to work.

Colouring Contest!

But wait, there’s more. A contest even. Colour up the Jay and Silent Bob page, scan it in, post it online and drop a link in the comments below. The only rule is NO COMPUTERS. If I smell a hint of Photoshop, instant disqualification. I want this thing coloured old school … crayons, coloured pencils, watercolours, anything that doesn’t include Photoshop. Get wild. Draw in a background. Be creative. Enter as many times as you’d like.

The winner will receive a copy of my Jay and Silent Bob Get Old Canadian Tour poster, along with some killer Jay and Bob swag generously donated by Strange Adventures. We got Jay and Silent Bob action figures, the Bluntman and Chronic graphic novel and a Buddy Christ figure. What a haul.

Entry period starts now and will end December 12, 2011, the day Kevin Smith and Jason Mewes are in Halifax. Get colouring!

UPDATE: The entry period has closed. Thank to everyone who submitted! Winner will be announced on Wednesday, December 14.

Last month we in Halifax had the pleasure of seeing Kevin Smith speak live. Being that we are a small city, this event was a very rare occurrence and we were all thrilled to see the big man show up, tell stories and have some laughs. It was a great evening, and Kevin said that he would be back “real soon” with some friends in tow.

Not only did he keep his word, but he is coming back just over a month later with Jason Mewes for his Jay and Silent Bob Get Old Canadian tour. Needless to say, I snapped up my tickets real quick and am stoked to see Kevin speak once again.

He put out on his Twitter a little while ago that he was looking for a Canadian artist to design the tour poster. Being a long time fan of the guy, I had to give it a shot. That’s my poster above. Me and my pal Jerko used to watch the hell out of the CLERKS Animated Series back in the day, and I always liked the character designs from the show. My Jay and Bob are influenced by that style, with my own interpretation thrown into the mix.

Here are a few scans of doodles before I jumped into Illustrator. As you can tell by the characters, the original concept was more “badass”.

Fingers crossed, lets see if Kevin digs this.

I’m super excited to show my newest identity work, a logo re-design for my friends at the mighty FITC Events, who are going through some heavy changes and redefinement. Check out the full details right here.

I’ve been attending FITC events for the last 3 years, and have had the opportunity to speak twice in Toronto. I’ve gotten to know much of the people behind the event as well as friends whom I only see at FITC. I look forward to my annual trek to Toronto each year and I hope to attend the other events around the globe at some point.

While attending FITC Toronto 2010 in May of this year, I was approached by my pal Shawn Pucknell (the Grand Poobah of FITC) to develop the creative for the following year’s event, FITC Toronto 2012. I’ve spoken at FITC twice so far and being a huge fan of the event and the entire crew behind it, I jumped at the opportunity to work with my friends. Shawn gave me creative freedom to develop the bits and pieces they will be using to promote and showcase at the event next year. I started looking at everything including the FITC identity which, at the time, had no idea if it would be used or not.

Here are a couple of snips as I worked on the identity, but you can check out the full FITC Logo Process over on Web Design Wall. All kinds of behind-the-scenes images and babbling. Be sure to check it out.

I’m super proud to have been able to work with my pals at FITC, and I’ll see you all at FITC Toronto 2012 next April!

I came across these lovely wine country travel posters a little while back and had to post.

Other than knowing they were designed by Hatch in San Fran, I really know nothing else about them. They were for sale at some point through SFMOMA, but I couldn’t find a trace in their store. Even had a hard time finding larger versions online, so please pardon the smaller scale.

Regardless, really great design and colour palette. Pretty timeless.

Film on Paper presents … the movie poster for THE WARRIORS.

Director: Walter Hill
Genre(s) of Film: Action | Crime | Adventure
Origin of Poster: USA
Year of Poster: 1979
Designer: Unknown
Artist: David Jarvis

Signalnoise in association with Film on Paper brings you Movie Poster Monday. We will be showcasing a movie poster to start every week, so be sure to check out future posts for some great art from cinema’s past.

So here’s the thing. I’m a Canadian boy and, growing up back in the 80s and 90s I was a die hard Toronto Blue Jays fan. From the classic line-up of Bell, Gruber and Moseby right up until they won back-to-back World Series’ in ’92 and ’93, I was cheering for my Jays. And you know what a big part of that was? The logo which they’ve used since ’77.

But in the late ’90s it seemed the norm to “re-brand” sports teams like nuts. It drove me crazy because so many of the classic logos were perfectly sound without need of a re-design AND all sports team logos started looking the same. Some kind of angry animal or whatever busting through a wall. No respect for the legacy of the team … just something the marketing people would say “looks cool”. Screw you.

My Jays were no different. In ’97 they revised the classic logo which made the Jay look over-weight, like he ate too many of them ballpark franks after the World Series wins. Then in 2003 … geez, I have no idea. A blue jay getting friendly with the Texas Rangers? A maple leaf tattoo on his “bicep”? Ugh.

And then in 2004, full-on generic angry blue jay logo complete with the beveled “Jays” hunk o’ turd. Zero reference to 27 years of the club’s history. Looks like every other logo across 3 sports in North America. Being a longtime fan and a designer, this was a disappointing reveal when it happened.

In all honesty, I lost track of my Jays in 2004 mostly because the identity of the team, to me, was totally stripped. The team I had loved was gone and replaced by … well, these guys. Yes, I understand players come and go as time goes on, but there was NOTHING familiar to me anymore. They even had black uniforms. Black uniforms on a team with BLUE in the name.

Why am I going on this tangent? To offer a nice contrast to what happened last week. The Toronto Blue Jays unveiled their new logo and uniforms and when I clicked the link to see, 7-year-old James cheered his ass off. After 14 years of seeing that other team playing the part of my Blue Jays, I was thrilled to see my guys come back. Kind of teared up, I’m sure you can see why.

There’s going to be people whining about the new type, or line thickness, or colours, or that face that they think the Blue Jays suck, but I don’t care. Keep it to yourself.

To whomever was in charge of pulling off the Blue Jays new identity, a huge high-five on this one. You brought them right back to when every kid in Canada was a Jays fan. Simplicity and respect will always win.

Here is a lovely Tinker Toys package redesign by Kelly Abeln. I like seeing re-imaginings of classic toys and games just to see how the brand could possibly be taken in different directions. But this one really hit home. Kelly’s design is fresh, fun and functional with the little diagrams of pieces.

But best of all, the design was obviously treated with respect to the product. No flashy light beams or attempts to “hip up” a classic toy (which seems to be the norm these days). Just a nice, strong design. A proud design. These are Tinker Toys, not Dora or … Pokemon, or whatever kids are into. This toy is older than all of us, and it’s proud of that. Kelly’s redesign speaks on that level.

I posted the original Tinker Toys can here as well, which I believe is the one I had as a kid. I love the comparison of the old to Kelly’s. Certain harmony there. I dig it.

PS. I remember that can being super hard to open when I was 5. Had to get dad to open it all the time.

Some beautiful and elegant logos plucked from this MCM Logos Flickr set. In the words of the person who compiled these:

“Logos from the from the 1950s to early 1970s excavated from various design publications. Check back, I’m always adding to the collection.”

Keep learning from the masters, man. So much great decisions in there. Check out the entire collection, you won’t be sorry. And thanks to the always awesome Veerle Pieters for the heads up on these.