Here we go. On the list of “cool stuff I hope to do during my career as a designer”, this project lands right at the top, filed under “1. Design a shirt for my favorite metal band”. Enter the heavy as hell, talented Texans known as The Sword.

Back in 2006 or something I came across a link to their Myspace and immediately thought “The Sword, that’s a cool name for a band” and decided to give them a listen. I fired up Iron Swan for the first time, which is a funny introduction to the band’s sound considering the fairly long subdued intro. I was sitting at my desk with headphones on, then the song tore into the heavy and almost took my head clean off. Fan for life, right there. No foolin’. Been listening to the boys consistently ever since, throughout their albums Age of Winters, Gods of the Earth and their most recent space epic Warp Riders.

“Man, I’d love to work with those guys someday.” said James, years ago.

Last February I sit down at my computer and a tweet from the band pops up “Hey, we’re looking for an artist”, or something like that. 20 seconds later I had my website link over to them. 2 minutes later I shot over an email. Suddenly I’m emailing back and forth with the guys in my favorite metal troop, developed a poster that was used on 2 of their tours (Australia and Europe), and now a brand new t-shirt the boys will be having on-hand as they tour with Kyuss Lives this fall. So damn proud.

Shown above is what I created for the guys. Total artistic freedom, they let me run hog wild on this thing and offered some helpful tips along the way. You can definitely hear a vast metal influence in their sound so I wanted this design to be thrown back to the roots of metal … way back, talkin’ Black Sabbath days with a twist of The Sword in there. I used their older logo because it just reeks of old school metal. Love that thing. Shown here are 4 different colorways.

Be sure to check out the tour schedule, and watch for this shirt at their merch table and their online store (I would assume). Also, go listen to them. Now.

Small moral of the story. You never know what will happen when you try and chase down those dream projects. Sometimes it’s just an email away.

Throw this one into the “good people doing good work” file. At the beginning of all my broadcasts you will hear me say something like “Coming at you live from Dartmouth, Nova Scotia.” Well, that’s where I live. We are a rough and tumble little crew holding down the shores of Dartmouth. A proud crew, who may or may not carry switchblades.

Well, allow me to introduce you to the small but mighty Dartmouth Clothing Co. Owned, operated, built, muscled and chiseled by my mohawked pal Eric Miller. He works his ass off on his designs, screen-prints all of these shirts in his basement by hand, then packs and ships everything on his own. This is homegrown, people. This is where it’s at. Brute force Eric. Not to be messed with.

There are 2 reasons why Eric and his Dartmouth Clothing Co. are landing on the blog. First off, Signalnoise supports this guy and what he’s doing. All on his own, just getting it done in 1-color awesomeness. Secondly, Eric and I had a meeting a little while back about a team-up, which I’m really excited about. Dartmouth Clothing Co. vs. Signalnoise. Designs are flowing and I’m excited to see these things on shirts. More details to come, so stay tuned.

In the meantime, swing over to the Dartmouth Clothing Co. website, visit the online store and drop Eric a line on Twitter.

Fun fact: Gottigen is a street here in Halifax, which is why that pistol design is so damn awesome. If you’re from here, you know what I’m talkin’ about.

Here is another design originally intended for a Nike Air t-shirt. This was created around the same time as the previous Los Angeles 1984 design, presumably for the same campaign. Once again, I was tasked with taking a previous illustration Nike had in their archive, and redesigning with a modern flare. This was a fun one, and I had a good time working with the gradients.

Once the job was complete I once again took it upon myself to finish the design with some textures and lighting. I enjoy doing the straight textures but the design really comes to life when those additional details are added.

The specific poster design you see here wasn’t used, just something I did after the fact. I’m not sure where the molecule design itself landed in the campaign, if you see it let me know.

Hey Halifax! I’m happy to announce that you now have easier access to the Signalnoise line of designer t-shirts. All of the designs are now available to purchase over at Strange Adventures comic shop on Sackville Street. If you live here in town, there is no need to order online and pay unnecessary shipping. Just drop into Strange Adventures to check out my wares. Made local by a local.

There is a display set up on the counter, tucked between the toys and comic books, exactly where I pictured my apparel to be in the first place. Big thanks to my buddy (and owner of the shop) Cal for setting all this up.

Black Friday is on, and Signalnoise is no different in offering you some savings over the next few days. All order made today through Monday, November 29th will earn 15% off everything in the Signalnoise Store. This includes all posters, t-shirts and source files. After you fill your cart use the coupon code BLACKFRIDAY to reap the benefits of 15% off. Great for grabbing some Christmas presents.

Additionally, the kind folks over at FITC are offering $150 off a festival ticket for FITC Toronto 2011 happening next May. I’ll be speaking again this year at FITC Toronto 2011 along with a killer line-up of inspiring presenters. If you’re planning on attending, now is the time to grab that festival ticket in their store using the coupon code BLACKFRIDAY.

PS. Highfives to anyone who recognizes my promo graphic reference.

Here is a real treat. My pal Fulton Hawk over at the Salvation Army camp sent me some rough footage of my Blood & Fire t-shirt being printed. I’m a real nerd when it comes to seeing things get made, and this is the first time I’ve seen a screen print process in action on my own stuff. Just look at those arms go.

What I received was some straight ahead footage but I took a few hours this morning to cut it together in an interesting way, added some Signalnoise and Salvation Army branding and grabbed one of the tracks from the Reckless Love album to add that 80s rock flavor that compliments the design. I learned quite a lot by doing this little piece, taking what content I had nearby to make something cool. Just remember, I’m no video guy and certainly not an editor. :)

The Blood & Fire t-shirt is available over at the Wardrobe Army Apparel store, 100% of the proceeds are donated to help the Salvation Army’s work in the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver BC.

Here is the preview of one of the designs I want to include in the next batch of Signalnoise t-shirts, the Scare Bear. As I keep working on these shirt designs and jotting down ideas I keep gravitating toward taking things from my past (toys, movies, video games) and adding some distinct heavy metal elements, and I believe this idea came out of a late-night nerdy conversation with my pal Jerko. I like wearing funny things on my chest, and the combo of retro nerdiness and heavy metal makes me laugh. This design falls in line with my previous Black Metal Busters and Metalego t-shirts.

I’ve been asked by more than a fair share of ladies inquiring when there will be t-shirts catering to the female crowd. Well, I’m going to look into offering some lady-sizes with this design to see if it’s in the cards.

More to come as I move forward, and watch the blog for some more preview as I bang the designs out.

• Cal and his daughter Addison sporting their Strange Adventures garb.

The past week has been pretty quiet on the blog because I was in the midst of moving, but I’m happy to say we are getting settled and the new place is starting to look nice and habitable. That being said, it’s time to get back at the blog and get some updates posted on what has been happening. Here we go.

This past Thursday was my good pal Cal Johnson’s birthday. Cal is the owner of the best comic store in the world, Strange Adventures (Twitter) here in Halifax. His wife Sandy approached me about doing a custom shirt design for Cal and the store, and how could I refuse? After waffling on the idea a bit, I decided to make a design based on the old Batman logo from the 70s, but alter it to feature the store and their mascot, Super Snipe. Here is the original and a shot of the mascot drawn by my pal Dave Howlett:

• Batman logo from the 1970s.

• Super Snipe by Dave Howlett.

A big happy birthday to Cal, and be sure to drop by Strange Adventures to say hello to the gang if you ever visit Halifax. It’s a must-see venue.