I’ve never spent too much time on a skateboard, aside from a few brief stints in the late 80s (all of which ended in complete and total failure). Geography certainly played a role, as Western New York has never been confused with Southern California as a skateboarding hotbed, but at it’s peak in the 80′s almost every kid in my neighborhood owned a skateboard. I was a year or two behind the curve when it came to the “scene”, but the older kids relentlessly rocked those neon-colored boards up and down my street all summer long.

Recently, I watched Stoked: The Rise and Fall of Gator, a documentary about the roller coaster life of former Vision frontman Mark “Gator” Rogowski. His Vision Gator series was everywhere when I was a kid and almost everyone I knew had one of his signature boards with that distinct spiral pattern on it. It’s amazing how someone can go from so high to so low in such a dramatic fashion, definitely worth watching if you’re at all interested in 80′s subculture.

Watching ‘Stoked’ got me reminiscing about those old board designs and I began scanning the web for imagery from back then, especially the Vision gear which I remember most clearly. Ads, decks, etc., there was just so much that it actually defined skateboarding for a short period.

As Vision grew, they branched out into other sports and started an infamous street wear clothing line. Predictably, once the company became too mainstream and commercialized, the skateboard subculture rejected it. The backlash was quick and lethal to the Vision brand. Some kids were turned off by the corporate image and stopped skating altogether, others went underground, those who still wore Vision gear were simply cast off as sell-outs. Vision became a parody of itself.

It’s a cautionary tale for independent brands whose audience has a distinct counterculture base: don’t alienate your core audience, don’t betray their loyalty and devotion, don’t forget your roots. It seems like simple formula, but the corporate landscape is littered with these kinds of examples.

Vision still exists to this day, but as a mere ghost of its former identity. Just like the once great “Gator” himself, Vision’s heydays have passed them by, the height of their success forever shackled to the decade that originally made them.

Images via Skately.com

At the last minute I was offered a ticket to see Prince perform live in Halifax. Most of my friends were already going and I was on the fence long enough to assume I wouldn’t be going. Really happy that wasn’t the case. I’m familiar with some of Prince’s material, but not nearly enough as I should be. I do like how Prince goes about his work very differently then other musicians, really cares about his craft and it shows. And for what it’s worth, I always liked that symbol of his … great ideas wrapped in there.

His show last night was one of the best I’d ever seen. He makes the standard stage/audience set-up look really lazy. He and his performers danced around his giant logo, lights galore. Amazing spectacle to see. I snapped the photo seen above during the show (which I wasn’t allowed to do), a fluke moment that captured some beautiful colours right when that orange spotlight hit me. Liked it so much, I aped the colours to make a Prince design, seen above.

If you have the chance to see him live, highly recommend it.

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.