Today I’m finally allowed to spread the word. This evening is The Coast’s Best of Halifax 2009 party where I will be taking home the award for Best Visual Artist here in my hometown of Halifax. Woohoo! The folks over at The Coast even asked me to design the cover for the newest issue promoting the event which hits the stands today. Golden vector madness.

Here are a few iterations of the cover as I progressed along with a shot showing the amount of vectors I had on the go:

I know many of you took the time to throw a vote my way last month, even though you are not from Halifax or anywhere near. I want to send a huge thank-you to each and every one of you for doing that, it really means a lot to me given this award comes straight from my hometown. Thanks for the kind support, everyone. You are all my heroes :)

The Best of Halifax 2009 party is tonight at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia (1723 Hollis Street) starting at 7pm, just print off this invitation to be let in. I’ll be sure to get some photos of the event uploaded as soon as I can.

So lets party, hope to see you there!

Here are some wonderful pieces created by Polish artist Grzegorz Domaradzki, also known as Gabz. Not only does Gabz have an excellent command of illustration, he also known his way around the design world with some lovely typography and color palettes to complement his work. Amazing caliber of discipline with the two sides coming together.

The work here is the tip of the iceberg, swing over to his official site to check out his superb portfolio.

Here are some great uploads found on the Flickr stream of the junkyard.dogs. I don’t know very much about these gems, other then they are European and designed for the most part by Jan Fleischmann back in the early 1980s. Feel free to chime in on the comments if you have any additional information.

Lovely photography and type work, and I love the Lego additions.

Here are a few examples of album covers put out by Decca Records back in the 1950s designed by Erik Nitsche, showcasing a plethora of classical superstars and symphonies. Very interesting to see such abstract design avenues taken to represent the music, Decca and Nitsche were obviously striving for something unique in the genre.

These images were scanned and posted on the Erik Nitsche Flickr stream, along with a goldmine of other historical artifacts created by the design pioneer. Well worth a look.

Renegade Processing guru Robert Hodgin is at it again, posting a few images from his latest coding tangent entitled Moment of Fission. I posted a few images in a previous post about Robert’s work, simply love his use of color, lighting and bursts. And once again, if you are an iTunes user you will know Robert’s work from the wicked visualizer he built.

Check out his personal blog Flight404 as well as his Flickr stream.

I’d like to think that UK-based photographer Iain Crawford is shooting buckets of paint at beautiful models to get these compositions, but whatever his process it’s extremely captivating.

Check out more of Iain’s work on his website and his Behance.

Here are some intensely beautiful illustrations by Sam Weber for the new illustrated edition of William Golding’s Lord of the Flies. Excellent compositions where each one stands alone, just look at the color palette of the first and third. Here’s a little piece written by Weber regarding the project:

“Using contemporary illustration to accompany a much loved classic was an exciting challenge, made more so by the active involvement of the Golding Estate. Lord of The Flies is one of my favourite novels, and in many regards this opportunity was a true dream job.”

These pieces are the tip of the iceberg in terms of Sam’s portfolio. Swing over to Sam Weber’s website for more of his work.

Tomorrow morning I will be departing Halifax with a small group of other hoodlums for a weekend trip to Toronto. We are making the trek for a very important reason: metal. Me and my friends will be seeing some of our favorite bands all on one ticket . . . Mastodon, Dethklok, Converge and High on Fire. The blog cannot contain my excitement for this stellar line-up.

Most metalheads have a top list of bands they need to see at some point in their life, and this weekend will allow me to mark off the third on mine. Check it out:

1. Tool
2. Queens of the Stone Age
3. Mastodon
4. Iron Maiden

I’m going to be giving out so many ’satan fingers’ that my hands will surely be sore by Sunday. And speaking of which, the original version of the graphic above was done by Jon “Bean” Hastings, and I thought it an appropriate addition to this post. Gave me a good laugh.

I’ll be unplugged for the trip, so no email for a couple of days. I will however be mooching off my iPhone pals to update my Twitter as much as I can. So until then, stay heavy.