Nate Utesch | '81 NTTSCH | Fielding

Missed the #tottenham game today to get this half way there....

Sat, 30 Apr 2011 20:18:33 -0400

Missed the #tottenham game today to get this half way there. #truelove (Taken with instagram)

Weapons of Mass Creation Fest

Thu, 21 Apr 2011 00:24:00 -0400

Can’t wait for this!
via Ferocious Quarterly:

Last year a festival debuted in Cleveland, Ohio. Weapons of Mass Creation. They’ve brought together a community of 20 speakers, 20 bands and 20 designers to set up camp and do their thing over the course of two days. Bands and designers from all over the country and talks on graphic design, art, entrepreneurship, leadership and more.

Via WMCFest.com: WMC Fest is a fest for those who live to create! A weekend community event taking place in the Gordon Square Arts District on Cleveland’s west side. It was founded by Jeff Finley of the Cleveland-based creative agency Go Media. Only in its second year, it’s already generating lots of buzz within the creative community.

We are thrilled to announce that among some truly inspiring names including Mig Reyes (Threadless), Mikey Burton, Aaron Draplin (Draplin Design Co.), Alex Cornell (ISO50) and a whole slew of others, Ferocious Quarterly’s Nate Utesch will be representing among the 20 designers selected for the festival. He’ll be stocked with a handful of limited prints, FQ issues in the plenty, and maybe even a couple surprises.

The best part: we’re giving away 2 sets of tickets to the fest! If you live in or around the Ohio area, know somebody who does, or maybe you just wanna take a road trip, email us at hello@rocious.com and they’re yours! Easy as that.

Learn more about Weapons of Mass Creation Fest at WMCFest.com and be sure and check out all the speakers, bands and designers involved. It’s going to be a tremendous weekend and we’re excited to have Nate in the mix!

My brother got hit by a car on his bike yesterday.

Tue, 19 Apr 2011 12:55:00 -0400

Yesterday evening I received this text from my bro (also an avid commuter ala bicycle in the Fort ‘o Wayne): “Just got hit by a car on my bike. Had my laptop in my bag but I think it’s fine. I’m pretty bruised where the bumper slammed into my shin and dinged up my arm where I hit the ground. Other than that feeling pretty alright. He drove me to get a new bike. A Trek SL 2000.”

Wait, what!?

Unbelievable. We met up later that night and I got to see some of the damages. Sure enough, he’s only a little bruised. Apparently a car turning right on red didn’t slow or yield to my brother coming through the green light. Knocked him off the bike just before running over it—bending the wheel and fork and ripping the derailleur to shreds. The weirdest part of the story was that the “running over” of the bike happened just after the accident itself. According to my bro, the driver of the car seemed to have plenty of time to stop. But instead just kinda creeped up over the bike until it was destroyed. Not maliciously, just almost in a haze. While Bryan (my bro) yelled obscenities at him on the sidelines.

The driver immediately got out of his car, insanely apologetic and offering to take Bryan to a bike shop right away to buy him a new one. I’m assuming he’s counting on Bryan being ok, physically, and thinking he can kinda pay him off now by alleviating the bike loss with a brand new one. Really odd.

Bryan took him up on it.

The first thing Bryan noticed when he got in the car was that everything but the driver’s seat had been removed. The car was stripped down to the metal and plastic. The door shuts. Bryan sees that the passenger door handle is missing.

Surely Bryan is about to die. As he is telling me this story, my heart is racing—knowing he made it out alive—but filling in the gaps in my mind with all sorts of horrendous Ted Bundy nightmares. They arrived at a place I’ve never heard of in Fort Wayne called “The Ol’ Ball and Chain Shop.” Specializing in used sporting goods, airsoft guns, blowguns and accessories, and “tactical gear.” What in the world!?

Now I’m thinking Pulp Fiction—Bruce Willis’ encounter with Zed and the gimp in the basement layer of the pawnshop. Bryan said as soon as they walked in, everybody knew the driver already. He had a $100 bike on hold there and just happened to be on his way to pick it up. But instead shelled out upwards of 500 bones to get Bryan a gently used Trek road bike. Oh yeah, I guess the Ol’ Ball and Chain Shop has refurbished bikes too.

And that was that. They parted ways and Bryan rode his new bike home. Easy as that. But I have a pit in the bottom of my stomach thinking…who the hell was this guy? The whole thing seems like a weird kidnapping operation. Second location is meant for “bike shopping” and final examination of the prey. Bryan failed the test. Or…this dude felt really bad and didn’t’ want to get sued. And just happened to be driving the sketchiest car on the planet.

My buddy, Ving, and I may be visiting Ol’ Ball and Chain this weekend. See if they have any batteries.

Earlier this year I was invited to contribute to the Silver...

Wed, 13 Apr 2011 09:37:00 -0400

Earlier this year I was invited to contribute to the Silver Screen Society. SSS is an ongoing project curated by illustrators, Adam Hanson, Brandon Schaefer and Trevor Basset. They’ve gathered teams of illustrators and designers who are contributing pieces inspired by a different film each month. I’m on April’s roster. Sharing the wealth with the likes of Jordan Gray, Richard Perez, Olimpia Zagnoli, Mitch Blunt, Anton Weflö, Chris Haley, Timo Meyer, Scott Hill and Brandon Schaefer. Quite humbling to say the least.

April’s film is The Third Man, directed by Carol Reed. It’s a 1949 British film noir set in a post-World War II Vienna Austria. When I watched this flick something stood out to me immediately. The score. Viennese folk music played by a single musician on a single instrument. No orchestration. No orchestra. Just one man, Anton Karas, and his zither. Anton would become best known for The Third Man score, and its title track peaked in 1950 at #1 in the international music charts.

So, that was my focus. Anton. And secondly, a quick, geometric drawing of the environment that Reed creates in the film. Which apparently was pretty captivating to the majority of SSS’s April roster because it looks like more than half the team has incorporated some sort of interpretation—ie, the little buildings, streets and ferris wheel from the pinnacle Orson Welles scene.

I’m really happy with how it turned out in the end. And the work from the rest of the April team is just phenomenal. Take a second to visit Silver Screen Society or see all the contributions at a glance here … and make sure to vist ‘em each Wednesday as the rest of the April roster goes live.

Hallelujah for Ray Fenwick.

Mon, 11 Apr 2011 11:15:48 -0400

Hallelujah for Ray Fenwick.

Been full-bearded for going on 9 years. Time for a new season....

Wed, 06 Apr 2011 03:38:41 -0400

Been full-bearded for going on 9 years. Time for a new season. (Taken with instagram)

Love the Huyck. Love the Jean. This is a tremendous...

Mon, 21 Feb 2011 12:54:47 -0500

Love the Huyck. Love the Jean. This is a tremendous collision.

davidhuyck:

Art is James Jean’s Crayon Eater, ink by amazingly talented Shawn Barber. I’ll post again once it has healed up.

Kickstarter gives FQ some props

Tue, 15 Feb 2011 14:09:47 -0500

Kickstarter gives FQ some props:

Very cool.

kickstarter:

Our recent excitement over Frank Chimero’s self-published manifesto The Shape of Design has seemingly ignited some kind of design-based, word-crazy fire! Over the last few weeks, our Recently Launched page has been loaded with beautifully crafted books on all matter of fascinating subjects,…

My goodness. The days of wandering the store for hours, picking...

Mon, 14 Feb 2011 15:10:30 -0500

My goodness. The days of wandering the store for hours, picking out the right box of Valentines. Then locking myself in my room for the rest of the evening—matching up illustrations and clever sayings with all the peeps in my class. Making sure Blair Warner didn’t get one too saucy, but surely ambiguous enough that she just might realize she’d been misinterpreting all the second glances in the four square line.

Side note, Raphael’s face is way creepy. Wait, they all are. Yeah this is gross.

The lady and I are gettin our antique fix. Found a “Billy...

Sat, 12 Feb 2011 16:41:33 -0500

The lady and I are gettin our antique fix. Found a “Billy Baloney” doll. (Taken with instagram)

50 and 50

Thu, 10 Feb 2011 22:20:00 -0500

I recently contributed to a tremendous project curated by Dan Cassaro called “50 and 50.” Fifty designers were invited to represent their home states by illustrating its motto. Each day Dan posts another artist’s contribution. The artists in the 50 and 50 lineup are insane. I am honored to have been able to participate among ‘em all.

I am proudly representing Kentucky. Motto: United we stand. Divided we fall. Why not Indiana? I’ll tell you why.

Some odd number of generations ago a young Iroquois woman fell in love with a pasture-man in the Appalachia state of Kentucky. Fast forward to the War of 1812—US Navy Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry proclaims, “We have met the enemy and they are ours.” Ancestors of the aforementioned couple would stake claim and raise a family in the Perry County town using the Commodore’s namesake. Hazard.
Fast forward to circa 1930. Dick Van Dyke, Gene Hackman and astronaut Joe Tanner are raised in Danville, Illinois. Elsewhere in Danville, a young woman meets the man of her dreams in an assembly line packaging Chuckles candies. She happens to be daughter of the young Iroquois woman through many generations. Fast forward to Danville, Illinois, 1981—son of the Chuckles candy couple and his wife give birth to a boy with two broken legs. Me. I currently live in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

I’ll post my final submission when my contribution goes live on the 50 and 50 site. For now I thought I’d share some in-process drawings and some outtakes that didn’t make it to the final illustration. I learned during the process that Kentucky’s motto may have been inspired by an Aesop Fable called “The Four Oxen and the Lion.” I originally ran with a lot of themes that went that direction. Bagged it in the end. Also bagged a weird image of a cowboy or something. Not sure where that was headed.

Have had the privilege of getting to know Jez via the Ferocious...

Tue, 08 Feb 2011 16:28:33 -0500

Have had the privilege of getting to know Jez via the Ferocious conglomerate and I can say without a doubt, this is going to be outstanding. Truly worth checking out/backing!

woodswoodswoods:

So, this is exciting: I’m designing/art-directing a brand new print magazine about design on the web called The Manual. It’s masterminded by Andy McMillan, edited by Carolyn Wood, and the first issue contains contributions from Frank Chimero, Liz Danzico, Simon Collison, Jon Tan, and the Web Standardistas, not to mention a handful of fine illustrators to be confirmed in the coming months.

The first issue is being funded on Kickstarter, and will be as handsome as humanly possible. Scout’s honour.

Way early sketch of something weird.

Thu, 03 Feb 2011 14:25:00 -0500

Way early sketch of something weird.

“I said, ‘Kiss me, you’re beautiful. These are...

Wed, 02 Feb 2011 08:43:30 -0500

“I said, ‘Kiss me, you’re beautiful. These are truly the last days.’” (Taken with Instagram at #snowpocalypse)

Awesomely dangerous drive home. (Taken with instagram)

Mon, 31 Jan 2011 23:37:26 -0500

Awesomely dangerous drive home. (Taken with instagram)

Whit’s fav meal in the whole world. Happy birfday! (Taken...

Fri, 28 Jan 2011 20:51:49 -0500

Whit’s fav meal in the whole world. Happy birfday! (Taken with Instagram at Barking Dog Cafe)

matttaylordraws: Myself and the other guys at Paperfox Press...

Tue, 25 Jan 2011 08:46:39 -0500

matttaylordraws:

Myself and the other guys at Paperfox Press were invited to contribute some work to the newest issue of Ferocious Quarterly (on sale here). We decided to do four collaborative pieces, splitting the work to a central image and decorative border. This is myself and Robin Boyden’s team up on the theme of Town & Country and my initial sketches for the piece.

You can see a new part of the collaboration each day this week at the Paperfox blog, or by following them on Twitter here. All the pieces shown this week will be on sale in the Paperfox shop here

Scouted for tv spot locations at the Museum of Art today. Found...

Wed, 19 Jan 2011 14:45:12 -0500

Scouted for tv spot locations at the Museum of Art today. Found this little weirdo.

“Play the pipe tones.”

Wed, 19 Jan 2011 08:23:09 -0500

“Play the pipe tones.”

[Ferocious Quarterly] Issue No.2 From the Pressroom. The...

Wed, 19 Jan 2011 00:10:22 -0500

[Ferocious Quarterly] Issue No.2 From the Pressroom. The intoxicating smell of ink and stale cigarettes is pure heaven.