Tailspin Travel and Microsoft

We Bears work with a diverse range of clients. That's always been a given, and something that we celebrate. It's a lot of fun to be able to design a shirt for our favorite band during one month, while the next is being spent providing layout and design for a world-renowned children's hospital. Variety is the spice of life, as they say, and we enjoy our honey as spicy as it can come. Bring it.

To add to the variety, a certain computer company approached us, inviting us to tackle some projects for them. Microsoft Corporation recently hired us to provide design for a little something called Tailspin Travel, which Microsoft describes as ultimately seeking "to provide a holistic perspective of how Visual Studio 2010, .NET Framework 4, and the server platform can be used together". We like to think of it simply as a snazzy travel application that Microsoft presented at PDC 2009, and one that they will soon be featuring on their ASP.NEThomepage. This project was the synthesis of hard work by a number of Bears, including the incredible Mr. Konya, our newest Bear friend, Stephen Knowlton, and myself.

In short, we Bears are pretty stoked to share this with you, and can't wait for you to see the next Microsoft-related project when it debuts in January of 2010.

Read more, HERE and HERE.

Hatching Owls

As part of Crafty Mart two weeks ago, I debuted a new handmade item for sale. These little guys ended up selling so well, that I have made a handful more, and will be selling them in a few venues. Revival will be carrying these, for those in the Akron area. Additionally, we will now have them for sale in Our New Online Store. Go check 'em out HERE!

Storenvy

We wanted to let you know that we are very excited to open a new store with Storenvy. Storevny is a great new social network of stores, and we're happy to make the transition into using their stores.

Please click HERE to visit our store, and if you're a user - follow us!

Akron Crafty Mart!

We are pleased to announce that we will be one of the vendors at Akron's new, annual, Crafty Mart. "The first ever and first annual Crafty Mart will have Handcrafted Accoutrement and Attainable Art made by local, independent artisans. People you know and love, things you need and gifts you want. There will be some food, some drink, some music provided by DJ Moose Malloy and a fabulous venue provided by Musica!" The event is on November 14th, so if you're in the area, be sure and mark your calendars.

Beware of Safety

When a band gives us "children with instruments", "Victorian architecture", and "oak leaves" as sources of visual inspiration for illustration and design, we found ourselves momentarily thrown for a loop. We Bears have a long-standing appreciation of Art Nouveau-influenced organic interweaving within the illustrative work that we do, however, and we can't help but be proud of this fusion of the aforementioned kids, architectural details, and fall foliage. Catch Beware of Safety on tour now and pick up your own copy of this shirt!

Twenty2wo Blog!

Adam Beneke over at Twenty2wo has always done nothing but support the Bears. He's posted about us before, given us the cover spot of their magazine, and is still interested in doing features on our work online. Click HERE to see the recent post about the work that we did for the Dirty Birds and David McGhee. Thanks Adam!

Parting Waves

Here is the cover for Parting Waves, by Clemens. This is one of the few times where I work directly with the band, with them literally sitting next to me. the artwork is comprised of a ton of toy camera photos, either by me or by Niv Tishbi. Tomorrow is the CD Release show, if you live in the Northern Ohio area, come hang out for the evening. It's a Musica, $7. Come pick up a CD, and there will probably be some sort of after party.

Black Bear River CD Release - TONIGHT!

Tonight is the CD release show for David McGhee's "Black Bear River," that we designed a few months ago. Here's a poster I created for the show. When making the artwork for the CD, we thought it would be too obvious to actually include the bear, but with the poster, David was dying to see a bear incorporated into the artwork. And it doesn't take too much convincing for me to use bear imagery.

They, The Undeserving

I just finished up the new sleeves for a limited run of Giants' "They, The Undeserving." The record has been out of print for several months, but the band has an extra 100 un-packaged LP's, so they had me screenprint a run of new sleeves for this limited run. 100 hand-numbered, hand-pulled sleeves. They are all ready to ship out to the label and to the band. There they will hand-insert the records and everything into Plastic Sleeves. Check the Mylene Sheath in the near future to pick up this limited run.

If These Trees Could Talk

Here is the cover of "Above the Earth, Below the Sky" Vinyl Edition, by If These Trees Could Talk. The Vinyl edition is coming out on the long time friend label The Mylene Sheath. The layout is composed of several analog photos that I shot with my Holga. The goal of the photos, and the composition, is to illustrate the ominous landscape setting that is produced by this epic band. As always, the Sheath is dedicated to packaging, and the record will be pressed up on Super High Quality Gloss Stock, and will have a Spot Matte Varnish. And of course, on colored vinyl.

3 Bears at Battle of the Bands

Looking forward to checking out some upcoming talent at The Underground in Cincinnati, Ohio this Saturday, September 19 . I will be on a panel of judges helping decide who will win $10,000 in cash towards making their "rockstar dreams" come true...not too shabby if you ask me?! I also will be judging on October 17th as this is a 6 week competition. Please be sure to check out the event if you're close to the Nati, and stop by our table and chat. Whether you are interested in hiring 3 Bears in the near future or are just a fan, I would love for a chance to meet you. Hope to see you there!

Katie Herzig Fall Tour Merch

Here is a poster that I just completed for Katie Herzig to sell on her fall tour with Brandi Carlile and Over the Rhine. Her band-member Jordan is going to be screen-printing these, as well as a t-shirt version. Also, Jordan's printing company is called 'Prints of Whales,' hilarious.

Updates - New Shirts!

Despite appearing in hibernation for the past several weeks, we have actually been incredibly busy. This labor day break allowed me time to update our website with a bunch of new work, and you can expect to see even more happenings in the near future.

I also have been needing to mention that in the past month, we have worked together with Revivalist to re-print and re-stock a bunch of our t-shirts in our Online Store. We now offer the Ohio Shirt in Girls Sizes and Unisex XS-XL. All shirts are printed on American Apparel 50/50 Heather Plum t-shirts. Get them while it's still summertime. Dave from The Fray seems to love his!

Owl City Apparel

2 of the 4 pieces of Apparel we did for Owl City are now available for Pre-Order on their Online Store!
Click HERE to Pre-Order the Polaroid V-Neck ...and...
Click HERE to Pre-Order the Rainbow Veins Hoodie. With a Graphic on the Sleeve!

The Dirty Birds

Here is the cover for The Dirty Birds' new album "How the Cause Became the Cure." It's going to be packaged up in a 4 Panel Digipak, with a slot inside to hold a 12 page booklet. That's quite a bit of room to stretch some serious imagery across. Our goal was too illustrate the four seasons, (one to each panel) and have them merging together seamlessly. Then the booklet is full of lyrics, and illustrations and watercolor. Be sure and check it out when it comes out on August 8th.