VCUarts Communication Arts Posters

Below are a few posters I designed to promote our department.

The first one's point of departure was sending posters with statements about art by our faculty to high schools around the country. High school art teachers are lacking in resources, so I thought that this would be well received since art/design schools typically send poster advertisements for their respective schools. The funding isn't possible for a massive campaign so we are going to distribute them internally. 

The next image is a statement by faculty TyRuben Ellingson's father, William J Ellingson. The image is by TyRuben Ellingson, a concept artist who has recently worked on Elysium and Pacific Rim. 

The third is a typographic experiment with our mission statement. Its a work in progress. We are encouraging faculty to also try their hand at doing a mission statement poster. The type is collaged from scanned photo-copies that were distorted by moving the type as it was being scanned.

New work: Guest Speaker, Stephen R Bissette Poster

I was lucky enough to do this poster for VCU's guest speaker, the award winning comic artist/writer, Stephen Bissette!

Guest Speaker, The Award Winning Comic Artist and Writer,
Stephen R. Bissette

FREE and open to the pubic
7PM, Monday Oct 14
at Grace St Theater
934 W Grace Street

Bio
Stephen R. Bissette won many industry awards as cartoonist, writer, editor, and publisher. A pioneer graduate of the Joe Kubert School of Cartoon & Graphic Art, he currently teaches at the Center for Cartoon Studies and is renowned for Saga of the Swamp Thing, Taboo (from which From Hell, Lost Girls, and Throat Sprockets came), '1963,' Tyrant, co-creating John Constantine (inspiring the film Constantine), and creating the world's second 24- Hour Comic, invented by Scott McCloud as a challenge for Bissette. He illustrates books and has authored fiction (including the Stoker Award-winning Aliens: Tribes) and non-fiction (co-authoring Comic Book Rebels, The Monster Book: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and solo articles/essays for books and magazines). His papers reside in HUIE Library’s Special Collections, Henderson State University in Arkadelphia, Arkansas. He recently contributed the short story “Copper” to The New Dead (St. Martin’s Press, 2010), co-authored The Prince of Stories: The Many Worlds of Neil Gaiman (with Christopher Golden and Hank Wagnert; St. Martin’s Press, 2008), illustrated The Vermont Monster Guide (University Press of New England, 2009), and is currently packaging and co-editing (with Tim Stout) Tales of the Uncanny: A Naut Comics History, Volume 1 and completing the art instructional book S. R. Bissette’s How to Make a Monster (Watson-Guptill/Ten Speed). Visit his weekly blog at http://srbissette.com.

Website/daily blog:
http://www.srbissette.com

archival site:
http://www.comicon.com/bissette

archived 2005-2008 daily blog:
www.srbissette.com/theblog.html

Special Collection at Henderson State University:
http://www.hsu.edu/bissette/

Green Mountain Cinema:
http://www.blackcoatpress.com/greenmountaincinema1.htm

New Work: Circle Takes the Square Poster

Just finished this Circle Takes the Square poster to be screen-printed by Nick Crider. I attempted to simulate the paper texture digitally.

Circle Takes the Square, B Dolan and The Blue LetterThe show is scheduled Nov 5th at Gallery5 200 W Marshall St Richmond, VA. $8 in advance $12 at the door.

NEW WORK: SHHO Poster

One of my former students commissioned me to design the for SHHO, The Student Hip Hop Organization. More about SHHO can be found here.

CultureWorks Playing Cards

Click to enlarge.

This piece was designed to emulate playing cards. The cards will be used by juggler and magician Jonathan Austin to promote Richmond's CultureWorks. The concept behind the piece was to utilize Austin's card tricks as a point of departure to promote the arts non-profit.

Class Illustrator Portrait Demo

My students and I were amused by this illustrator portrait demo I did. As soon as I added the type the entire class erupted in laughter.

New Work: IWW image redesign and Vegan Action ad

I was asked to redesign this image for shirts - which was done using various halftones (not featured above). During this process, we decided to change the bottom cat to a tabby instead of a plain white cat.


Ad for Vegan Action.

All images can be enlarged by clicking them.

Richmond GMB IWW Stamps and Website Design

These are intended as collectable stamps to help fund raise for the Richmond General Membership Branch (GMB) of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW).


Basic layout and foundations of the code are finished for the Richmond GMB of the IWW. Once the site is applied to a CMS I will post the link.

Papier Mâchete opens in January

Poster design front and back by Bizhan Khodabandeh

The back side of the poster has instructions on how to fold it into an origami Mâchete.

Papier-Mâchete: A national competition for artists creating work using paper.

Presented By
XACTO
Plaza Artist Materials
Gallery5

For thousands of years, paper as been one of the most common surfaces for making art. Paper is a universal language in art that has spanned almost all periods and movements in art. Not only has paper been used as a surface for making art, it is also used as a medium in itself. Papier-Mâchete will explore the limitless range found in these ubiquitous materials. Artists from across the nation will submit their works to compete for cash prizes. 2D and 3D artwork will be accepted and will display innovative and inventive uses of paper and associated fibers.

Artwork has been submitted from artists nationally and selected by our jurors Richard Waller, Aaron McIntosh and Amie Oliver.

Opening Reception
First Friday January 7th at 7PM - 10:30PM

Selected works on display from January 7th - February 18th 2011


Featuring work by
Sher Christopher
Jessica Heikes
Marc Leone
Ginger Metzger
Alysson Ross
Sara Schneckloth
Matthew Shlian
This Is It Collective
Carey Voss

For more info visit Gallery5's website.

New Work: Listening Room and Lemuria

Poster by Bizhan Khodabandeh for the Listening Room




Illustration by Bizhan Khodabandeh for the listening room. Ran out of time for this one, but I thought I would post the finished version anyways.


Lemuria poster by Bizhan Khodabandeh

Where is the new work?

I have been doing a lot of work with Helium Studios. Chris Hull creates a positive work environment and I have been fortunate enough to be with some great co-workers.

Anyways, most of the work I have been doing ends up changing - since I am only part-time - or is a mock up that clients may or may not want the public to see. As a result, I don't have much to show from this job. However, I have been fortunate enough to participate in some interesting projects as well as learn a lot about developing better user interfaces. My education has encouraged me to hold off on my website redesign and invest some extra time fine tuning it.

I have some more illustration intensive stuff to post shortly. Some of which can be seen in my blog about the sculpture class I am taking for my teaching certification.

Poster4Tomorrow Posters Released

Poster4Tomorrow.org released their choices for the top 100 posters discussing the topic of free speech. All of the posters are all copyleft and free for you to download and print out to your hearts desire. So post these beautiful and inspirational images up!

Richmond's very own Noah Scalin of Another Limited Rebellion made the cut!

New Work: ARGS Dance logo design

I was commissioned to redesign the ARGS Dance logo. The criteria was to utilize an androgynous figure that doesn't imply a specific type of dance and exhibits movement. I began with various reference photos of the dance students that focused on movement via long exposures. Above is the first - somewhat working - manifestation of the logo. Garamond seemed like the best typeface to compliment the figures. It has serifs that are reminiscent of a human being's arched foot.

Since the logo's quality at smaller scales would probably be mediocre - due to a loss of detail - I chose to isolate one of the figures.


After speaking with some of the dance students; I began to redraw the chosen figure multiple times. Their main concern was that the figure was just "a little too abstract." Above exhibits a progression from abstraction to a more satisfactory version (I spared you the multiple versions and narrowed them down to three).


This is the close to final version of the logo. I am currently working with the legs by implementing alternate poses and directional strokes. The type is also being reconsidered in placement and image to type ratio. The above version might stay the same or change slightly. Any changes will appear on this blog.

New work In progress....

Carnival of 5 Fires festival poster still in the works. Just waiting for the go ahead . . .


Snack Truck show poster completed in a record time of 30 minutes!

(blank)LAB does it up!

Bellow is an update for (blank)LAB, a very fascinating design project, that was birthed by Project M. The unofficial update comes from my friend Marc Obrien, whom is now on tour. If you are in the area stop by and say hello for me!

Well, another chapter of my life ends and another one begins. By the time you read this, I'll be heading out of Richmond again. A few months ago, I was a part of a design collective called Project M. During the month of June, we collaborated to produce a mobile design studio called (blank)LAB. In a nutshell, (blank)LAB is a bare bones mobile studio bringing designers and communities together. Building on the idea of Pie Lab, which was created by the Spring 2009 M team as an open forum for neighbors to have informal discussions over a slice of pie, the (blank)LAB's goal is to engage the communities it visits in creative collaboration. The conversations that occur when disparate groups interact, possibly for the first time, will be the catalyst for design projects that will foster positive change.

After receiving various grants and awards for purchasing a truck, trailer, and other miscellaneous equipment to finish (blank)LAB, Project M is ready to put this thing on the road. I was asked to drive/haul this thing along with a fellow Project M'er around the country for 5 weeks while participating in a number of design conferences. We will be going to:

10/2-4, Providence, RI
A Better World by Design


10/8-11, Memphis, TN
AIGA Make/Think


11/4-7, St. Louis, MO
Economies: Art+Architecture


We might even schedule a few stops in between the above conferences.

If you would like to keep track of our travels & happenings, be sure to check out and bookmark the links below.
(blank)LAB website: http://www.blanklab.org/
(blank)LAB blog : http://blanklab.org/blog/
(blank)LAB twitter : http://twitter.com/blankLAB
My twitter feed : http://twitter.com/think5577

So what's after St. Louis? Who knows. I'll drive (blank)LAB to San Fransisco or Alabama to drop it off. After that, who knows... the sky is the limit! There is no telling what will happen during the next 5 weeks. I'm certain this experience will open new avenues for me and my future in the field of socially conscience/community-based design.

"Proceed & be bold." - S. Mockbee

Thank You.

If Obama is the Joker...who gets to be Batman?

 

Over the past couple weeks, a lot of controversy has been documented in regards to a banner of President Obama as the Joker from the film, Dark Knight. I thought this would be a good time to talk about semiotics.

If you have already seen the image you know that the it normally
has 4 elements.

1.) The President of the United States.
2.) The Time Magazine Red Border.
3.) The word "socialism."
4.) The digitally painted make-up of the Joker.

The Joker and the word socialism - which really should have been typeset "socialist" - have no direct relationship or add to a thoughtful attack on President Barack H. Obama. No doubt, the person utilizing the image, probably thought it was a good way to present the President as an evil trickster. However, the Joker is not a socialist. The Joker's character was thoughtfully developed as a nihilist whom comments on the "arbitrary nature of morality in contemporary society." Not only is this a bad metaphor, but it is also an inaccurate label for the President's economic policies.

Implying that the President is a socialist, is an insult to socialists everywhere. However, I would rather avoid this discussion and stick to the semiotics of posters - which brings me to discuss Shepard Fairey's addition to Obama's election campaign.

Shepard Fairey is known for creating communist propaganda derived imagery. Therefore, if the Obama's Presidential Campaign wanted to avoid accusations that he was a socialist; perhaps they shouldn't have publicly thanked Shepard Fairey for his contribution. I am making this comment, even though I am aware that communist propaganda visuals have been utilized for many unrelated things. However, it is still probably a bad idea for a designer to utilize communist derived imagery for a politician in the United States - even though the process resulted in a very attractive poster.

Note: Communism has a socialist transition period as part of it's realization.

Furthermore, the Obama as Joker image was never intended to be utilized in this manor. It was actually produced by a history student, Firas Alkhateeb, attending the University of Illinois, whom was following a tutorial on how to "Jokerize" any photo. Alkhateeb's image was then taken from his flickr account and turned into a political statement by adding the word "socialism" on the bottom. More info on the student and his thoughts about responses to the image can be found here.

On a less serious note...if President Obama is the Joker, than who get's to be Batman? the past republican candidates whom ran against him? or one of the current targets of US aggression? I mad this quick (Very quick. Please do not judge.) visual response.

Note: I do not support President Barack Hussein Obama or President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

"Freedom On The Fence" a Documentary on Polish Poster Art

Freedom on the Fence - Trailer from Xavier Encinas on Vimeo.

Freedom on the Fence, a documentary film about the history of Polish posters and their significance to the social, political and cultural life of Poland by Andrea Marks, an associate professor at the Oregon University.

Carnival Poster Finished!

I designed this poster to promote Gallery5's opening reception for the Carnival Of 5 Fires. The actual 3-day festival will be held on Halloween weekend. More info about the event can be found here.

The Smoking Plant

Ad agency Fischer and ditial agency PIX, documented an installation “The Smoking Plant.” The installation consisted of 2 separate plants in glass cases placed side by side. One plant function as a control the other was exposed to cigarette smoke. The whole experiment was available live on the Internet the past 2 weeks, with results shown in the video above.

New work...

Finished guitar lessons flier designed to reference the popular guitar simulation game.




Two of five "freak show" banners, designed to compliment Amanda Robinson's sculptures, for Gallery5's "Carnival of 5 Fires." They are purposely made cheesy and not to reflect the sculptures. The final manifestation of the images will be on printed canvas with some sort of aging technique. Images of the banners with completed sculptures will be posted within the next month.