OCTOBER 29 , 2011 • MORE GOOD STUFF

I keep realizing much too late that I haven't kept up with this site. Too much happens between posts but I'll try to give a bit of an update. One of the bigger things going on lately is the Tony Hawk Foundation's charity event in Beverly Hills, Stand Up For Skateparks. I am honored to get to work with such a great foundation and to get to go to this great event every year. This year there was the usual ho hum line-up of the best skateboarders the planet has ever seen...Tony Hawk, Shaun White, Bucky Lasek, Andy Mac, and more plus the legendary Mat Hoffman and his bike. Then top it all off with a special live performance by one of my favorite bands, The Black Keys. Such a cool afternoon and over $750k was raised to build skateparks in low income areas. Oh, and we auctioned off a car that I got to help design with Galpin Motors and DUB Magazine. Fun stuff. Let's see, what else. I'm currently working with on a little freelance project with Wiley Publishing designing a book cover or two. More on that one later. Looks like our project with the New York Jets and Giants is going to be picked up by the entire NFL. Kind of excited about that. Also been working with one of the best blues guitarists on the planet, Nathan James, on some tour posters. Oh, and at the real job, it was just announced that we will be heading up an entire channel on YouTube, launching in mid-January. The channel will be called Ride Channel and will feature the best, funniest, coolest action sports videos and all new programs we can find and create. I'll post the new logo for that next time. Still putting the finishing touches on that. To top it off, been doing some new songwriting. Planning to start some recording soon.

AUGUST 22 , 2011 • MY, HOW TIME FLIES

I haven't posted for awhile and that usually means one thing...busy, busy. Also been on vacation and that's a good thing. Birdhouse Skateboards is out on tour and it was a bit hectic getting everything done for that. You can read all about it here: Birdhouse Tour. • I did manage to squeeze in a couple of freelance jobs. The first one may take you aback for one second, but it's actually for a great new foundation that aims to knock out a very common disease in the next 5 years. Yep folks, I'm talkin' about herpes. According to the folks at Herpes Foundation, with funding, herpes could be eradicated within 5 years and a vaccine could be developed. Sounds like a good thing, so I donated a little time to get them going visually. I designed a series of logos and merch artwork that can be used for different things...all with the same aesthetic. • The other project that is finally seeing the light of day is something I mentioned awhile back. It's a campaign against foul and offensive language at NFL stadiums. Seems that people aren't acting very family friendly when they go out to see their favorite football team and it's keeping families away from the games. I worked with folks at the Meadowlands Stadium to roll out the program at Jets and Giants games this year. I'll post some photos once I get shots of the program in use at the stadium. • Until next time...

JULY 15, 2011 • ROLLIN', ROLLIN', ROLLIN'

Not sure what vibe I must have put out into the world, but I've been picking up freelance work left and right. And, speaking of left, the book cover to my left is a recent project that finally made it onto Amazon.com yesterday. I did the cover and inside layout for The Lord Doesn't Need Glenn Beck's Eyes. It's a short group of essays and it's now out there for sale. Probably not for everyone, but what is?

Next up on the big cavalcade of design is a logo and some design work for a new car dealership that will popping up in Colorado Springs, Colorado this fall. It's called Freedom Honda and I was excited to help them get the show on the road. Freedom got it's name because of Colorado Springs' proximity to a lot of military and we went with the gool ol' red, white and blue theme. Came out great and I'm very happy to be working with these guys. • Also wrapped up the work I was doing with the NY Jets and the NY Giants, but I still can't let that one out of the bag just yet. • Been designing lots of skateboard graphics at work lately and those are hitting the shelves about now. You can check out a lot of them at birdhouseskateboards.com.

JULY 09, 2011 • NYC, VEGAS, and MORE

The good news is that I've been too busy to post an update for awhile. Of course the real job keeps me plenty busy...we've got a big tour coming up soon and our big chairty events for the Tony Hawk Foundation on the horizon. Plus Tony has the first of a series of children's series books coming out soon and a whole slew of other stuff. Gotta keep it real. But on the side, in my other waking hours, I've been working on a project for the New York Jets and the New York Giants that I still can't get into yet, but hopefully soon. We also launched a fun little website for my Uncle's commercial cleaning business in Tulsa and already getting some business from that. Pretty pleased about that. And now I'm working on a logo for a car dealership in Colorado Springs. It's my first car dealer logo and we seem to be steering in the right direction (get it?). Should be able to post something on it soon. Plus, just knocked out a book cover design and, completely separately, picked up another book cover design for a raw vegan restaurant in Chicago that features not only some great food, but the hilarious wisdom of the dishwasher (he's really the owner...shhhh) Bobby. Start on that one sometime soon. And, in the "when it rains it pours" category, looks like one more project from New York could be on the horizon...we'll see. It goes to show you that you never know where the next project is coming from.

New York City was a blast. Went there with Mr. Hawk and Derek, the VP of Birdhouse, to judge a marketing contest that we helped sponsor through Birdhouse Skateboards. The yearly event was created by an agency in NYC called WWD&S and was held on Coney Island at the world famous Cha Cha's bar. The winner brought home the big bucks and a ton of swag. A good time was had by all. Went to dinner the night before at Blue Ribbon and had my first experience with bone marrow served right out of the bone. Hey, when in Rome, right? Have to admit it was pretty tasty spread on toast. Had some other amazing food and then hit up a bar called Home Sweet Home that featured taxidermy as the decor. A raccoon with a fish in it's mouth. Birds. Other wildlife. Also ate at an infamous little spot that Tony knew of called Shopsin's. We didn't get kicked out, so that's a victory, and the food was great. In 2004, one of my favorite illustrators, Matt Mahurin, made a documentary about Shopsin's and it's eccentric, opinionated owner called I Like Killing Flies. The film was a Sundance favorite. Shopsin's has since closed and now reopened in a new, very small location. And the food is still great.

The week prior to all that, I headed to Las Vegas for the Licensing Expo, which is fun and weird all at the same time. People walking around in Pikachu and Mr. Bean costumes, huge tradeshow booths for the latest Disney properties, girls in scantily clad outfits selling...uh, I'm not sure really...and lots of people that make bad art trying to get big companies to license their designs. We made up a new game based on watching some of the people walk by. The game is called "Outfit or Costume?" Trust me, there are no winners in this game.

JUNE 14, 2011 • VIVA LAS VEGAS

Headed to Las Vegas tomorrow. Trying to figure out how many times I've been there...too many to count. My parents took me there for the first time when I was a little kid, driving across the country in a station wagon, heading to the Grand Canyon and Disneyland and more. On our way we spotted a billboard that said Elvis was going to be at the Hilton while we were there. My sister and I begged and pleaded to go and my dad made some calls and the next thing you know we're at the dinner show watching the King. I remember that it was super expensive at the time, which was $35 a ticket. I think my dad said if we saw Elvis we wouldn't be able to go to Knotts Berry Farm or something like that. Choices. Even back then. I think we made the right one. So this time I'm headed there for the Licensing Tradeshow and Expo, which can be fun sort of. Weird characters walking around in costumes, strange guys with pony tails who draw only mildy humorous characters trying to score that big licensing deal with Nickelodeon. My favorite is the Mattel booth with the giant Matchbox logo made out of thousands of actual Matchbox cars. It's always interesting.

MAY 31, 2011 • DREAM GUITAR: NOW PLAYING

This was a really cool project that just sort of fell into place and is finally done. I have alway loved Fender Telecasters. I've owned MANY of them over the years and I currently own three. Just something about them...timeless, perfect design that hasn't changed since 1948. In the late'60s, Fender introduced the "Thinline" Telecaster, with the semi-hollowbody and F-hole. My favorite electric guitar I ever owned was a 1971 black Thinline...in fact, the singer from Los Lobos wanted to buy it from me. But that one is long gone. Now, my favorite color of Fender guitars has always been the Daphne Blue and Sonic Blue custom colors. Not a ton of them out there over the years...at least compared to the standard sunburst and black and red and whatever. Okay, so this past winter I went to the NAMM tradeshow where they have all the musical instrument companies and parts distributors, etc. It was the last day of the show and I walked past a booth that was a company that manufactures guitar bodies for some of the big guitar companies. They had this Daphne Blue Thinline Telecaster body sitting on a table and I immediately spied it. I asked if they might be willing to sell it and the guy said, "Sure, I don't want to have to take it back on the plane...how about $60?" No way...$60? I looked it up later and discovered that, if I custom ordered this same exact body, painted Daphne Blue, with cream binding and F-hole, it would cost $540. So...$60? Heck yeah. I bought the body and kept it on the table, staring at me so I wouldn't forget it. I kept my eye on CraigsList and found a 2004 Fender Telecaster for $300. I took the neck off and also scavenged the pickups and controls. Then I sold the rest body on eBay for $120. I custom ordered a cream colored pickguard and knobs and a new Wilkinson bridge and started bolting it together. If I were to buy a neck and hardware and pickups they would cost me well over $300. I figure if I decided to order all the parts from scratch this guitar would have cost me $1000 pretty easily. As it sits, all together with final wiring and setup by my friend Rob, I've got just over $300 in it. For a custom guitar. And it sounds fantastic. I got lucky with some good sounding stock pickups and my budget version of a custom instrument is really making me smile right now. My favorite guitar model in my favorite color and it sounds great. Good times.

MAY 23, 2011 • SOMETIMES THINGS CHANGE

Sometimes things just change and there is nothing you can do about it. Take for instance the logo at your left. Birdhouse Skateboards has a big tour coming up late this summer that culminates in a big event in New York. I worked up this logo for the tour and then...poof...today we changed the name of the tour. Nothing you can do. Sometimes that's just how it goes. Back to the drawing board. You just can't be too precious about this stuff. But I thought this version deserved to see the light of day, if only in this little blog-a-thon.

MAY 22, 2011 • BIKES, BEER AND BARF

It's been awhile, but a lot has been going on, including a lot of barfing...both me and my son. He got it first, then on Friday night, after an awesome night at the Roland Sands Designs open house extravaganza, I drove back from L.A. and barely made it in the house before it was my turn. Spent most of the day Saturday in bed and finally felt recovered enough today to eat real food and hang out with humans. The RSD open house was a great time...lots and lots of Roland's custom motorcycles on display at his new offices, custom workshop and retail outlet. Everything about the place is custom and well designed and Roland, along with branding guru and designer extraordinaire Roger Sgarbossa get big buckets of kudos on a job well done. I got a sneak peek at some of the new motorbike jackets and boots they are working on and I'm going to start saving my pennies for couple of items. Some cool rat trucks and quarter million dollar ferraris on display as well, plus music by The Signal Hillbillies and Black Cowboy. Good times...right up until the vomiting.

MAY 19, 2011 • FIT AS A FIDDLE

If I were really going to get in shape...and who says I'm not...I'd head towards San Diego and put myself in the hands of Jason Bell (not literally you idiots). Jason's got probably like 2% body fat at most and the rest of his weight is in dreadlocks. Pure vegan too. Healthier than I'll ever hope to be. Anyway, Jason's business needed an update, so we kept the original company colors and came up with this stylish new B Cubed Fitness logo. Now not only are his customers looking better, so is the company ID. So, if you want a really nice guy to kick your ass, give Jason at B Cubed a ring.

MAY 15, 2011 • WEEKEND OF GOODNESS

Had a darn good weekend...hope you did too. Headed out the door from work on Friday eve and headed over with Seth to Iron Fist Brewery, which is conveniently located very near Tony Hawk world headquarters. Iron Fist is one of the many "nano-breweries" popping up in North County and it's already winning awards. Good stuff. Seth is teaching me about this stuff after years of resistance. On Saturday, Tony Hawk, just days after his 43rd birthday, pulled off a beauty of a 900 in Sweden. Hung out with my good friend and one of my favorite artists, Mr. Randy Laybourne. And, always the highlight, went out and hit all the favorite thrift stores. This weekend's haul included a small congo drum (not for Widespread Panic drum circles), an old photo portrait of a child I plan to do some folk art on, a baseball glove for Stella, a book for Milo that I read when I was exactly his age, and seen pictured to the left, a heavy-ass concrete garden statue of a miner or something. He has a pipe and a napsack. The folks at Estate Sale Warehouse, where we got him, had another one just like him with a different paint scheme, and they said they called them Darrell and Other Darrell. We could only afford one, so we bought Other Darrell. I practically gave myself a hernia lugging him to the backyard. For now it's back to the three weekend freelance jobs before the finale of Survivor. Yep, my kids got way into Survivor and so tonight is a big deal for them. We're rooting for Boston Rob.

MAY 11, 2011 • SPROCKETS, SPROCKETS

Today we got our hands on the German Edition of the new Tony Hawk business biography that I designed the original cover for and much of the rest of the book. However, those darn Germans decided to change the name of the book (the translation just doesn't match) and use different fonts and change the layout and I can't say I'm too happy about it. Unfortunately I didn't get to see it before it went to press or we could have fixed it.

MAY 10, 2011 • BIRDHOUSE LOGO SKATEBOARD DESIGNS

I may not be the world's best illustrator, though I have done some editorial illustrations in the past. But I do love to work with color and design and logo art. Here is the latest group of Birdhouse team logo boards. You can see them bigger here.

MAY 09, 2011 • ARE YOU READY FOR SOME FOOTBALL?

Picked up a little new freelance work today that I can't really say much about, but it involves the NFL. Now I do love me some football, so I'm pretty happy to get a little somethin' somethin' to work on from that world. More on it later.

MAY 08, 2011 • THE SHIRT RIGHT OFF MY BACK - SORT OF

I just did a little refinement of the Contusion logo and so I am celebrating by posting all new tees and sweatshirts. Or hoodies. Whatever you want to call them. Here are a few...

MAY 07, 2011 • CUSTOM BADASS '78 DISTORTION

I don't buy a ton of guitar pedals, but when I find one I like, it's stuck with me for years. Sometimes a pedal gets you attention just from the cool name. I actually built a whole website to pay homage to the old Locobox pedals from the '70s just because there was nothing on the internet about them. A few years ago I discovered a tremolo pedal called the Swamp Thang. I love the name, but the pedal sounds even better. Now I'm enamored with a new pedal from MXR called the Custom Badass '78 Distortion. Great name. Sounds good so far. Gonna have to get one...unless you want to send one to me. Let me know.

APRIL 29, 2011 • BEND, OREGON - DAY 2: ME AGAIN, MORE SNOW, HANGIN'

My chaperone Chris and I slept in as late as we could and then headed over to Oregon State University-Cascades for the second of my little talks. Thanks to David Knuff for bringing me in and for that tasty pizza. Had a great time talking to the gang and another great round of follow-up questions. Headed out on a covert mission with Chris and then we made our way over the Trader Joe's to stock up for the evening. Had the amazing Dana Mac come hang out with us again at Chris and his wife Tanya's super amazing house in Sisters. So much hospitality it's hard to explain...just miss those guys a lot. My friends Kris and Dave came by as well and we cooked up some sausages and grub and Dana brought a couple of growlers from Boneyard Beer, which he also does design work for. Great stuff. Darn tasty. I had so much fun and really recharged my batteries. And got to talk about design. Can't beat it. Except for the 6:00 AM flight the next morning back to San Diego. Thanks Bend!

APRIL 28, 2011 • BEND, OREGON - DAY 1: SNOW, BURGERS, ME, BEER

Just finished speaking to the organization known as AdFed...the Advertising Federation of Central Oregon. Had a blast and met some great folks. Lots of good questions and feedback. Thanks to Linda Orcelletto for running the show and Dana MacKenzie for suggesting my in the first place. Sold a stack of books and CDs and stuff! Also met designer Tony Santopolo who couldn't have been nicer and a good designer as well. Gonna take you up on that beer next time I'm up there. My chaperone Chris Rockwood and my daughter Josie and I hit Sidelines up afterwards for some grub...specifically the Heart Attack burger. Holy moly. Headed out later to paint the town...beers at Tumalo Tavern, upstairs at Velvet, over to Blacksmith for more drinks of many kinds and some tasty food, then on to Bend's famous dive bar, The D & D. Gotta love a bar that showcases it's greasy grill right when you walk in the door. More to come tomorrow.