JUNE 2025

Have I Ever Mentioned That I Really Like Guitars?

If you know me at all, you know how much I love guitars. Everyone has their thing…cats, kung fu, hot rods, quilting, baseball cards. Mine has always been guitars. So much so, that you’d think I’d be a better guitar player than I am. I don’t suck necessarily and I downplay my skills. But in reality, I should be so much better. I’m okay with that. I always wanted to be good enough to be able to write my own songs and be in a band. And once I was that good, I stopped getting much better. But, what never stopped for me was my love of the instruments and respect I have for them and the people who make them. I love how timeless and traditional a fine guitar is. That’s why I am always SO honored to be part of any guitar brand and work with the people making these musical tools.

So, I thought today I would share a few guitar designs I’ve been a part of. Sometimes I’m shocked that I got to design the headstock logos for these amazing brands. These are instruments that will live long after I’m gone and my tiny little part in their design will maybe be appreciated by someone decades from now. The first headstock logo I did was for M.J. Franks for a throwback design that needed to look like an old Gibson logo, but say “Franks.” Fun to create but mostly a copy of a timeless design. Then came Iris Guitars and I got to do a full branding, from the headstock down to the labels, warranty cards and website. But it’s the headstock that makes my heart skip a beat because often the first thing a player does when they see a guitar is look to see what KIND of guitar it is. And a memorable design makes it instantly recognizable. I really believe we accomplished that with Iris. Unique and traditional. No mistaking what it is. Then along came Mike Franks again, launching a new brand called Cirrus Guitars, named after his beloved Cirrus airplanes. Mike has been a pilot for decades and even flies a guitar to a client now and then. The Cirrus logo looks both classic and modern at the same time, just like the guitars…blending time honored craftsmanship with modern technology and tools. Another success! Adam at Iris Guitars asked if I could design something for his Circle Strings brand as they branched into some electric guitars. Love the way that turned out, and now that logo has been adapted to be used for their store as well. And then I got to help put a logo together for Lyon & Healy, who have been making instruments for well over 100 years. They didn’t have art for their vintage logo, so I got to recreate and update it a bit. Those guitars will be coming out soon.

I’ve also been fortunate to be part of some cool guitars attached to big names. I got to design an entire set of Taylor Guitars using classic Tony Hawk skateboard graphics. Each guitar was auctioned for charity. Last year Iris custom-made a guitar for Americana star Sierra Ferrell. Sarah Ryan hand painted the guitar and I picked out the fretboard inlay of her name. It is now one of Sierra’s favorite stage guitars. And then finally I wanted to mention the new Drew Holcomb signature guitar being produced by Cirrus, based on a Gibson L-00. Again, to me, being part of these guitars is like being part of history. It’s such an honor.

Oh Baloney...

As I have often mentioned, I do a lot of design work for a group of stores on Route 66 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Quite a few months ago, Mary Beth (the owner) mentioned that someone had approached her about wanting to set up a semi-permanent food trailer on one side of her building selling smoked bologna sandwiches. Maybe a few other things too, but mostly smoked bologna sandwiches. And they wanted to make them as inexpensive as they could to give people a break from today’s typical $18 burgers that don’t come with fries. Since I grew up with a mom who loved good fried bologna, I immediately got interested in this project. Maybe a little too much.

I asked Mary Beth if the guy had a name or logo yet. She said no, he was just putting the idea together. I asked her if she would put me in touch with him. That afternoon, I came up with “Baloney Maroney’s Tasty Smoked Baloney Sandwiches & More.” I made a whole branding package, designed t-shirts and hats for both the employees and to sell, and I even made a trailer design (not knowing what the actual trailer looked like). The next day I sent the whole package to this person, and made a pitch for Baloney Maroney’s. Thank goodness he and his wife loved it and the rest is soon to be history. For the last few months, he’s been purchasing and retrofitting a vintage trailer, getting his recipes together, and soon we will see the launch of the one and only Baloney Maroney’s, located on the parking lot of Buck Atom’s Cosmic Curios on Route 66. The other good news is that I get free bologna sandwiches for life. Works for me.

Oxford Pennants

One of my favorite companies out in the world of cool stuff is Oxford Pennants. Created in Buffalo, New York from scratch with no experience in sewing or making pennants, they just made cool stuff and now employ over 50 people right here in the U.S. of A. They make tons of their own great designs, but they also team up with cool bands like Wilco and John Moreland to make branded designs. It seemed like the perfect line of goods to associate with Route 66, so after meeting the owner David Horesh, and putting him together with Mary Beth at Buck’s and Meadow Gold Mack’s, we came up with a small line of felt pennants to get the ball rolling and hopefully build from there as the 100th Anniversary of Route 66 is less than a year away. Here are the first designs. Get them at www.meadowgoldmack.com

Sammy the Sloth

I have an Instagram account called @stuffongoodwill where I post cool items that I find listed for auction on the ShopGoodwill national website. I mostly post guitar-related items, but about once a month I post something Star Wars related and purposely call it something else just to have fun with the hardcore Star Wars fans that can’t take a joke. I know. I should have better things to do. But now most of the followers are in on the joke and enjoy trolling the new followers along with me. It’s become a thing. Often I’ll find something related to Chewbacca and call it Harry and the Hendersons. Or say it’s from Star Trek. People get weird. So, not long ago I posted a cool Jabba the Hut toy and said it was my favorite character growing up… Sammy the Sloth. Mostly there were comments saying how much they loved Sammy too. But a couple of people got really insistent about it. Couldn’t see the joke. So, a couple of days later I mocked up a Sammy the Sloth vintage t-shirt. “That’s not funny!!” I don’t know…it seems funny. Two days later this Sammy the Sloth vintage board game popped up. Finally they gave in. But I think maybe it’s time to bring Sammy back…there are about 1500 new followers since then and I think they need some Sammy the Sloth. “Heeeeeeyyyyyyy Sammy!”

All paintings STILL 50% off!

We sold more paintings again after last month’s big 50% off sale, so we’re keeping it going. Just enter the code FEZ50 at checkout and you’ll get 50% off any of my paintings in my online store. That means the little ones are only $25! This might be a last chance on the paintings…get one now! (please).