Trying to find a rhyme

Hello,

Once again things have gotten busy and I find myself realizing time has flown by, I ask myself what now? Do I play catch up and write up or just go with the flow, well I chose go with the flow. I recently found myself making a huge overhaul to my site OneBlueBird and where do I begin to talk about that, well its fully coded by me not the best code but it works. The current plan is to finish the site by adding some more exciting elements like a series of animated transitions for moving from section to section. I have also been exploring Augmented realty for the site, those details will have to wait as I don't want to ruin the surprise. Other than those elements the site is pretty close to complete.
Work wise I have been busy with the release of all 5 episodes of Sam & Max: The Devil's Playhouse. Besides that we have also announced at work our partnership with Universal Studios and we are doing Back To The Future and Jurassic Park so that has made things very busy and exciting at work.
Being in San Francisco has put a lot of things in perspective both personally and professionally. Design and interactive design is so much apart of my life and my love at the moment. I get moments of pure excitement when I have an idea for an exciting app or interactive motion design. (Speaking of animation and motion design I have been story boarding a lot lately for site designs and some cool ui ideas at work.)
Besides the excitement I get from design, I have felt a part of my career and my true love of illustration kicking back into full affect with a project I did for The Devil's Playhouse poster series. The posters are fun from the illustration to the full design layout of the typography. The beauty of illustration for me is the prefect harmony between design and illustration, when all the right elements come together from concept and subject matter.
My next post will be the complete collection of The Devil's Playhouse posters I had the pleasure of creating. Till then enjoy the post and the art I created for my website.

Here is to a rhyme to live by.

-Enjoy

March the busy month!

Hello,

So this month has been one busy busy month. I had friends in town had lots of fun going here and there seeing what San Francisco has to offer. Also at the same time launching two of the biggest campaigns Telltale Games has done. We launched all new Merch for Tales of Monkey Island! I got the pleasure to be the Art director and creator for most all the merch. Along with that set of items we launched the big Pre-Order event for Sam & Max: The Devil's Playhouse. I got to Create the look and feel for all the Marketing and Web content plus I got to design the screens for the PS3 version of the game, how cool is that! To top it off I got to Direct and storyboard out the Trailer for the Series Premiere to the world. It is being talked about as one of the Best Telltale has produced, which makes me feel really great. The trailer got play on G4TV, Gamespot, IGN, and basically you name it it made it on somewhere on the web. Oh if you are a PS3 owner go to the PSN and download the HD version.

Anyway here is some great work I produced for this great game. Logo work, Trailer, Key Art, and some Branding.

Enjoy!

Logos and A Game Icon for the First Episode:



Key Art created to help get the vibe and excitement going about the new Series:


Invite for a GDC Party/ Event to Announce Sam & Max: The Devil's Playhouse:

The Trailer for Sam & Max: The Devil's Playhouse

California life

California oh California,

This is an open letter to the life I have started in California specifically San Rafael just outside San Fran. My new career at Telltale Games as their Art Director is going amazing so far I have been handed a great marketing / web group to push in the right direction and my hopes to step up the design look and feel of the company and products. Lots of potential for me to play and invent some great work. Life in California has been really interesting and growing on us. I think this area is full of great things to enjoy but we just need the weather to clear up, as most might know winter in the San Fran area= Grey and cloudy or better described as FOG. I am sure it will get better and the exploration of California can begin. Things on our list of must sees is the beach, red wood forests, shopping/food areas in the heart of San Fran and lastly some fun hiking.

Other then the above mentions of growth, learning and new beginnings, life is grand. Started working out regularly and drawing more. These past 4-5 months have been stressful and a wall for me in terms of creativity but I feel the energy coming back and I am going to start to get lots of content being pumped out and on this site as well as every other place I live on in the "inter-web."

Well I think that is enough social words for today here is to a lot more and I hope to keep feeling this motivated and ready to communicate my work and passions.

Have a wonderful day,
Stephen

I am Back!!

Dear Readers,

I know I know... I am a broken record, but seriously I have a good reason for my lack of posts and disappearance for the past few months. You might ask, "so whats up and where have you been or what have you been up to" and the answer is a lot and now I am ready to share a list of them with you all.

First off the big one was that I got MARRIED :-) in October and little to say that was my life for September through the middle of October. After the Honeymoon I got several amazing job offers and had to do a lot flying from MN to San Francisco for a few weeks. I accepted a great Art Director position for a talented and great Gaming Studio called Telltale Games. I am sure some of you have heard of them, as they are responsible for such great episodic games as Sam & Max and of course their big hit at the moment is the newly redone Lucas Art's Classic Tales of Monkey Island! With that being said I am excited to add my mind and talents to the mix at Telltale.

Well if you have been following my blog over the past years you all might be saying WOW what happened to my Senior position at Ham and the answer is I decided to leave Ham. They were running into several issues that I will not go into too much detail about but they had to lay off several people/friends, as well as cut everyone's salaries and so on. I loved the work I did there a lot but I had a really hard time with that and seeing what was happening to the people I cared about and seeing the economic downward spiral happening there, SOOOOO I took a fulltime contract position with a gaming company called Electrotank as there Senior UI Designer/ 2d Artist. I got to work on some really cool work and will share it down the road once I can, the only thing I can say about it is "ubi" hehe

Now that I am married, moved/settling into California life while starting a seriously cool career path I think it's time to get back to the web and get my word out again.

I hope people will read this once I get back into the swing of things and please post comments or ask me anything you would like and if I can answer them I will.

As an end note I am going to be posting all of our cool wedding stuff I made for the big day.

Take it easy and here is to the future and happiness for both my personal life and career!

Thanks for reading and enjoying my works.

-Stephen

Bands and Family Crests

Hi there,

Recently I finished up some really fun projects for a band and a client's personal family crest. I thought they turned out nice, so I hope ya enjoy!!

These pieces were done for We the Living a small up and coming band. We are still waiting to hear if they will be using them in the future if not I got some cool work out of it.

The band gave me the art direction for the below image from a chemical truck they saw on tour that had a cool chemical symbol with hands and asked if I could take that and come up with something for them. I turned the symbol into a "w" shape for "We" in We the Living. Also made the hands clean and graphic. Even though this idea wasn't mine I think it turned out ok for what they wanted.

Below is an image for some possible clothing for their tours.

This last image was done for a commissioned project. He wanted a family crest because of the work I have done with Family crest in the past. It also turned out fun and something different then my other crests.

Thanks for checking in and I hope to have some more projects up soon!!

Back from Boston

Hello,

Well we made it back from Boston in one piece. It was a fun drive there with lots of stops and visiting with Family and friends. I got to see my main man/Best man which was great. Took lots of pictures which I will post as soon as I can get them off the camera. Got to see my niece for the first time and let me just say it was interesting to see how she didn't like people and it took forever for her to warm up to anyone even her uncle. But hey I got to draw with her and give her a stuffed horse to hug. Other then that the trip was very tiring and as they say "I need a vacation from my vacation". I thought for today I would just post a few recent sketches that I doodled. Keep a look out for pictures, details about the visit and also a huge amount of sketches I want to post.

-enjoy

Here is a sketch I did while sitting in meetings and thought about kids, Mario Brothers (my version looks like an angry hitler) and questioning designer:
Here is a sketch I made in my new travel sketchbook. I hope to start filling this one up soon:

Illustration application

Hello all,

Tomorrow I am off for a week to the East coast to visit Boston, Rhode Island and some other places in between. Before I leave here is some really fun products and illustrations I got to make for HAM's Holiday 2009 gift.

Sign and numbered posters:

Deck of playing cards (HAM's take on its own designer, Creative director and Art Director world influenced deck of cards):

Some illustrating and sketching

Hello,

Well before I head off next week I wanted to try and get in some posts. Today's focus is back on my true passion which is illustration and sketching. For the past five years I have been trying to find my voice as an illustrator and I have to say I am feeling good about where I'm going. Art is like life with its ups and downs like a roller coaster. Feelings of success to feelings of questioning the quality of art you produce. I think I finally figured it out in my mind, I have to see the lines I need to cross and the barriers that I have to jump over. How does one get over these barriers haha well if I had the one right answer I would write a book, I think... The way I have dealt with my barriers is to realize what they are and find ways to climb over them and use them to overcome the next big barrier. I believe that every experience is a stepping stone to the next big challenge. The beauty in life and art is to learn from them and get better. Hope this little insight helps and remember to take a moment to see how a barrier will help you become something stronger for the next task ahead.

Well here is some exploration and pieces that I have done, enjoy.

Sketches for BRIO Magazine (full page spread about teens and eco-friendly choices):
Doodles for fun:

Sketch for a work project:

Illustration for a Technology Magazine about the life and evolution of a hacker:

Test Illustration sample for a Direct TV print and web campaign:

One of a series of Illustrations about San Francisco:

Illustration of the southern cook Paula Deen:

Series of Dog illustrations for a dog book that was recently published:

Part3: What have I been up to?

Evening,

Well I thought I would post some illustration work tonight versus more interactive stuff (interactive will be a later post). My true love is and has always been illustration, some news to announce which is really cool, my work has been featured in both AI-AP Illustration 27 and the 2008 HOW promotional Annual this past year. The interactive poster I made this year, that got me into the HOW Awards Annual, had doors that swing open to reveal artwork under neath the other images also laser die-cut designs as well. It was a huge hit here in Minneapolis and all over the states. Along with this post I redid the branding for HAM with some really fun illustrations in my new breath of style and feeling. Hope you all get a kick out of them.

HAM Holiday Poster 2008:

Also a picture taken from a Poster show. My poster got to hang with fellow artist like James Jean and Tara Mc Pherson. The Show was hosted by College of Design in Arizona.
HAM Branding- Business cards and general illustrations for branding (the tank illustration along with the poster earned a place in AI-AP 27:

I'm Back 2009

Hello to anyone that still reads this blog lol. I'm back and I'm going to try and make this blog alive and updated as regular as possible, starting now.
So where to begin? I have been working and living in Minneapolis, MN for the past year and work for a gaming/interactive agency. Along with that Amanda and I have gotten in engaged a year ago as well. The wedding is planned for 10.10.09 and that will be our 4th year together.

With work, life and freelance things have been busy and hard to keep my mind straight and give this blog the love it needed. Now that I have a grasp on myself and my mind again I thought now is the time to come back to the land of the living.

Projects have been wonderful and fun this year; working on gaming, interactive sites and animation to list a few. Clients like Adult Swim, Cartoon Network, Target, Spam, and San Francisco Chronicle have keep my mind and hands drawing away.

So I thought what better way to kick off this rebirth of sorts with a life changing event, with some of our engagement photos.

Please keep checking back and I hope to win my viewers back!!

Enjoy,
Stephen

Long time no hear

Sorry for the huge delay in posts and probably why people has slowly stopped check this blog out. haha I going to try and start posting cool stuff soon. Look out for sketches, animation, interactive micro sites and a cool-fun-sweet (I hope) project in the coming months. Other then that I have been really side tracked with summer events. My puppy if you can call him that now is so big now he looks like a classic style basset hound now. Well I am off to sketch up some concepts. Take it easy :-)
-Stephen

Ahh Spring Time!!!!

Well its that time of the year!! I love this season and all the fun things that start happening. I love lawn care so I have been getting out there in the yard and edging, mowing and of course getting the flower beds planted with Amanda. Also since we have a puppy and this is his first spring playing with him in the yard makes me soo happy. Its good to have weather like this to get me away from the computer and working and enjoy the beautiful world out there. This spring and summer we plan on traveling a lot and trying to get a lot of fishing in. :-)

Well I am going to take Joxer " The Mighty" my puppy Basset out and play. Here is a cute pic of our little guy.
-Enjoy

Halloween Contest!!

Hey All,

Please submit artwork for this contest. I'm a judge for it. Penelope the creator of http://illustrationfriday.com/
Asked me and a couple other artists to be judges for it. Its a Scary/ fun time of the year and what better way to have fun then making some cool artwork. The rules are sooo simple just make an image that is black and orange. Well there are other rules to it so just visit the site:

http://penelopeillustration.com/projects/halloween2006/index.html

and make something cooooooooo and whatnot. :-)
-peace
Stephen

Spread the Word!!

Hey Everyone,

Scott Hull Associates have Launched the new Dial-In-Style campaign. Spread the word. I am a proud contributor :-) http://www.dial-in-style.com
-peace
Stephen

So here it is the Great News!!

Well, All the paper work has gone through and its offical.
I have a Rep. I have signed with Scott Hull & Associates!!
Currently I am getting all the images together for them to have for the web.
I am soooo excited about my future and my career.

Also some more BIG news I got a call from Warner Brothers and they want to use my art on a TV show as part of the set. Like posters hanging on the walls and whatnot. The Show that will have my work is Studio 60 the new Mathew Perry show.

Well I need to get back to work.
-Peace Stephen

Sorry for the lack of posts.

Hey everyone, I have been so busy lately with work and freelance, and just life haha
I will have some new work to post this week. I am doing another Playgirl Piece for their Review section. I also did an interview for an online Magazine. They gave me three spreads for my work and then a page for my pic and questions/answers. I am also going through a huge deal that will be GREAT for my career, but I will wait to tell everyone about it till all the paper work goes through. Well back to work!! -Peace Stephen

HowDesign.com Featured me!!

"We at HOW magazine were so taken with your site that we have listed it as one of our Web site's "Top 10" sites to see this month."

WOW i am so honored :-) to visit my site go to http://www.onebluebird.com
more work on the way keep checking back.
-peace Stephen

Some news :-)

Hey everyone,

I just got the ok to an agreement to design a site for a clothing boutique. That is going to be a fun job. I also have a ton of illustrations I am currently working on and should post those soon.

Lots of cool things in the pipe line, can't wait to post them.

-peace
Stephen

I'm back!!

Hello everyone I am back. Sorry for the long time between posts. I took a week off last week and had tonz of fun and relaxed. Once I got back I had tons of work and projects pilled up. I have been working like crazy this month and last month. Lots to show. I will post alot of illustrations in the week to come. I am waiting to get thumbs up on them. till then I have another piece I finished for that annual report I have just one left to do then all the illustrations are done and will be placed in the report. I think this will be one amazing piece once its all printed and put together.

Peace,
Stephen

I have been Invited!!

Yours truely just recieved this:

I'm Invited!

By the AIGA/Baltimore to participate as a reviewer in the 2006 Student Portfolio Review. "AIGA is asking for a bit of your time and the students are asking for a lot of your honesty. While we will all benefit from your participation, a student thinking of bringing back comic sans might benefit the most. Interested?"

In two words "Hell Yeah"

haha I feel honored to be asked to be a Reviewer. I remember when I had that moment myself as a student.

I also loved it when a few months ago I was asked to give a talk at MICA to the senior thesis class. I greatly enjoyed speaking about my work and talking to future stars about the field of illustration and the art of promo.

Well I am excited and can't wait to see some great work and talk with people who care about this field as much as I do.

peace,
Stephen