Friday, August 24, 2012

New - Andrew Bird Tour Poster


Decided to take a stab at designing a tour poster for Andrew Bird. We went to see his concert last week with some friends (Thanks Annie! Best wedding present ever!) and I was inspired to create some Bird art. I still feel like it's not completely done but hey might as well post while I have the energy to do so. I started off in Photoshop, brought in text from Illustrator and some colored pencil drawings and texture.

Inspired by the song "Sifter"

sound is a wave like a wave on the ocean
moon plays the wave like a violin, pushing and pulling
from shore to shore, biggest melody you never heard before, no

what if i were the night sky? if i were the night sky

it's my lullaby to leave by


Me and the Teacher, tickety tickets, the always gorgeous sun-kissed Tracy, Andrew in his blurry magic

Thursday, August 23, 2012

Old Work - A Texas Howdown


Doesn't this make you jones'n for some beef brisket and baked beans? Designed last March for my sister, the best client there is. Basically she loves anything I do so it makes me want to design anything she wants at any time. Apparently this hoedown is a big deal in Texas, and they take their square dancing quite seriously.

-If you didn't hear I'm playing catch up for the last 6 months of lame blogging. I'm periodically updating with work that I've done and projects that I've completed. Check back often!

Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Old Work: Set Design for Houston's Grand Opera - Opera to Go!

So in the pursuit of trying to be one of those regular blogger types I have decided to go away-s back and then work forward chronologically with old work so that I can catch up on the all the fantastic projects I have worked on in the last year.

Backdrop Image for "The Clever Wife"

When I was contacted by the producers of a traveling children's opera out of Houston I was a tad intimidated by the idea of doing set design, but when I found out they were flat images mounted on portable rectangle boxes well then I couldn't say no. The following images are the sets I created for an opera set in a Chinese town - specifically in a noodle house and Emporer's quarters.

The noodle house - a courtyard shot

 The Emperor's bedroom interior backdrop

This last one was a particular challenge because they needed a solution that could be turned upside down to become a different set. So I made this backdrop "set-ambidextrous" if you will. Viewable right side up and upside down. Here they are side by side with the different views:

Still not sure if it was believable enough... those lanterns don't make great floor lamps :)

Anyways this was a really fun project to work on and Kade from HCO was a great client. When he emailed me this morning asking for me to work on their next one I remembered I had never posted about it and how fun it was. Kinda out of my norm but I still snuck in some definite Ashley-isms to the design. Swirly clouds anyone? He also sent me some production photos and it was fun to see it in action. I just wish I could have seen the background all blown up. That ended up being my favorite piece.

It's odd seeing your stuff a year later and noticing all the things you would do different the next go around. Ah well, live and learn.