MOOD BOARD
Big robots. New comics. A whole lot of inspiration. This week, I’m pulling from the wild, violent world of Force Five for my next project, TIDAL, cracking the code on Clip Studio with some help from a cartooning samurai, and pushing BINARY closer to the finish line. Get a glimpse into where my head is at with the images I’ve snagged this week… 🚀🔥
3x3: Illustrators, Hoopers, and Severance’s Weird-Ass Offices
I like information in clusters of three. I’m a generalist by nature, so this helps me dig into the stuff I’m thinking about and frame it. It could be brand design, NBA fashion, or the latest comics creators. Whatever’s rattling around in my head this week—this is where it lands.
This week, it’s all over the place: illustrators whose work I admire, NBA players I will irrationally defend, and the unsettlingly perfect art direction of Severance.
3x3: FANTASTIC (SORRY) EDITION
Listen, my friend. Marvel movies had me in a chokehold for YEARS. But after Endgame, I was done. Like Steve Rogers at the end I was just tapped out. Good luck, y’all. Then I saw that new Fantastic Four teaser and damn it, I felt something. So let’s talk about what makes Marvel’s First Family so damn cool in this week’s 3x3
RE$O₦A₦CE
Okay, the definition here is not dictionary level correct but it hits, right?
These little brand design "experiments" are just me jotting down words and phrases I find compelling. Quick, messy, and fast.(Just like my life now that I think about it) I give myself 30 minutes, and if I feel like riffing on David Carson like I did this week, then that’s what Imma do. This one? Snagged the definition from somewhere, snapped a photo in my Berkeley neighborhood, and mashed them together. The Oxford Dictionary says resonance is…
Oakland Confetti
If you’ve lived in Oakland long enough, you know the heartbreak of a bipped car window. Those little piles of shattered glass? That’s Oakland’s unofficial confetti. But what if we turned that struggle into style? A streetwear line inspired by resilience, hustle, and the art of keeping nothing valuable in your car. Would you rock it?
3 Studios, 3 Trends, All Fire
The 3x3 concept keeps things simple—three key insights at a time, whether it’s brand design, NBA fashion, or the latest in comic books. Dive in, get inspired, and maybe even rethink your own creative game.
This week I’m covering brand design. I cover typographers who treat motion like a mixtape and the minimalists who make silence deafening. Branding that bends, stretches, and reworks itself in real time. A clash of raw structures and electric, neon chaos. And a movement proving that looking good and doing good aren’t mutually exclusive. How does a notoriously heavy movement making brands fresh?
Walking Berkeley
WFH means I’m walking around the neighborhood a lot more now, and it’s been cool finding all the little gems nearby. California flowers and houses that look like they were built by people who actually had fun doing it.
THree dimensions of Story
Want to make your designs actually resonate? Start by mastering three words and I’ll show you why they’re game changers.
I’ve been reading Junior: Writing Your Way Ahead in Advertising by Thomas Kemeny, and it reminded me of the timeless power of the Greeks. 🇬🇷✨
Proto-MCU
The Marvel Cinematic Universe would not have succeeded without Wildstorm’s output of the 1990’s. Superheroes are at a saturation point I never thought possible. Artist Bryan Hitch and writer Mark Millar’s superhero opus “The Ultimates” was the blueprint. That comic would not exist without a rogue forward-thinking studio: Wildstorm.
The sea in the desert
A. 1000 hours to pencil. 1 hour to ink. More on this below.
B. There were two parts of the gathering I went to over the weekend. First was in a desolate near post-apocalyptic town (population 200, yes just two zeros) in the desert. The second was a gloriously poolside party. You can see a bit my trip here. It was like a wedding but it also was not one…
Mural flashback
I wore coveralls and rolled huge swaths of yellow. I fucking love yellow. You can see it from space. Once I had Marvel’s Black Panther and “Black Lives Matter” blocked in on the mural, locals started with the kind words. I painted a mural once before and it was quadruple the size of the one I put on the front of Cape & Cowl Comics in Oakland, California…