Art Directors Club : December Editions

Just attended the opening (tasty hors d'oeuvres btw) of the nifty December Editions show at the Art Directors Club, and I want to encourage everyone to head on over to see some beautiful work by Andrio Abero, Paul Pope, Chris Rubino, and Paula Scher So, be sure to get there sometime before the 23rd, when it will be gone forever.

Thanks RISD

Thanks again to Chris Buzelli for inviting me up to Providence to give a fun little lecture/slide show to his Editorial Illustration Class. I had a great time and left RISD really energized by his kids. It is hard to believe that only about a year and half ago I was sitting in that same classroom in exactly the same situation as Chris' students. Since my graduation time has flown by in that surreal cliche way people are always talking about. Its been great so far, but speaking to his students has been a highlight. If any of them are reading this, and have any further questions, don't hesitate to e-mail me.

TONY : Strip Club Food

For more info on the best strip club fare in NYC, including reviews of the fine kitchens at "The Box", "Cheetah's", "All American Male Review", and "Bianca's" just click here.

NOBROW 2 : The Jungle

Start getting excited for November 12th, when the second issue of NOBROW, Europe's finest biannual textless art magazine, drops. Featuring cover art by Blexoblex, as well as work by Marc Boutavent, Henning Wagenbreth, Pietari Posti, Paul Blow, plus yours truly. And in order to wet your whistle a little more, below is a sneak peek of the ink from my spread.

Paper Arms Redux

My favorite Australian band, Paper Arms, just sent me some swag. It's pretty cool to actually have the final product in my hands only a few weeks after completing the design. So thanks again guys for great assignment, and be sure to check out the music here.

Time Out New York

Earlier this week, Adam Fulrath, the Art Director, for Time Out New York, e-mailed me a crazy job description for a half page piece. Basically it read: stripper, upside down, sizzling steak, Tex Avery, hungry guy, bulging eyes/unreeled tongue. Sounds great, right? Anyways, 24 hours later the final was in his hands, and below is the process from sketch to final. Thanks again Adam.


Head on over to my website at http://www.aschmidtstudio.com/ for a larger image of this piece, plus an all new typography section.

Paper Arms T-Shirt

Just finished a challenging project, creating a shirt for the South Australian rock band Paper Arms. I say challenging because working with just 2 or maybe 3 colors is a little bit of a departure from my recent work, but it was nice to get back into the mindset of screen printing. Tom Crosby (drums and vocals) was a real prince throughout the whole project, so be sure to check out their music at http://www.myspace.com/paperarms . Below are some process photos, plus a few different versions of the 2 color design.

Masters of Ink Interview

Jason Thibault and the excellent crew over at optimumwound.com were nice enough to include me in their artist interview series, "Masters of Ink". Which is pretty nifty, as I have always been a big fan of their website. Previous artists interrogated include Lee Bermejo, Nathan Fox, Jim Mahfood, and a lot of other guys and gals who I really look up to. So, if you ever wanted to know more about my tools, techniques, and process, just click the link below for 14 fun filled questions and answers.

http://www.optimumwound.com/artist-adam-schmidt-talks-illustration-tools-and-technique.htm

NOBROW MAGAZINE

A few weeks ago the charming Alex Spiro from NOBROW Magazine invited me to contribute to the second issue of his publication. NOBROW, is a biannual textless art magazine on sale at all good design bookshops in the UK + Europe and available worldwide at http://www.nobrow.net/. What makes the magazine even cooler is the incredible color and paper quality, individually numbered limited edition printing, and a roster chock full of the best illustrators in the business. Artists contributing to their first issue include: A. Ricard Allen, Blex Bolex, Paul Blow, Jordan Crane, McBess, and Emiliano Ponzi.

Obviously, the upcoming second issue will undoubtedly feature some serious talent, and I am honored to be part of this project. So start getting excited, because the new issue drops sometime in the Fall. Included below are some pictures of the first issue that Alex was kind enough to send me, and to be honest I have never handled a higher quality publication.

Cover art by Stuart Kolakovic, interior piece by the fantastic Paul Blow, and thanks again Alex for all the swag.

Fun with Typography

Since coming back to freelancing after my stint at Rolling Stone, I having been spending much of my time playing around with hand drawn type. After making some new things, which will soon be appearing in a new type section on my site, I decided to go back and complete a set of letters that I created around a year ago for promotional purposes. Enjoy, and keep your eyes peeled for more weird type.

Mastodon - Crack the Skye

When I was interning at Rolling Stone, I was privileged to have an unreal vantage point of many amazing different illustrators at work. Every two weeks there is a new issue, and every issue I was lucky enough to see all of the concepts, sketches, revisions, and everything else that goes into a finished piece. And if that wasn't cool enough, I would get to work on my own pieces along side them. Below is a process detail from the Mastodon Rolling Stone record review piece I worked on while interning. For the whole image, visit my portfolio here.

Rolling Stone / Damian DeMartino

It has been a few weeks now since my incredible internship in the art department at Rolling Stone Magazine has been over, and I am still missing it. Every art director there was so welcoming and accepting, never failing to make me feel like part of the team. All the while knowing that it was just as important to encourage me as it was to point and laugh. When I arrived in their office, I really didn't know anything about what an art director actually did or how a magazine was designed and produced. I probably still don't, but it's definitely not for their lack of trying.

So thanks again to Joe Hutchinson, Steve Charny, Matthew Cooley, Elizabeth Oh, Damian DeMartino, Jen Redmond, and Sacha Lecca for helping me in so many ways. It was an education that I won't soon forget.

And finally, on a less schmaltzy note, Damian has decided to share his awesome vector work with world. Go now and check out all of the slick illustrations and comics online at http://syntheticcitizen.com/

Complex Magazine

Just got the call from the extremely friendly designer over at Complex Magazine last week about a fun little fashion spot for their upcoming issue. Basically it's a fashion gone wrong image of a style that I saw a lot of in the midwest, the always frightening, all denim suit. It was big change from the more concept driven stuff that I have been up to lately, but it was a lot of fun trying to add a few details to give him a little more "character". Plus, any day that I can draw a mullet is a good day.

Portrait of Arikawa

Just completed the full page portrait of Masakazu Arikawa, the president of a company called M Cube, for the premiere issue of Electronic Magazine. Below are the usual process pictures, which for this project involved a more in depth black and painted portrait than usual. I was a little worried how the paint would translate into color, but it was a fun challenge that seems to have worked out pretty well.

Brush Pens

For anyone who draws with ink with at home, and wants to take it on the road, a brush pen is easily your best bet. Below are my current favorites, which are available from most any Japanese stationary store/the internet. These wonderful pens range from 5 dollar plastic thingies to perfectly made beauties with natural hair tips and replaceable brushes/ink cartridges.

But if your looking for a great all around brush pen I recommend the pentel pocket brush (2nd from right) which is affordable and refillable, plus it has a really cool looking silver kanji by the clip. Anyway, all of these pens are great fun, and everyone should try out a brush pen at least once. Enjoy!

SHORTOMATIC.COM

Imagine my surprise when I was contacted, out of the blue, by a new  website to provide them with images that were to be printed on not posters, cards, magazines, or tee shirts, but for board shorts.  Seriously, how nifty is that?  So do yourself a favor and roll on over to shortomatic.com.  Their shop will be open for business in one month, and for now their site is a blog,  detailing the minutia of setting up their shop.  It covers everything from color matching and illustration selection to eyelet choices and packaging.

All in all, it seems like a really great setup, so for now, enjoy this sneak preview of one the three illustrations from my portfolio that has been chosen along with it's design mockup.

The original.

The product.

  

Migration

Once again the wonderful and talented SooJin Buzelli at Asset International hired me for a really exciting illustration. I don't really get to do animals very much, so this was all pretty ew to me. And it is always impossible to not be exhilarated to work with an adventurous AD with a nifty idea. Below is pretty much the full process, with the final being featured in the PLANADVISER 2009 buyer's guide.

Wooden Toy Quarterly

"WE JUST GOT A POSTCARD IN THE MAIL FROM THE TALENTED ADAM SCHMIDT OF BROOKLYN WHO'S ILLUSTRATIONS YOU MAY JUST WELL SEE IN A FUTURE EDITION OF WOODEN TOY. WATCH HIS SPACE, HIS WORK IS DOPE AND HAS US FEELING ALL NOSTALGIC"

Above are the kinds words that have been heaped on me by Wooden Toy Quarterly. It's a Australia based publication which features an eclectic mix of painting, street art, design, and illustration. Go now to http://www.woodentoyquarterly.com/. and reward the people who take the time to investigate random postcards.

Deer Tick

On Friday at the Bowery Ballroom I saw a great show by the Providence band Deer Tick. During my stay in Providence for 4 years while attending RISD there was a Deer Tick show almost every weekend at AS220. For me Deer Tick and their War Elephant album was basically my soundtrack for school, and it gave me warm fuzzy feeling to see them in New York at such a great venue.

The only negative part of the evening was me dropping my camera from the balcony, but miraculously it didn't hurt anybody and managed to survive. Despite it looking like an exploded view drawing I still was able to take a few pics.

Juxtapoz Reader Art

Many thanks, to the people over at Juxtapoz for including me in their stacked reader art section. It was really cool to type in their address and have my image be the first thing on the screen. So, thanks again Juxtapoz, and be sure to check it out at www.juxtapoz.com.

James Jean

I am well aware that I am probably the last person to blog about this, but in case you have been hiding under a rock: go check out James Jean's show at the Jonathan Levine Gallery.







Its open until February 7th, so don't miss it.

Rolling Stone

Hey Guys,

Since the 12th I have been working as the new art department intern with the wonderful people over at Rollingstone Magazine. So far it's been pretty surreal to see how the other side of the business operates, but the people I have been working with, mainly Steven Charny, Matthew Cooley, Elizabeth Oh, Damian DeMartino, and Joseph Hutchinson have been really great. So be on the look out for more posts to come about the hectic world of Rollingstone, and thanks again to Bill Cotter for this gratutious hook up.

The Stranger

A few days ago the wonderful Aaron Huffman at The Stranger, Seattle's Only Newspaper, contacted me about using one of my images for their cover. We traded a few e-mails, and in a matter of minutes the deal was sealed.

Here is the original art, which started it's life as a personal piece.

And this is the cover. Thanks again Aaron.

And be sure to look it up online at http://www.thestranger.com