Slum Sans

Photo of some slum typography.

It's been nearly six months since I spent time in the Mathare Valley Slums located on the outskirts of Nairobi, Kenya. My emotions are still raw when I think about that experience and it usually makes my eyes water.

At this time the post production of the documentary is in full swing and in good creative hands as well.

A common site in the slums is hand drawn typography used on signs. They are everywhere you look. For an upcoming collaborative project with Rule 29 I wanted to mimic this aesthetic so we could use it for titling in our project.


Slum Sans on light background.

As you've seen in previous posts the slums continue to be source of inspiration for me.


Slum Sans on dark background.

I drew out the whole set by hand pretty small so it wouldn't be crisp. Then I created a rough highlight you could add to the type to give it some pop. I even used a slum texture to degrade the letterforms as well.


Slum Sans complete set.

The whole set is just a simple vector file with the letterforms on one layer and the highlights on another. So you just compile what you need to create the word.


Slum Sans detailing.

I optimized the texturing as much as I could without loosing that nice authentic feel. The source file in the download below is a CS2 Adobe Illustrator file.

Update: A big thank you goes out to Brian Carroll who took my raw vector files and not only created a working font but also created the missing letter "I" that some how I over looked in the process? Brian is a multi-talented creative who is part of Studio Litchfield so check out their site.

Download Links

- Slum Sans - Vector Art (1.9MB)
- Slum Sans Font (217KB)

If you find this resource useful please consider donating to the work of Life in Abundance who works in African slums helping people improve their lives. Donate here. Thanks.

Slum Textures

"Slum Textures" 35 Royalty-Free Textures.

Back in April and May I spent 10 days in the Mathare Valley Slums located on the outskirts of Nairobi, Kenya. It truly was a life changing experience.

The slums consist of a vast network of small corridors that weave their way through haphazard constructed shacks. While there I took a lot of pictures capturing the daily life of those who call the slums their home.

Many of my pictures documented textures I came across while walking through the slums and this set represents the sensory experience I visually encountered during my time there.


Source photo and resulting texture.

The best things about textures is they never go out of style unlike other resources such as fonts, stock art or even photography. A texture that looks crappy now will still look crappy 50 years from now. And that's craptacular!


All "35" Textures in set.

I've put together this set of "Slum Textures" so you can use them in your own projects. If you don't like the way I created the PSD file or the bitmap tiff file no worries, you'll be able to create your own versions using the original source photo included for each. So the possibilities are endless for your creative needs.

Source File Specifications.
Each Texture Includes the following formats for each of the "35" textures.

- Original Source Photo (Hi-Res, RGB jpeg)
- Layered Grayscale PSD (Hi-Res, 10x13 @ 315 ppi)
- Bitmap Tiff (Hi-Res, 10x13 @ 315 ppi)

Also included in the download is a bonus PSD source file for you to deconstruct and see how to put the textures to use.

(All PSD Files are CS4 but will still open in CS3 or CS2 without any problems.)

Download Links
The whole set is broken into four manageable downloads.

- Slum Textures 1 (192MB)
- Slum Textures 2 (173MB)
- Slum Textures 3 (169MB)
- Slum Textures 4 (168MB)

If you find these textures useful please consider donating to the work of Life in Abundance who works in African slums helping people improve their lives. Donate here. Thanks.

Leaving My Comfort Zone

"Comfort Zone" design. (View Larger Image Here)

In a few weeks I head out of town, out of country, and out of my comfort zone.

As I shared in a previous post, I'll be headed to the Kibera Slums in Nairobi, Kenya.

My friend Justin Ahrens invited me to help in the filming of a documentary about the work "Life in Abundance" (LIA) is doing in that area.

It's a lot easier to just write a check to help a cause like this. I've done that before. But the more Justin told me about what they were doing and after talking to their founder I knew I wanted to do more than that.

As I thought about everything today a thought crossed my mind and it inspired the above design.

"Adventure never happens when you're comfortable."

So even though It stretches my comfort zone I look forward to the experience that lays before me and I want to thank those of you who have helped to support this cause because without that it wouldn't happen.

If you'd like a t-shirt of the above click here.

If you'd like to help the LIA team you can donate via paypal by sending your payment to: liasupport@liaint.org
Include in your notes "Von Africa Trip May 2010."

Thanks.

Von

I'll Crumble 4 Ya!

"Regal Garden" pattern texturized.

It's been almost three years since my texture book was published. But I've continued to grow my own personal archive of cool textures none the less.

The other day I was getting ready to put on an old "Bad Design Kills" t-shirt and noticed the white ink on the skull had started crumbling creating a very cool texture.


"Heavy Crackling" texture.

I call these moments of "Creative Curiousity" and when they arise I try not to ignore them but rather act upon them.

So I took the shirt and scanned it in and created an authentic looking visual resource you can use on any type of illustrative or design project. So enjoy this freebie texture provided by the second law of thermal dynamics.

Source File Specifications.
The "Heavy Crackling" texture download Includes the following:

- Layered Grayscale PSD File (Hi-Res, 12x10 inches @ 800 dpi)
- Bitmap Dithered Tiff Image (Hi-Res, 12x10 inches @ 300 dpi)

Download "Heavy Crackling" Texture. (File Size: 76.6MB)

Hoodlum Teaser

Cropped "Hoodlum" Editorial Illustration.

I love clients that give me complete creative freedom. The opportunity to explore and create in a direction that is fresh and new even though it wasn't what they had originally requested. Such is the case with this editorial illustration.

To read more about this project and view the un-cropped version of the above illustration visit my primary site.

Brewing Design

I just posted a new project at my primary design site regarding a coffee label design I did for Rahzo.com. I had shown this label to twitter users a while back after I got shipped some printed samples and was asked if I'd deconstruct how I went about creating it.

Well that is what this blog post is all about. So grab a cup of coffee and enjoy the post.


Source Photo: Paris, France.

1. Source Photo
Because I named the roast "Noir French Blend" it goes without saying it needs to have a French flair to the approach. I sourced out this picture which has the Eiffel Tower in the background.

I also picked this image because the contrast was perfect for how I planned on using it too.


Compositing images via Photoshop.

2. Distorting Reality
I wanted the the Eiffel Tower to be a focal point in my composition so if reality doesn't work you do what every fashion magazine does and manipulate reality so it looks better than real.


Converting photo to a halftone.

3. Halftone FX
I converted the photo to a halftone. In a nutshell: Convert color photo to greyscale, convert to halftone by going to the menu image/mode/bitmap. From there you'll have to experiment in order to determine what size of halftone works best for you, it isn't a one size fits all process. Once you have the size nailed down you have to convert back from bitmap to greyscale then copy/paste it back into your PSD file.

If you're still scratching your head after reading the above try this link it might help you? Or my big dot tutorial might also explain this process better?


Halftoned photo integrated into layout.

4. Halftone Integrated
I nest the halftoned photo into my over all layout. Mind you this is screen res so it doesn't do the halftone justice. Make sure to view the larger image at the end of this post to see how the halftones enhance the look and feel of the design.


European Beauty.

5. Romance
I wanted drama in my design. It's Paris so it needed some beautiful romance so I sourced out this photo. Her eyes were captivating and that was what I was after.


Romantic dot gain.

6. Larger Halftone FX
Once again I used the same halftone effect, just a larger size and composited the romantic gaze into my design.

A lot of what I do when I use Photoshop is experimentation. Playing with transparency, blend modes and arrangement of content and via layers to achieve the look and feel I'm after.


Laying a graphic foundation.

7. Graphic Foundation
This historical ornament and banner dangler will serve as the foundation for critical content like type and iconography as you'll see in the following images.


...Like a big pizza pie that's moire.

8. Creating a Moire Effect
The design over all felt too stark to me. I wanted to blend it all together more. So I just opened another color stock photo (Any will work) gaussian blurred it, went to filter/Pixelate/Color Halftone, converted it to greyscale, copy/pasted it back into my PSD file, messed with transparency and blend modes and there you have it.


...You're in love.

9. Moire Effect Applied
Compare this image to step 7.


Adding more character.

10. Texurizing
To add more depth and interest I used a variety of surface textures from my "Crumble.Crackle.Burn" book.


Interesting diagram art.

11. Diagram Illustration
I wanted culture appropriate imagery to collage my design with so I did some research and found this great retro diagram illustration of a Vespa scooter.


The Vespa has been parked.

12. Diagram Illustration Integrated
I'm building my design layer by layer taking the various graphic elements and collaging them together. After all that is essentially what graphic design means.


Information added to the layout.

13. Typography & Iconography
It goes without saying that the type you choose need to work for the specific genre you are designing for. This design uses just two typefaces and I've added an iconic graphic of a coffee plant to lock up the design motif.

I also left room so we could work in Rahzo's logo stamp as well.


The label diecut.

14. Diecut
On this project we had the luxury of doing a custom diecut so I created this unique shape to frame my design. Of course I knew I was doing this from the beginning so I kept that in mind as I collaged my graphic content too so as not to loose anything when it was trimmed.


Piping hot design ready to pour.

15. Final Product
The final labels came out great and the product is now available.

Click here to view a larger image of the final label design.

If you'd like to deconstruct this project further just download the "Brewing Design Pack" below which contains a print resolution (150 dpi) layered PSD file. (CS4 file but will open in CS3 or CS2) You'll be able to click through the layers and see exactly how everything was set up.

- Download "Brewing Design Pack" (5 MB)

Creative Edge

Dreyer's Fruit Bars.

One of my favorite snacks is Dreyer's Fruit Bars. I scarfed my first one back in 1997 and have kept them stocked in my fridge ever since.

Before I go any further I should say that this post is all about creative curiosity. Recognizing seemingly mundane moments in your life, and taking the time to view them from a different perspective and by doing so discovering something creatively new.


Popsicle sticks.

Every time I would have a fruit bar I'd be left with a popsicle stick. At least that is what people refer to them as. I never actually eat popsicles.


Broken popsicle sticks.

Usually I'm watching TV when I'm having one and I started breaking them into several pieces. After doing so I'd just toss them into the garbage and out of sight out of mind.

After breaking up hundreds of these popsicle sticks I began to notice the interesting edge they created when broken. But that is about as far as I took it.


Aligning broken pieces.

A few weeks ago however I was looking at a few more broken pieces and thought to myself

"This would make a really cool edge texture if you lined them all up."

Creative Edge.

So instead of tossing them into the garbage I started saving the best broken pieces. Once I had enough I drew a line on a piece of paper and started lining them up.


Building edge texture with pieces.

To hold them together I used painters tape. It has enough adhesion to keep the pieces in place but also easy enough to adjust them if needed.


Completed edge of broken popsicle pieces.

As I composited the popsicle pieces to form the edge I tried to vary the various broken ends so it would form a unique contour both positively and negatively.


Scan of pieces and detail of final edge texture.

I scanned the taped popsicle pieces in at high resolution greyscale image and then used Photoshop to adjust levels and created the final texture shown above.

It's been almost four years since my texture book came out but I continue to be fascinated with texture. Styles come and go but texture will forever be timeless and useful within design and Photoshop makes using them so easy.

Speaking of Photoshop, it's probably my favorite application to use.

That may surprise some people reading this blog, but I like it just because it allows the user to work the way they prefer, it's very flexible in terms of the app adapting to your own methodology and preferences in regards to a creative process. Ten people can do the same thing ten different ways and that IMO is an example of intuitive software.

I wish Illustrator was half as easy to use and adapt into ones creative process, but I digress.

I took a lot of time adjusting and refining the details in this edge texture so as not to blow out the image and lose the nice fine details of the splintered wood and the various artifacts it created when I scanned them in.





Example use of "Creative Edge" texture.

My penchant for frozen fruit on a stick peaked my creative curiosity and you the faithful reader benefit from this artistic experiment.

Download "Creative Edge" Texture.
The "Creative Edge" Texture download includes the following content you can use in your own creative pursuits be it personal or professional as these textures are what I like to call open source creativity. Go forth and create!

- Layered Grayscale PSD File (Hi-Res, 8.5x11 inches @ 610 ppi)
- Left-Side Bitmap Tiff (Hi-Res, 1.5x11 inches @ 610 ppi)
- Right-Side Bitmap Tiff (Hi-Res, 1.5x11 inches @ 610 ppi)

The layered PSD file has multiple options so you'll have to turn on/off the layers to view all of them, such as pre-built masked layers to make usage easier. The PSD File is CS4 but will still open in CS3 or CS2 without any problems.

- Download "Creative Edge Texture" (67 MB)

Muscle Ink

Muscle Ink logo design.

I love doing tribal tattoo art. It's just a very fun style to work in. I never intended this art to be used for actual tattoos but over the past six years several of my designs have made their way to actual bodies. It's pretty cool.

I was contacted by the owner of "Muscle Ink" to create a logo using the same tribal style. He shared his desire to have a slight egyptian flair to it as well without going over board.


Muscle Ink logo design. Alternate format.

When ever I design a logo I try to give my clients two versions of the final mark. A vertical format and a horizontal format. This will allow them to more easily integrate it into future projects.

The style of the face was bold and solid so I wanted to compliment it with type that could stand on it's own and not get over powered by the image itself.


Beauty and the beast.

Unlike more traditional tattoos the tribal style is most often done using black. It's simple, elegant and usually wears better over time. Of course I'm speaking from theoretical knowledge here since I'm too much of a weenie to ever get one done myself. But I've done enough designs and talked to enough tattoo aficionados who have told me as much.


Logo Bug PSD file.

I enjoy helping young entrepreneurs succeed in business. Part of a firm foundation for marketing is having a well designed and appropriate logo. But one of the challenges is to keep that identity consistent as they grow and use it. A large corporation has brand managers to assure this is the case but for many small businesses it's a struggle.

With that in mind I created a simple PSD file for this client that included two logo bugs. A "White" and a "Black" version so he could easily brand the photos on his site by simply dragging the logo into the image file. I optimized the logo art so it was clean and sharp. If I had left this to the client it would have been distorted and too blurry.


Large view and texturized version.

Muscle Ink had original seen another face I did using textures. So I also provided a layered Photoshop file with the logo art texturized so they could also use the mark in this format for other purposes.

The Society of Illustrators

Over the past two years I've been fortunate enough to be able to visit the "Society of Illustrators" in New York City.

The building itself is nothing special, rather it's the history attached to it. The many pieces of art that grace the walls of it's interior showcase a rich artistic history of some of the worlds best illustrators.

Self-portraits of many past members hang on the walls as you ascend the old creaking stair case. I looked at each one and thought of Harry Potter and the talking paintings at Hogwarts. What would these guys say to me? "What do you mean you don't use paint?" or "Keep drawing my boy!"

Back in 2006 I entered my first piece of art ever to the Society of Illustrators and it got accepted.

This year I entered another piece of art but to be completely frank I didn't think it would get accepted because, well it's an "Evil Clown."


Society of Illustrators 51 - New York


Tickles the Evil Clown. (37x30 Inches)

View larger preview of art here.

Much to my surprise my illustration got accepted into this years show. The first time I was notified by email that I had been accepted but this time I received a phone call and the lady on the line said to me:

"I'm calling you to let you know that "Tickles the Evil Clown" has been accepted into the 51st Annual Society of Illustrators exhibition and publication. Congratulations!"

At first I laughed because the lady had to say "Tickles the Evil Clown" since that is what I had named the artwork. LOL


Society of Illustrators - Los Angeles


Loyal Order of Wormwood. (24x37 Inches)

View larger preview of art here.

I also submitted my poster illustration I created for Adobe to the "Society of Illustrators" in Los Angeles.

I'm happy to say that it was accepted for their 47th annual Illustration West show. I'm very excited about this to say the least.

If you compare the original version for Adobe with the one shown above you'll see I modified the background color. This was due to the fact the accepted pieces would be part of a gallery showing and I thought it looked better sans the brown background color.

I'll be posting some follow up pictures of the final gallery pieces soon so you'll be able to see some process pictures of the canvas art being stretched and framed.

Cool Crud Texture Set

"Cool Crud Texture Set" 35 Royalty-Free Textures.

What can I say other then I love taking photos of cruddy surfaces. Nothing is more fun then making your art look like crap with cool distressed real world textures. Why use a lame pull-down menu Photoshop algorithm to simulate an organic touch when you can do it using authentic textures created by the second law of thermal dynamics instead? Real is always better!


Each texture comes with the full-color source photo.

If you don't like the way I created the PSD file or the bitmap tiff file no worries. You can create your own versions using the original source photo. So the possibilities are truly endless for your creative needs.


Texture number "CC_12".

I collected the textures in this set over the last eight months or so while traveling in Oregon and Washington.


Texture number "CC_35".

The best things about textures is they never go out of style unlike other resources such as fonts, stock art or even photography. A texture that looks cool now will still look cool 50 years from now.


All "35" Textures in set.

This set is royalty-free. Just buy it, download it and you can use these textures on any personal or professional illustration or design project you want. the only limitation is please don't distribute them to others who haven't purchased them. I purposely priced these so anyone can afford them so encourage others to visit this site and get their own copy. I thank you in advance for honoring this simple request.

That said I've set Paypal up so you can order more then one copy if you want to pass them along to a friend.

Source File Specifications.
Each Texture Includes the following formats for each of the "35" textures.

- Original Source Photo (Hi-Resolution RGB jpeg, 10x15 inches @ 315 ppi)
- Layered Grayscale PSD File (Hi-Resolution, 10x15 inches @ 315 ppi)
- Bitmap Tiff Image (Hi-Resolution, 10x15 inches @ 300 ppi)

(All PSD Files are CS4 but will still open in CS3 or CS2 without any problems.)

Try it before you buy it!
You can download a sample texture including all the formats listed above and take them for a test drive here.

No-Brainer Ordering and Download.
The entire set is just $6.95. Order using the Paypal button below. Once you click through Paypal, you'll be automatically forwarded to a download page. If you have any questions just post them in the comments below and I'll respond to each accordingly.

You can see another texture set of mine called "Old World" here.