“Elephants In The Trees” – Our Test Print Gallery Show At Rotofugi!

Hello friends!

We have some exciting news on the fine art front that we’ve been dying to share for over a year. And now the time has come!

The fantastic Rotofugi Gallery in Chicago, IL is home to our new Gallery show of 16 hand silkscreened Test Prints / Monoprints as well as a brand new black & white silkscreen, monochromatic, oversized, 2-art-print-set. Our show, “Elephants In The Trees”, opens on Friday January 13,  2012. But don’t be scared, Friday the 13th is always a lucky day for Allison, she was born on one.

What’s a Test Print, aka a Monoprint? Glad you asked! It’s a form of absolutely one-of-a-kind printmaking. A great definition from Wikipedia:

“Monoprints are known as the most painterly method among the printmaking techniques; it is essentially a printed painting. The characteristic of this method is that no two prints are alike. The beauty of this medium is also in its spontaneity and its combination of printmaking, painting and drawing media.  Monoprints may also involve elements that change, where the artist reworks the image in between impressions or after printing so that no two prints are absolutely identical.”

We’re absolutely thrilled, nervous, and excited all at once. Allison is almost always working on a tall stack of silkscreen Test Prints in the studio with each new print run. However, they rarely see the light of day publicly. Especially over the past year while she has been working on a suite of individual prints for this Gallery show in particular. And this is a first, with the debut not only of most of these absolutely one-of-a-kind monoprints but also of a new oversized 2-print set, (expertly printed by our friends at Delicious Design League). All prints on display will be for sale exclusively through the Rotofugi Gallery, both in person and online.

And here’s the thing, we can’t show you much before the Opening on Friday January 13th, 2012 BUT! You can totally sign up for the Rotofugi Gallery’s preview email list RIGHT HERE and get a beautiful eyeful of this (and any upcoming shows) special private preview and see the artwork for yourself before the general public. Trust us, this makes trying to buy original art and one-of-a-kind pieces far easier. ‘Cause once they are sold ‘cuz, they’re gone forevers.

Until then, here’s a little sneak-peek teaser of just a few of our 16 silkscreen printed, individual, one-of-a-kind Test Prints in the our upcoming show.

We hope to see you there on Friday, January the 13th at the opening reception!

Sneak-peek at just a few of our Monoprints to be shown at Rotofugi.

The Gallery Show Details

Elephants in the Trees: Silk Screen Monoprints & Art Prints by strawberryluna

• Opening Reception at Rotofugi: Friday, January 13, 2011, 7-10PM
• Rotofugi Exhibition Dates: January 13 – February 5, 2012
• Rotofugi Location: 2780 Lincoln Avenue, Chicago, IL 60614
• Rotofugi Phone: 773-868-3308
• Google Map

Hit Them With The Razzle Dazzle – WWI British Navy Ship Cammo

The Father of Dazzle Camouflage, Norman Wilkinson

When you are interested in design, technology, perception AND history? (As I am.)  Sometimes a story comes along that feeds all 4 things.

This post, borrowed from Twisted Sifter does just this. And rather than blab on about why this is so damn cool, I’ll just let you check out an abridged version here and hopefully, marvel like we have at this ingeniuous and extremely cool graphic solve to a fatal problem of war.

For the full blog post with many more photographic examples, please visit Twisted Sifter or click on any image.

__________________________________________________________

You are the Fleet Admiral of the Navy in WWI what do you do?

THE SITUATION

You’re the Fleet Admiral of the Navy in World War I. Your ships are being sunk at an alarming rate by the devastatingly effective German U-Boat. The traditional camouflage isn’t working because your environment (sea and sky) changes with the weather. What do you do?

THE INSIGHT

World War I occurred from 1914–1918; back then sinking an enemy battleship was a three-step process:

Step 1: Locate your target’s position and plot its course.
Step 2: Determine the ship’s speed and confirm the direction it is heading
Step 3: Launch torpedo not directly at the ship, but where you think it’s going to be by the time the torpedo reaches the ship.

*Remember this is early 20th century warfare, weapons don’t travel at the speed they do today

So what’s your solution Fleet Admiral?

HIT THEM WITH THE RAZZLE DAZZLE

Forget about not being seen, that only solves their first problem. Focus on confusing them so they don’t know where you’re going. Then their torpedoes will be shot in vain because they thought you zigged when you really zagged.

British Artist and naval officer Norman Wilkinson had this very insight and pioneered the Dazzle Camouflage movement (known as Razzle Dazzle in the United States). Norman used bright, loud colours and contrasting diagonal stripes to make it incredibly difficult to gauge a ship’s size and direction.

It was cheap, effective, and widely-adopted during the War. Check out the incredible photographs below.

*NOTE: Unfortunately the images are in black and white, being from the early 1900s and all, so the loud, bold colours will require a little imagination. Can you picture a fleet of electric yellow, orange and purple ships coming to get ya!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Wishing you all a Happy Thanksgiving in all of it’s meanings for you.

We hope that your holiday is as magical as this perfect Charles Schulz scene from A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving. Happy holidays!

Happy Halloween!

Best holiday of the year. At least I think so.

Enjoy & Happy Halloween all you witches & goblins!

We’re having a Fab Sale!

Click to go to Fab.com!

We are mega-excited to announce our very first Fab.com sale, and it’s coming up soon.

For just 72 hours starting this Saturday 10/1/11 we’ll be featured on the amazing design loving and fabulous Fab.com.

With special discounts to Fab.com members of 30% – 40%  off of our day-to-day retail, there will be tons of great deals will be available on our hand silkscreen printed rock posters, art prints, complete sets of our Alphabet Prints, and a brand new line of adult super soft tees will be available for just 72 hours. But only to Fab.com members.

Fab.com is a member-only, extremely well curated design+art shopping site featuring flash sales of 72-hour duration with special deals, available exclusively at Fab.com.

Not already a member? Why not silly, it’s FREE! To get a your free Fab.com account use this invite link and see what the fuss is about. 

Don’t forget, our sale runs for just 72 hours and starts Saturday 10/1, and once the sale is over, done, and gone….BOOM! It’s gone forever.

Already a member of Fab.com? Click to see our special sale preview!

Re-post from 8 Hour Day “Girls Just Want To Have Fun”

Yep, this is a full re-post of what I think is a great, important, and should be seen by anyone interested in design type of blog post. I think that Katie Kirk, one half of the lovely couple behing the design studio 8 Hour Day said it best, so I’m just spreading her words and images below.

So awesome to see some of the best women designers and illustrators out there too, friends, peers, and new to me talents who kick ass in this field every day.

*Please note – The below is a post originally written and collected by Katie Kirk of 8 Hour Day, not myself, so if you dig, also go over there and check them out, comment there too and support them as well. Cheers all!

There’s been a lot of discussion happening around a recent Good Magazine article entitled “Why We Can’t Let Design Become a Boys’ Club” by Dylan Lathrop. It has spawned numerous comments, opinions,counter arguments and retorts from all sides. Many of us feel strongly about this, and it’s definitely a subject with many shades of gray. Though we may not all agree on the matter, I think the fact that it’s being discussed at all is great. After reading through all the articles and all the commentary, I felt compelled to showcase some of the women that continue to inspire me. So here are some of my favorites–thanks for the inspiration, ladies!

Aimee Gauthier

Allegra Lockstadt

Allison Newhouse

Anchalee Chambundabongse

Angie Lewin

Anke Weckmann

Annette Marnat

Anne Ulku

Autumn Whitehurst

Celeste Prevost

Danielle Davis

Deanna Halsall

Eleanor Grosch

Elsa Lang (Always With Honor)

Erin Fuller

Esther Aarts

Gemma Correll

Gina Triplett

Gracia Lam

Helen Dardik

Jacqui Oakley

Janine Rewell

Jennifer Daniel

Jenny Bowers

Jessica Hische

Jessica Walsh

Jillian Tamaki

Julia Rothman

Karen Goheen (Two Arms)

Kate Bingaman-Burt

Kelli Anderson

Kelly Munson

Kristina Collantes

Lauren Gregg

Laurie DeMartino

Lotta Nieminen

Lydia Nichols

Maria Janosko

Maricor/Maricar

Meg Hunt

Melissa Buchanan (The Little Friends of Printmaking)

Missy Austin

Natalie Schaefer

Parliament of Owls (Meg Paradise, Lauren Sheldon & Ariana Dilibero)

Ping Zoo

Roxanne Daner

Sanna Annukka

Sarah Labieniec

Sara Lintner

Sol Linero

Susie Ghahreman

Tonya Douraghy

Tuesday Bassen

Valerie Jar

Veronica Corzo-Duchardt (winterbureau)

Sharon Werner & Sarah Forss (Werner Design Works)

Zeloot

Book Cover Design in India 1964 to 1984, from 50 Watts

Click to see more from this collection.

In my morning-coffee-stumble-through-the-internet-while-waking-up ritual today I came across a fantastically cool / I can’t believe that I didn’t know about this before blog, called 50 Watts, run by Philadelphian (yay! My hometown!) Will Schofield.

50 Watts is great little space of the web covering the intersection of book collection, design, and illustration. Sounds like heaven to me.  What caught my eye was an image from a post on now vintage book covers from the 40 year span from 1964 – 1984. Here, I’ve posted a few of my favorites, but definitely check out the full post at 50 Watts here.

And yeah, part of me wishes that I could read the text on these beauties. At the same time, they still speak quite clearly and the other part of me loves being able to make up stories about what these stories are about.

Click to see more from this collection.

Mostly, I just adore the flatness of the color fields, the kapow! of their graphics and layout, and symbolic style of the illustrations. Being a silkscreen printmaker, there is something so excellently familiar about the way that these were printed, probably cheaply, probably in a spot, or one color at a time process like screenprinting. You can see the areas where pieces aren’t in perfect register, or where colors overprint one another, and the use of halftones to mimic saturation levels of a color. All make my heart do little flips. The limitations of this type of printing force incredibly creative and freeing design and illustration choices, which, clearly I love and have embraced as a career. So, no. It’s no surprise that I dig these. I hope that you do too.

Click to see more from this collection.

Click to see more from this collection.

Flatstock 29, SXSW Festival & Austin, TX here we come!

All of the Flatstock 29 identity designed by exclusively us at strawberryluna this year!

Around these parts? Mid-March means the opening of carnie season when we start our new year of shows. And it’s super exciting to always get to break out of the evergrey of a long long  Pittsburgh winter (ummm, it snowed this past weekend. I mean, come on!) with our first trip and show of the year to sunny, warm and awesome Austin, TX.

Don’t mess with it.

We are super honored and really proud this year to have been asked to design all of the Flatstock 29 official and exclusive identity work, from banners, badges, posters, handbills and more. We also hand silkscreen printed a limited edition of the Flatstock 29 poster that we will have for sale at our booth in Austin, and then also on our website here too. If you are down at Flatstock and see these pieces, right on! We did our job well 🙂

We’ll also have a HUGE slew of Test Prints that I’ve been working on for a top-secret project (but details will be coming soon) for early next year. In the meantime, hopefully some of your will enjoy the current crop of them. ‘Cause Cousin? We got a bunch for ya.

What is Flatstock? It’s over 75-100 currently working poster artists coming to show their talents, display and sell their work and talk with new people about what we do and why. And yep, hire us! And yes, Flatstock Austin is FREE to attend and open to the public!

The details for you:

The very first Flatstock Poster Convention of the year will once again be held in Austin, Texas during the SXSW Festival. This is our 29th Flatstock to date, and the Austin Flatstock is always FREE  to attend & definitely wide open to the public. We are in a new room this year, so check below for a convenient map to help you find over 75 poster artists from around the world displaying & selling their rock posters. Hope to see you there!

Dates:

• Wednesday March 16th – Saturday March 19, 2011

Hours:

• Wednesday 3/16 – 2pm – 6pm  (note this is the ONLY half day)
• Thursday 3/17 – 11am – 6pm
• Friday 3/18 – 11am – 6pm
• Saturday 3/19 – 11am – 6pm

Location:

• Austin Convention Center – Level 1, Ballrooms A, B, C at 500 E. Cesar Chavez St., Austin, TX 78701 (see map below)

You DO NOT need to have badges to be able to attend Flatstock 29. It’s FREE & open to the public! For more info on Flatstock 29 & the SXSW Festival click here.

“The FLATSTOCK poster show series is presented by the American Poster Institute (API). It is an ongoing series of exhibitions featuring the work of many of the most popular concert poster artists working today.

The API is a nonprofit corporation dedicated to serving poster artists and promoting the art form. Both the API and its FLATSTOCK series were organized in 2002 as a result of conversations between interested artists and supporters frequenting the popular website GigPosters.com. The best concert posters have always captured both the essence of the music they promoted and the spirit of the time in which they were produced. This is as true today as it was in San Francisco during the Sixties.

The FLATSTOCK shows provide the general public with an ongoing series of opportunities to see fine poster art in person and to meet the artists who’ve created it — they provide the API with a way to present the poster artists collectively while showcasing the breadth of individual styles they represent.”

Click to see a larger map.

Click to see a larger map.

THE LIST OF PARTICIPATING FLATSTOCK 29 ARTISTS (subject to change):

Adam Pobiak

Animal Rummy

Anville

BadMoon Studios

Billy Perkins

The Bird Machine Inc

Boss Construction

BRIANEWING.com

The Bungaloo

Burlesque of North America

Carlos Hernandez

Clintprints

Cricket Press

Crosshair

Dan Grzeca/Ground-Up

Dan Stiles

Daniel Danger

Decoder Ring Design Concern

Delicious Design League

DKNG

Douze Studio Dresden

Empire Press

f2design

Furturtle Show Prints

Ghost-Town Studios

GIGART

Gigposters.com

guyburwell

Hero Design Studio

Hosco Press

Idiot or Genius?

Industry Print Services

Insurgent Arts

James Flames

Jason Munn

John Howard / Monkeyink

Kevin Tong Illustration

Kollective Fusion

La-La Land Posters

Landland

Lil Tuffy

Lure Design

MadPixel

Magnificent Beard

Mercerrock

Methane Studios, Inc

Micah Smith

Mig Kokinda

Mike Budai

Mike King/Crash Design

Nakatomi

Nevada Hill

OchoLocoPress

Pedal Printing

Powerhouse Factories

Powerslide Design Co

Rural Rooster

Sandusky Bay Poster Works

Shawn Knight

The Silent Giants

South Austin Popular Culture Cen…

Squeegeeville.com

STANDARD DELUXE

strawberryluna

Subject Matter Studio

Tara McPherson – Cotton Candy Ma…

Todd Slater

Two Arms Inc

UKPA

Uncle Charlie

Under Pressure Screen Printing

Vahalla Studios

VGKids

Voodoo Catbox

Vrooooom Press

Young Monster

 

New music released today: Toro y Moi, “Underneath The Pine”

Click!

Yay! It’s Toro y Moi new release day!

I fell in love with “Still Sound”, one of the songs off of this new record from the South Carolina based Chazwick Bundick, aka Toro y Moi earlier this month and have been waiting with just about still breath for the release of this full length record. Today’s the day. Hooray!

Check out Carpark Records to purchase and support independent music & musicians. Or, hop over to Chaz’s Etsy shop and buy a tote bag with his drawing hand screen printed onto a bag that comes with a digital download card of  “Underneath The Pine” here.

And fall in love with “Still Sound” above.

Stunning posters for Aronofsky’s Black Swan

Being a poster artist for me essentially also means being a fan & student of the history and art of posters, no matter what, where, when & for whom. In my case? Also being a bit of a film nut (to put it mildly), means that yeah, I’m really impressed by these absolutely amazing posters designed by London based outfit La Boca for Darren Aronofsky’s new film Black Swan. Which, I can’t wait to finally go see, as it looks incredibly cool & creepy. Holy spooky mirrors.

Add in my undying love for some good old-fashioned propagandist style & design, and poof! The perfect recipe of awesome was born with these masterful pieces. And while the photo-based posters (of which there a many striking and excellent ones too), are also incredible, I’m just floored by this set of graphic & illustrated posters. What a bold set they make and how well they work in tandem as well as on their own. It’s perfection. Hope that you dig them too.

Edit/add: Thanks to our pal Cameron of Two Duck Disco for letting us know that these posters were created by La Boca out of London. Cheers!