Sometime this summer Hemlock Printers contacted me to design their annual set of wrapping paper. I agreed provided they give me carte blanche over the design and they decided to trust me. I wanted to create something that was festive, but completely non-denominational, and not even "Seasonal". So no snowflakes, or Santa, or bells etc., and no red, green or gold. So I decided on a very bright yellow as my dominant colour, with silver.

I had a number of ideas for the theme of each wrapping paper, but I decided on doing something with kittens, trucks and big machinery, cake decorations, and flames. I figured that would cover a wide range of tastes and sensibilities.

They have a standard die of the container/box it comes in, and I designed that too. In the spirit of a surprise gift, there's very little indication on the outside of what's inside. It's very simple, plain white with four symbols on the front.

When you open it up, yellow, silver and black flames come from the sides, while the top and bottom flaps have perforated tags: again something to suit everyone.

Open it further and the whole thing is on fire on the inside, revealing the first of the wrapping paper sheets.

The box contains 2 sheets each of all four wrapping designs:

I've made a separate post for each of the designs so you can see them in more detail here:

"Cake Decorations"
"Fire"
"Big Machinery"
"Kittens"

Hemlock sent about 2700 of these out to their friends and clients across North America. If you're on their mailing list, I hope you enjoyed this year's wrapping papers. I had a lot of fun making them. Oh, and the good folks at Hemlock tell me they've received an overwhelming positive response!

This is the second of the wrapping papers I did for Hemlock Printers in Vancouver. It's a toss-up whether this or "Cake Decorations" is my favourite. It's called "Fire", and it's printed in CMYK and flourescent yellow.

A detail:

The full sheet:

This is the fourth of the wrapping papers I designed for Hemlock Printers in Vancouver. I've been wanting to do something with kittens for a long time (this uses stock photography from Shutterstock), so this was my chance: Kittens! Who doesn't love kittens? Printed CMYK with silver background and spot gloss.

The folded sheet as they first see it, above.

Some of the kitten twirls, below:

And the full sheet:

OK, this is it. This is the best thing I've made in a while ... that wasn't rejected, anyway. When the good folks at Lynda.com asked to do a documentary on me, that was fun enough, but when they asked for me to do an animation for the end credits, I was super happy, because not only did I get to do something I'd never done before, but I also got to honour the great people who worked on the video. (Original music by Reg Powell, as noted.)

I made it by creating all the frames in illustrator, and then handing those files over to Lynda.com to compile into a moving image. Magic! People often ask me about doing animation but usually they're thinking of something that grows organically ... you know, that growing swirling thing. I couldn't be less interested. 

However, what I did want to do was show how I work with systems and parts. So the animations on these evolve into and devolve out of letterforms that are created from a pattern system.

The lettering is pretty much illegible until the last frame, when it comes clear, pauses, and then starts to disintegrate again.

There's alos a pattern transition between each credit.

Piles of fun, with thanks, as always to the folks at Lynda.com.

This is my latest piece for my regular "column" with Varoom Magazine. The theme for this issue is "Next", which is one of my least favourite subjects these days, as it's been on my mind. So I created a piece that shows the direction that some of my work is taking, with bold, unusual layouts, and mixed media. Then I wrote a small diatribe about my fears of  the subject of "next" and printed them in tiny type in the design. 

With this issue, Varoom went to a tabloid size, and as this is on a double-page spread, it's quite large.

This detail shows my true feelings about "next" with "I DON'T KNOW", which i embellished onto a fan with nail polish.

Another detail which almost—almost!—shows the type.

For our participation in the OFFF Conference in Barcelona this year, we were asked to create a piece on the subject ot "Time", At least I think it was "Time", or was it "Future"? I forget. In any case I made this 2-page spread of Infinity.

Here's a detail:

Sarah Habibi from Criterion (YES!) hired me to do this cover for Satyajit Ray's "The Mirror Room" (1958). She sent me the film (which I really enjoyed), and in it there was a chandelier which seemed to represent what we might call "old India" and the ways of the central character.

So I made a simple pattern based on chandelier crystals which I could use to make the image of the chandelier and the type.

Above, the DVD cover. Below, the booklet cover.

To order the movie for yourself, get it from Criterion!

I worked with Carolina Soderholm at Bruce Mau Design to develop this patterny thing for the Dorado Beach resort in Puerto Rico. Meant to somehow evoke a luxurious, elegant, lush jungle, it works with their logo both as single, free-form embellishment, and as a full-on tiling pattern.

I believe that they covered a wall in it somewhere, but I don't have any pictures. 

And here is the project on Bruce Mau's site.

Michael Salu, the Art Director for Granta Publications in the UK hired me to do this cover for Chris Adrian's A Better Angel. (Showing front cover and spine.) It's a companion piece for Adrian's The Great Night.

It's that time of year again, and herewith are my 2011 Valentines. Because this Valentine thing has gotten a little out of control in a covetous way, I thought it would be nice if I was able to give people multiple valentines that were all similar but slightly different, so they could keep one or two for themselves and still have a few to give away. So I created a modular heart with which I could easily make 10 variations, and as well I made a heart that says "Remember when we were young, we used to give Valentines to all our friends." (My best friend's 7-yr-old did not get this at all, repeatedly saying "But we do give Valentines to our friends." Yeah, wait 'til you're older, kid.)

So here's the press sheet:

Each person got one of the following in either blue or pink:

And then they got 4 or 5 different Valentine hearts. As I said, they are supposed to give them away, but it seems people like to hoard them! These are Kim Berlin's at Sterling Brands:

Kirsten Skipp has added one to a shrine:

Mark Mushet might have given the rest away like a good boy ...

Nik Hafermass has added his to his growing collection:

Stanley Hainsworth has made an odd justaposition:

Darling Tan Le is ready to cash in:

But the amazing Stefan Bucher really knew what to do! ... crazy kid!!

The process for making these was documented by  Lynda.com. in this VIDEO! 

With big thanks to David White and Scott Erickson and all the folks at Lynda.com.

You might be wondering how you get on my Valentine list. The answer is it's tough. This is a monumental effort for me each year so I'm not anxious to expand the list. However, hiring me and paying me gobs of cash is a pretty sure bet. ;)

It's been a long time in the process and making, but here is the first of my fabric designs for Maharam.

Maharam is a very high end fabric company, mostly for the trade (architects, interior designers) with “a strong focus on new technologies and cultural markers, often finding inspiration beyond the textile industry, including collaborations with avant-garde industry outsiders.” That would be me.

This is a fabric built for seating, and is made of 34% Rayon, 33% Cotton & 33% Polyester. Its durability is listed as "40,000+ double rubs", which is a lot of rubbing, if you ask me.

And it comes in 7 amazing colours. I am particularly excited about the red, the red-brown and that stunning turquoise!

To see this and all the specs, or order it, go to the Maharam Virtual Library, click on the first Upholstery binder, click on the index at top right, and scroll through to "Centric" (it's alphabetical). At the moment they don't have a picture of it, but they will soon, I'm sure.

This is the art for an ad I did for the company Sunday, in the UK, with their tagline.

Jen Beckman and Sara Distin asked me to take part in their 20x200 project: wherein they create art prints for reasonable prices by a wide variety of artists, and new work going up every few days (or is it every day? I can't tell).

The art comes in different sizes, and usually you just get a bigger version of whatever the print is. But to me it seemed that the more you spend, the more you should get ... so above is what you get in the 8x10 (inches) size for $20, and below is what you get in the 11x14 size for $50 ...

Big spenders can buy even more, at 16x20 for $200 ...

And if you have a lot of wall space, or you're greedy, or rich, or all three, you can spend $2,000 and get this 30x40 inch baby ...

Buy them at 20x200!

Penguin and the RED charity joined forces on a special series of Penguin Classics, and Jim Stoddart at Penguin Books in the UK, asked me to be one of several designers creating typographic covers from words in each novel. I chose Sons and Lovers by D. H. Lawrence, with the words "I couldn't give her up now." You can read what you want into it.

This is painted in oils, which I haven't done in a while, so I was quite pleased with how it turned out. So was Jim. He sent me an email that was so effusive I thought maybe he was being sarcastic.

I did this in May, but the book only just arrived in my mailbox.