Target Bullseye Flyer

September 30, 2010

My recent work with Target includes the Bullseye Flyer — a balsa glider, fold-out landing strip, and pilot’s license GiftCard all in one package. The graphics feature Bullseye, the retailer’s puppy mascot which I’ve had the privilege of illustrating in recent years.

Many thanks to art directors Ted Halbur and Brian Holt for yet another fun project and a cool toy for my two young boys (and me)!

The Bullseye Flyer is available at Target stores and online while supplies last.

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Animal Alphabet Poster

August 29, 2010

The animals from my illustrated box set of Animal Alphabet Note Cards are now featured in poster format, also published by Card Sharks. All 26 animals from A to Z are represented on the 13″x19″ Epson print ideal for any kids room.

Order your favorite kid a print at the Card Sharks storefront where you’ll find the box sets of animal notecards too!

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Chinese Cigarette Cards

July 31, 2010

On my Asian travels this summer, I came across some reprints of vintage illustrated cigarette cards. I thought I’d share this extraordinary printed ephemera here.

Cigarette cards originated in the U.S. in 1875 and were introduced to China nineteen years later by Britain’s Wills Company. British and American firms dominated China’s tobacco and card market; only in 1904 were cigarette cards first issued by a Chinese company, the Shanghai San Sin Cigarette Co., Ltd. which was established to offer a domestic alternative to foreign-made cigarettes.

The manufacturers hoped to engage customers with a wide variety of illustrated and photographed themes including Chinese folk tales, proverbs, games, nature, art, drama, physical culture, and trades.

The cards in the photo above were originally produced by the American Tobacco Company of the United States which came to Shanghai in the late 1890s to distribute its Pin Head brand cigarettes in partnership with the Shanghai Jinlong Trading Company.

The back of the original Pin Head cards can be seen here — from the New York Public Library’s rather comprehensive digital gallery of cigarette cards from the world over.

In the 1930s, at the height of cigarette cards’ popularity in China, there were over 400 tobacco companies in Shanghai alone. By the Second World War however, the British and Americans had stopped issuing cigarette cards as giveaways and the Chinese card market wound down with the founding of the PRC in 1949. In the 1950s, cigarette card production ceased altogether in China and internationally.

Coincidentally (or not), I came across these reprints in the great tobacco capital of Shanghai. I’ll be looking out for original vintage ones next time I’m back in that part of the world. Here’s a flickr set of Chinese Opera Mask-themed cigarette cards I’m particularly enamored with, posted by A Journey Round My Skull. Enjoy.

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A Hundred Monkeys Poster

June 22, 2010

Need something named? Erik the Red suggests checking out A Hundred Monkeys, a naming and branding company that creates names you can sink your teeth into.

Photo by Michael Croxton.

My rough-edged viking and Brent Croxton‘s design make up the two-color screen-printed promotional poster commissioned by A Hundred Monkeys founder Danny Altman.

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MoMA Modern Play House and Family

May 15, 2010

Chronicle Books, publisher of the MoMA Modern Play House and Family, asked me to lend a hand in designing this unique children’s toy for the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

Four possible play house combinations. The family is visible in the upper right arrangement.

The play house consists of a set of modular nesting boxes with walls, flooring, furniture, lighting and other home accessories to create any number of modern space arrangements. My input focused on developing the family of five figures that inhabit the space with over 150 mix-and-match vinyl cling clothes, a cat, a dog, and a doghouse.

MoMA Modern Play House’s principal designers were Chronicle Books creative director Michael Carabetta and children’s design director Kristine Brogno. The product was released on May 5 and is part of the MoMA Modern Kids collection.

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CalAcademy Extreme Mammals

April 16, 2010

The California Academy of Sciences’ Extreme Mammals exhibition and the graphics I created for it are now on view. The show originated in New York City’s American Museum of Natural History where I had the opportunity to research this project. Both the AMNH and the Academy deliver on their promise of The Biggest, Smallest, and Most Amazing Mammals of All Time, providing great material to illustrate.

previous CalAcademy work which continues to be featured on apparel and merchandise throughout the museum’s three retail stores. The main Extreme Mammals image, shown above, features (clockwise from left): the extinct shrew-like Batodonoides, the smallest mammal ever documented, which weighed less than a twentieth of an ounce or the equivalent of a dollar bill; Indricotherium, an ancient rhinoceros-relative that was the largest mammal to walk the Earth; Homo sapiens; pangolin; Smilodon skeleton; platypus; and Ambulocetus, a “walking whale.”

The graphics were commissioned by creative director Rhonda Rubinstein who I had the pleasure of working with on the original theme illustrations for the Academy’s graphic wall panels, retail products, and print collateral.

Extreme Mammals is on view through September 12, 2010 at the California Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco.

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Target GiftCoins

February 1, 2010

Another recent Target release I worked on are their all-new GiftCoins which, as the packaging describes, are GiftCards with a twist (and a nifty new way to be gifty!).

The colorful medallions are sold in sets of five $5 GiftCoins featuring Bullseye the
Target dog as a king, cowboy, knight, pirate, and explorer.

Best of all, Target donates $2 of every GiftCoin set purchase to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

Much thanks to art director Julie Hoppner and the Target creative team for another fun project!

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Target Holiday GiftCards

January 4, 2010

Happy new year! Target and I marked the holidays with two festive GiftCards: a die-cut design featuring Bullseye the store’s bull terrier mascot, and an illustrated candy tin containing real (and real good) M&M’s.

Special thanks to Ted Halbur for his awesome art direction on these and many past projects. We have some more cool stuff in the works right now. Look for them here and at your local Target store soon!

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New Collaborations With Lili

December 29, 2009

My wife Lili Ong and I often collaborate as a designer-illustrator team on various printmaking and graphics projects. Among our favorite materials is fabric, which we return to time and again to create characters, toys, and books with.

Percivale, front and back.

Our latest fabric project is a series of hand-made plush toy owls, debuting with four prototypes named Percivale, Lancelot, Arthur and Galahad. They take their names from Nights of the Round Table, a perennial favorite of classic owl literature.

Lancelot, front and back.

Our production process starts with my drawings which Lili then translates into patterns for cutting cloth and assembling the dimensional figures. As our nocturnal noblemen take shape, we improvise with colors and textures through to the stitching and final details.

Arthur, front and back.

Each of the owls is awake on one side and asleep on the other. They are embellished with rare vintage buttons and feature unique motifs and personalities.

Galahad, back and front.

Percivale, Lancelot, and Galahad are currently on exhibit at Gallery Hanahou in New York City through January 9. The space is located in SoHo’s landmark Cable Building and is managed by CWC, the creative agency that represents my illustration work Japan.
Visit Gallery Hanahou at 611 Broadway (at Houston), Suite 730, New York NY 10012 |
tel. 646.486.6586 | [email protected]

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Wimbledon 2009

September 30, 2009

#2060-44 Tennis Player icon-450x312

This summer saw the debut of fifty graphic icons I designed for the 2009 Wimbledon Championships. They were featured in an array of tournament literature such as the Ticket Holders’ Guide, Media Guide, Competitors’ Guide, and others. The designs also appeared
on signage and kiosks throughout the All England Club where the games have been held since 1877. I’m expecting photos of the signage and will post them as soon as they arrive!

#2060-33 Bars icon-450x312

The project was commissioned by Jules Akel, a nice bloke working out of a thoroughly awesome studio space in Dalwhinnie in the Highlands of Scotland. Jules is a real pleasure to work with and I’m honored to be involved with the world’s oldest tennis tournament.

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