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A recent design features Gordie and Kenny. Brothers. The client I was working with knew a thing or two about design and offered up plenty of good ideas for inspiration. I requested photos and backstories for each.
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Gordie, Gordie Gooze, or simply, The Gooze. Ex-football player that could have gone pro if not for an unfortunate injury that took him out of the game way too early. He is now a software developer for Microsoft and has done alright for himself.
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Kenny, or Kenneth Fuzzbums III, as he insists upon being called, has himself firmly established in society's upper-crust. He owns a yacht, reads The Economist, and spends his vacations sunning in the Riviera.
Now that I had my subjects, it was time to consider the design.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bauhaus |
The client mentioned Eames and Bauhaus among her favorite design influences. Bauhaus was an art & design school in Germany from 1919-1933. The Bauhaus School taught that art must serve a function as well as decoration. I am familiar with the impact it had on western art and design long after it was closed.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_and_Ray_Eames |
Charles and Ray Eames were a husband and wife design team whose work in architecture, furniture and film influenced post-modern design throughout the latter half of the twentieth century. I didn't know a lot about them, but some research suggested that their work was also about combining form and function.
Among the design styles influenced by The Bauhaus School was the hugely popular Art Deco style from the 1920's-40's. I have always had a fondness for Art Deco. Mostly because of the 1927 Fritz Lang film Metropolis and its obvious connection to Superman. Also, the superior Superman and Batman animated series from the 90's were designed around Art Deco. If you are a total nerd, you know what I am talking about.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolis_(film)
The linear symmetry and geometric shapes of the Bauhaus style can be seen all over Art Deco, but where Bauhaus and the Eames' strived to combine form and function, Art Deco just has to look pretty.
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With these things in mind with respect to that design period, I produced a variety of sketches and marker roughs ranging from silly to sophisticated to start generating ideas. I posted a few.
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It was meant to be
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Do they!?!?
After some discussion I had a pretty good idea of where to go next. I made two more roughs to be sure.
The client had suggested 'Fat Cat Wine Bar' as a possible title. I was hesitant to label either cat in such a way. I'm sure Kenneth would have been more than a little offended and Gordie is always asking where the weight room is. I thought it was best to play it cool.
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The Art Deco font combined with the almost Art Nouveau quality of the linework of the one on the left seemed to fit most with this design period.
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To prepare the surface, I hand-sanded the front and back smooth and gave the edges a nice 3-dimensional bevel with a sanding block. I primed it with BIN, used black acrylic for the back and the edges and white acrylic for the surface.
I cut the stencils out of adhesive vinyl and masked the edges for the black and red accents.
Gordie and Kenny were hand-painted with a brush utilizing varying line weights for added depth.
After all that, I sealed it with many many coats of a durable water-based poly-urethane. I knew traditional oil-based urethane would have caused the white surface to 'yellow' considerably.
That gives an idea of the process from start to finish. They're fun to make. I almost prefer them to traditional framed portraits. It is a lot more work, but it's nice not to have to mess with frames and glass. Having great input from the client makes the process a lot more fun.
Thanks for stopping by and I will see you again soon.
Dave
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