JOYENGINE: cause sharing is cool

The most recent publication of the Logo Lounge series – Logo Lounge 5, has just been published. Among the “2,000 International Identities by Leading Designers” are logos from cypher13 and Brian Krezel. Get your copy online or support your local independent bookstore.

This may be a bit premature, as the piece is incomplete, but I think Krez’ll let me off the hook…  Brian has been workin’ some real magic with his Cintiq tablet.  His latest sneaker illustrations (which are too top-secret to share, but will hopefully be seen here eventually…) are seriously off the hook.  Krezel has taken his newly evolved style of digital painting, adapted specifically for sneaker rendos and applied it to some new, personal illustration.  This piece is unfinished, but clearly headed for glory.  Personally, I hold my breath for little gems like this from Krez to land in my inbox.  Exhale.

I sent Krezel some awesome robot sites the other day. 24hrs later this showed up in my email. It’s just a sketch, but Brian says he’ll be finishing it up. If you aren’t totally familiar with Krez and his crazy illustration talent, this will clear things up for you (sorry Brian, no pressure).

Brian Krezel really is amazing.  Krez definitely makes into the “top young designers of our time” category.  He has an uncanny knack for downplaying his capabilities and then producing brilliant results.  Over and over and over again.  From technology-laden footwear design to feature-rich outwear to tech vector illustration and character design, plain old pen or pencil to paper, and still stellar with a brush after a lot of years… We’re always stoked to hang with Krezel and be around his work.  We can’t wait to see how his finished S&F™ family takes shape.  Wow!

Although I tend to post mostly art related things, personal scribbles and illustrations, most of my time professionally is spent designing consumer product. From Footwear and apparel, to packs and equipment, I create some of the stuff you buy at the local snowboard shop or get at REI. The bummer of it all is though, that I am always working on it 16 months before it hits the streets. Because of this, I have to wait a while to show much of my work to the public. Bummer.

While recently doing a little portfolio update, I realized I should post some of it, even if it is not super current. If there is interest, I’ll continue with more posts documenting the process of making “things” for mass production, as well as giving some insight as to how all this stuff that fills our closets with actually gets made. I have been fortunate enough to be involved in all aspects of the process, and think it may be of interest. Here’s a few concept renderings I did for Converse for the basketball and cross training lines. I’ll get more process stuff going next week as time permits…

If you happen to be up North, Step into PHOTOLICIOUS! Fort Collins has a thriving art scene, and tonight is no exception with the talented HARPER POINT photography studio throwing their inagural gallery show in conjunction with the RoundHouse Gallery, amongst others. Word on the street is that I was convinced to hang some work as well at the last minute….Check it out if you are in the ‘Fort. 116 N. College ave…

Figure now that it is finished I should put it up, right?Full pic up top and detail at the bottom… Maybe some prints available soon?

Since leaving Sid Factor Seven and going solo Brian Krezel has been a busy man.   He’s been doin’ some remodeling to his pad and getting his home studio all dialed in.  After a steady foray into woodworking and gettin’ gritty for a bit Krez seems to be ready to get back to his roots and start pushin’ out his signature illlustrations.  Here’s a sneak peek at what Brian is startin’ to get after… keep in mind that these little nasties were most likely done yesterday afternoon while jacked on coffee, in not much more time than it takes to run a load of laundry.  When you’re good… you’re just good.

I received a rather intriquing email from my buddy Lifter Baron this morning. He’d stumbled upon a graphic designers portfolio containing what seemed to be a sad and blatant ripoff of an illustration Brian Krezel created for a collaborative piece we worked on together for an opening I had at Installation Shoe Gallery. I went in for a closer look and stopped by http://downpour.identico.org, and yep sure enough homey totally ripped Krez’s storkmaster and integrated him into a snowboard design for Salomon? Perhaps even for Salomon’s design contest? Seems like he went one step further and stole a little Sam Flores steez for the torso. Drawing inspiration from someone, somewhere, or something is one thing, but straight up copying… well, that’s another.

Oh, for those of you that have yet to realize, in this Digital Age we’re living in, the “world wide web” really is worldwide – with eyes on the prize 24/7.

Note: (top image) Comparison of the Storkmaster piece and Downpour’s snowboard. (bottom image) A scan of Krezel’s original storkmaster sketch prior to adjustment.

Upon falling in love with his new iPhone, the illustrative force that is Brian Krezel couldn’t help but crank out some seriously righteous wallpaper and send it our way. Never one to shy from collaboration and steppin’ up to support his extended fam… We’re deeming Brian the official SPONSOR of what’s soon to be the new JoyEngine iPhone Wallpaper Gallery. Thanks for the inspiration Krez! Until the gallery is up and running(some time next week) we’re making Krezel’s wallpaper immediately available for download, so click away…

1. Your’re Doomed 2. The Clones 3. Audio Propaganda 4. JoyEngine Japan 5. The Puppet No More 6. Nike SB 7. The Samurai 8. The Geisha 9. Fangs

 Basic Instructions:
1. Save the image to your desktop
2. Drag the image into iPhoto
3. Create an iPhone album and put the wall paper there
4. Plug in your iPhone/iPod touch
5. In iTunes set your iPhone/iPod touch to sync to your iPhone album
6. On your iPhone/iPod touch go to your pictures and set it as your wallpaper.

Brian Krezel, formerly of Sid Factor Seven has gone rogue. He’s now runnin’ his own graphic and product design program, flyin’ solo. Seems like Krez needed a change. He’s startin’ his solo career off right with a recent request from our bro Jason Herzog, owner of Edifice Gallery, to obtain some cover art for the CO Springs alternative periodical, Newspeak. Herzog hooked it up and Krezel’s pink Trooper adorns the most recent issue. Krez is already busy and workin’ on some awesome projects. Keepsyour eyes peeled for Brian to get settled and start playing in the art world a bit more… uhhh-ohhh… scary!!!

Brian Krezel is at it again. And so is Todd Berger. We just got some pics of a dope new painting that they’ve been working on and from what it looks like, it just keeps getting better and better. Here are some working shots and we threw in a couple of detail pics just to wet your palatte until TB’s show tommorow night at Installation.

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