JOYENGINE: cause sharing is cool

Some people just never cease to amaze me, and when I saw this finalized and colored, it blew me away. Oscar Woodruff’s dark and detailed illustration style carries over to vector really well, almost adding a lighter feel to it, without any loss of energy. TEEBEE posted the black and white a few months back, but the final version takes it a few steps further… Twisted! Keep an eye on this guy for sure…

Yep.  We’re doin’ it.  SBD and I.  Ridin’ fixed gears to Lefavor’s to celebrate our independence – from oil, or something like that…  This may be my last blog post.  So, Happy 4th!!!  If we make it… we’ll be meetin’ up with Alex and Mr. Shaeffer and takin’ in 7 cities worth of fireworks from Scot’s roooftop deck, Hopefully… droppin’ in on DJ Z Trip, hittin’ up Shitty’s show at The Shoppe, poppin’ in on Andenken, kickin’ Saturday at the “Super Fresh Block Party” – and gettin’ all arty with Lefavor and friends. Independence Day… hmm…

To those of you that have my back, and you know who you are, I’ve got yours.  Any time, any place.  But, you already knew that.  To  the rest of you, you work for me now.  Did you know that?  Or, did you not realize? Regardless, thanks for all the free labor at the expense of your employers, wives, children, and your own personal sanity.  In a world where time is an invaluable commodity, I couldn’t ask for more.  What a day.  I love you MOM! You did 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.

My good friend and coworker Todd Berger aka TEEBEE finished up a nice little piece last week. It’s really a little piece of history as the painting is actually the table top on which Todd made the vast majority of his artwork in 2007 – including everything for his “Space Travelers and Other Affiliated Intergalactic Shit” show. Todd pulled our crafty ass carpenter buddy Mike Dunn aka Big Mike D to build a nasty custom frame – Mike also built all the custom frames for Josh Holland’s “Adaptation” show. It’s pretty amazing how a messy ass table top really comes together with a sick ass frame. The piece was a wedding present and has been hung in the newly wed’s house, but I managed to snag some pics before it left the office. Check it:

The crew behind cypher13, Alex Henry, Lucian “small-but-dangerous” Foehr, and teebee, just wrapped up their new microsites.  They’re fun and they were fun to make.  Well for the most part, Mr. Henry handled all the animation and well… got a little nippy near the end, but whatever.  More from cypher13 coming soon – the new c13 site should drop by mid April.  Oh yeahhhh!!!

INDY from the United Kingdom popped into the shop this week after a sneaker & streetwear hunting trip to NYC. He happened to see some of our custom kicks lyin’ around and decided he needed a pair. He ran out and picked up some white on white adidas Superstars. TEEBEE got after it last night and threw down a super fresh firey 3-stripe fade. Hope homey like’s ‘em.

Big”Ant” Hull, host of Mania TV’s Rapper’s Delight and The Hit List dropped a pair of Blazers by for some customization, albeit minimal. It was dope to get up on some kix for Anthony. Ant’s been busy holdin’ down some serious interviews with the likes of Aesop Rock, Guru, and the Grammy award winning MC, Chamillionaire. Over the course of Anthony’s young and burgeoning career he’s interviewed a seriously heavy cast of characters. You can check out most of Mr. Hull’s interviews here. Homey is a busy man and makin’ moves. Looks like it’s time for us to tackle the 2 pairs of Alifes he plopped on us last week.

It’s been awesome workin’ with Tee & Cakes and gettin’ to run some art up in their spot. We’re gonna be collab’n on some cupcake posters soon. Sit tight! But, they’re not our only arty/designerly friends bakin’ up a storm… The Shoppe in Denver on Colfax is doin’ just the same. They’ve got all sorts of other goodies too. Rumor has it (we’ve still yet to make it down, pathetic – we know) that their collection of design books(which are all for sale) is second to none! Anyway, we kinda felt like we needed to balance out our cupcake love, so teebee turned one of our Tee & Cakes cupcakes into a special little painting just for the Shoppe! We can’t wait to give it to Josh today!!! Yeah.

We, JoyEngine & cypher13’s founders – b.k.a. as Alex Henry, TEEBEE, and small-BUT-dangerous are preppin’ to drop our new personal sites soon. We got all excited, got crankin’, then reality hit and it was time to do some real work. Anyway, they’ll be chock full of new work, thoroughly redesigned and hittin’ the web soon. Peace.

We hammered out a grip of magnets for the Magnet Mafia’s Austrian invasion.  This magnet by TEEBEE found it’s way on to a local televsion set.  Pretty hot placement.  The Mafia’s blowin’ up!

It’s not all of the hair that surprises me, it’s the fact that this ad will never gain the recognition it should. The slogan says it all, “Going places no one has ever dreamed of…” and thats exactly what JoyEngine is doing. They are driving the artsy starship through the creative galaxy and deserve quite a bit of respect for steering this bitch through the dust and darkness. So here it is, a little something from me to them.

If you’re curious how TEEBEE got in such good shape for this ad, it’s all an optical illusion. I think the lights are reflecting off of his body hair in just the right way to make him looked all trained and shaped. Make it known that, although this is the first of its kind in JE advertising, it sure won’t be the last time. Who knows maybe it’ll be made into a calender!