So if you know who I'm talking about, then you probably know Ditko is a tad on the reclusive side.  His style was so opposite of Kirby, yet just as dramatic but more surreal.  Unlike Kirby, Ditko took an opposite stance in commenting on the state of the comic book industry and his own legacy.  He remained quiet.

So when it was announced there was a BBC 4 documentary coming out called "In Search of Steve Ditko", I'm sure a lot of folks, like myself, got a bit excited to watch.  Finally some insight into his life.

I first got turned onto Ditko's work from Marvel Tales reprints in the 80's.  It was in those early Amazing Spider-Man stories that I fell in love with his quirky style (and even quirkier double jointed out-stretched hands everyone seemed to possess).

Be sure to check out the documentary on You Tube (while it lasts).  Its gone viral, so if you don't find it at first, keep searching, it will be hard to miss.  It is broken up into 7 parts, so make sure you watch them in order.

The above image is from a children's series called The Adventures of Wink & Blink that I worked on back in 2004 through 2005 creating conceptual backgrounds and other elements for the show.  To help with the process, I turned to CGI to create certain elements to help flesh out my designs.  What I got in the end was a hybrid of digitally painted CGI shots. To accomplish this I used Blender, a free and open source 3D application, Photoshop and my now deceased Wacom tablet (don't worry, I've since purchased others).

Let me state, I am not a 3D animator or modeler, I just know the basics.  I'm akin more to the weekend builder. That guy who Googles home improvement tutorials, prints them out, then goes to Home Depot Sunday morning to attempt play Tim "The Tool Man" Taylor for the weekend.

Since 2005, I have revisited Blender for a few other commercial projects.  While there are some limitations to the software, I'm perfectly content with it.  I mean, lets face it, the program is free, why complain?

The late 60's and 70's had some of the best animated commercials.  They weren't always slick or rendered out to perfection, many times suffering from the limitations from that era.  If you squinted, you could probably even find some actual blood, sweat and tears in some frames. From the monotone coffee can audio to the rough pencil line work, these 30 second spots have a soft spot in my heart.

It was brought to my attention over at Mark Evanier's site of a CGI version that exists which uses the same audio from the original spot that ran in 1970's but with fluid 3D animation.

My instant knee-jerk reaction was of declaring "blasphemy".  I'm not against the use of CGI, but I feel it is a medium that has been overused. 

So I start Googling the whole issue behind the creation of the spot and as you could have probably guessed, the reaction was mostly negative.  Let me pause here and say I didn't find one individual in the spot's targeted age demographic (probably from age 5 to 12) that complained or even cared.  It was the 30 to 45 year old crowd who seemed to have the biggest issue.  Last I checked, Tootsie Roll Pops weren't something I actively pursued when shopping.  Perhaps maybe Tootsie Roll was more interested in developing an ad for the youth market more accustomed to CGI.  Perhaps Tootsie Roll was more concerned about, gasp, selling more Tootsie Roll Pops!

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A lot of designers/artists have two inner styles, the style they want to be and the style they really are.

It is all to common to overhear one remark "this is me doing DePalma", or "this is me in my Warhol stage".  I think these moments are good to get it out of one's system as long as you don't strive to become that creator.  For example, recently I had to get Saul Bass out of my system.  I was handed a project to create poster art for a small music festival in my hometown.  In a what the hell moment, I went with the classic Bass look (at least my interpretation).  Not once did I try to claim this was me, in fact, I used that common little phrase many like to use:  "yeah, that was me doing Saul Bass".  Of course, in East Texas, the term "doing Saul Bass" can be quite offensive and misconstrued.

Saul Bass' style was never one I wanted to absorb, my emulation of his style was purely an homage to his greatness.  However, when I was 13, I did want to be the French artist Moebius.  I cloned his style perhaps too much in those days, including the clothing he dressed his characters in (which were these tall flat-top hats with chin straps).

At best, I was a poor man's Moebius, and already there were several artists out there cloning his work better than I was.  For the benefit of the world, I eventually outgrew this.

Other artist and designers came and went, but through all this searching, I eventually gave up trying to find myself.  The advertising world can really kill individuality, which isn't necessarily a bad thing.  Personally, I enjoy the challenge.  You never get stuck doing one thing on a daily basis.  It allows you dabble in whatever medium that suits your client or project best. A profession that pays you to experiment ain't half bad.

Now I've always been a doodler.  Even to this day in meetings, if I'm not taking notes, then I'm doodling between my bullet points and flow charts.  What I didn't realize that my true style secretly lived within the margins of my note taking.  Its been there since day one.  These "doodles", no matter how rough, was an extension of me in my most rawest form.  They were effortless to produce, unlike many of the other styles I have emulated for other people.

I wasn't illustrating for someone, I was illustrating for me.

So what was my style?  Seeing how I am of the nostalgic sort, I guess it was only fitting that my inner style was the same.  Think of a cross between those "How many licks?" Toosie Roll pop commercials and Shel Silverstein.  It was a lot simpler than I had hoped for, but hey, it was what I was comfortable in doing and it felt right.

My style stayed private for years, but finally surfaced in the key art for the film The Sandpiper and also in animated form for the opening credits of the movie.  I've since gone on, evolving my style a bit, and using it on various other projects.  Currently I'm illustrating a children's book which is a new endeavor within itself.

Now, if I was to wrap this up, it would come off as cheesy, something Mike Brady would tell the rest of the Brady clan after they've managed to screw up and humiliate Alice in the process.  No matter how lame this may sound, always remember to "be yourself".

Sometimes, we're not who we thought or wanted to be, but take the inner artist and evolve and develop that style into something of your own.  This is a process that even still toying with.

Wow, the cheese factor is really high today, isn't it?

Inflection on the web is tough.  I've insulted countless people (mainly my wife) because my comments in IM or an email have been construed as smart-ass.  You see, I'm relatively new to using Mr.Smiley :-), he probably surfaced into my typing around 2004 I guess.  Who knew he's been around for a quarter of a century.

Happy birthday, Mr.Smiley, you''re 25 years young.

Personally, I've always preferred his nasally challenged cousin, :), there was something more groovy about him (less characters=less complex).  It was a tough road to integrate anyone in his family into my daily correspondence.  I felt like a 13 year old girl.  I'm a man.  I eat beef.  I own a riding lawn mower.  Men don't use Mr.Smiley!

Around 2004, I guess I grew tired of the inflection issue, got over the 13 year old girl complex and adopted him.  Since that time, I've even started using other emoticons and abbreviations, and my wife introduced me to his promiscuous sister, (0)(0)

You can read more about his creation here. 

:-)

RGB gives a designer the most freedom.  Since you have a palette of 16.7 million colors, your only problem is having too many choices of hues.  Even Photoshop works better since there is much more flexibility in rendering your images the way you want them (lighting and layer effects come to mind, as well as how layer transparencies effect other layers and color temperature).

Of course, when the time comes to shift your work into a CMYK spectrum when preparing for prepress, thats where the real problem comes in.  Sometimes no matter how much you adjust curves and color balance, the dynamics of your art is lost in the translation from RGB to CMYK.

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Within the first page, I already know if it will be a good one or not (it isn't rocket science), and I know that I'm going to have to crush that individual's hope and say "no".  What kills me though, is that I'm not going to be the only rejection they'll receive that day.

Within these batches of mockups and doodles, the best is bad Photoshop art.  This stuff is like crack for me.  There is something to be said about the dirty looking bevel that has been applied to a dog (yes, a bevel on a real dog), or the use of an outer glow on an elderly man in a grocery store.

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There is a lot of snobbery by some for utilizing such tools, but you'll find that negative rhetoric coming from those feeling they have something to prove, or those who have yet stepped into the creative field as an actual career. Hell, I probably used to be a critic, too. I think that side finally died.

Face it, we live with deadlines, and we're expected to be 100% creative, original and fresh at the drop of a hat. Yes, that means even at 8:00AM in the morning. Why should one exert themselves and spend precious time on something as trivial as a striped background when you can have the process sped up by an automated process? Use your energy and focus on the bigger elements in your piece.

Remember, its easier and faster to use a wrench than your hands. If that means you can come within budget and under schedule, I can assure you your client will thank you for it.

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I remember in the late 80’s that ABC’s 20/20 ran a piece about the Marvel Bullpen. The climate for comics at that point was in transition thanks to Dark Knight Returns and Watchmen, so the mainstream started touting the phrases such as “comics aren’t for kids anymore” and “comics have grown up”, and the media was quick to see anything relating to comics as newsworthy. I was probably 11 when that spot aired, so at that point I already had it in my head that one day I would be living in New York City as a penciler for Marvel.

I taped that episode and probably watched it daily for months, studying every frame, hopefully discovering any secrets I could devour that would set me on my way for New York after I graduated in 7 years. Stan really poured his heart out in those interviews for 20/20, and I clung onto every single word of his anecdotes. Since then, I’ve heard those same anecdotes, told almost exactly as he did on that segment, again and again.

No matter, because “The Man” can retell the same story like nobody’s business.

Oh, and I never did become a penciler.

Helvetica. The standard in san-serifing of type for 50 years is now a documentary moving through the festival circuit. A film which not only deals with the legacy of the the font face, but how type affects our daily life.

I’m curious how this film plays out, and I’ve heard good buzz about it so far, but the existence of this subject matter in film form brings me to another question. As designers, are we taking ourselves too seriously?