Strawberryluna

Oscar, The Bionic Cat: We’re big fans.

Oscar, showing off his super new bionic back legs.

Oscar, a handsome English gentleman kitty, lost the lower halves of his back legs in a farm accident in October of 2009. In a ground-breaking feline first in Britain, the two-and-a-half year old cat was perfect candidate for a new surgical procedure that could save his life, bionically.

The BBC produced a short documentary of Oscar’s groundbreaking surgery & recovery, the below is a short snippet:

Taken from The Straits Times: Oscar lost at least one of his nine lives when he was run over by a combine harvester last October – but eight months later he has regained a spring in his step. The prosthetic paws were fitted by neuro-orthopaedic surgeon Noel Fitzpatrick, in a three-hour operation involving grafting the replacement legs onto the stumps of Oscar’s remaining bones.

‘The real revolution with Oscar is because we have put a piece of metal and flange into which skin grows into an extremely tight bone,’ said Dr Fitzpatrick, who carried out the surgery last November.

Oscar, climbing the stairs with his little bionic paws, no problem.

‘Oscar can now run and jump about as cats should do.’ His owner Kate Nolan said: ‘We had to do a lot of soul-searching and our main concern has always been whether this operation would be in Oscar’s best interests and would give him a better quality of life.’

Playing with a toy like nothing happened. Oscar rules.

Dear Oscar, keep a sharp eye on your remaining 8 lives little dude. Rock on.

Renegade Craft Fair Brooklyn reminder! Come say hellos!

Just a quick reminder that I will be in Brooklyn, NY this weekend at the fabulous Renegade Craft Fair, and so looking forward to it!

Renegade Craft Fair is one of the premiere independent DIY showcases of all things art, craft, and handmade. Renegade Craft Fairs are held in several cities across the US every year – including Brooklyn, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles & Austin.  The fair is known for being one of the first events of its kind, and for having the top-notch indie-craft artists and designers who travel from all over the map to participate. Renegade got its start in Chicago’s Wicker Park in the fall of 2003, and has spread like wildfire ever since.

With over 300 artists coming together in historic McCarren Park in Brooklyn to sell our handmade work, this year’s Renegade Craft promises to be as amazing as ever, if not more so. There will live music and live craft demonstrations, as well as an hourly raffle of goodies at theEtsy booth too. AND!  Renegade Craft Fair is wide open to the public and 100 % FREE to attend too.

I’m going to have tons of new prints and posters and test prints, as well as lots of other new goodies too. So come say hi! We love love love meeting new friends at shows!

Check it: strawberryluna, Booth #65. Write it down ;) Click the below to see a larger map image.

Click the above to see a larger version of this map!

The Details:

What: Renegade Craft Fair, Brooklyn

When: June 5th & 6th, 2010

Where: McCarren Park, in the Williamsburg neighborhood in Brooklyn, NY at Driggs Ave + Lorimer St. + Bayard St. + Union St. (as above)

Cost: FREE!!!

Why: For cream of the crop handmade awesomeness.

And here is the photo of our little pup Sprite, helping me pack up some of those new Test Prints I mentioned, featured on the Renegade Blog:

Sprite: The best 17lb assistant ever 😉


New poster released – Vetiver at Sasquatch Festival 2010!

2-color, all hand screenprinted poster for the band Vetiver's show at the 2010 Sasquatch Music Festival. (click for more details or to purchase.)

Just released and ready to go! This is my new poster for the band Vetiver, from their Sasquatch Festival show this past weekend at The Gorge on George, Wa.

2010 is the 4th year in a row that I’ve had the pleasure of working with Sasquatch in their poster series that they arrange with the top poster artists from around the country, pairing them up with their favorite bands appearing at Sasquatch each year. We couldn’t be happier that we were paired up with a great band like Vetiver!

This is my 2-color, all hand screenprinted poster for Vetiver with deep brown and sunset-orange, hand mixed and non-toxic water based screenprinting inks. These posters are signed (by me) and numbered. Edition of 90. Size: 16 x22 inches (39.4 cm x 55.9 cm.) Paper: archival Cougar, White 100lb cover weight.

I design & hand screenprint my prints and posters. If you have any questions, just let me know!

My new poster for Vetiver is now available at my website here.

Below are some process photos of this poster being printed by me at my studio, click any image below to see more at my Flickr page too.

Films to burn screens for my Vetiver poster. The left / lighter one is too light, the right / darker one is perfect.

1st color of my poster for Vetiver's Sasquatch Fest show.

Getting set up and registering the 2nd color of my Vetiver poster. (click for more info.)

All done! 2 color, hand screenprinted poster for the band Vetiver. (click for more info.)


Rock, Paper, Show realease party & our first book signing @ The Strand, NYC June 4th.

(click for more info about the Rock Paper Show, Flatstock book)

Next week is going to be a huge, big ridiculous week for us at strawberryluna. And, to boot, it’s in the hugest, biggest, most ridiculous city in the country. So, perfect!

Not only are we doing the Renegade Craft Fair in Brooklyn next weekend, and are participating in the Rock For Kids Poster Artist Interview Series, but, we’ve also amazingly been invited to be a part of the Rock  Paper Show Flatstock book release party on Friday evening, June 4th, 2010. Holy smokes. And to boot, it’s made better by the fact that the release party event is at my absolute favorite bookstore, let alone one of my favorite places on the entire planet. The Strand bookstore in Manhattan! Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! Can’t even believe it. Any time that I am in NYC, I definitely make sure to get into the hallowed walls and rows of The Strand, but this time, not just as a book nerd, but as an artist in the rock poster movement representing Rock Paper Show & Flatstock.

Someone pinch me, cause I must be dreaming.

The one & only Strand Bookstore at 4th & Broadway in Manhattan.

For the special release party and book signing at The Strand bookstore,  Geoff Peveto, curator of Rock Paper Show, president of the American Poster Institute and partner in The Decoder Ring, an Austin based design collective, will be available to discuss the history of Flatstock and the steady growth of the gig poster community. Featured Rock Paper Show artists Hero, Mat Daly, strawberryluna, Vahalla, and Tara McPheerson will all be available to sign copies, as well as Holly Gressley of Rumors, the book’s designer, and Mike Treff from Soundscreen Design, the book’s publisher and producer.

If you are in the New York City area on Friday evening, June 4th, come check us out and say hello. We’d love to say hi and talk about posters and books. Cause we’re dorks.

Can’t wait to see you again my old friend, The Strand.

Rock Paper Show: New York Release Party info:

Date: Jun 4, 2010
Time: 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Location: The Strand — 828 Broadway, New York (4th & Broadway) (212) 473-1452

For more information about the 18 miles of books at this historic and heavenly bookstore, click here.

For more information about the Rock Paper Show Flatstock book, read my blog post here.

And here is a photo that I took there in my geeky glee on a visit in 2007.


POSTPONED! :( Set your watches! Rock For Kids live strawberryluna interview (date now TBA)

(click for more info)

POSTPONED!!!!! 🙁 Due to technical difficulties 🙁

We are so sorry to announce that this interview has been postponed due to multiple technical difficulties. We’re super sad, at the same time, we all know that the rescheduled event will be amazing and totally worth the wait.

We promise.

Stayed tuned for the rescheduled date, which will most likely be next week June 10th or 11th.

This is a super fun thing to announce. Ready? OK! We will be teaming up with the fine folks at Rock For Kids & Clay Hayes from Gigposters.com as a part of the Rock For Kids live webcast Poster Artist Interview Series. Our interview will be on Friday, June 4th at 1pm CST (2pm EST)

Here’s the situation: Rock For Kids & Clay Hayes are doing a live interview with us here at strawberryluna and our friends Hero Design Studio, and since we are both going to be in NYC on the 4th for Renegade Craft Fair Brooklyn, we’re going to do this interview Bill O’Reilly-style ( “____ it! We’ll do it live!”)

That’s right! We will be live wifi-broadcasting from our laptops on the fly from a TBA sweet spot in New York City. A hint: it’ll probably be in Manhattan. But we don’t even know where we will be broadcasting our interview from yet. Got any favorite free and awesome wifi-spots in NYC that you love? Give me a holler, we’re on the hunt for one! (No, really…we are…seriously. Send your wifi suggestions.)

Also! In support of the fantastic work that Rock For Kids does, we are proud to announce we’ll be donating 20% of our online sales toRock For Kids from Thursday June 10th to Friday June 18h. Help us help Rock For Kids!

We will be taking questions from anyone & everyone who is participating in the webcast, so log into Vokle.com or watch the interview live via the viewer below, and ask away! strawberryluna will be interviewing Hero Design, and vice versa, as well as answering your questions too. It’s gonna be fun.

So, set your watches, calendars, egg timers and sun dials and tune in for our turn in the Rock For Kids & Gigposters.com organized Poster Artist Interview Series. All of the interviews are being webcast live, via Vokle.com.

The Rock For Kids Poster Artist Interview Series:

Jay Ryan –  on Wednesday, June 2 @ 1PM CST  –  tune in

strawberryluna and Hero Design Studio – date & Time TBA likely 6/10 or 6/11  – tune in

Geoff Peveto / Decoder Ring Design Concern – on Wednesday June 9 @ 1PM CST  – tune in

More about the very rad Rock for Kids: Rock For Kids is a non-profit organization that provides support, hope, inspiration and assistance to underserved children and teens. Realizing that music can be a positive motivator in a young person’s life, Rock For Kids provides free year-round music education for children in need. Rock For Kids positively impacts and celebrates young lives by offering access to safe and constructive learning experiences through which children may challenge themselves, build self-esteem and explore their own creative potential. Realizing that music has the power to transcend challenging situations and transform lives, we envision a community inspired by its youth as they develop self-esteem and confidence through access to music education. We believe children can inspire their own families, become leaders among their peers and take on the world as well-rounded and motivated individuals.

Renegade Craft Fair, Brooklyn – come see me June 5th & 6th!

ROMG I’m so excited to announce that I am returning to the fantastic Renegade Craft Fair in Brooklyn, New York this year! I’ve been lucky enough to participate in this exceptional show in 2006, 2007, and 2008, then skipping 2009 in favor of taking my first vacation for my birthday in 5 years (in London, Paris, & Le Mans = the only reason I missed Renegade Craft Brooklyn 2009.)

And now, I’m back baby!

Renegade Craft Fair is one of the premiere independent DIY showcases of all things art, craft, and handmade. Renegade Craft Fairs are held in several cities across the US every year – including Brooklyn, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles & Austin.  The fair is known for being one of the first events of its kind, and for having the top-notch indie-craft artists and designers who travel from all over the map to participate. Renegade got its start in Chicago’s Wicker Park in the fall of 2003, and has spread like wildfire ever since.

With over 300 artists coming together in historic McCarren Park in Brooklyn to sell our handmade work, this year’s Renegade Craft promises to be as amazing as ever, if not more so. There will live music and live craft demonstrations, as well as an hourly raffle of goodies at the Etsy booth too. AND!  Renegade Craft Fair is wide open to the public and 100 % FREE to attend too.

I’m going to have tons of new prints and posters, as well as lots of other new goodies too, from tshirts to tote bags and more. So come say hi!

Check it: strawberryluna, Booth #65. Write it down 😉

click to see a bigger version of this map

The Details:

What: Renegade Craft Fair, Brooklyn

When: June 5th & 6th, 2010

Where: McCarren Park, in the Williamsburg neighborhood in Brooklyn, NY at Driggs Ave + Lorimer St. + Bayard St. + Union St. (as above)

Cost: FREE!!!

Why: For cream of the crop handmade awesomeness.

* About Renegade: In the summer of 2007, Renegade opened the doors to a cute little storefront shop in the Wicker Park neighborhood of Chicago, IL called Renegade Handmade. Located  on 1924 W. Division St. in Chicago, Renegade Handmade sells the work of Renegade crafters year ’round.  They carry the work of over 400 independent artists from around the globe, many of whom participate in our fairs.  When in Chicago, visit the brick + mortar or online at RenegadeHandmade.com.

Rock Show: iPad app for Rock Posters

Rock Show, view and buy posters from your iPad. (Click for more info or to download Rock Show from the iTunes store for FREE!)

Dangit! I’ve been meaning to post about this for a little bit now.

Right before SXSW & Flatstock in Austin, TX this year, I was approached by a software development team from Neutrinos in Portland, OR. They were getting ready to release a pretty cool (and FREE!) new app for the (then) upcoming iPad called Rock Show. The new app Rock Show was being debuted at the Interactive portion of SXSW, just a few days before the Music segment of this huge Festival begins.

Examples of posters on Rock Show to view & purchase. (Click for more info or to download Rock Show from the iTunes store for FREE!)

After talking with Rob from Neutrinos, we signed on as one of the first wave of artists submitting posters to be shown and sold via the Rock Show app for the iPad. It seemed like a big step, but we could tell that the team behind Rock Show was committed to making a great app for music, poster and art fans that would also support rock posters artists like us, and help gain more exposure for the artists involved and the resurgence of rock posters in general.

So what is Rock Show? They describe it best:

“Exclusive to the iPad, Rock Show is an awesome way to view, share and purchase concert posters. Rock Show is the best way to view, share, and buy concert posters. All the posters featured in Rock Show are available for sale directly through the iPad. Posters are often signed, numbered, and shipped by the original poster artist. All of the concert posters in Rock Show are available for purchase securely from the app.

Hold your iPad however you want to get the best view of high resolution, full screen artwork. Learn more about a band using the app’s quick Wikipedia link.

I naturally got on board being A) A rock poster artist B) An Apple and Mac person and C) Wildly excited about the iPad and the new horizons it’s opening and D) Impressed with Neutrinos approach for Rock Show. I’m proud to say that we were among the very first poster artists to sign on and start working with Rock Show and uploading posters.

Currently, we here at strawberryluna have about 15 titles listed under ‘strawberryluna’ in the Rock Show app, and there are tons more poster artists partnering with Rock Show and adding their work up for viewing and purchase as well. It’s definitely worth checking out.

Using your iPad, you can search Rock Show posters by poster artist and also by band names, as seen below:

Rock Show is an amazing way to explore the variety of art and design in the current rock poster movement with the large and frankly beautiful resolution and clarity of the iPad screen, as well as being a great new way to connect artists and fans, be they musicians or artists, or best, all of the above.

There are complete descriptions for each poster, such as the band name, date & location of the show, the medium of the poster, and more. Rock Show‘s payment gateway is secure, so it’s a seamless process, with posters shipping directly to the customer from the artists’ themselves, often within a day or so of order receipt.

It’s pretty sweet! We’re having fun with it, and if you own an iPad or know someone who does, check out the FREE app Rock Show and have some pretty fun too.

Rock Show is always looking for new poster artists and designers too. If you are interested, drop them a line here.

The Sketchbook Project 2011, open call to artists.

click for more information

It’s like a concert tour but with sketchbooks.

We’re not even halfway through 2010, but you might want to start thinking about 2011 a bit. At least, if you are interested in participating in The Sketchbook Project, 2011.

Organized by Art House Co-op, a group that seeks to create large art projects that tie hundreds to thousands of artists together, the newest incarnation of their Sketchbook Project for 2011 is possibly the most ambitious attempt yet. Unlike other sketchbook sharing and interactive projects, this one gives each artist their own book to work with, rather than depending on artists to share and ship books amoung themselves.

Which, honestly? Is probably a good thing. Each person is responsible for their own destiny and whatnot. It’s pretty sensible.

Sketchbooks ready to be displayed and read. (click for more information.)

However, it’s also super cool, because additionally, by having one identically sized Moleskine sketchbook for each individual artist or studio participating, The Sketchbook Project 2011 will do the following amazing stuff:

1. Tour the country to at least 6 particpating galleries across the US as a sort of . Currently set are:

Brooklyn, NY Austin, TX San Francisco, CA Portland, MEAtlanta, GA Chicago, IL

2. Each returned Sketchbook will be assigned a unique bar code which will enable the curators and artists alike to:

  • See where each book is along the touring show.
  • See how many times it was viewed as artists will be able to receive viewing notifications each time their Sketchbook is viewed and checked out via the Library Card system.
  • Allow the book to be catalogued and become a part of the permanent collection of the Brooklyn Art Library system.

3. Digitize the Sketchbooks for artists who wish to participate in that additional aspect of the Sketchbook Project (for an additional small $20 fee) so that their Sketchbook is available for viewing online as well after the Tour ends.

Sketchbook browsers at The Brooklyn Art Library. (click for more information.)

Rather than a random hodgepodge of sketchbooks filled with unrelated material, The Sketchbook Project 2011 has outlined 31 themes for participants to choose from, to align the material inside to whatever degree the artists’ see fit. Themes like “Sleepless”, “This will be fun I swear”, “I’m sorry I forgot you”, “This is not a sketchbook” and “A record year for rainfall” are among the open and/or suggestive themes.

Participation is open for those interested at a starting cost of $25, which covers your individual Sketchbook (with optional cover colors), shipping to the artists, individual bar code, and (hopefully) first choice on a theme, as they are expected to fill up quickly. For an additional fee, artists can opt for the digitizing of their Sketchbooks for online use (covered above), and/or have an 11×17 poster made as well.

Completed Sketchbooks being scanned before lending. (click for more information.)

Interested in learning more or becoming a participating artist in The Sketchbook Project 2011? (I did! Can’t wait for my Sketchbook to arrive.)

If you haven’t clicked any of the above images or previous links, click here forThe Sketchbook Project 2011. Silly goose.

2010 Sketchbook Project books arriving in the mail to Art House. (click for more information.)

Sweet new Sisters Red news & fun stuff!

Are you afraid?

We’re not. With the impending release date of the new Jackson Pearce novel Sisters Red creeping slowly closer (the official release date is June 7th, 2010), we’re getting pretty excited around here. The buzz about Pearce’s 2nd Young Adult novel is really good, and moreover, the cover art illustration and jacket design that we did for Jackson Pearce and her publisher Little, Brown & Co. has also been getting attention as well.

That’s just rad. I won’t lie. It’s not just gratifying as a lowly, often practically anonymous book jacket illustrator and designer, (I mean, I know that I look to see who designed covers I like, but really, I know that’s also an art nerd thing too).

Here’s the thing: The main challenge we were given when first approached for this book jacket design by Little, Brown & Co. was to create a cover illustration and design that would fully pull people across a crowded book store just to find out more about Sisters Red, based purely on the cover art. Awesome! That’s the sort of challenge every designer and illustrator wants, and, it’s also the kind of challenge is, well, frankly a heck of a challenge. However, working on this project was not only that, but super fun and one of the most rewarding creative experiences strawberryluna, as a firm, has had to date. It’s not surprising really, as Little Brown, & Co. is also the publisher for the Twilight Series as well, also with a stunningly notable cover art. We’re so thankful and excited about the whole shebang we wanted to share a little more with you.

Coupled with the coolness and a well-written upcoming new book like Sisters Red, you can imagine it’s been a dream project already. And the publication date is just over a month away!

To that end, there’s a bunch of fun goodies over at the Sisters Red website here. Like what? Alright, hold on a sec, I’ll ya. Dang!

There are beautiful Wallpapers for your Mobile Phones (the iPhone sized one is below as an example) and for your Computer Desktops here, all perfectly sized and ready to go for you.

Click to view all Wallpapers, sized & ready to download.

And, there are some neat E-Cards, as shown below. Send them and spook your friends into Believing.

Click to view & send all E-Cards.

Click to view & send all E-Cards.

Also, the lovely Jackson Pearce is not only an author, but a really great video-blogger. She’s always up to new and fun posts at her Live Journal site, and via her YouTube site as well. She posts about what she’s writing, the creative process, and speaks directly with her fans as well as other authors weekly. In a word? She’s rad!

If you are more interested in what Sisters Red is about, (and of course you are), you can click here to read an excerpt and definitely check out this promo video Pearce posted recently about Sisters Red here:

And finally, (wowzers!) a review of Sisters Red’s cover art from Barnes & Noble.com by Melissa-Walker, with Pearce’s perspective as well. We’re just tickled! Click here to read it.

Thanks so much again Jackson & Little, Brown, xo.

Etsy’s new Treasury East rocks!

Click to see this Treasury.

Hey, are you like me and you love the Treasuries at Etsy.com, but are frustrated with the stampede of trying to snag one? Be frustrated no more. Etsy has launched a new Treasury system that they are now Beta-testing, called Treasury East.

Gotta say, it ROCKS.

What’s a Treasury? Great question. In Etsy’s own words: “The Treasury is an ever-changing, member-curated shopping gallery of handpicked items.” So, it’s sort of like a favorites list, or a collection put together by users based on themes, colors, craft type, a play on words, whatever the Treasury curator wishes. They’re often very lively and a great way to find new things and previously undiscovered shops on Etsy. And, there is always one treasury featured on the front page of Etsy, showing just a peek of the many hundreds of thousands

However, the last time that I tried to make a Treasury was probably in 2006, it was just too bothersome and hard to be at the very right place at the very right time with all of my selected ducks in a row. So, I didn’t even try for the past 4 years.

The way that the current / soon to be old Treasury system worked, there was a finite number of Treasuries and once one expired it was chaos with hundreds to thousands of Etsy users trying to get that next open spot at any given time.

Now, with Treasury East in Beta-testing, it’s wide open, and pretty awesome. So rad in fact, that I spent my Tuesday morning over coffee and making my very first Treasury featuring some of my favorite screenprinters, called “Inky Fingers: Screenprinted and Silk Screened Beauties” <— Click there to see ’em all.

There are some new features, such as no longer being Flash-based (hey! I can see Treasuries on my iPhone now, thanks),  and best (!) lists in Treasury East are not limited to a finite number nor do they currently have expiration dates. This means that anyone, at any time can curate and create a Treasury. Hooraay!

So go play with a Treasury East jimmy-jawn today. For all of the new features, rules, and most importantly, add your own suggestions & experiences, read over this thread on Etsy all about the new Treasury East. And, to find out if your shop is currently featured in a Treasury East list, check out this nifty tool from Craftopolis that will show you, Etsy East Hunt. (Note, you will need to have an active Google Analyitcs account linked to your Etsy shop to pull the info. Currently there isn’t a tool to see if your shop is featured on Treasury East yet via Etsy itself.)

Have you played around with making a new Treasury using Treasury East yet? I’d love to read any comments and see what other Etsy users think too.

To see my Treasury of Inky Fingers: Screenprinted Beauties, click either HERE or any of the images above. And don’t forget to comment on Treasuries that you like 🙂

———————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

Shops & prints featured above in my “Inky Fingers: Screenprinted and Silk Screened Beauties” Treasury:

1. beethings – limited edition screenprint: “frog dog hog log bog”

2. standard – limited edition screenprint: “Hello Darkness, My Old Friend”

3. strawberryluna – limited edition screenprint “Let Love Grow”

4. Little Friends Of Printmaking – limited edition screenprint: “I Am Number One”

5. girlscantell – industrial felt, set of four coasters: “turntable diagram”

6. youngmonster – screenprinted gig poster:  “Why?”

7. Miss Amy Jo – screenprinted art print: “Kitty Cat”

8. Who Made Who TOOTH – screenprinted art print: “New Wave To The Grave”

9. DWITT – limited edition screenprint: “Magic”

10. Jetsah – limitee edition screenprint: “Arrival”

11. Hero Design Studio – limited edition screenprint: “I Heart My Bike”

12. Anne Benjamin Mok Duk – limited edition screenprint: “Bird In Hand”

13. cricket press – limited edition screenprint set: “Scorcher and Stingray Bike Set”

14. doctor pizzoli – limited edition screenprint: “Awooooga Elephant”

15. darling clementine – screenprinted canvas bag: “Monsieur Cabaret”

16. Jen Skelley – limited edition screenprint: “Beemazed”

LCD Soundsystem “This Is Happening” preview….is awesome

Click here to to listen to the new "This Is Happening" LCD Soundsystem record preview

I didn’t think that I could love LCD Soundsytem more, and yet it turns out that I can.

And I do.

Simple little post here. Basically, this new record sounds great. James Murphy & co are back, and awesomer than even before. Best, to pre-empt illegal downloads, there is a heft preview of the new record, “This Is Happening” on their site here. Click! Listen! Fall deeper in love.

Early favorite tracks here are Dance Yrself Clean, Pow Pow (! so good!), and of course, Drunk Girls. 😉

If you love it too, buy this jam when it comes out and support your favorite artists so they can keep making awesome.

moe. Snoe.down ice sculpture, based on our poster!


Awesome ice sculpture by Ben Rand at Moe.'s Snoe.down 2010, with our poster characters.

So how often does this happen? You design a poster for a band, illustrate characters from animals, and then BOOM! Those characters & your typography come to life in the form of an awesome ice sculpture?

Not too often. But it’s cool as hell, (pardon the pun if you must.)

The above photo was sent to me from the band Moe.’s label, it’s from their Snoe.down Festival, for which we did the official Festival poster (as below). A friend of the band named Ben Rand  is a nationally recognized ice sculpture artist and he did this interactive &  amazing rendering of our poster’s animals and even the typography that we did, with little holes to poke your head into so you could become either the Moose or the Polar Bear character right from  from our poster. Whoa! ::mindblown::

We love it!

So much so that we’re running a little contest, yep. That’s right.

If you went to the 2010 Snoe.down and have a photograph of this ice sculpture with people in it’s super faceholes, send us a copy of your photo and we’ll add it here, and add your name to the Grand Prize drawing and then choose a winner at random and send you a special winner gift of a free Snoe.down poster + super secret & special prizes! Enter in one of two ways:

1. Email us  your photo at strawberryluna { a t } strawberryluna dot com OK OK.

2. Drop a link to your photo in the comments section.

Contest Runs until April 30th, at midnight EST. Good luck!

Our screenprinted Snoe.down 2010 poster (click for more info or to purchase)

“Rock Paper Show: Flatstock Vol. 1”, new poster book feature!

Click for more info or to pre-order "Rock Paper Show, Flatstock Volume One"

Holy smokes, we’re super stoked on this. At SXSW & Flatstock Poster Show in Austin, TX just over a week ago, a brand new and bitchin’ book made it’s debut: Rock Paper Show: Flatstock Volume One. Published by Soundscreen Design, this book on the rock contemporary rock poster scene has more specific bent & focuses on the Flatstock shows and posters artists’ Flatstock posters, which are created specifically for these poster events.

Rock Paper Show is something of a visual history of the first 20 Flatstock festivals, (there have been 24 as the time of this writing, with 4 per year currently in Austin, TX, Chicago, IL, Seattle, WA and Hamburg, Germany) featuring interviews and essays by artists, collectors and bands, and a compilation of the posters created for the first 20 Flatstock poster shows. What is a Flatstock? Good question! The Flatstock Poster Show series is an ongoing series of exhibitions featuring the work of many of the most popular concert poster artists working today presented by the American Poster Institute (API). Flatstock shows provide the general public with an ongoing & unique series of opportunities to see fine poster art in person and to meet the artists who’ve created it — they provide the API with a way to present the poster artists collectively while showcasing the breadth of individual styles they represent.

Included in Rock Paper Show are our Flatstock 9, Flatstock 12, & Flatstock 14 posters (as seen below)

3 of my hand screenprinted Flatstock posters featured in "Rock Paper Show"

In addition to the standard edition of Rock Paper Show, the limited, Deluxe Edition (produced & limited to just 500 sets) comes enclosed in a collector’s case in which you will find a hand-screened, letterpressed, or stenciled 11″x17″ set of 20 artist prints made especially for Rock Paper Show. The prints feature the original posters commissioned for the book contained within a custom portfolio folder. We’re incredibly honored that we’re among the artists asked to do one of these 20 posters, which are also featured as the chapter headers for each of the 20 chapters of  Rock Paper Show. Here is a look at our poster below I will have a very limited number of these screenprinted posters for sale on my website later this spring.

Flatstock poster for the book about the first 20 Flatstocks, "Rock Paper Show".

Since its inception in 2002, Flatstock has evolved into the definitive showcase of the most talented poster artists working today. Rock Paper Show: Flatstock Volume One is an editorial and visual history of the first 20 Flatstocks, with contributions from the artists and studios that regularly attend the events and the bands who are often the subjects of the posters, as well as critics and collectors involved in this community. Rock Paper Show collects for the first time the original posters created for each Flatstock by the attending studios. Veteran poster-makers take the reader on behind-the-scenes looks at the studios, the artists, the regional scenes, and the personalities of this vibrant and varied community.

Curated by Geoff Peveto (president, American Poster Institute). Designed by Rumors (Brooklyn, NY). For a full list of editorial contributors and Studio Index, please click here.

Over 60 editorial contributors, including: Aesthetic Apparatus, Craig Finn (the Hold Steady), John Foster (author, Masters of Poster Design), Clay Hayes (gigposters.com), Jeff Kleinsmith (Patent Pending), Jay Ryan (the Bird Machine), and Paula Scher (Pentagram). Standard Edition – 312 pages. 566 color images. Hardcover.

You can pre-order either (or both) editions of Rock Paper Show today by clicking on this link! Orders will ship in early May.

Get a sneak peek at Rock Paper Show: Flatstock Volume One in the photo below where Soundscreen debuted at Flatstock 24 at SXSW Music Festival, or by clicking here. It’s a beauty.

Soundscreen's booth at Flatstock 24 (Austin, TX SXSW) debuting "Rock Paper Show" as well as the 20 original & exclusive limited edition posters produced just for the book. (Hey look! My poster is on the lower right!)

Vintage Japanese Industrial Expo posters


Grand Exposition in Commemoration of the Imperial Coronation – Kyoto, 1928 (click to see more posters & for more information.)

One of my favorite thing about the interwebs is stumbling onto incredible things that I would otherwise never see. Recently I came across the Pink Tentacle’s fantastically beautiful blog post featuring Vintage Japanese posters produced for several different industrial expositions throughout the late 1930’s and into the early 1940’s.

I can’t gush adequately or explain my fascination with propaganda in general, let alone describe the thrill of looking at poster art such as these pieces. They are just stunning. I really love the ways that the themes and imagery run from incredibly dark, heavy serious (much like the word “industry” can conjure such connotations as well) such as the two examples below:

National Defense Science Exposition – Hyogo, 1941 (click to see more posters & for more information.)

The above being especially chilling given that the imagery evokes Japanese-American connection to each other and WWII via Pearl Harbor both in theme and the year of the Japanese National Defense Science  Exposition, 1941.

Japan-Manchuria Industrial Exhibition – Toyama, 1936 (click to see more posters & for more information.)

Or, a much ligher aspect of “industry” can be called forth, as in the Tourism Industry Expo poster seen here, where even a Buck might be enticed into playing tourist:

Tourism Industry Exhibition – Nara, 1933 (click to see more posters & for more information.)

And here is an interesting combination of both heavy, militaristic and mythologically represented industries in the form of a Sea & Air Expo:

Sea and Air Exhibition – Tokyo, 1930 (click to see more posters & for more information.)

Beyond the heavily represented military-based industries & expositions, of which there seem to have been numberous. Check out the poster  for an exhibition for the Second Sino-Japanese War below, which weirdly had only begun the year previous to this Expo’s poster and continued on for another 7 years:

Second Sino-Japanese War Exhibition – Osaka, 1938 (click to see more posters & for more information.)

There were also some really lovely commemorative exposition posters produced for potentially simpler and more peaceful (t0 a degree) endeavors like the new (at that time) Hakata port construction, an international gateway port for centuries in Japan:

Exposition Commemorating the Construction of Hakata Port – Fukuoka, 1936 (click to see more posters & for more information.)

And then finally, there are some posters whose lettering just really catches my eye. No, I read no Japanese and don’t know a thing of Kanji. Even so, I find the idea of reading letters a pretty amazing feat as they rarely formed the same way twice when rendered by hand or in different fonts and lettering style. When you stop & think about it, it’s practically a miracle that humans read really. Case in point, the lettering examples below are so stylized and almost wrought with objects and illustration or have parts of the illustration itself crossing into the formation of the letterforms, that even I can see how non-traditionally styled they are:

Nagoya Pan-Pacific Peace Exposition – Nagoya, 1937 (click to see more posters & for more information.)

The National Products Progress Exhibition – Kagoshima, 1931 (click to see more posters & for more information.)

Above all else, I am in love with the colors, opacity & transparencies and relationships of shapes in all of these posters. They are just phenomenal. Thanks to Pink Tentacle for posting so many and feeding my eyes. To see more posters, visit the always interesting Pink Tentacle blog here or click on any of the images above. And as always, feel free to comment!

New art print released! “The Lady and The Wolf”

My new 2 color, all hand screenprinted art print "The Lady & The Wolf" (Click for more info or to purchase.)

Been  busy busy busy printing like crazy lately! This is my newest art print and new release “The Lady & The Wolf”, a 2 color hand screenprinted re-telling of Little Red Riding Hood. But you know, for grown ups. Little Red Riding Hood here, is all grown up, but in no less danger.

This is the first print in an ongoing series of my interpretations of the folk & fairy tales I grew up reading, but for grown ups working with themes of sex, death, & the supernatural.

I’ve been fascinated and in love with folk & fairy tales my entire life. These days, many people know them best as tales for children, however many of our most loved fairy tales have much more brutal original tellings than you might imagine something fit for little kids. I read folk & fairy tales obsessively, the darker the roots of the tale, the more I love it. It’s super interesting how the same stories appear in similar versions and places for both children and (especially originally) for adults as well.

“The Lady & The Wolf” is my 2-color, all hand screen printed art print with scarlet blood red and semi-transparent midnight black hand mixed and non-toxic water based inks. Black over prints red in parts, blending the where the Lady ends and the Wolf begins. Edition of 75. Size: 16 x22 inches (39.4 cm x 55.9 cm.) Paper: acid free & archival Cougar, White 100lb cover weight.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask. This limited edition screenprint is now available on my website HERE.

And, if you like process photographs, check out my Flickr account page here (or click the images below) with photos of the print being made! A few selections are below for you.

1st color (red) screen and films for registering for my screenprint "The Lady & The Wolf". (Click for more info or to see more photos.)

1st color printed for my new screenprint "The Lady & The Wolf". (Click for more info and to see more photos.)

2nd color ink (black) in the screen and ready to print. (Click to see more photos or for more info.)

All done! The screen has ink for the next print, ready to rock. (Click to see more photos or for more info.)

I hope that you dig. If you wish to purchase this limited edition print click here, or have any questions or comments, feel free to leave them or ask them.

Cool Fairy Tale & Folk Tale links for you:

Sur La Lune – An ever growing collection of Fairy & Folk tales from around the world, complete with classic illustrations.

Professor D.L. Ashliman’s fantastic Folklore  & Mythology Electronic Texts page –  I took as many of his classes as I could as an undergraduate at the Univ. of Pgh. He’s super.

A brief history of the Fairy Tale, including their not-neccessarily-for-children origins.