SPACE CADETTE LAUNCHED!!

 

There are few, if any, musicians out there as creative, versatile, and visionary as Sal Baglio.  Back in the '80's, Sal fronted Boston rockers The Stompers, singing, playing blazing guitar, and writing most of the bands many hits.  I met Sal later, some 20+ years ago, when he was performing in an acoustic duo with ace singer/songwriter Allen Estes at an amazing little restaurant and pub that seemed to be a magnet for some of the best musicians in the area.  Recently, Sal approached me with the idea to use one of my illustrations to promote the release of his new single "Space Cadette."  The piece that caught Sal's eye was an illustration I did for the Washington Post a couple of decades back, a "retro-comic book" image which I had available for licensing as stock art.  I was delighted, to say the least.  Sal is not only a world-class guitarist, but also one of the most innovative songwriters in the business.  He is currently recording with a select group of musicians under the name "The Amplifier Heads."  There are  a number of albums and singles available, some as CDs, others for download at theamplifierheads.bandcamp.com.  "Space Cadette" has just become available.  You can find it, along with my humble art piece, here: rumbarrecords.bandcamp.com/album/space-cadette.   And while you're at the Amp-Heads Bandcamp page, check out all the other music available there.  Sal's songs are original, high-concept, deep and eclectic.  They often summon details of the past, filling in the gaps with memories we didn't know we had.  And his concept albums cry out to be enjoyed in one sitting, as they wend across a wondrous audio decoupage of myriad sounds and themes.  The diverse guitar work, lyrics, and vocal harmonies may evoke sounds of the Beatles, the Kinks, or even Tom Waits, but the music is always original and in Sal's own distinct voice.  Just when you think you know where a melody line is going, Sal takes you somewhere new, surfing on the crest of his sometimes hard-rockin', sometimes wistful arrangements.  Sal and I share an appreciation for retro science fiction.  Space Cadette will take you on a rockin' flying saucer ride to the edge of space and back.  And for two bucks, it's a heck of a lot cheaper than SpaceX!

To get back to the art for a minute, Sal chose the above image and asked me to add the band name and title which I did.  Not being able to leave well enough alone, and having done that piece when I barely knew how to use Photoshop, I did a number of variants, adding highlights and gradients to some of the art, in one piece little moons and planets to the bow-tie, and some comic book halftone texture and color to the background in the last one seen below.  Sal also had two ideas for the word balloon text.  "Klaatu" won the day.  As always, click on the images to see the larger versions.

Sal, you might already know this: you rock!!

 

LOGOS, WE GOT LOGOS!

About half a lifetime ago, in addition to being a freelance illustrator, I "daylighted" as an art director for a couple of ad agencies and one TV station (Assistant A/D there, to be precise. I was right out of college.). As such, I often wore many hats. Among other things, I did layouts ("marker comps" in those days), art directed photo-shoots, sometimes did the photography myself, did type specs and paste-up (in the pre-digital days of galleys, Xacto-knives and rubber cement), was a sound engineer and occasional voice actor for radio spots and audio-visual productions, provided in-house illustrations, and once in a while designed logos for a host of clients. All that lasted about 10 years, and then I went strictly freelance and have remained as such ever since. The bulk of my work has consisted of illustrations in the ensuing decades, but there has occasionally been some graphic design to be done. See here for some examples of characters, cover design and logos for Nestle Corporation. I've also created several logos for my own projects such as The Nowhere-Men™, and these comic covers for Joe Comet™, and Hour Father™.

So, when nearly a decade ago, Comicopia, the local comic book store where I had shopped since it opened up (now over 30 years ago!), sponsored a contest for a new logo design for their store, I decided I was uniquely qualified to give it a go. My entry is posted above. I took a very ad agency approach to the project. The design is deceptively complex. The letter forms are all reminiscent of various comic book logos, some, like the two "C's," have roots in Artie Simek's Marvel Comics logos such as "Thor" and "The Fantastic Four." The "I" recalls horror comics of the 1950's. Others are more in the style of funny animal comics. The panels behind the lettering separate each syllable as each depicts a specific genre of comics, to wit: Humor, Superhero, Mystery, Science Fiction, and Manga. Comicopia specializes in Manga, so that was essential to the mix. I did my research and synthesized a couple of characters in a typical Manga style. You can see echoes (but not strict copies) of Disney, Archie, and even R Crumb in Panel 1. I downplayed the superheroes a bit, only showing a fist, a cape and a boot in Panel 2. The others are pretty much all from my imagination, though that fedora-sporting fellow might be related to The Phantom Stranger, The Spirit, The Shadow, or even Steve Ditko's The Mysterious Traveler!  And for the record, the lettering (and the rest of the line art) was all done the old-fashioned way, by hand with pens on paper.

Well, long story short, I was the front runner until the last day of the contest when a quirky little treatment caught the eyes of the staff, and I became the runner-up. Their current logo is far less specific and literal, and they've done well with it. Nevertheless, I am very proud of my design, and thought it was about time the general public had a chance to see it. And there you go!  Click on the image for the big picture.