here is zee final logo

This, ladies and gentlemen, is the best logo I could cook up for the Brookville Bees. When I first started to sketch these suckers out, I was going for a semi-militaristic feel to them- almost like something you would see on a flag. My first design was the very square looking bee in the lower left corner of the original four. I liked it, but then felt that it looked too much like something one might see on a building block- it was very boring, and while that is an accurate adjective to describe my high school, I wanted something more exciting. I then tried to adapt the original design of the Brookville Bee, with the initials "BHS" into my design. This lead to a more organic and fun shape to my logo, but I still wanted to lean more towards something more stylized.
I was still milking the idea of using a religious symbol, so I thought to toy with the stereotypical opposite of what my predominately conservative, Baptist high school stood for- of course I went for the somewhat-less-than-subtle Pentagram. For this design I made the Bee more angular, and a tad more sinister. While I thouroughly enjoyed the sense of irony attached to the design, I once again went in another direction. Along with a Pentagram and a Star of David sketches that showed up in my first ideas, the image of a Yin Yang and the Rising Sun came into my head. This lead to a combination of my second, more organic Bee and the idea of using pseudo-religious imagery.
Despite my original idea to take a stab at the overall conservative feel of my high school (Jerry Falwell went there, for goodness sakes), I'm glad I went with the Yin Yang theme because Brookville is relativelly well-rounded and balanced when it comes to academics. At first I was going to add rays jutting from the circle, like Japan's Rising Sun, but this made it too busy and clunky. I think this design is an improvement on the original in that it is much more sleek and stylish. It would also look pretty nice on school merch, if I do say so myself.

sketches and four designs

Okay, so here's the final four.

These are the initial sketches I did.

Brookville Bee

This is the Brookville Bee. I've hated this logo
for a while, kids. Zee colors are maroon and gold.

vector metaphor for zee children

Re-touched Self-portrait

Ta-da!

ritual de lo habitual

Music is what drives me, so it is not surprising that when it comes these design analysis posts that I am drawn to look at images involved with some of my favorite music. This image comes from the cover of Jane's Addiction's 1991 album Ritual do lo Habitual. Formed in Los Angeles in the mid 80's and influenced by such artists as The Cure, Siouxsie and the Banshees, and David Bowie, Jane's Addiction became one of the pioneering artists of the 90's alternative rock explosion. The vivid cover for this groundbreaking album was hand-made by Perry Farrel, leader of the band, and created from plaster and found objects. It illustrates the lyrical content of the album's peak tune, Three Days, which details the three days Perry Ferral, his girlfriend, and a dearly departed friend of his named Xiola Bleu spent in a haze of drugs and sex. Of course the song puts it much more eloquently- recounting the events in much more poetic terms, dealing with death, rebirth, and other such metaphysical topics.

Following the rule of thirds quite well, the cover's main focal point is the three lovers in the center of the image. The alignment is very symmetrical, with the found images within the cover stacked on top of each other, almost like columns. The stark white sculptures in the middle nicely contrasted to the very rustic tones of the rest of the cover, suggesting their saint-like or heavenly state of being, as alluded by the bright orange/gold halos as well. The repetition of red also works very well for the image. The rose in one of the sculptures mouth, the sheet, and the framing of the picture all look wonderful, however I'm not sure if the rose and red sheet have any significance other than to look good and tie the colors together. The only things about this image that I am not particularly fond of are the two uses of text. The name of the album is small, out of the way, and in a delicate font- very meek and unnoticeable. The other misused text is that of the band's name. The text is alright- the blue looks good, but the font itself is rather plain, but the placement is what bothers me. I feel like it should be placed above the golden halos on the figures. Placed at the bottom, it feels a little too heavy with the deep red and other dark colors going on. Were it at the top, it would demand more attention and balance the piece out a little more.

self portrait

Here's my self-portrait. Done for the most part. Few things I want to add more. Soon to come!

Egon Schiele's Self Portrait

Austrian painter Egon Schiele's paintings all carry his own distinctive style of expressionism- taking the normally soft and delicate form of the nude figure and replacing it with gnarled and emotive specters, all jagged lines and sinew with all the elegance of a praying mantis. Schiele's tormented figures and self-portraits are all relatively straight forward studies in malnourished anatomy. Following a pattern, they are simple compositions that usually consist of a light background with a figure placed glaringly in the center of the page, sometimes framed and isolated by an aura of white lining around the subject. Most of Egon Schiele's self-portraits (and there are a lot) convey the sense of the introspective/narcissistic tortured artist- his facial expression is commonly twisted into a quizzical scowl with body contorted to match as his glamorized form snakes up the canvas with exaggerated proportions, soulful eyes, and electrified hair. Of course there are many variations on this formula, with Schiele exploring himself (in more ways than one) to the point of obsessive introspection, however, with continuously interesting results.

The above painting is one of my favorites in Egon Scheile's catalogue. Set against a bone-white backdrop, his harsh figure tears through the blank space like a poisoned thorn, using contrast to great effect. The colors used are an unsettling combination of rotten greens, browns, and oranges, jaundiced yellow, and flaring, angry reds to accent the eyes and nipples, all suggesting a negative view of the human body, or just the artist's state of mind. Like all of his paintings, Schiele gave himself a ghastly, yet elegant stature- accentuating every joint, curve, and jutting bone on his skeletal figure. Schiele lavishes so much on the line and form of his body that the center figure almost becomes a type of landscape, complete with trenches and crags making up a ribcage and pelvis. This is, in fact, on of my favorite things about Schiele's work. Even though there isn't a lot happening in his paintings (usually just off-beat poses) his attention to detail, disturbingly beautiful exaggerations, and exquisite use of line and color envelope and encourage the viewer to notice each and every brush-stroke. I found it very interesting that Schiele chose to paint himself without feet and hidden hands, turning his figure into a very phallic, albeit helpless form, playing into the sexual nature of most of his paintings.

From Egon Schiele's self-portrait I realized that simplicity can be key in compositions. I want to start experimenting with keeping things simple and exploring what you can accomplish by a well-placed figure and attention to detail. Something else I took from the portrait is the idea of exaggeration. One of the things I love about Schiele's work is how expressive he is with his abnormal proportions. I love the idea of taking the features of a model, or myself, and exaggerating them until they are unmistakeably those of my subject. By examining Egon Schiele, I want to adopt his sense of expression and fine-tuned distortion- exploring how to express myself through restrained composition and amplified features, without becoming all too self-obsessed.

beginning of a selfportrait in photoshop

my self-portraits always look angry.

I absolutely love stop-motion animation- the process by which such movies as Wallace and Gromit, The Nightmare Before Christmas, and James and the Giant Peach are animated. This poster is from the new stop-motion animated movie Coraline, directed by Henry Selick (The Nightmare Before Christmas and James and the Giant Peach) and based on Neil Gaiman's acclaimed novel. I adore this poster. The use of ciaroscuro and a muted palate that consists of soft lights and dark darks, really makes this poster pop out- using high contrast to it's advantage. The rule of thirds is also used from the top to the bottom of the poster, separating it from dark to light, then dark again. The way the poster is framed in darkness is also not just a stylistic choice- it suggests the dark, mysterious content of the movie.
Even the text suggests the tone of the movie. The whispy quote floating in the light serves as a device to vaguely illustrate a plot point or theme of the movie. The font chosen is both whimsical and foreboding, and almost looks as if it were scraped out of the light by a finger. The font used for the title is similar, in that it is whimsical and made of light. It also uses a button substituted for an "o" and a stylized cat used for the "l" for movie tie-ins. These are clever substitutions, but I think that it would work better had they only chosen one; it begins to look a little unbalanced with both.