Brandwisdom in Bold Brushwork

The font work of the road, the remote walls,
restroom stalls and using industrial brush tools.

I was influenced by graffiti artists
and hobo code markers.

To know graffiti, practice the art.

In the 70s, I started marking stalls in funky bathrooms in NYC, marking over the expletive,
slanderous notations in the men’s room, with wildly calligraphic, over-the-top elegant scripts, marked with metallic pens.
These were emulating the complex flourish work of the Italian Renaissance.
One stall panel was removed, and installed at the bar, on display.
These were mostly lower east side bars, Manhattan.
I thought, “they could be beautiful…”

Then I studied Asian art, and particularly, the early Chan and Zen Buddhist
integrative traditions of art, meditation and placemaking installations—a painting, an artistic exemplar, becomes a sign.
That idea was influential—and unforgettable, to this day.
To explore that further, personally, examine
D.T. Suzuki’s Zen and Japanese Buddhism.

And there, from the graffiti to the hobo marks—the brush drawn circle becomes ensō: the stroke of enlightenment.
From college and time in NYC, I kept exploring—that captivation
in the expression, the illustration of energy.
And I applied that to design treatments.
First, in a collaboration with Robin and Heidi Rickabaugh, Portland, OR, designers and producers of Rainbow Magazine—
film and presswork by WyEastColor—a highly-lauded, awarded art magazine.

That led to this brush-drawn, emboldened solution—printed on press as a offset printed split fountain—laying color on the press impression cylinder. The gradated color must be supervised and carefully monitored by the pressmen. That result shows out in this print system. Drawn boldly with a splaying brush, heavily-weighted and dynamically arrayed in the magazine and stationery system.

I was looking at a way to take that idea—Zen-inspired brushwork, powerful and emotional, from an inspiration, to an integral solution.

This was my 6th year of practice since starting in 1973.

Me and Jack.

Jack Lenor Larsen, a luminary in the crafts industry, founder of Larsen, Board member of the American Crafts Society,
and Sandra Collins, a craft arts-related investor and curatrix called me. Both friends, yet we lament the passage of Jack Larsen.
They reached out—“we saw Rainbow, and hey—come to Portland, can you help us on this new / old school, illustrating the new identity, for a new campus, outside Portland. That would be the oldest arts and crafts school in the US: The Oregon School of Arts and Crafts

From the Oregonian, back when. And reviewing the 100’ of GIRVIN print collateral, I come across some file reviews—and recycling. And it reminds me of the strategy of a bespoke font—brush-drawn, for signage and print.

Notes on the signage, one porcelain enamel plate per building.

And the expression in identity.

I was thinking about other exemplars, where I went this towards this solution pathway. And that plays into motion picture identity, like this string of renderings, logos I’ve drawn with heavily brush-worked expression. Each with some gestural synopses, each.

A brushdrawn expression for
The Hunger
Tony Scott’s stylish, cool-as-ice vampire film with David Bowie,
Catherine Deneuve, and Susan Sarandon. More art film than horror,
it’s all mood and elegance and decay.
Aged beautifully.

A power-stacked, expressive logo for
Midnight Run
One of the all-time great buddy comedies.
Robert DeNiro and Charles Grodin have an absolutely unbeatable chemistry
As a bounty hunter and his reluctant fugitive.
Genuinely hilarious from start to finish.

A handdrawn rendering for
They Live
John Carpenter’s deliriously fun sci-fi satire.
A drifter finds sunglasses that reveal a hidden alien ruling class
and subliminal messaging everywhere. Gave the world one of cinema’s greatest fight scenes,
and “I have come here to chew bubblegum…”
The brushwork that I drew for the film.

My icon and logo for
The Fisher King
Terry Gilliam’s emotionally rich fantasy-drama with Jeff Bridges and Robin Williams.
A burnt-out radio DJ tries to redeem himself by helping a delusional
homeless man on a quest for the Holy Grail.
One of Gilliam’s most humane films.

Days of Thunder
Tom Cruise doing Top Gun on a racetrack, essentially.
Tony Scott directing, Robert Towne writing,
Cruise going fast and falling for his doctor. Glossy, loud, and totally committed to itself.

The Last Boy Scout
Shane Black at his most Shane Black. Bruce Willis and Damon Wayans
in a wisecracking, brutally violent buddy action film.
Underrated gem of the genre—the dialogue alone is worth it.

Obviously, there are plenty of others,
in a number of decades of designing for the motion picture industry.

These are particularly focused on one stylistic approach—an energetic illustration
of a narrative ideal, each, bold—and, to each, a divergent storytelling style.

Zen, wandering.

Tim
Co-create.
Collaborate.
Connect.
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Here are some rough ferruled industrial brushes
that I use—for these logos.