The last couple weeks have been a whirlwind of work on various projects so instead of going into detail about every one, I am just going to post some photos. Thanks for visiting.
So last week was the usual spring tour/SXSW rush but this year it wasn’t so much about booking shows for bands heading through town as much as it was about printing a lot of shirts really fast. Thankfully I just purchased a new conveyor dryer last week or none of these deadlines would have been reached.
Displayed are some tour shirts and some media for you to check them out. Vacation Club and TV Ghost are both playing SXSW and other (unrelated) tour dates. All the shirts were printed with either water-based or discharge ink.
Hank Denim just played a couple shows in Wisconsin and I hope someone shot some footage. I was really stoked on the artwork [by Tyler Sharp] for this shirt and it was actually printed the night of the TV Ghost/Psychic Twin show, in the back, during the show.
And finally I printed 50 shirts for the Victory Laced Up pre-order for Oi! the Boat Records. I think the pre-order sold out in 15 minutes or something crazy like that. If you are into street-punk and Oi than you probably already know these guys.
So if you are in a band and need some shirts please don’t hesitate to contact me. All the info you need is in the contact section of the site.
Jeri and I experimented with CMY poster printing recently. The prints are available for sale on our webstore at mineusprint.bigcartel.com.
As a small business I can trace my growth directly to the addition of new and loyal customers. As I see them grow and continue to expand the items they need provided by myself, I can also step back and see how far I have come in that time as well. People’s Brewing Co. opened for business 3 winters ago and I still remember the first call for shirts and their excitement that the brand was becoming a reality. Their beers were soon carried in almost every bar and liquor store in Lafayette and soon after all across Indiana. In those same 3 years I have also seen my business grow into a stable and formidable competitor in my market.
What started with t-shirts quickly expanded to sweatshirts, tank-tops, work jackets and even cover-alls for the brewers themselves. Above is my newest equipment purchase, the jacket hold-down. It is used to keep mutli-layer garments, like jackets, in place while printing multiple colors. It is also useful for holding down delicate fabrics or materials that you don’t want to spray adhesive all over just to print on them. I have some ideas planned for this and will keep you posted on how they turn out.
It really makes me happy to think about how much the manufacturing of beer can benefit a community. From supporting local businesses, like myself, and designers, like my friend Thomas Maxfield who designed all the bottle labels, to sponsoring and providing beer for community events, People’s Brewing Co. is definitely an invaluable asset to Lafayette. To all the people of People’s, Cheers!
One of the best things about my job is the interaction I have with a lot of talented people and being able to bring their ideas to life. A few months back my friends Eddy and Danielle started up their own publication called WHISTLE. It is a very well put together monthly mag/zine of modern day pin-up shots, some featured art and cartoons by their peers and a full color centerfold in every issue.
Eddy came to me with an idea of printing a high-quality raglan sweatshirt series with Ratfink style cartoon monsters, a la Ed Roth, by the talented Joseph Harmon. So after settling on some numbers for the order I printed off the first edition using Matsui Spot Black waterbased ink on super soft and warm Alternative Apparel Crews.
By the time you read this the first design/run is probably all sold out but I’m sure in the future they will expand on this idea or do something new altogether. These guys are always up to something. Head over to whistlemagzine.bigcartel.com now and pick up a subscription.
If you visited my studio, more often than not, you would probably hear some droning, ethereal soundscapes rising to the ceiling. I have been a fan of electronic music since I realized it helped me focus on my Math homework in middle school. Always one to explore the influences and history behind subjects that interest me, I have compiled some tracks that serve as an introduction to past and present soundsmiths. This was going to be a mixtape and I might still put one together for you all. That would be pretty nice of me wouldn’t it.
Would there be ambient music without Brian Eno? I’ve been getting really into all things Eno recently. He has put out tons of albums, from experimental rock n roll following his departure from Roxy Music to his atmosphere and soundscape work that continues to this day. No this track isn’t ambient or electronic but it is my current favorite.
Tangerine Dream are also very influential in laying the foundation for electronic music. They were one of the earliest groups to use sequencers. I also really love the sound of the Mellotron, which they use a lot.
One of my favorite new sound composers would have to be Tim Hecker. He recorded much of his new album, Ravedeath, 1972, at a church in Reykjavik, Iceland and you can almost feel the vastness of the space in the reverb. This is the full album.
Alva Noto programs electronic sound and usually compliments it with computerized visuals. While some are beautiful and spacious like the track above, some sound more like the inside of a computer or some other kind of electronic data system. Beginners should check out the XERROX albums.
Another group I really enjoy is Sundrips. I would have to say their name and sound are a perfect combination. Very good stuff but they are also very protective of their material. They usually only post excerpts of their songs.
UPDATE: So after putting this together I was reading about Tim Hecker and came across this guy named Ben Frost who helped him produce Ravedeath, 1972. Similar ambient tones and electronic filtering of sound plus some of the heaviest, most powerful instrumental moments I have heard in years. Also, to bring this post full circle, Brian Eno has seen so much potential in this guy that he has decided to personally mentor him.
This was a year of remarkable achievement for me. From the very first week [and a couple weeks proceeding the New Year] I was in the studio recording the first album with my band Tigerfox. We had only been a band for about 4 months but we wrote enough material to record an LP and were blessed to be able to record those songs in a real studio by a professional producer. We hit some rocky times during the mixing process and saw members leave the band but kept working on the album in hopes that we could still release it while preserving the direction and concept that we had started with in the first place.
Once we were happy with the recordings we started searching for ways of funding the pressing of the album. We knew we wouldn’t be able to raise the money for the whole process on our own and eventually agreed on starting a Kickstarter campaign. With the direction of our friend Esteban Garcia and the support of our friends and family we were able to reach our goal and send the album out for pressing.
While we were waiting for the album to be shipped we started working on the cover. Above is the first idea for cover art which I later revised in to the design you know today. From the very start I had wanted this to be a bold, bright design that would translate very well to my craft as a screenprinter. The process of printing on pre-assembled blank covers with spines posed a challenge but I developed a system to produce the results I required for marketable packaging.
A lot of work went into printing the 3-color front, 2-color back but as you can see we had lots of help from friends. It didn’t even feel like work. It was more like a ritual where everyone could be a part of creating something from nothing.
In the end I am very proud of the over-all product we made. The fact that we formed a band, released an album recorded by us and made the packaging with our own hands in the span of one year is an accomplishment of which I am very proud and that I will never forget. Stream and purchase the album at our bandcamp site below. Special thanks to Jeff Anderson, Esteban Garcia, Max Campbell and Joe Yakimicki and any others that have helped us put this record out.
This year has been weird. Well the weather has been at least. From a Winter that didn’t snow to an early Spring and then one of the hottest Summers ever recorded and now it seems like the usual rainy, grey Fall has descended on us out of nowhere. Honestly I’m ready for it, excited even. As someone always searching for inspiration to stay creative, nothing affects me more than the turning of the seasons. So as a recollection for myself of some illustrations I came across last winter and an inspiration to anyone that might need a visual boost to prepare them for our passage away from the Sun I decided to put this blog together real quick.
These are a few illustrations by Joseph Mugnaini for a book called October Country by Ray Bradbury. Joseph Mugnaini is best known for his cover work and illustrations he did for Bradbury. Something about these pictures just make everything about the weather today feel totally normal.
More Halloween posts and archived print can be found at And Everything Else Too.
If I asked you to name local record labels and the genres they put out you would probably just stare at me and then maybe say ‘Oi the Boat!’ Or you would say that you didn’t know there were any labels at all. Well there is actually a doom/death/black metal label called Sanctum Abyss who are putting out limited-run tape releases of bands they enjoy or have covered with their blog, Blackened Slugs. I have worked with Nick on packaging and extras for a couple of their releases, the most recent being this bag of teeth, on which I printed the Battle Path logo, for the first 25 customers. So what are you waiting for? Head over to their store now and buy some tapes.
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