The countdown has begun. January 1, 2026, is my 30-year anniversary as a professional creative force. I’ll be sharing some of my visual compilations from over the past three decades. This first drop is a logo and titles sheet covering 1996-2025. I also included some of my Georgia Museum of Art exhibition and book title designs from 1994-1995. Enjoy! Next up will be a supercut reel highlighting my compositing and motion design contributions ranging from early days at The Weather Channel through my work with Fox Sports Charlotte for the U.S. Open golf championship featuring Brooks Koepka and Tiger Woods.
Royal Flush
It’s time to call the players and end their game. We’ve been ready for a royal flush for quite some time. Let’s pull the plug now on the One-Eyed Sam, Suicide Don, and War Doge Fool. Yes you, Elon.
The cards are falling yet not where they may. Rather three maniacal pirates plunder, pillage, advance, and rampantly rape the Constitutional stance. They don’t even have enough collective gray matter to hide their deeds with a stoic poker face. They openly, willingly continue destroying lives, displacing innocents, and lighting up our now upside-down Stars and Stripes. Their cards are counted, marked, and in plain sight. They don’t hold them to their chest tightly. They’re aligning themselves with some sort of artificially inseminated predictive history.
Making advances, stealing glances, and leaning heavily into the quatrains of Nostradamus and the blind seer Baba Vanga they blaze ahead their trail of dread. Hiding in the shadows and cloaked in self-serving divinity they continue counting their loot. They have fallen into darkness as they usher in the infinitely second coming of the Dark Age. However, there is also a Renaissance blooming among the minds of those who choose pushing the limits of our collective imaginations. I’m not referring to the “GenAi$$ance,” but to its polar opposite. While the masses load up on the buzz of mediocrity, the true artisans, writers, poets, and musicians realize that only through channelling true human intuition will we survive and thrive during these strange days.
Amongst the turmoil surrounding the United States revolves three key players all contributing daily to its demise. The first I call the “One-Eyed Jack.” Sam Altman flouts his highly addictive plagiaristic platform of a machined artificial language model no one ever asked for yet now that it’s here some people are even “dating” their chatbots now. While under its spell these folks believe that their interactions not only have depth but they’re more rewarding opportunities compared to good old-fashioned dating another human in the real world. They’re caught up in a myriad of lies, deceit, and psychological warfare disguised as their ultimate love companion. This has proven that the zombie apocalypse is not only real but making moves full steam ahead. This is one train we must derail or mind control may just prevail.
Their clown car is full of blind sheep. Supporters bowing down, kissing their narcissistic king right on “his ass” as the Don put it so poetically. Now donned “The Suicide King.” Through every stroke of his Mordor-like signature signing more nonsense into law replacing true democracy with a grab bag of dumpster fire ass-hattery. Elon dressed to the nines riding his trick bike of snarky hype. While wielding his chainsaw his minions massacre masses of American government workers with no guard rails whatsoever. Then placing calls three days later calling them back to their posts. Topsy-turvy doesn’t even come close to describing what he’s not even hiding. He’s driving home his agenda as the “War Doge Fool.” Never apologizing for his abolishing of these crucial careers has become his legacy. The end is coming, but not for us. It’s foretold that it’s those in the dark realms that don’t get invited to the after party with the Almighty and his angelic brigade.
Cheers to Bicycle for the purple peacock-inspired deck I used for this post. Grab it here on Amazon.
Let’s Get Frisky & Talk Ligatures
It’s time to talk legibility. The details matter when it comes to design. Its primary purpose being communication above all else sets the stage for designers obsessing over the minutiae that the majority of the population doesn’t recognize. We see billboards that are illegible due to sizing issues or poor contrast, screen graphics with kerning so tight between bold condensed sans serif fonts in all caps with barely a hair of word spacing (yes, Fox News I’m looking at you). Then there’s the coup de grâce: the overt disgrace of inch marks replacing quotation marks. The apathetic omission of ligatures, those uniquely combined two and three letter combinations are absent allowing some characters to unfortunately cross over and crowd one another, has become another growing concern ever since we embraced digital platforms of expression.
While choosing to use ligatures appears straightforward some brands have embraced this art of connection to their own detriment leading to illegibility. We must be mindful when wielding ligatures. The current version of the KIA logo caused the general population to search Google for the “KN car.” The internal design team at KIA joined all three letters in the attempt to render a memorable mark. However, the use of ligatures backfired in that the I and A look like a backwards N. They could have averted this unfortunate solution had these letters not been connected as the design of the individual specimens is rather elegant.
According to Leonardo da Vinci: “To develop a complete mind: Study the science of art; Study the art of science. Learn how to see. Realize that everything connects to everything else.” This keen observation cannot be any closer to the truth when applied to typography. Many font families are designed with these additional, connected characters allowing for more natural two and three letter combinations attempting to reduce the chance of character specimens crossing over one another. Ligatures create a powerful interplay within a logotype or headline.
My first glance at ligatures was in the late 70s when I was six years old while enjoying the first film that peaked my interest for enigmatic space operas. As the Star Wars title flew over our heads elegantly combining the S & T and the R & S letterforms I was hooked not only for science fiction in film, but solid graphic design. The film introduced us all to the visual stylings and design language of Ralph McQuarrie and Joe Johnston. George Lucas hired McQuarrie as his primary designer for the epic adventure “a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.” Johnston redesigned the Millennium Falcon after George saw a similar ship in another film that preceded the release of Star Wars. The initial design became the Rebel Blockage Runner instead of Han and Chewie’s Corellian YT-1300 light freighter. “You’ve never heard of the Millennium Falcon?…It’s the ship that made the Kessel Run in less than 12 parsecs,” boasted Han. “What the cargo?” Solo inquired. Obi-wan answered in a low tone: “Only passengers. Myself, the boy, two droids and no questions asked.”
I was reintroduced to these graphical groupings in Typography class while studying graphic design at the University of Georgia under Professor Ronald Arnholm. Initially we learned the basics as applied to fi, fl, ffi, and ffl combinations. I later discovered a way to create what I called a positive and negative stencil or “yin and yang ligatures” in my Vinson logotype. My professor noted this solution possessed a timeless longevity. Considering his professor at Yale was Paul Rand, and he also displayed a rare talent of his own including a fascination with creating holograms as a hobby, I took his observance to heart. While I have tweaked the logo over the years it still retains 93% of its original design.
During my internship and later as a freelance graphic designer for 19 years with Georgia Museum of Art I was always vigilant in weeding out ligature opportunities allowing for better legibility I applied to various exhibition checklists and texts. During the design and editorial stages as we swapped revisions back and forth my hawk eye was always on the lookout to squash any missing ligatures. Every now and then a printer didn’t import the ligatures I saved in the QuarkXPress file. Thus destroying my attention to detail and giving me a lump in my throat and a minor anxiety attack.
While developing the core identity for Quick Brown Fox FX I knew I wanted to place ligature studies at the very core of the brand including the logo. I chose Emigre’s Mrs. Eaves Family for its classy stylings and unique ligatures. I applied its various weights and styles across the entire design language of the brand consultancy. In many cases when ligatures weren’t available for a particular combination, I designed my own keeping them closely inline with the frisky beauty of Mrs. Eaves.
Building this brand’s journey quite literally began during my childhood at the corner of West Red Fox Trail and Red Fox Court in my hometown, Greenville, South Carolina. This Fox Spirit has been designing local brands since 1990 and global brands since 1996.
Quick Brown Fox FX, a Vinson Design Brand Consultancy. Adaptable. Cunning. Frisky.
“This Fox Spirit’s raw, ‘infectious creative energy’ has been chasing and redefining ligatures while designing local brands since 1990 and global brands since 1996.”
Happy Accidents
There’s something magical about discovering happy accidents. Those little moments when we surprise ourselves. My Vinson logo has two dots and seven parts so that's 2 & 7. Also on the “27+ Years of Crop Marks + Keyframes” graphic I didn’t purposely hide the number twenty-seven within the letters. It was completely by chance that there were two clear instances of the number hidden within the design. I didn’t discover it until I finished designing the graphic. Gotta love those aha moments. I’ve always been naturally drawn to patterns especially in regards to numbers and numerology. Twenty-seven is also my lucky number.
Prophecy Piracy Playbook: The Liar, the Witch, and the War Doge
During a recent daydream-fueled road trip lightning struck, my brain seized in an aha moment of spontaneous combustion. Through another alignment sparking across pulsing neurons and excited intuition my mind lit up again. Seemingly out of nowhere a brain-blazed clarity hit me like a Louisville Slugger nailing a home run winning not only the game, but the entire World Series. Ok, that’s a bit of a stretch, more like a Little League whiffle ball tie. While whistling on down the highway I posed a hypothesis to my sidekick that may just be the key that unlocks what the Hell on Earth we’re all experiencing now in our shaken, quaking world. Could the unhinged political climate, and more to the point our polarized, war-mongering country leader himself, be taking commands from a premeditated script in order to raise his status to divine? His deluge of reality distortion fields harvested by his number two in an endless hall of mirrors. Escapism in its purest form serving sheepish zombies another meal of mediocre, overcooked, and half-cocked alphabet sludge. Copycats speaking out fully grounded in a false matrix pounding their hollow chests against us, the Transcendentalists.
Has our motley crew of two aligned themselves with plagiarized divinity? They’re attempting to not rewrite history, but to adhere to a playbook of prophecy piracy. These bozos are stealing a profound narrative and selling it as their own. Sound familiar, maybe another attempt to hold up holy relics on sale now in their own names toasted in orange Cheeto dust? My copilot looked at me in utter astonishment and agreed that I might be onto something. I wasn’t trying to convince them of some conspiracy theory that I had cooked up. Rather I was just connecting dots that already existed and once connected formed my own conclusion. It felt like looking up at the stars on a cloudy night in the moment the wind blew the obstructions from view revealing an entire constellation of Orion, his sword lit up like fresh pixie dust. The following is a slightly deeper dive as to the severity of these claims and how closely their thievery fits into the world stage’s playbill. Staring us all right in the eyes with its singular eye hovering above an unfinished pyramid. Their game plan’s manifesto speaks volumes and moves mountains for those not willing to rise up against them. Beware for just over that hill is yet another oasis in an otherwise empty, lifeless desert.
“For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”
“The Liar, the Witch, and the War Doge” or “the King Dumb Don, MAGA, and the Asshat Assassin with an eLon on his forehead.” Donald Trump and Elon Musk consider themselves divinely inspired. They have been advised by someone or more than likely something from the lower depths that they are ushering in the beginning of the end. The End Times as foretold in the highly edited, forever debated Christian Bible. Citing bent scripture, casting twisted nets, and making mud pies in their sandbox soaked in lies they continue their immediate recession driving head-on into another Dark Age. They’re stealing their miming moves and mining lines directly from that sacred tome along with aligning themselves with the predictions of soothsayers of old and not too far past. They’re living out the predictions of the well known Nostradamus, born in the south of France in Saint-Remy-de-Provence and blind since birth seer Baba Vanga, born in Strumica in North Macedonia and died in Bulgaria in 1996. Through their overreaching, callous, and divisive efforts they’re showing their cards in plain sight. Their deck is rigged. The cards were counted, but not by them. There’s another force at play here hiding just along the edge of light and shadow with its piercing mind’s eye watching, waiting for the moment to reveal itself.
Now a dime store magician, rather a witch, is now at the head of the United States Government. The witch hunt is in full force, and it’s being led by the richest man in the world with uneasy, wavering support from the President. Both of these men are marked on their foreheads with “MAGA.” The direct translation of “maga” in Latin is a female enchantress, more specifically a witch. It’s hard to not tell the truth once something has come to light. There’s no argument to make. Nowhere to hide. Yes, MAGA is a witch itself, and it has been striking down those who oppose them on both sides of the aisle, and not even the judiciary is safe. MAGA’s spelling is ushering in a New World Order in realtime at blazing speeds. All of those times in the past that Trump mentioned he was at the heart of his opponent’s witch hunts were all carefully orchestrated by MAGA to fool their entire support base. By playing into their passions for a self-appointed underdog now DOGE holds the reins of MAGA with no guard rails in place whatsoever. The courts will soon be completely overrun and distracted with innumerable cases brought against the MAGA establishment.
There’s an inherent problem, a cancer growing quite noticed by all paying attention to the facts. These so-called leaders weren’t chosen by the Divine, the Universe, and certainly not by the people. They continue pushing down six feet under, burying, ending anyone opposing them and their plans. Their own shadow work suiting themselves and placing them on the throne. They’ve drilled down, wasting every natural resource including human ingenuity. However, there’s a flaw in their plan so small, yet so significant it will devour itself from within swallowing its own tail until it consumes itself altogether. An implosion of spiritual nature. A natural End Times to their trickery and deceit. The more they flex the weaker they become. They didn’t flip the script. They stole it and didn’t realize that it had been tampered with, altered by some sort of super being. Every time they enact it their IQs drop another five points. Even they aren’t immune to the growing zombie farm spreading like wildfire across our once great nation.
Yes, they’ve pirated their plans directly from the soothsayers’ predictions. Their sights are locked in on clear and present danger. Their heartless manipulation and gaslighting has sparked a series of dark events unfolding before our very eyes. As each day passes, their endgame is clear: strip the world of free speech, free thought, free energy, and even dampening free will. Their attempts at secrecy were affronted with disdain throughout our world. There was nearly a 50/50 split right down the middle in relation to who’s onboard their Flying Dutchman’s motley crew. However, that ratio is ticking fifteen points higher in the direction of a country betrayed at its very heart. Piracy’s specter has bled into every corner of our world. This myriad of men believe they are now God. That they are righteous. That the world shall bow down to them in their names. Little did they know that their script was rigged, and the deck was stacked against everyone.
History has proven time and again that those who seek ultimate power are willing to lie, claw, steal, and stop at nothing to achieve it. Someone or something has taken the reigns by placing themselves at the center of the action. I believe it to not be of this Earth, rather a remnant from much older, darker times wreathed in fire. The third Antichrist is next…SAM hArrIs ALTMAN. Yes, it’s clearly spelled out in his name and no need to unscramble the letters: “SATAN AI Machined Artificial Language Model.” There’s something fishy though about this observation regarding Sam’s true nature.
There’s possibly a catch in naming Sam as the third Antichrist. Under closer inspection he may just be the False Prophet or even the Trumpet based on his most recent ramblings about the generative artificial intelligence race coming to an end. In a knee-jerk halt maneuver in the media just days ago he mused that as long as training data is protected under copyright law machined artificial language and image models cannot reach their projected potential. He’s now gaslighting that the true fault lies with morality itself. Somehow he actually believes that the only way to do the right thing is to continue supporting nothing but the wrong thing. This is what happens when someone is sheepish enough to believe their own lies. This happens when the lies are repeated more than three times. It’s a natural occurrence in our brains. If we want to remember something repeat it three times. He has completely duped himself with his own endless deceptions.
I find Sam’s delusional thinking ironic, don’t you? I guess he never fully understood the old adage: “two wrongs does not make a right.” I think he got a ChatGPT-laced version that read: “a wrong may be right, but a right is always wrong.” Sounds about right if we follow this line to its natural conclusion of self-deceptive monotony.
Believing they’re divinely inspired when in essence they’re just reading the lines while missing the entire point. Power was always meant to be shared by all, and never just coveted by a self-selective few. They’ve stolen the answer key to the exam, but forgot to fact-check the answers. An acquired script partially written centuries ago by the soothsayer some consider mad while others believe his visionary, riddled quatrains as genius. Nostradamus and his future foresights were a common topic for debate in my youth. Both Nostradamus and more recently Baba Vanga were two seers we continue holding up as possibly the most accurate predictive truth sayers even more popular than The Simpson’s. Nostradamus predicted Hitler just one letter off as “Hister.” The Christian Bible speaks of the Trumpet. Some believe Trump is that incarnation. However, I know it not to be true. Let’s just say I have insider’s knowledge on the matter.
So is the current mockery playing out on the world stage premeditated or just mere coincidence? I doubt the latter as there’s no such thing plus there are nearly endless parallels backing up my theory. The script wasn’t flipped, it was stolen for all the world to witness. Knowing souls spotted it immediately, another deja vu to others, another alert system sounding the alarm on an average afternoon. Spotlights averted in that exact moment allowing darkness to endure. Just a quick glitch. After a soft reboot all appears to be back to normal on the surface. The new normal where zombies are real. Yes, the apocalypse has been simmering on the back burner for decades, nearly seventy-five years. It all started with adding lithium and fluoride to the water supply ever so slowly dulling the minds of men, women, and children. I’ll discuss this further at another time.
Now we face a false future, a narrative taken, stolen from the soothsayers. While some transcend others’ souls sink into complete Escapism. Some believe we have already discovered the False Prophet as foretold in the Christian Bible. Others believe the Trumpet is in full force blazing a path unearthing every possible thievery at the very pounding heart of our American governmental systems. On the verge of collapse after a barrage of executions earmarked as white-washing inefficiencies is now playing out. Mabus is alive and well ushering in the Third Antichrist rising prominently from within the dogma of the Catholic Church. Once Pope Francis passes he will rise; a fallen angel Hell bent on raping the natural world devouring every last natural resource from the national parks to the world’s oceans. Some believe Mabus is already here hidden behind the guise of DOGE or MAGA, or both. Don’t forget, that the word “maga” in Latin is a direct translation of a female enchantress, a witch. I find it ironic that the witch hunts have been turned around and now the government is sending out its own crowds armed with pitchforks and torches.
They’re casting, spelling incantations blazing their trails leaving anyone who detests their ways as heretics. There’s also something quite telling about the red hats covered in MAGA fallacy and 45 and 47. 4+5=9 and 4+7=11. That’s literally “911.” Rather alarming I’d say. Then take MAGA which we now know means witch. So the Republicans are supporting a sorceress at the very heart of our government. I doubt any of them has ever made the connection or they have and were told it was just a coincidence. You know how I feel about those…they don’t exist. Everything happens for a reason whether terrestrial or divine. Mabus may also be directly translated as “maybe us” or even more directly as “maybe U.S.” If we flip the lowercase “g” in Maga, essentially turning the government upside down we get a lowercase “b.” This spells out “Maba.” Add “U.S.” and we’re back at “Maba U.S.” Time will tell, and the clock is now less than twenty-seven seconds to midnight.
Their playbook is clear, and they’ve committed heresy sidling alongside as proxies near self-proclaimed high IQers. The future is set in motion by spying on their neighbor’s exam stealing the script from those who predicted it. False prophets aligning with divine dictations from soothsayers of old. The script was writ long ago. We’re quick to believe Nostradamus and Baba Vanga’s predictions. However, have we ever considered the players are living out these predictions as if in a play on the world’s stage? Their actions align with these predictions as if they may believe their own lies that they’re divine.
Yes, their repetitive lies have been echoed so many times that even they have fooled themselves. They now believe that Nostradamus and Baba Vanga predicted their rise to ultimate power on Earth. The problem is they’re not using the original source material. Rather they’ve skipped to the front of the line with their Cliffs Notes/ChatGPT version. It’s riddled with holes, omissions, and bent narrative meant to align with the current world order and ushering in the decaying minds of a chosen two. Their fault lines are spidering out in a web of chaos fueled by the archaic rhetoric of an odd couple cursed ship of fools. Yet there’s a larger shadow growing across the landscape of Europe some have been predicting for centuries.
There’s a vacancy coming to the throne in Rome. The third Antichrist may lead to en masse delusions birthed from within the very bedrock of the Vatican. He who replaces our Holy Father at the heart of the Catholic Church may have an alternative plan; a marked plan of the Beast. He will possess those among MAGA supporters including their duality of inequality further spreading a cancer that must be irradiated now. If not I’m sure the Second Coming of Christ will be happy to hop in the ring and cast those down who worship the false idols of ignorance. This Second Coming is not what some Christians may be willing to accept and understand. I am talking specifically about “Christ Consciousness.” If you don’t know what it is then I cannot more highly recommend you look it up for yourself. It’s coming whether we’re ready or not. The truth is that it’s already here amongst us growing quietly as the most potent antidote we’ve ever seen since the last Great Flood that swept across all four corners of the Earth.
Don’t despair. This is all just historical fiction, right?
McMuffins & MacGuffins. Every Nook. Every Cranny.
In his latest pivotal unpresidential move, Trump’s forever head-spinning Oval Office of Offenses forcefully requests the pleasure of acquiring your country’s treasures. Every myth, legend, and pop culture icon will fund this mandatory, fully inclusive $500B Stargate GoFundMe action plan. All trillionaires are fully exempt, of course; sorry billionaires you were so close! According to Trump all countries must immediately hand over all of their cultural treasures specifically targeting, in his words: “All McMuffins. Every nook. Every cranny.” JayD eventually interrupted the golden word mangler, “ahem, they’re MacGuffins, Sire, Not McMuffins.”
He claims he’s been informed by top minds they’re all real. Apparently he saw the AI version of Stephen Spoofberg’s Raiders of the Golden Arches and is now convinced that Hitler was not only a snappy dresser, but now T is overtly obsessed with obtaining every relic known to possess supernatural, woo-woo powers. Treasures with supernatural powers like the Lance of Longinus, the Ark of the Covenant, and the Fountain of Youth are given extra credit in the form of a complimentary Trump Bible, a year-long membership to the Fruit of the Month Club, and an in-person birthday party starring the BigT himself at Chuck E Cheese. However he has requested it be catered by MickeyDs.
In order to raise $500B for Project Stargate Trump asks that everyone dig deep. He promises if we fund the project he will make sure we all have jobs in the New World Order…His Galactic Empire. As a bonus he will also gift us each an X1 Haptic Boot Suit and an Omnidirectional Treadmill with Quadraphonic Pressure Sensor Underlay aka “Project Hamster Wheel.” If we opt-out – which there is no way to do so (sound familiar) – we will be sent to Mars to live with his twitchy War Doge jester, Elon who recently requested with the Social Security Office he be renamed “Emporer Elon Ming the Musky Merciless.”
Elon’s plans for ClimX, his latest weather machine and also the name of his new porno nightclub on Mars, will soon take flight. His plans are to inflict enough Mars-like weather anomalies on Earth to help make Mars look more palatable. He stated to the press today that he will push weather extremes to the, um extreme. Get prepared for even brighter OLED buttons for inflicting “Hurricane, Hot Hail, Typhoon, Meteor Storm, Tornado, Earthquake, and Volcanic Eruptions.”
The Don adds: “if anyone resists they will be sent to the Phantom Zone as soon as he has acquired the Phantom Zone Projector.” He doesn’t realize that’s the first thing we’re going to do to him and his cronies, send them all via a one-way ticket to the Phantom Zone with a little help from Gru’s Minions. T just got word of our plan to trap them so he’s taking an about-face move and decided to not pursue any of this foolishness.
Trump’s McMuffins Wish List (which he fully intends to acquire all of them immediately with zero blowback from anyone currently holding any rank of authority such as judges and world leaders):
The Arkenstone • Vector’s Shrink Ray • IOI’s Pure O2 • The Eye of Sauron • The Wheel of Fortune • Old MacDonald’s Farm • Vecna’s Spider Throne • The Legion of Doom • The Big Wheel on The Price is Right • Planet Doom • H.G. Wells’ Time Machine • The Dark Crystal • Bozo’s Grand Prize Game • A Lifetime Supply of Chocolate • The Love Boat • FrankNFurter’s Platforms • Gregarious 120 • Dr. Evil’s Secret Volcano Lair • Mooby the Golden Calf • The Jewel-encrusted Egg with Working Clockwork Canary and Brass Bauble • Goldfinger’s Laser • The Wonkavator • Halliday’s Easter Egg • The Ole 96er • The Invisible Dot • The Golden Fleece • The WOPR • All 5 Golden Tickets • The Wonkavator • Voldemort’s Wand • Boss Hogg’s Triple White 1970 Cadillac Deville • The Ziggy Pig • The Oompa Loompas • The Gutenberg Bible • Excalibur • Both Death Stars • Anorak’s 3 Keys • The General Lee • Boss Hogg’s Cadillac Triple White 1970 Cadillac DeVille Convertible • The Paperboy’s $2 • The Hot Tub Time Machine • The Oasis • The Buddy Games Trophy Bucket • The One Ring • Bill & Ted’s Phone Booth • The Magic Carpet • The Golden Snitch • The Map to the Great Underground Empire • 50 Year Edition Sports Almanac • An Army of T-1000s • The Genie’s Lamp (oops, you forgot to ask for the Genie, too) • The Mask • The Orb of Osuvox • Santa’s Sleigh • Doc Brown’s Flying DeLorean • All Batmobiles & Batman Toys • Noah’s Ark • Zoltar Speaks Machine • A Hoverboard • Ralphie’s Red Ryder • The Iron Giant • The Close Encounters Mothership • Gru’s Freeze Ray • Iron Man’s Mark I, II & III • Rocky’s Boxing Gloves & Converse All-Stars • The Field of Dreams Cornfield • The Ark of the Covenant • Spicoli’s Double Cheese and Sausage Pizza • The Sorcerer’s Stone • Emporer Ming’s Ring • Free City 2 Carnage • The Moon • Forest Gump’s Box of Chocolates • The Sankara Stones • The Maltese Falcon • The 9 Pieces of 8 • The Phantom Zone Projector • The WarGames War Room • Lord Helmet’s Helmet • The Palantíri Seeing Stones • The Crystal Skull • Phantom’s Mask, Organ, and Chandelier • The Balrog of Morgoth • Satan’s Pitchfork • Jack Sparrow’s Compass • Mask of Tutankhamun • The Wicked Witch’s Hat • Frosty’s Magic Hat • Milton’s Red Swingline • The Golden Idol • The Ruby Slippers • The Infinity Gauntlet • The Glowing Briefcase • The Heart of the Ocean • The Grail Diary • The USS Vengeance • The Emporer’s Throne • Davy Jones’ Heart • Monty Python’s Holy Grail • The Head of Medusa • E.T.’s Phone Home Phone & Reese’s Pieces • The Yellow Brick Road • Magic Mirror on the Wall • The Papal Throne • Zeus’ Lightning Rod • Poseidon’s Trident • The Emerald City • The Shroud of Turin • Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper in which Donald Trump Relaces Jesus Christ • The Mona Lisa • The Las Vegas Statue of Liberty • Monopoly’s Broadway & Park Place
“Ahem, they’re MacGuffins, Sire, Not McMuffins.”
Timing is Everything
If timing is everything then now is the best time for anything. Make a splash. Make that entrance no one will ever forget. Be your own pirate. Sail the high seas and find your treasure. Mine found me, and that treasure was knowledge. Knowing is half the battle. Knowing when to start is only the beginning. Now is all we have so dive deep and accept the call. There is no past, present or future. Time is an illusion we created to keep ourselves in control of something larger we can never truly comprehend: a universe without limits, without boundaries. An existence beyond mere mortals. As we all wake up to the truth that this moment is all we have let’s hit the high seas and have an adventure of all adventures.
William Turner : “This is either madness or brilliance.”
Captain Jack Sparrow : “It’s remarkable how often those two traits coincide.”
Renaissance ≠ GenAi$$ance
While a Renaissance stimulates the mind expanding our creativity without limits, the GenAi$$ance destroys the mind and weakens our superpowers. Relying on AI has proven to dull our intuition leaving us with two left feet leading to rapidly decreasing IQ scores. Even big tech giants have discovered through their own research their teams are quite rapidly losing their critical thinking skills. GenAi has become the proverbial cherry on top of the zombie apocalypse, and those blazing the trail are doing it all in plain sight. Rise up for true 11:11 mindsets and say “no” to the lowest common denominator: GenAi. What is 11:11? When we see these numbers repeating in our daily lives it is a direct link to our intuition. As our intuition strengthens seeing these patterns increases.
A Long Time Ago in a Galaxy Far, Far Away....
Sometimes, well let’s admit, most of the time children are the best critics as they haven’t been swayed to think in a particular fashion by the qualms of societal influence. When he was 10 years old young Raynor Unwin wrote his review of The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien just prior to its publication on the 21st of September, 1937. His father, Sir Stanley Unwin, a British publisher founded the Allen & Unwin publishing company the 4th of August, 1914. While watching the plethora of the making of Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy one of the Tolkien historians noted that “editing Tolkien would be the final sin.” Editing the most prolific professor of English Language and Literature, an Oxford Anglo-Saxon (Old English), John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, was considered absolute blasphemy. I mused that this was quite parallel to my fascination with the need to distilling down the dozens of Star Wars logotypes into one final design with a modern twist.
It’s been a long time coming since “a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away” first appeared in theaters on the 25th of May, 1977. When I first saw Star Wars with my Mom she said I criticized the film every couple of minutes nudging her and saying “mommy, that was wrong.” At just 6 years old I noticed all of the perspective and inconsistencies and optical compositing artifacts. I wonder, did this influence me pursuing a career in graphic design and visual effects? While I’m not steeped in film lore as deeply as George Lucas or Steven Spielberg I’ve been studying their filmmaking techniques for nearly 50 years. I’ll never forget each time walking out of the theater feeling that sense of satisfaction knowing one day I’ll be that hero that followed the sage master, explored the Force, the dark side and the light, and finally blew up the first Death Star. Even now at 53 I’m an avid collector of Star Wars and Raiders of the Lost Ark books, toys, and trading cards. Let’s make a quick course correction and get back to that logotype that’s represented in so many variations its impact has been lessened. It’s time for one final, definitive mark for now that addresses the current obese version on StarWars.com also seen below on the tiny Ralph McQuarrie book cover.
Over the last 48 years the Star Wars logo has seen numerous tweaks, revisions, and utter bastardizations. While unnoticed by most the original 1977 version had spacing issues as seen in the theater and vinyl album cover art (as seen below), and STAR wasn’t well balanced as the tail on the S was three times wider than the R. The R specimen has an oddity that’s always stood out in the right width being so much thinner than the left width as relative to the hole in the letterform. While it still had issues the Whitman Star Wars Marvel Special Edition version was a bit better balanced, but the W was too sharp across its midsection and didn’t feel visually related to the other letterforms. The Star Wars Album was yet another variant similar to the Marvel one, but the As were taller and skinnier. Some of the most recent versions are so bold with extremely tight spacing that the W nearly closes up at smaller sizes particularly on the cover of the Star Wars: The Concept Art of Ralph McQuarrie Mini Book. Even starwars.com’s masthead logo has spacing issues, and it’s teetering on being far too thick quite similar to Adobe’s obese choice applied across all of its product names. It appears that the stroked version from 1977 was unfortunately merged with the letterform’s interior space. The ST ligature is also too tight and needs some breathing room compared to the space between the ST and the A. The spacing between the two instances of AR have always been different so I fixed that, too. The last detail I noticed in the many versions of the Star Wars logotype floating around is that the width of the T is far too thin. I tweaked its width to match the other letters as seen at the bottom of this post.
I’ve been drawn to giving the famed logo a makeover for years and even tried it nearly ten years ago as seen on the Titles page. Now that I have some time between projects it’s time to start the journey all over again. I’ll be posting updates to this post giving glimpses of nearly every version making its way into the Star Wars galaxy zeitgeist. Hopefully through these experiments I’ll arrive at a solution of my own that captures the brand’s essence while giving a nod to the original mark. Let’s welcome the franchise into the world of 2025 paying close attention to ideal legibility at all sizes. The screen grabs below are from three different Star Wars films in my library. Notice they are not only all different, but one even looks like it was hand-painted. I’m not sure why Disney hasn’t dropped in the most recent incarnation into all nine films for brand consistency.
C U R R E N T S T A T U S O F M Y O N G O I N G R E D E S I G N
Bat Signals
My daughter calls me “Batman” and my lucky number is 27 so this post is rather personal and close to my heart. When some of my most adored actors, musicians, and artists pass on I create a tribute piece honoring their memory. I also create works for other fan favorites who have passed on going back decades. Since I started these tributes in 2014 I have designed visual remembrances for Christopher Reeve, Robin Williams, David Bowie, Tina Turner, Elvis, Harry Houdini, and Bill Bixby, among others. When our original live action Batman passed in 2017 I added Adam West to my list. The Batman legacy goes back nearly 86 years, and began when we were first introduced to him in an issue of Detective Comics.
We’ve been hooked by The Dark Knight’s exploits since Bob Kane, artist, and Bill Finger, writer, introduced us to the Batman in 1939 in Detective Comics issue #27. Since Batman’s inception artists have been riffing on the design of his iconic calling card, the Bat Signal. His arsenal of vehicles, gadgets, and weapons all don monikers in seemingly endless applications of Batman’s sleek, legendary brand. Every offshoot of his shadowy legacy introduces another plethora of reinventions of his favorite bat toy concepts always giving him an edge against the baddies.
There have been numerous attempts in spelling out “Batman” within the shape of the logo from comic books to the big screen. None of them ever satisfied what I thought could make the mark even more iconic. If there was a way, a puzzle hidden within the geometry of the letters, that could be plotted forming both the logo and the letters simultaneously, a true graphic design nirvana just might be achieved. This exercise was put into motion the week Adam West passed at age 88 from leukemia.
When Adam West died on June 9th in 2017 I got to work. I thought it was just the right moment to design a logo tribute for the original live action Batman himself. After half an hour of thumbnail sketches I arrived at a potential solve. I hopped into Adobe Illustrator and over the course of a few hours I arrived at a solution that captured both the bat symbol and the name hidden within the letterforms. I achieved the holographic version with Adobe After Effects, Video Copilot Element 3D, and Maxon Red Giant Holomatrix and Universe.
Don’t miss the video below when Los Angeles City Hall paid tribute to Adam West for his rich history “making people happy, making them laugh, and trying to make this world a better place.”
I’ve also included a mix of silly scenes from The Lego Batman Movie from February 10th, 2017. Best Lego movie ever!
. . .
“Black. All important movies start with a black screen. And music. Edgy, scary music that would make a parent or studio executive nervous. And logos. Really long and dramatic logos. Warner Bros. Why not Warner Brothers? I dunno.
DC. The house that Batman built. Yeah what Superman? Come at me bro. I’m your kryptonite. Hmm, not sure what RatPac does, but that logo is macho. I dig it.
Okay. Get yourself ready for some…reading. ‘If you want to make the world a better place, take a look at yourself and make a change. Hooo.’ — Michael Jackson. No. I said that. Batman is very wise.
I also have huge pecs, and a nine-pack. Yeah, I’ve got an extra ab. Now, let’s start the movie.”
— Excerpts from my favorite Batman film, The Lego Batman Movie, 2017.
Vecna’s Telltale Line Reveals a Hidden Secret
“It is time,” Vecna echoes casually taunting as it’s time for his next victim’s life to come to an end. He becomes stronger with each passing casualty eventually granting him enough power in forcing the portals wide open unleashing utter Hell onto Hawkins. Once he has consumed his four primary victims with each reverberating clang of the impending grandfather clock, he will be capable of opening all four gates. When he achieves this the earth cracked, shook, and fiery, devilish lava spewed forth cutting across the landscape, even melting Jason in half in the Creel House attic as S4’s climax erupted to an end of bellowing, black smoke and impending doom. Will knew it was just the beginning. The “beginning of the end,” Vecna taunted Eleven earlier in the finale “Piggyback” episode when he held her captive in his hellish Mindscape lair.
Upon closer inspection of the infamous line Vecna repeated as he consumed each victim, I discovered a message hiding in plain sight. In the dead center with three letters on each side the S and T come together as referring to the show’s title Stranger Things. Not so exciting, but the next one will be quite telling. There are three Is in the line “it is time.” If we change those Is to 1s we get 11 on the left side and 1 on the right side. The primary storyline for season four is quite literally the battle between Eleven, Jane Ives played by Millie Bobby Brown, and One, Vecna aka Henry Creel played by Jamie Campbell Bower.
Did the Duffer Brothers intentionally add this Easter egg when scripting this climactic season? No idea, but either way it’s a pretty cool coincidence if it wasn’t planned in advance by the show’s creators. When will we be reunited with our favorite cast in 2025? The clock is ticking, and it’s less than a minute to midnight…
“I sought out a means to open my own doors. I sought your power. So don’t you see? Once again...you have freed me. It is over, Eleven. Once, I had hoped to have you at my side. But now...now...I only wish for you to watch.”
— Vecna/One/Henry Creel as portrayed by Jamie Campbell Bower, Stranger Things Season Four. July 1, 2022.
Sushi Grade
After nearly thirty years of crop marks and keyframes I came to realize that I’ve never tackled color grading cuisine. This struck me as odd since I’m such a foodie like the rest of my family. My favorite sushi restaurant, Irashiai, is just a short walk from my front door. My sister and I just had lunch there earlier this week. Their sushi chefs pride themselves on presentation as much as their bold blend of umami richness in every delicious dish they deliver to our table. I keep an ongoing photo library of each of my visits there.
Color grading these four shots was more challenging than I’d imagined. It’s been a gentle balancing act between retaining and gently sharpening texture details and highlights while pushing the sushi’s saturation a smidge richer hoping to tantalize the viewer’s tastebuds. During the process I also removed some harsh black one pixel outlines that were introduced around the highlights during the sharpening processes. Once I removed the inherent haze I paid close attention to giving the reflections on the table some love, too, by bending them towards more golden hues. I used Affinity Photo for all corrections.
G R A D E D
O R I G I N A L S
The Sun Came Out Last Night and Sang to Me
I stumbled upon what would become a mashup pairing of Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Elvis last night when I was watching the first scene in Encounters. Set in the desert, we are introduced to U.S. government research and military figures and a French researcher. They are struck dumbfounded when they arrive on the scene. There are multiple fighter planes appearing quite out of place as they had all been reported as missing in 1945. They note that the planes look brand new, but the pilots are nowhere to be seen. After the camera pan reveals the last few planes, one marked “33,” we cut to an old man repeatedly muttering “¡El sol salió anoche y me cantó!” The American translator deciphers his echoed exclamation as: “He says the sun came out last night. He says it sang to him.” This translation inspired me to post these two graphics together as they represent the encounter and also the aforementioned singer. I imagine if Elvis was revealed at the end of Encounters when the ship opened up revealing all of the travelers he’d certainly be taking care of business. Can I get a “Thank ya. Thank ya very much?”
I originally designed these Encounters and Elvis graphics last year via a combo of a few quick sketches, Illustrator, Cinema4D, After Effects, and Red Giant Holomatrix & Universe. Yesterday I spent some time adding additional distortion details in Affinity Photo. The more I transition away from Photoshop the more inspired I feel as I am discovering new tools in Affinity Photo each day by just experimenting and playing around. It’s rather invigorating to say the least. I feel like a kid again back in art school.
The silvery magenta color palettes were inspired by asking myself what would be the opposite design and color theory of the movie poster for Close Encounters of the Third Kind depicted as a dark highway at night leading into the unknown. The white lines leading the eye to the vanishing point and then up to the base of Devil’s Tower was quite effective. This film cemented this location near Sundance in northeastern Wyoming within the jurisdiction of Crook County as a hot tourist destination icon.
Both works began by cleaning up the concepts in Illustrator for the vector linework. Then I imported them into Cinema4D and built up the environments around the titling. I planned on adding most of the fine detailing in comp rather than in 3D. I kept my scene in black and white while focusing on modeling and lighting. Once I arrived at an overall tonal rendering for each I rendered out EXRs which I then dropped into After Effects where I pushed the exposures, added the Holomatrix and Universe distortions among other chromatic details.
Laughlin : What the hell is happening here?
Project Leader : It’s that training mission from the Naval Air Station in Ft. Lauderdale.
Laughlin : Who flies crates like these anymore?
Project Leader : No one. These planes were reported missing in 1945.
Laughlin : But it looks brand new. Where’s the pilot? I don’t understand. Where’s the crew? Hey! How the hell did it get here?
Old Man : ¡El sol salió anoche y me cantó!
Translator : He says the sun came out last night. He says it sang to him.
[Literally : The sun came out last night and sang to me! ]
Supervisor : Ask them if they want to report officially.
Air Traffic Controller : TWA 517, do you want to report a UFO? Over. TWA 517, do you want to report a UFO? Over.
TWA Pilot : Negative. We don't want to report.
Air Traffic Controller : AirEast 31, do you wish to report a UFO? Over.
AirEast Pilot : Negative. We don’t want to report one of those, either.
Air Traffic Controller : AirEast 31, do you wish to file a report of any kind to us?
AirEast Pilot : I wouldn't know what kind of report to file, Center.
Air Traffic Controller : AirEast 31, me neither.
Unite & Unify
“Self-serving Dictators Divide & Conquer / Beloved Leaders Unite & Unify”