I really want to start sketching in my sketchbook again. Really, I do.

I went to NCSU for a portfolio review to see if I get into their industrial design program. In consideration for getting into the program, they really want to see your design process, what goes through your head when initially coming up with the different ideas to create something new. Everyone and anyone who's created a piece of art knows what I'm talking about. All those trial and error ideas, tweaking each one until you're satisfied with an idea to take it further until you have the completed product. In my ideas, I can range between five to 30 different sketches of possible variations of something I want to make.

When I was sitting, waiting with everyone else to go into their interview, I noticed almost everyone had their sketchbook, except me. I was curious as to why, and now I know why, it was like I said before they really want to see where it is you begin with an idea to where you take it. What do you think about when designing, what do you consider, what goes through your brain...they really wanted to see what makes you tick. In my portfolio, I did have some initial sketches and the finished design product, however I still wish I had my sketch book...and then I began to wish I just drew in it more in general.

It's just a great place to doodle down ideas, to think about things. I'm ALWAYS thinking of new things, new ideas, how to change this, how to change that, and I've realized I NEVER draw it down. I'm determined to now, or at least to try and use it more often than not.

In my interview, I was asked of something that I would change about an object or furniture, etc. I remember a while back sitting on a subway, wishing that there was a better seating arrangement to ensure more standing room during rush hour, such as seats that folded up. I told her that, and she told me that was a really interesting idea (and we talked a little bit more) and then she reiterated that she just wished that my sketchbook was there to see that design on paper to see how I'd think about it. I told her I would.

So I am. I have a ton of sketchbooks actually, but I need to buy a smaller pocket sized one. They're great to have, even if you wouldn't consider yourself an artist. It's a great place to doodle ideas, to look back on and get inspired, and also just to release any feelings that are pent up. I remember I actually used to always draw and doodle when I was angry. My parents still have some drawings I did when I was younger and angry in the car, perhaps I can find them and scan them in. They're, to me, disturbing yet somehow my parents found them hilarious and adorable.

I was so mad at them, lol.

Join me and go buy a sketchbook. Then DRAW

So, as a heads up I wanted to write a blog about all the time and effort that goes into making these shirts here at Draw ltd.

We don't outsource, and we don't send off peoples drawings then have some big company print them in masses for us to make crazy money off of.

We do each and every shirt ourselves, with the helped of the very talented Tim Fealey, a close friend, as well as a freelance silk screener. Together Draw and Tim help take everyone's ideas and drawings, and bring them to life via T-Shirts; a medium we all love.

but it's not easy.

A few weeks back there was a serious cold spell here in upstate New York, and one day Tim and I had to print the stephen tees in 10 degree weather. I'm bringing this up, because I could not be happier about that. Of course we were both bitter cold, couldn't feel our fingers but it was all worth it. To see people buying our shirts, to see kids really getting behind draw and our ideas, makes it all worth it.

For our next line "handimals," we're taking all the lessons we learned last time and building upon them. Expect more comprehensive shirts, better printing, crazy drawings, as well as little hidden gems around the shirts themselves.

T-Shirts are just as fitting an art form as a painting or poster and some may say that its one of the better mediums out there to show artwork.

Ponder what your tee shirt is telling the world about you, and in the meantime

DRAW!

If you haven't already noticed, our man Stephen is a character full of personality. He's morphed into more things than we can count, and will continue to do so over the years to come. For each line Stephen's going to be making a special appearance, and we'll always encourage you to take Stephen and put him into situations yourself.

A logo that's very much like Stephen is the Google logo. Over the years the Google company has turned their logo from a rainbow of colors in 1999, to anything you can imagine in 2009. I think it's pretty impressive, and when going through the company's logo archives online, some of their morphed logos are actually quite good.

Once a year beginning in 2008, Google holds a contest called "Design 4 Google", also known as the "Google Doodle" for students K-12. They do a call for entries on the Google logo, and amongst all the submissions, they pick one logo to be the website's main feature for a day. Not only that, but 40 regional winners across the country are invited to the Googleplex in California to meet and vote, and then the one winner who is selected also wins a $10,000 college scholarship and a technology grant for their school. I wish this was around when I was in high school, because it would've been so helpful not only for my college education, but it would've been pretty freaking cool to be on the Google homepage for a day.

Although Draw cannot provide a college scholarship or a grant to your school just yet, we are giving back to the community because of each and every one of your submissions. For each drawing we receive, no matter if it's 1 or 15 from the same person, we put money towards funding art programs in public schools. As the company grows, so does the amount of money we can contribute, and it's only if you guys give us drawings to oogle at, vote, print and sell. And then only if you buy those wonderful t-shirts from our shop can we continue doing as much as we can to save art in our school system.

Take a peep below at some of the array of great logos that Google has made for their website, and if you know anyone in elementary school, middle school or high school, tell them to contribute to the "Doodle 4 Google".

Not only will you be giving them a chance at a fantastic college opportunity, but you'll be inspiring them to be creative, to be unabashed of their art, but you'll also be inspiring them to,
Draw.

Wayyyyy before I ever helped come up with draw, I had always thought to myself “Jordan, what do you want to do with your life?” just like any other kid out there. I would question my meaning on this planet, and I would get SUPER contemplative, don’t ask me why but that’s just how I roll.

When I was thirteen years old I took a really strong liking to my cousin Christopher and he became one of the biggest role models in my life. If I could influence and shape one person’s life like he did mine, I would feel like a success. So it was then that I made it my mission, to try and change a person’s life in a positive way like he had done to me.

And not in some big grand arc, or life altering way but in the simplest of manners and the most subtle of actions. Hell if I could get one person to just think about something in a different light, I’d call myself a success.

So as I grew older, I decided that art was my medium, that I would use my art or my ideas to in some way influence people to look at the world in a different light, if even for a fleeting moment.

I want draw to be that.

I want to be able to use draw to get people to feel like they can be artists again, or even for the first time. I want people to be able to take this company and our ideas, and use it to spark a part of their personality that they forgot. If I could convert one person into seeing that they in fact had artistic talent through this company then I feel like I would be a success, as well as draw.

So this past weekend a friend of mine, who is hands down one of the nicest kids I have ever met; Zach Higgins, pulls me aside. We start talking about draw, and how he loves the company.(check out his winning drawing here) and we eventually started talking about the blog. Zack proceeds to tell me that reading our thoughts, seeing our company, and being inspired by what we represent; got him drawing in his sketchbook again.

I want him, and everyone out there to know that if draw ended today(which thankfully it didn’t, and won't) that I would feel like it was a success….

Thank you Zack.

So take a cue from Zack and DRAW!

While perusing some art and design blogs this morning, I came across a post on formfiftyfive.com about the Grammy's visual work this year. Last year wasn't a great one for the Grammy's, as it had an incredibly low audience, and it's been in steady decline in popularity over the last few years.

But this year they seem to be stepping up with first their nominations, and secondly, with their visual campaigns.

Grammy Spokesperson, Thom Yorke, has been helping to put out these ads for the Grammy's in the recent days throughout NYC. This campaign, titled "Celebrate the Music That Made Us", has popular music artist's faces sprawled all over subways, wheat pasted on walls, and strewn through subway stations beginning in New York and extending across the country.

Thom Yorke even has his own face in the campaign, which seems to be a pretty bold move considering the iffy publicity work of the Grammy's in the past.

"Celebrate the Music That Made Us" takes artists like Coldplay, Kanye, and Stevie Wonder amongst others and turns them into visual inspiration and art utilizing words. Each artist was asked the simple question of, "what songs influence you", and using that list, visual portraits were created.

Soon you'll be able to see commercials narrated by these artists, and when those come out I'll be sure to post their online links.

Probably the coolest thing though is that these are incredibly intricate portraits, done in a variety of typefaces for a variety of styles, and they don't have the standard "word portrait" boring look.

You should be able to tell who the artists are below, and the images are available much larger at this link for Pitchfork Media. Also check around the internet for more of these portraits, as they're scattered all over the art world, and also for more that are planned to come out closer to February 8th on Grammy Day.

Take out your iPod and,
Draw.

Whenever I do a project, after a while I get sick of seeing it, depending on how long it's taking me to do it. I'm also more apt to be able to find the flaws in my own work, that no one else would really know just looking at it, but that I despise.

A good artist knows however never to tell what it is about their work they hate...otherwise it just draw attention to that detail and though the person viewing your art before may have loved it, they now too also see that flaw.

Anyways, onto my thought: I wonder if Monet Claude or Keith Haring ever looked at their work at just hated seeing it after a while. That or what flaws they maybe saw in their own work that they would never tell anyone else.

I wonder what Edvard Munch truly thinks of his work The Scream. I wonder if he ever got tired of seeing it at all.

Though, you know, just because we see a flaw in our own work, or really just truly hate it, doesn't mean that everyone else won't love it.
Think about it.
Maybe try it.
Draw something, and even if you hate it let others see it. Don't mention your own thought on the work, and if they do say you love it. See what they say. Hmm, I wonder...

One thing we try to promote here at draw is a very open mind about our work. A lot of people are/were skeptical about the work we put out, or the drawings we feature. A lot of people were doubting carrotman and he's one of our most popular shirts! We want people to feel like anyone can submit their drawings, if you think your good or not. We're trying to open the discussions on what an "artist," really is, and what makes them such.

Well, that also applies to our "demographic," which I throw around bitterly, and loosely. One thing you have to do when you want to get a company off the ground, is get a good sense of where you're going,what you need to do, and you need to focus on who you're selling to. Even though draw is something we would be doing for ten dollars or ten thousand dollars, its still a business at the end of the day. We're creating a product to help stimulate a certain idea we had, and through our long hours, cold work days and money; we take peoples art and make clothing out of it.

We know we're new, and we know that we have a very strong base in the art world because we are all artists ourselves. All our friends are, as well as all the kids we know are. So for the time being we have a pretty good finger on the pulse of who buys our shirts and why. It helps us pick out styles, colors, and helps us with ideas for how we present our clothing. Well, thankfully one of draw staffers did a great thing for a friend of his, and offered to provide clothing to be featured in her fashion show...

A fashion show that was NOT draw's demographic.

and let me tell you, we could not have had more fun then we did last night. We want to offer our warmest thanks to Kelsey McMahon for showing off our shirts at her show and showing draw off to a group of people we would never had thought would buy our shirts. We figured we would stop by, hand our shirts off, have a good time and leave...maybe hand out a business card or two in the process.

Not only we were very well received, the fashion show was a complete success. All the clothing (male and female alike) were wonderful, and a lot of people were very receptive of our idea. We handed out tons of cards, we gave out a few special limited edition Draw trading cards featuring the new designs for our line Handimals(which will be out to thundering applause in a few short weeks) and met some nice new people.

We hope that people loved meeting us as much as we did them, and we're hoping that draw reached a few new people out there in the greater New York area. We can't wait for the day where you can see a draw shirt on any person, regardless of their demographic.

For now, pop your collars, and DRAW!

I was going through DeviantArt earlier this evening, and found a slew of people who have amazing drawings from their sketchbooks, all referencing song lyrics. If anyone doesn't know what DeviantArt is, it's a social networking site where people display their artwork for anyone to look at. It's basically an online portfolio, but it holds an endless supply of artwork ranging from photography to sketches and drawings to poetry and music.

I've doodled to music before, but more when I was frustrated and couldn't think of a good idea for a project, yet even what came out in my sketchbook was pretty cool. It was a bunch of random doodles, filling an entire page in my sketchbook, and it was relaxing enough to make me turn that into a habit; it's my creative form of meditation.

Below are some incredible artists from DeviantArt, with the artist's names beneath their work and a link to their profile.

Check them out, and while listening to music sometime,
Draw.

AishaBaden

AlixzRose

fauxpilot & TheDeviantUnderdog

Alatriel & Hankita

ibet-itsung

Back in elementary school when you were in art class, you had no perception of how to realistically draw a cat, a dog, or even yourself. The pictures you drew of your family, what did they look like? Usually your mom and dad were like giants on the page, towering over the little house you drew floating in the sky, just above the blue grass and your dog, Rex, who had five legs and was purple. We didn’t care back then, back in the “good ‘ol days” when nothing had to be perfect and art was something that was carefree and didn’t have to be held to a certain standard.

As time goes on, people tend to lose that it would seem. Growing older, art becomes less of something that you did during your spare time for fun and hung on your fridge at home, to something left for museums and those with an “artistic eye”. The talented, you could say. You’re shown the right way to draw and the right kind of art. I’m sorry but…really? Is there really a right way? My favorite kind of art is that made from kids, it’s whimsical, fun, colorful, and not meticulously thought out.

What happened?!? What happened that as we grew older, art became something that isn’t fun anymore to most people. Why does art have to fit the standards?

I remember reading once that everyone at a young age is artistic in their own way; we all kind of drew the same really, lol. As we grow older, the joy in coloring and drawing began to diminish as either our interests drew us elsewhere or we just felt incapable of being as great of an artist as Van Gogh. Those who stuck with drawing throughout this time are those you probably see who have a great artistic eye or “talented” because their artistic abilities have been able to grow. Those people haven’t lost touch with that youthful love for creating with whatever media they choose to work with.

That’s what I want people to think about the next time they feel like they aren’t an artist or aren’t a “doodler”. To tap into what it was like to do it as a child and how carefree it was.

Be playful and just draw.

Lip Dub - Flagpole Sitta by Harvey Danger from amandalynferri on Vimeo.

This is a fun video and a great way to get a bunch of friends together, play some music, dance and have a lot of laughs. But then again, if you party with the Draw crew, we have nothing but an amazing time.

Dance, dance and
Draw.