Another Mac Style product using our Smooth Sailor and other images from the Modern Ark collection. The Japanese confections are little dairy-size cups filled with a variety of fruit flavored gelatins. So sweet!
My first illustration in Japan has just been published – the cover of the annual Auto Camp Guide of Japan. It was a great opportunity for me to work on a new pattern of tents and trees that can be seen in the background. I quite enjoy the commercial quality of the Japanese characters on the cover. Below is one of the crazier sketches that I proposed.
These minicards (printed at moo.com) are the seeds of my new upcoming licensing collection – a dozen jungle animals presented on bold color backgrounds. They make great impact on cards, stationary and tableware. Below is my business card dispenser, a clown espresso cup that I designed for Ritzenhoff. In the background you can see that «Bad Design Kills» zombie created by Velvet Moustache.
Ritzenhoff did a great job with my coffee cup design for their My Darling 2008 collection. This sunny lion is king of the Java Jungle in the morning with his brew. Notice how the cup and the packaging are related to form a complete character that looks really good in the store display. The challenge is not only to make the cup interesting on all sides but also to create a character that a coffee lover can relate to.
A bit of background
The design started out as a business card for a very small corner café (now closed unfortunately). The owner, Remo, is a Leo. I developed a number of lions in different café settings and this one was Remo’s favorite. It also became the poster for my first exhibition of animal art at the café called «Les rois animaux» (The Animal Kings). Later on I submitted a revised and adapted version to Ritzenhoff but I didn’t hear from them for quite awhile, and then, surprise, one morning they announced their intention to produce the cup for this season.
