16-Bit Concert Poster
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Threyda Apparel (Part 2) - Packaging
Since we approached our clothing as conduits of some very talented artwork, it was absolutely necessary to make sure the entire packaging experience had as much attention to detail as the rest of the product. I had bought quite a few tshirts on the internet in the past, and found the unpackaging process to be rather disappointing. Many companies are trying to cut corners to save money these days, and so almost every shirt I ordered showed up simply folded and placed inside a mailing bag with nothing else to entertain besides the item itself. I felt if we were to show respect to the artistic contributions of our artist, the packaging it comes in should show exude the same sense of passion and dedication.
My first step in this packaging process was to create the individual hangtags. I wanted the tags to add some personality to the artwork. Thus, each shirt comes with it's own unique tag that displays a view of the original artwork, the artwork's title, the artist's name, and a handwritten edition number. I felt it was important to give credit to the artist first and foremost, as they are sole reason behind any of these things existing.
The next project was the box. There was some debate whether it would be worth shelling out a decent amount of money for these custom manufactured items. In the end I feel it was worth it. In my experience since this decision, I feel people generally understand that when you reach to this level of attention to detail with your product that you truly care about what you are selling.
The main design is loosely based on the traditional sand Mandalas made by Buddhist Monks. I've had an interest in Mandalas (and made one of my own) for some time, and always felt they were great symbols of patience, inspiration and dedication. There is a very faint pattern visible throughout nearly the entire surface of the box, the same one used on the website and other prints material.
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Blast Wakeskate Magazine Ad
posted by Peter
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Threyda Apparel (Part 1) - Identity Logo
From the start, I knew that if I was to build a brand around artwork, a brand image that was created to showcase the art itself would be very important. This is the reason I immediately chose to make black, white and the shades of grey inbetween the official colors (or lack thereof) of Threyda. I decided there is no better way to make sure the colors used in a piece of artwork stand out the way they should, than to keep all supporting material void of color.
My personal tastes for artwork typically leans towards the complex, the detailed, and the inspiring. I also love when things have a natural flow present. I wanted all of these qualities to be evident in Threyda's logo. The overall feel the finished product took on was most likely influenced by my love of Arabian calligraphy.
To me, this logo represents several things. Firstly, it can be viewed as a liquid drop or a flame...two things that embody a natural flow in their own beautiful and unique ways. Secondly, it is meant to resemble an eye...a deeply important symbol to me as the visual gateway of the mind and truly the entire reason art and design can exist.
All things told, I feel this was one of my strongest works to date, and I am deeply attached to it. It has been a great feeling seeing others make similar strong attachments, and for this I am grateful.
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Introduction to Threyda
Once I update my artwork page and get everything back up to speed, it will be obvious that compared to previous years I have not produced as much. My new artwork-based clothing project, called Threyda, is the reason for this. I have been working on this project in some way shape or form since November 2008, which is when I first started on the identity and website.
For the past few years I have greatly enjoyed the creation process of my personal work, but have always hoped to someday expand into something that could grow beyond myself and become something collective. Threyda is the manifestation of these thoughts. First and foremost I am a fan of the arts. I spend a large amount of time viewing other people's work and find myself quite absorbed in the talents of modern creative minds. Through Threyda I am able to reach out to these other artists and help them bring their work to more people.
In these next few weeks I will post all of the design projects I encountered and finished for Threyda, along with some details about my thought process behind each step.
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The Ink Horse
Playing around with some india ink drops in water, a horse appeared
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A Message To My Fellow Tool Fans
It's been a great experience communicating with people who enjoy my work. I feel greatly privileged each time I have the opportunity to share a few messages with a stranger who felt the need to get in touch with me. Some of the best of these strangers have been Tool fans.
Until I created a magazine cover for the band, I hadn't been in contact with other Tool fans other than my friends. I've been a devoted fan of Tool for over a decade, but I didn't have a grasp of how special their fanbase really is until the past year or two. I've never met another group of fans who were so open minded, intelligent, friendly and passionate.
It excites me to see how Tool has positively affected others like myself. They have given us the tools to view our existence in a different perspective. The opportunity to view things through a new light and the challenge to elevate our state of mind and explore the unknown.
Tool introduced me to the concept of the third eye - one of the most pivotal concepts I've ever learned. I've been prying it open as much as possible ever since. They've been the energy moving my creative spirit over and over again. They invoke visions and ideas like few others have ever done for me.
My favorite Tool songs often cause synasthaesia. The movement and soundscapes invoke inner visions that are hard to describe, and even harder to recreate. I've often dwelled on the idea of making an image for each song on a Tool album, creating a visual album that tries to depict my feelings and the lyrical message for each song. Hopefully someday I will have the ambition to go through with such a project, as I would love to see how closely they relate to the ideas other fans have swirling in their minds.
Thanks to all of you for your support and ongoing communication. All of you have helped drive my ambition and inspiration to follow my will and wind. Spiral Out!
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The Apple Ad Concept
 This is an idea I contemplated for months before finally undertaking the project I had envisioned. I was thinking about the current state of print advertisement, and pondering possible ways to approach consumers from a new angle. This particular ad is intended to be shown as street level promotion (maybe inside of a mall, or along the sidewalk in a busy area), the native size is 6x9 feet.
My ad portrays a girl making her way through a dream. In the first frame she blows the petals of the flower, she chases them through the proceeding frames and changes her surroundings (the song being played) when one of the petals presents her with the opportunity. The petals and sunshine are a reoccurring element throughout the whole piece, all the way up to the last frame where we learn she is simply sleeping while listening to music. The reoccurring themes are a nod to the way in which many of us dream. Also, each frame is self aware and reflects it's surrounding environment.
Most modern advertisements typically follow the same set of guidelines and standards. Practically all print ads strive to convey the message they hold in a relatively short amount of time. The product being promoted and the campaign as a whole is intended to be easily understood at a quick glance. The logic behind this is easy to understand, companies want the ad to be effective even if someone only looks for a moment as they pass by.
The content of the ad is supposed to be simple enough for your average person to understand. I don't see many lot of ads that leave room for individual interpretation or use of imagination, typically things are fairly concise and straight forward. There are some good exceptions of offbeat marketing which has proven to be quite effective - such as the Quiznos TV ads featuring those freakish-looking guitar playing mice.
So with these things in mind I decided to try and approach my ad concept from the completely opposite angle. Keeping the traditional print ad tendencies in mind, I attempted to create something complex and thought provoking. My ad cannot be understood with a passing glance, it demands closer inspection and needs to be studied to take in the entire nature of the scene.
I believe this type of approach can be fulfilling for the casual observer. It treats the individual as the complex person they are. It respects the fact that people are intelligent enough to make personal connections with imagery. It doesn't try to push the product in your face - instead, only a small section of the entire ad shows the item being promoted.
How many times have you seen a print ad that made you want to stop and study the visual imagery? This is the goal behind my project. I chose Apple because they have always been a very imaginative company, and their ad campaigns throughout the past have been thought provoking and creative. They have inspired me to try and move above and beyond my skills and always aspire to think outside the box. I'd like to think I was successful doing so, and I hope you'll agree.
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New Artwork - Urban Dreams
This new piece is based on a picture of my friend Niki. I have always thought she had a very appealing face and thought it would be a good challenge to create something around it. When working with faces in artwork it's very difficult to retain all the beauty that someone contains.
We are naturally drawn to facial symmetry. Studies have shown that the more perfectly aligned and symmetrical a person's face is, the more attractive they appear to other humans. When recreating or editing an image of a person, just the slightest adjustment can throw the entire face off-balance and create a very unflattering counterpart. Before this picture the only female face I had worked with was Jessica Alba. She was very intimidating, not only because I looked her straight in the eyes for hours on end but because every single time I accidentally moved part of her face she would completely lose her beauty.
This continues my effort to urbanize my style for a while. I went on a nature spree for quite a while, and now find myself very drawn towards the feelings of the city. I wanted to show the great connection one can have with a cityscape, no matter how unnatural they may seem. There can be beautiful man-made creations with art seeping out of the alleyways and most unassuming places you can think of.
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New Artwork - Flow of Nature
This new piece is something I put together while on vacation in Florida. I thought I would be inspired by being in such a different climate and environment, and this turned out to be partially true. All of the inspiration for this piece came from fake plants at my Grandpa's house. I wanted some very specific looking plants to use, and I couldn't seem to find anything outside...and then I realized, all of the plants I was searching for were right in front of me.
I made a very conscious effort to make something different with this piece. I have never used a white background before, and wanted to try and make things have more of a gritty feel. My style for quite some time has been very smooth, and I decided it was time to wander a little ways off the path. I am very happy with how it turned out. There really isn't any deep thought or hidden message in this, just an attempt to push my aesthetic range a little further.
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Slayer Magazine Cover
I'm not really the biggest Slayer fan, even though I respect them for representing all things metal and making every other 80's band seem very, very weak. I would never admit this at a hard concert, because I'm fairly certain it would be the last concert I ever experience due to Slayer fans twisting me into a ball and tossing me around the crowd. For those of you who really don't know any Slayer songs, "Angel of Death" is a great introduction.
This is my 4th month in a row doing the cover for Maximum Ink. They did not ask me to do the latest issue, and I can only speculate what the reasons may be. I think it's possible that they simply cannot handle five super badass covers in a row, and they decided to give everyone's retinas a break from all the visual super-awesomeness.
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Question everything - at least once
I believe one of the strongest problems with our society is people do not know how to argue with themselves. They take the easy way out - accepting their current or long-held views and beliefs without looking back. These days I get the feeling everyone feels like a genius. Everyone is an expert about everything, and their opinions cannot be swayed for they have gained some sort of infinite source of knowledge and ultimate truth. People know less than ever, and act like they know more at the same time. Where did this come from?
Researching both sides of an argument is something anyone can and should do, but sadly I feel many completely ignore our natural reasoning as human beings and let our opinions be molded by our own stubbornness, others around us or single people we feel are more intelligent than ourselves.
How many times in history has the general consensus of the people turned out to be incorrect? I hope you can think of at least one example all on your own, it's fairly easy. Let's see....the earth used to be the center of the universe, cigarettes used to increase your lung capacity, and cocaine used to be nothing more than a naturally revitalizing ingredient safe for all purpose consumption.
I cannot stress how important it is to put all of the deepest and dearest beliefs you hold on the table - and pretend they are completely wrong for a little while. You have to believe you are wrong about some things, it's completely illogical to think otherwise given you are an imperfect human and cannot avoid making mistakes. You have to also consider that the things you are wrong about might be the strongest opinions you hold. Some people are so tied into their opinions that even when they have hard evidence thrown in their face to show their error, pride takes over and results in an illogical safekeeping of said opinion.
We are human beings, which is the farthest thing possible from infallible. Why even begin to pretend otherwise?
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Deftones Magazine Cover
 (repost from November 29th, 2006)
The December issue of Maximum Ink magazine will feature the Deftones, along with cover art I put together on extremely short notice. I was asked to do this with only a handful of hours left to go before the magazine went to press, and was considering watching South Park reruns and eating junk food instead. My love for the Deftones inspired me to stay up late pounding mountain dew energy drinks and handed in my work about half an hour before the deadline. Go caffeine!
For those of you who are into the Deftones' style of metal, I strongly recommend their new cd Saturday Night Wrist. I've been playing it for a while now, and it's definitely becoming one of my favorites.
posted by Peter
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The best way to steal
(repost from September 14th, 2006)
The life and ideas of the entire world lay at your disposal. The work of the divinely inspired and absolute genius are available for you to use in whatever way you see fit. History has more human thought and belief than you could absorb in your entire life...its up to you to discover what you are best at understanding, and seek out all the paths and groundwork others have laid before you. Why try to understand the world all on your own? Others before you have labored away out of love to discover what they can about everything around us....we can use the blood and sweat of history as stepping stones into the sky. There is profound truth and realization to be found hidden under boulders of the past.
Think of each piece of inspired writing or human work of art as a piece of an infinitely expansive puzzle that can be assembled in an indefinite amount of ways. All you need is to find a few of the right pieces....and they can be assembled into something brilliant.
Take one puzzle piece of inspiration, one piece of science, one piece of psychology and one piece of your own understanding of the world....if you have found the right pieces, they will combine to make an amazing picture that the world has never seen. In a single art museum, in a simple cd store, in one library...these are the places where you can gather your puzzle pieces of choice.
If you ever have trouble thinking of ideas....just remember, there are already a million of them for you to utilize. You don't have to think of a brand new theory or solve an impossibly hard mystery to become a genius, all you need to do is understand the great ideas of others before you.
Dont force yourself to become great at something that frustrates or confuses you. Find something that you brings you joy and understanding, and learn all you can about it. Do whatever you can to find something that brings you happiness, no matter how insignificant it may seem at the time. One must truly enjoy what they are doing to walk down it's path with no end in sight - and beautiful scenery that goes on forever.
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Using the word "infinite" makes me feel cool
(repost from August 22nd, 2006)
There is infinite possible meaning in every life experience, no matter how brief it is.
No matter how small or inconsequential an experience may seem, it is impossible to clearly see every single time it affects your life further down the path. If you run into the right person, they can change your life forever. The events that led up to you meeting this person were possibly completely random acts of living your every day life that measured up in just a certain way that they equaled you running smack into your significant other in the middle of the street, in a town you've never been in before.
Maybe something caught your eye on the way out of a store, and you stopped to look at it for a few seconds. If someone hadnt decided to make that object which caught your attention, and someone hadnt decided to put it on display in their store, you wouldnt have taken the few extra seconds and therefore probably would have missed running into this person.
It's possible you become so enthralled and attached to this person that they profoundly affect your life and way of thinking forever.
If you hadnt been distracted by some shiny object, you might have lived a completely different life
....this whole scenerio could happen a billion different ways. Maybe even a trillion..
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TOOL Cover Artwork for Maximum Ink
 (repost from September 1st, 2006)
Through a string of seemingly random connections I was asked to create some original art for an issue of Maximum Ink featuring an exclusive interview with Tool. Being one of my favorite bands, I attempted to work my way into the interview somehow, but failed to come up with a good way of getting to Los Angeles. Either way, I was more than happy to take the chance to create something for a band that has created so much for me.
Click on the image for a fullsize desktop picture. The piece I put together is much larger than the magazine layout would allow, you can see the full version here.
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Seeing vicariously
(repost from September 22nd, 2006)
I used to always think to myself....what would it be like to view my work through someone else's eyes? What would it look like? When I view my images all I can see is the steps I took to get there.....I see a hundred different pieces and strokes that fit together, not just one image.
I realize that you can set an image in front of a room of people, and every single one sees it in a different way. So obviously, I was curious to know what it's like to view something as one of those other people.
Even though you can see yourself in the mirror, in pictures and videos...you are still viewing yourself with your own eyes. You will never know how other people look upon you. I have decided it's impossible to know...and I'll explain why.
The reason everyone perceives things in their own special way is simple - no two people have lived the same life, and we all subconsciously use our past experiences when we study something in front of us.
Heres a simple example....say two people view a painting of Taj Mahal. Let's say only one of these people knows what it is...the other has never seen it before. The first person will think "I've seen this before...this is Taj Mahal." They will then proceed to think beyond this simple thought, and focus on how well it is depicted, what kind of mood or atmosphere the artist has chosen to employ, how the painting makes them feel. The other person, however, is going to focus on the structure of the building they have never seen and the pool in front of it which reflects the image so well. They will wonder if the building is a real one...or if its something the artist created.
These are completely different trains of thought. They will lead to different dissections of the image, and overall a different end thought about the subject at hand.
Now, heres where things get tricky.
In order to view something through someone else's eyes, you would not only need their physical set of eyes...you would also need to either swap brains or have every experience in their life embedded into your own brain. The problem with taking every experience and embedding it into your own is that it will mix with your own life, and create a completely new one.
Which means....the only way to see something through someone else's eyes is to become that person. If you do this...you are no longer yourself, and the thought won't even cross your mind that you are using someone elses vision and perception.
The way you think and perceive the world is completely unique to you. No one can or ever will be able to take this away from you.
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First Post / Welcome
WELCOME! - The means by which you managed to stumble upon this page doesn't matter. The important thing is, you are here. First off, I'd like to introduce myself. Hi, I'm Peter. Nice to meet you, too. So, uh, you come here often? Yeah, me too. Great. Now I'll try to vaguely explain my reason for having this page to begin with. Above all, this is the place where I will share my creative endeavors with whoever cares to experience them. I don't make things for myself, I make them for everyone else in this world who might care in the slightest about visual art and design. If I was the last person on earth, I can guarantee you I wouldn't be spending most of my time trying to furthering myself and my skills. What would I be doing? Thats a great question - probably smashing a window at the nearest Ferrari dealership so I can finally drive one recklessly while listening to "Straight Outta Compton" at full volume. I also wanted to mention that I'm going to refrain from posting boring and meaningless details of my life. I'm not going write about having a bad day, I'm not going to write about my relationship problems, and I'm certainly not going to bitch about how life isn't fair and nobody understands me. If you were hoping for these things, let me introduce you to your new best friends - MySpace, LiveJournal and Xanga. I realize I am not a genius. I'm not going to write about things I don't know very much about. This is solely for my philosophies on art, design, perspective and the ways in which they can affect our life. I hope you find something you can enjoy and connect with. I hope you can go away with something new and possibly even be inspired to think or see things in a different way. If you don't, thats okay too.
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