Rags A GoGo 3d

The image above is a Photoshop mock up that's incorporating the 3d logo, rondels and tiles. The mural with the stars and earth already exist as five painted panels that install in about two minutes. They are removed in about half that amount of time and are then stored in between the entrance and the rolling gate. This design feature and daily ritual exist in order to protect the mural from graffiti during the hours in which the store is closed. The tiled border at the bottom of the mural will simply be painted in the same manner as the rest of the mural. The banner across the front of the awning will be printed on vinyl and attached with double stick foam backed tape that is expressly designed for that purpose. The awning which is currently yellow will be painted with vinyl paints. The panels will alternate between red and blue.

Inside, the front of the store will feature 22" vinyl borders running just below the ceiling. The rear, lower portion of the stores plan, AKA "Chick Pit" will feature a 46"enlargement of the same border design. Visible walls will be painted a lovely sky blue. The floor tiles will be primed and painted with commercial floor enamels in a random pattern of primary and secondary colors.

All of the components for the border design were modeled in Zbrush with Alpha extrusions, radial symmetry tools and polypaint. The models were then rendered and brought into Photoshop for assembly, adjustment and print preparation.

10,000 Bags

This Sunday I'm off to Burning Man for the 4th consecutive year. Every year this exquisite journey is made possible by my beautiful, dear friend and neighbor, Joshua Suzanne. For the past 4 years we've traded art for paid passage in the way of websites, business cards, murals and other graphic tasks. This year I've redesigned the inside of her store and the outside of her shopping bags.

Her old bag was fun but, a little clunky and hard to read. She loved the Doctor Suessiness of the round logo (drawn by an ex-lover and partner). I kept of it what I could and did my best to match its spirit in the remaining text. My main objectives were to make it immediately read as Rags A GoGo, to do what I could to make it read from the other side of the street, and as Rags A GoGo counts many international travelers as part of its clientele, I made sure that NYC was a major focal component. As for the big heart, who doesn't love love? Boys and girls, Rags A GoGo, vintage clothing, NYC?

The old bag is yellow with black letters. It's a good combo for a quick read but, there's something very cautionary about it. In fact I believe the color is "Safety Yellow". Josh asked me if we could see the new design in different color variations. 24 quickly emerged. Of them, Josh most liked the red bag with white type,"Like Christmas and Valentines Day all year round!". Who could effectively argue that Christmas and Valentines aren't warmer and fuzzier than the severity of black ink and the color of caution tape, bees and hornets?

No sooner than I had sent the design to the bag company, I got a call back from them explaining to me that white ink doesn't work well on deeply colored plastics. The result was described to me as "muddy". I asked if we could print red on a white bag in order to achieve a similar result. I was told yes but, the printing field was limited to 10" X 12".
I tried it and hated it. It's always something isn't it?

I went on line, looking for white plastic bags with red print and found some interesting results. I tried filling as much of the bag with red print as possible. It looked great . I could see it as a tee shirt graphic but I felt that there was just a bit too much red ink for a run of 10,000. Then for some odd reason Josh's "69" Camaro popped into my head. Hmmmm, thought I. By adding the Chevy's rally stripes, I reduced the amount of ink by about 20% and not so unpredictably the bag got a lot racier. Will it work with in the current vendors template? Nope but, as I've designed this I've pondered other options and different types of bags.

Since the bag's stripes were inspired by the hood of Josh's car, I had to see what it looked like. I went on line and found this 69 camaro at Wallcapture.com . What a gorgeous old thing. Anyhow, I doctored up the shot a bit to match up the colors and plunked her graphic on the hood. It occurred to me that if she applied this as a removeable vinyl graphic, she may be able to write off the current restoration of the vehicle. It's just a thought that would require the expertise of an accountant and more importantly... would Josh want this on the hood of her baby?

Rags A GoGo Re-Think

Rags A GoGo is a fantastic vintage clothing store at Joshua Suzanne, the stores owner has decided to celebrate her recent lease renewal with a store make over. The store's interior will soon be as colorful as the owner and much of her stock. The hoped for effect is fashion fun house, somewhere between Sargent Pepper and Saturday Day Night Fever via The Yellow Submarine.

218 west 14th street, NYC.

The stores entire perimeter is occupied with clothing racks, meaning that there really isn't much in the way of exposed walls with the exception of small areas above the racks. In the front portion of the store, that area constitutes a 2' boarder, in the back of the store, which steps down 2' the boarder expands to 4'. There is however a lovely 10' x 15' wall over the stairs in the "Chick Pit".

In the past, I had talked to Josh about murals but the prospect of  painting such things is messy and time consuming especially amidst so much stock. I had theorized that the mural could be painted on panels much like the facade and simply hung in position but, it would still be a huge amount of work. Fortunately we live in a day and age of some remarkable technologies. Eazy Wallz is a company that specializes in self adhesive mural systems. They will

print almost any design, any size and allow you to hang it quickly without the muss and fuss of wall paper glue. the design possibilities are petty much without limits.

Josh loves the psychedelic kaleidoscope and the royal blue with yellow and orange piping and she digs the striped shelf surfaces but, is still undecided on the striped floor. The issues of showing dirt and durability are understandably her main concern there. While I was researching modern vinyl flooring I came upon lots of stripes mostly done with 5 mill pavement tape. Having worked with pavement tape in the past, I know that it's remarkably durable but, I do have my questions about how it will hold up to years of customer traffic. The floors most likely treatment will probably happen with paint. In the next renderings I'll replace the striped floor with a randomly colored checker board pattern which I think will nicely off set the kaleidoscope and pin stripes.

I thought that mannequins in the Chick Pit might be a fun touch and they were easy to find in the Sketchup 3d warehouse(as were the clothing racks stocked with boxy shirts) but, as I put this model together from floor measurement, I failed to remember that the rack beneath the mannequins is reserved for dresses, meaning that it is half again as tall as the other clothing racks in the store. This forgotten detail would place the heads of the manikins well into the ceiling, an interesting but, undesired effect.
Rather than getting bummed out by my oversight, I went on line to look for manikins in seated poses. I was rewarded with immediate success. There are some very groovy, sexy manikins out there for not a lot of bread.

Rags-A-GoGo

A site that I built for one of my favorite people on the planet and an hillarious FOX 5 News feature on her fabulous store.