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.

The Shape of Things

My dear and lovely friend, Emilly Tuckman recently starred in a production of Neil LaBute's play "The Shape of Things" at the Producers Club Theater on west 44th Street in NYC. She asked me if I could contribute a little design work and a prop or two. I was more than glad to. Love you Em!

I lent the play 3 of my carved foam Sculpture Chairs, my living room carpet, a bit of photography and made a very funny prop, a free standing cutout of Michaelangelo's David with Patrick Andrew Jones's head Photoshoped over David's. It's a print from Kinko's spray mounted to Luan.

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