GREGORY ALAN ISAKOV SHIRTS

EXCITING NEWS: The image "foxaphone" (shown below 2nd from top) will be featured in the 2011 Communication Arts Illustration Annua! This has been a dream of mine for many years, so it is an honor to be featured alongside some of my all time favorite illustrators in this highly inspiring publication!

A few months ago I went to see one of my favorite artists, Gregory Alan Isakov, perform at one of my favorite local venues,The Loft. The show was absolutely stunning in the smaller venue setting and Gregory performing solo. After the show, I approached Gregory to thank him for sharing his incredible talents, and offered to share a bit of my talents by way of creating a project with him. It seemed like a long shot, but I have always wanted to work with him because of the endless inspiration I get from his lyrics, and the fact that his music often soundtracks my days in the creative cave!

A few days later he called me and shared that it was perfectly orchestrated that I approached him, because he was in fact looking for someone to help create some shirt designs. I quickly went to work sketching up a heap of ideas for graphics, and Gregory narrowed them down to 6 favorite ideas. I then dove into fully developing the ideas. Gregory then chose 3 of his favorites to print (the first 3 images to the left) as shirts to sell at the shows! Each idea was inspired by either the lyrics from his album "This Empty Northern Hemispher" (one of my all time favorite albums!) or an idea that came from sitting and soaking up the sounds of Gregory's music.

Through the entire project I really enjoyed getting to know Gregory and more about his musical journey. We found that we also share a passion for all things vintage (old typography, etchings and prints). This was a key part of the inspiration behind the illustrations. It also gave me the opportunity to try some new techniques and styles to capture the vision I had for the concepts. Gregory was thrilled with the work and I was richly blessed to work with an artist that I highly admire. A very memorable project from the show to final shirts.

Please check out Gregory's music and I am sure you will find it as inspiring and powerful as I do. You can support him by purchasing an album and checking out his tour to see when he will be in your neck of the woods!