Ein Stein

I recently came across an old illustration of a Hofbrauhaus-style stein from a while back that I never ended up using. It’s certainly not the cleanest illustration I’ve ever done, but it does have some elements that I think are nice. In particular, I really like how the layered shadows work together on this one. Again, no gradient mesh here.

Download a zipped .eps and .ai file here. Enjoy.

The District

After having recently found myself in Washington, D.C., I felt compelled to write something short and sweet about the profound effect this city has had on me. I had spent the last five years living in Los Angeles — a city devoid of greenery, zoning regulations, and, for the most part, planning. In contrast, D.C. is one of the most famously planned cities in the U.S.

Having grown up just a stone’s throw away in southern Virginia, I had been conditioned to dismiss D.C. as a city of value. When someone on the East Coast thinks of a city, they think of Manhattan. My latest excursion convinced me that D.C. is a much more valuable city than it is given credit for.

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How We: Manage Multiple Designers 2000 Miles Apart

In the Beginning

There were two. With one of us in Los Angeles, and one of us in Virginia, we didn’t have any other choice but to collaborate “virtually.” Over time, we came to like certain methods and others fell to the wayside. The only thing that remained a constant was: it had to be available for free.

Eventually, our workforce grew and our needs expanded as you would expect. On any one project, its not uncommon for us to have designers in California and Virginia, developers in Pennsylvania and Texas, and a writer in Virginia.

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Striped Dress Vector Freebie

Here’s an Adobe Illustrator vector illustration for you to use and abuse. You’ll notice that the majority of the folds and depth were created with the pattern on the dress, and not with the black layer underneath it. No gradient mesh here.

You can download the .ai file here.

Create Sharp Highlights Using Pathfinder in Illustrator

Nike Dunks Freebie

Here is a rendering I finished recently of some Nike sneakers. The purpose of the drawing was really to see how far I could push the realism without using a gradient mesh. I think it turned out ok. Hope you guys enjoy it.

Download the .ai file here.
Download the .eps file here.