DesignBrawl is the weblog of A. Craig Williams. It gets less coherent every day.

Niels “Shoe” Meulman

Posted: March 12th, 2010 | Author: craig | Filed under: Design, Illustration, Inspiration, Misc. | Tags: , , , , , , | No Comments »

Niels “Shoe” Meulman is a super-talented graffiti artist and creative director from Amsterdam. His work is so good, I’m actually shocked that I haven’t seen it before. He has a new book out, called “Calligraffiti” that looks fantastic.

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Oronoco Rum

Posted: March 8th, 2010 | Author: craig | Filed under: Design, Inspiration, Misc. | Tags: , , , | No Comments »

Love the embossed leather label. This is a well-done product, from top to bottom. Bravo.

via the Dieline.


Sanjuro/Yojimbo

Posted: February 9th, 2010 | Author: craig | Filed under: Design, Illustration, Inspiration | Tags: , , , , | No Comments »

I came across these covers for two of Akira Kurosawa’s best flicks the other day while looking for another one of his films on Netflix. Love them.

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Walden Poster

Posted: December 15th, 2009 | Author: craig | Filed under: Design, Illustration | Tags: , , , , | No Comments »

50539_3039800_lThis wonderful poster is for sale over on Society6 for $50. Worth every penny. (via Kitsune Noir)


Cravendale Milk by Sanna Annukka

Posted: December 7th, 2009 | Author: craig | Filed under: Design, Illustration, Inspiration | Tags: , , , , | No Comments »

Love these cartons by Sanna Annukka for Cravendale Milk.

6a00d8345250f069e20120a6cd7209970b-550wi Read the rest of this entry »


Where Print & Interactive Collide

Posted: November 20th, 2009 | Author: craig | Filed under: Design, Inspiration, Musings | Tags: , , | 1 Comment »

Patagonia decided to scrap their printed catalog and instead debuted an entirely online catalog yesterday. They’re certainly not the first company to do this. But it re-ignited a conversation I’ve been running in my head about the possibilities that interactivity bring to works that would traditionally be print-only. From the Kindle to the iPod to traditional browsers, the way that we tell a story or sell a product should never be the same.

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Halloween Cans for Jones Soda

Posted: October 30th, 2009 | Author: craig | Filed under: Design, Illustration, Inspiration | Tags: , , , | 2 Comments »

6a00d8345250f069e20120a67d3d7b970c-550wiLove these cans by SuperBig Creative for Jones Soda (via the Dieline). Happy Halloween!

Update 10/31/09: I’m drinking the Candy Corn flavor right now, and it’s pretty delicious. Just thought you should know. DesignBrawl approved.


Adobe Illustrator: Fading Out Shadows

Posted: October 23rd, 2009 | Author: craig | Filed under: Design, Illustration, Tutorial | Tags: , , , , | 2 Comments »

Here’s a quick tutorial where I run through using the opacity mask in Illustrator to create transparent shadows that fade out to nothing. I can remember when I first started drawing in Illustrator it took longer than I care to admit before I realized that a gradient didn’t have to have two colors (ok, it does but it doesn’t have to appear that way).


Martin Ansin’s Phantom of the Opera

Posted: October 19th, 2009 | Author: craig | Filed under: Design, Illustration, Inspiration | Tags: , , , | No Comments »

Here’s a beautifully rendered poster for the Phantom of the Opera at the Alamo Drafthouse by Martin Ansin.759221255436155

Details after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »


The Orange Chair

Posted: October 2nd, 2009 | Author: craig | Filed under: Design, Freebie, Illustration | Tags: , , , , | No Comments »

I’m not sure what I was planning to do with this drawing. I’m pretty sure I was just drawing it for a screencast that I ended up not using. Anyway, I’m giving away the .ai file in the hopes that somebody has a use for it.

orangechairHere’s a link to the .ai file.