On turning followers into fans

From the Inspirational Thought Unit

Just like last time, installment for the Inspirational Thought Unit this week is A VIDEO!

This video is further development of the ideas presented in the last video Creating Connection, NOT Content. The idea is that in order to make real fans you can't just be posting on social media, no, you need to make something authentic tangible and share it with people.

Watch the video here: LINK

-Jake

The Artistic Alchemy of Joy Ang

From the Illustrators Division

I've been following Joy Ang's work for over a decade, when I first saw her cover illustration for The Anthology Project:

Since then she's become known worldwide for her distinctive and captivating style, particularly in the realm of illustration and character design.

Ang's art often exudes a sense of whimsy and playfulness. Her characters, whether they are humans, animals, or fantastical creatures, often have lively expressions and dynamic poses. I love it.

She doesn't post often, but when she does she always suprises me with where she takes things next. recently she posted these character designs for a personal project she's cooking up:

Really curious wha this is all about.

I'm not sure what alchemy she's using to make her art, but it sure is magical.

You can see much more of her work here:

Website: LINK

Instagram: LINK

Twitter/X: LINK

-Jake​

The Cassette Futurism Design Aesthetic of Early Commercial Computers

From the Industrial Design Desk

I found this website called Technikum 29 Living Museum devoted to an actual private science museum in Germany. The museum focuses on computer history between the 1920s and 1980s. What's really cool is that they strive to present every single device in an operational state.

You can see the museum's growing collection here: LINK

I love the mid to late century design of these devices, with all their buttons and knobs. It's the inspiration for one of my favorite aesthetics in film and comics: Cassette Futurism:

Did this 1946 French comic inspire Miyazaki's films?

From the Comics Division

Cornebuse et Cie is a French comic written and drawn by Sabran Guy. I don't read French but from what I can tell from the illustrations this is a story about a couple of boys who design their own airplane and then go off on a world wide adventure complete with racist stereotypes that were typical of the time period (not shown).

That unfortunate bit aside, there's a lot of imagination and artistry in this book holds up. It leads me to wonder if a young Miyazaki somehow got his hands on a copy of this and had it percolating in the back of his mind when he came up with Porco Rosso, The Wind Rises, or Castle in the Sky.

You can see the rest here: LINK

-Jake

Robot Technology

From the Drawings Unit

Been working on the Robot technology section of the ROBOTS book and I love how these are coming together.

This is just a taste of what's in the book! I'm pretty excited about how it's all coming together. More sneak peeks to come!

See the rest of the Robots Technology Section on Patreon: LINK

-Jake

On Creating Connection, Not Content

From the Inspirational Thought Unit

My installment for the Inspirational thought Unit this week is A VIDEO!

My thesis for this video is that if you want to break through the noise of social media you need to be making things people must experience off of social media to provide a more genuine connection.

I have a lot more to say on this topic, so expect more videos.

-Jake

The Designs of these Retro Racing Helmets

From the Industrial Design Desk

I've been collecting these as reference for a project that may never see the light of day. Figured I'd share these with you. One of the aesthetics I love more than anything is utilitarian industrial design with a focus on just getting the job done, and that being a canvas for striking color and graphic design meant purely for cosmetic reasons.

These helmets are all of that and I love them for it.

-Jake

Russian Space Junk Scavengers

From the Department of Space Exploration

There's this cluster of ten villages in remote northwest Russia where space debris falls from the sky. I just found out about this and thought it was so cool. They scavenge it for materials to either repurpose the material (like building a reindeer skin lined sled made out of titanium alloy sheets from rocket boosters) or cut it up and sell to buyers.

This is so niche post-apocalyptic-core I thought these were AI images at first. But I found several articles from 6 or 7 years ago that tell the story of these people. You can read those here: LINK and LINK

It’s not all fun and games though. Apparently, with space debris you get fuel toxins in your soil and water and a lot of these communities suffer from strange medical conditions. The Russian gov denies it's from their spent rockets. *eye-roll*

I think this is some solid inspiration for a cool sci-fi story. It practically writes itself.

-Jake

On making magic

From the Inspirational Thought Unit

Last week a friend of mine was writing a screenplay and having a rough day with it. He barely made a dent in it all day. Some days the sun rises and sets and the only progress you've made on your project was just thinking about it. We lamented to each other about how hard it is to be creative sometimes.

Then I said this to him:

"You know this already, but creating something from nothing is legit magic and writers have to do it everyday. So don’t feel bad that it’s actually hard some days."

I extend that same message to anyone who creates, not just writers.

The greatest event in history was when space, time, and matter all exploded onto the scene from nothing. Scientists are still trying to unlock that mystery and, as far as our instruments can detect, it's only happened once.

But in a way, it also happens every time you sit down to the drawing board and conjure up something where there was nothing.

Don't feel bad if it's actually hard some days.

-Jake

The Vintage Logo Collection of Reagan Ray

From the Department of Graphic Design

Found a nice collection of old logos put together by graphic designer Reagan Ray. This is a GOLDMINE. If you're into world building for your comic, video game, concept art, or whatever creative project you're working on, adding well thought out, appropriate logos make the world feel lived in and real.

If you're just a huge fan of graphic design in general, or an artist looking for ideas, you've got to check out Ray's website. It really is a gift.

He's collected them in different categories:

Marvel Superhero Lettering

Hair Band Lettering

Jazz Musician Lettering

Science Fiction Movie Lettering

Las Vegas Casino Logos

Video Game Console Logos

Airline Logos

80s Action Figure Logos

American Automobile Logos

Record Label Logos

Railway Logos

VHS Distributor Logos

Western Clothing Labels

Check them out, but be careful, this is a potential day wrecker. You've been warned. I'm not responsible for any thing you didn't finish today because you got lost in logo design.

-Jake

On Rolling the Dice

From the Inspirational Thought Unit

I was talking with my buddy Kohl about the role luck plays in your success in life.

I listen to this podcast from time to time about how successful businesses were built and at the end of each interview the host asks the same question:

“How much of your success is due to your skill and hard work and how much is due to luck?”

And EVERY SINGLE answer is “we worked hard yes, but we were also very lucky”

You'd have to be pretty clueless to think that luck has nothing to do with your success (or failure) in your creative pursuits. It's a factor just as much as skill and work.

I have another friend who put it succinctly:

“Each time you create is a role of the dice. The only thing you can control is how many times you roll the dice.”

It's not up to me if something I do is successful, but it is up to me to show up every day, create something, and share it. And guess what, a few times over these last several years I actually got lucky.

I hope you get lucky too. What dice are you going to roll today?

-Jake

Recycled Cast Aluminum Wall Tiles

From the Architecture Desk

Want to add a sci-fi ancient alien twist to your interior design? These recycled cast aluminum wall tiles designed by sculptor/architect David Umemoto should do the trick.

David says "Sand-casted aluminum (after concrete) is definitely my favorite material. It has a great combination of elegant shininess and industrial roughness."

Pretty cool look if you ask me.

More here: LINK

And here: LINK LINK

-Jake

My Long History of Space Witches

From the Drawings Unit

I'm currently building out the Robots book and one section is about these personal assistant bots that I've been putting in my comics. They're like floating Alexas, but they have their own AI and personalities. I came up with the concept way back in 2004 when I drew a short story called "Lucy Nova" about a space biologist and her side kick who documented everything they were discovering:

In the robots book I'm highlighting the assistant bot for this space witch character I keep coming back to:

I started thinking about where the idea for this witch came from and I remembered it has it's roots in some concepts I came up with over 20 years ago.

In 2002 a guy reached out to me about drawing his sci-fi Wizard of Oz story. I was too busy at the time to draw a full comic*, but I told him I would do the character designs. He didn't have a lot of money to pay me, but he ran a t-shirt printing company and said he could pay me in shirts. So I made a deal to do the art for 100+ shirts. I gave him a Missile Mouse design to print on them, and then I sold those on my website (via paypal) and made a nice profit.

Here's one of the designs I made for him:

I always loved this idea: jet pack monkeys and a leather clad witch with a rocket broom.

A few months later I did this design:

And that just kind of stayed in my head until about 7 years ago when I designed this witch with a magic-punk broom.

The idea of combining technology with a witch festered and grew in my imagination and then a few years ago I made this little drawing:

I thought that maybe this could be a fun character to fold into my Red Shift Renegades universe.

A year later I did this drawing, developing the character further:

Then I revisited the character again in 2021 with this drawing for Inktober:

I'm not sure what her entire backstory is. I know she's well connected in the Red Shift underworld. Does she practice magic? Is she an interdimensional being like the Star Catcher? Or is her past more prosaic and she's thirsting for weird adventures?

Who knows!

-Jake

*The guy he ended up finding was a young, inexperienced Ryan Ottley who would go on to draw Invincible, Spider-Man, and Hulk!

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PATREON: This was originally posted to my Patreon in September. If you'd love getting more behind the scenes posts like these (at least one a week) consider signing up!

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