William Marchant

Seoul Taco STL Website Launch!

Today, Looks Great launched the first of several websites!  

www.SeoulTacoSTL.com is now the online home of the first Korean BBQ Taco Truck in St. Louis!  I did everything you see on the site except for the logo...they had that done somewhere else.  

Seoul Taco is planning to open it's shutters later this month and I am honored to help create an identity for them in the area.  In addition to the website, Looks Great is handling ST's print items such as menus and business cards...check out Facebook for updates on those.

So go check out SeoulTacoSTL.com and let me know what you think of Twitter or Facebook!

Adult Swim, Before Cartoon Network!

This is one of those Golden Oldies that simply has to live on!

Why can't cartoons be like this nowadays...something the kids can REALLY benefit from!

 

Michael Halbert - Scratchboard Illustrator

I unrolled the St. Louis Post-Dispatch this morning and there on the front page is a man that I have been seeing every month at the St. Louis Artists' Guild Illustrators Section Meetings, Michael Halbert.  Halbert is the ink/scratchboard artist responsible for creating artwork that millions of people hold in there hands on a daily basis around the world.  Halbert is known for his work creating beer labels for brands such as AB Inbev's Michelob line and Sam Adams' new Barrel Room Collection.

As a beer "connoisseur" myself, I have mulled over these labels one time or another and have appreciated the intricacy with which they are composed.  However, I never knew it was one man, let alone a man from St. Louis (Fenton area), who created such works of art with scratchboard ta boot (one of my personal favorite mediums).  I guess I just pictured a team of graphic designers piddling around on a computer until they got the label looking to where "corporate" was satisfied.  But instead, it is a hard working illustrator working from his home studio...much like me.

Click Here to Read the ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH ARTICLE

Click Here for the STL-ILLUSTRATOR BLOG ABOUT HALBERT

Click Here for HALBERT'S WEBSITE

Commission Work: "Gina Belle's"

This was a recent commission where I was asked to sketch up a restaurant called Gina Belle's.  The restaurant doesn't exist yet...it is just a dream as of now.  But, the person I did it for, Smokey Joe, told me exactly how he envisioned it.

What I did was found a couple restaurants that matched his description and then Ink Transferred them together on Watercolor paper (this is also called "Xerox Transfer").  Then I colored it in with Watercolor Pencil.  For the white highlights, I go back over it with white gouache paint...I found that it works well with Watercolor.

I think it turned out pretty good...I think Smokey Joe'll be happy with it.

Gus & Schneider Drawing

I was looking through some things and out falls this sketch I did a while back.  Its not dated (I'm usually good about dating things) but I would guess it was from about 2 years ago...Fall/Winter of 2007.  I hardly remember drawing it...but I love it.

The characters are Gus and his schnauzer-dog Schneider.  They are based on my former boss at the St. Charles Wine Garden, Guenther Holtzwarth and his dog (who I actually never saw, but heard stories about).  Ever since I started working at the Wine Garden when I was 15, I started drawing the people up there.  Gus and the cook, Smokey Joe, were among my favorites to draw.  This drawing was done while in college, probably while I was doing German homework or something...hence the Deutsch captions.  This is surprisingly my favorite sketch of any WG characters. It is so simple but it seems pretty developed as an illustration.

This might just hafta get dropped inta the ole portfolio!

Click on the Image for a Larger View

 

 

 

TRANSLATIONS:

Schneider, schön ist die jugend...sie kommt nicht mehr.

Schneider, beautiful is youth...for it never returns.

 

Meister, ist sehr kalt...wir müssen ins haus gehen!  Aber höre ich dir.

Master, its really cold...let's go inside!  But, hey, I hear ya'.

The New Anheuser-Busch InBev Logo...It Makes me Sad

This post is a bit different from what I usually talk about on this blog...but it is sort of related.  As a graphic designer, I look at logos a lot.  When designing logos, it is important to see what else is out there...to get inspired, look at your own stuff differently, etc.

Well, I finally saw the new AB InBev logo.  I know it has been out for about a month now, but I saw it last night for the first time.  As a person who was born and raised in St. Louis, Anheuser-Busch Companies has always held a (might I say) "sacred" place in my heart.  It doesn't have to do with the fact that they produce beer really...it has to do with tradition and image.  All St. Louisans have fond memories as I do...such as sitting on my dad's lap eating those AB brand pretzels that were shaped like the logo.

For the longest time, AB has been a strong image of St. Louis.  Next to the Arch...the brewery, the clydesdales, and the AB logo gave St. Louis an image to stand behind.  Something ours.  Constant.  Constant through not only the ups and downs of the Cardinals (Both the Baseball- and the Football-), the Blues, and the Rams, but also through the ups and downs of life.  And now, when we are in down times...we don't have that logo to stand behind anymore.

Well there's a now this new logo.  The new AB InBev logo goes against all I've just said.  They might have well as just made the eagle a canary.  The trendy, new-age logo is very apt in that it completely personifies AB InBev's new direction.  Instead of the eagle strongly spreading its wings through the "A" in the traditional logo...it is now soaring into the future amidst a sleack slender font spelling out the merger's new name.  I have to say that the designer of the logo did a great job.  I can picture Carlos Brito going to the design/branding firm and asking them to "make it something sleak/stylish/progressive."  And that is the new direction of AB InBev. 

I know I may come off as being pissed off at the new logo.  But, what I mean to say is that I am just sad.  I don't hold it against the AB Board or even Brito.  They were just doing their jobs...wouldn't you do the same in their position.  The intent of this post is simply to point out further the already obvious fact that times are changing.

And I hates it I do!