Gasoline & Vaseline came to an end today. It was fun to exhibit our artwork in such a cool venue. South Suburban College was good to us. The closing reception saw about 60 students come through and ask some questions, eat some food, and get some inspiration. It was nice to share our experiences with the crowd. It was also great to hear what others had to say about my work and to see their reaction to certain pieces.

Below are some pictures be sure to be on the look out for my next show. If you want a print contact me and we can work something out. Email me at jad_gonzalez@yahoo.com.

I’m super excited to be working on such a cool project. I’ve been selected to create the brand identity for Willow Creek Association’s 2010 Leadership Summit.

With more than 100,000 people attending this two-day event in 140 cities across North America and around the world, The Leadership Summit has become more than a solitary event on the calendar: it is a perpetual movement of men and women whose relentless global mission is to develop authentic leaders for the sake of the local church and their communities. This rich expanse reflects incredible cultural diversity and racial heritage, and does not dilute in the face of tough economic times.

I’ve been extremely blessed to have the opportunity to work on the largest Christan conference in the world. It’s for a great cause and its something that has personally effected my life. This past summit was my first and it was eye opening, powerful and emotional. It changed the way I think about everyday life and what I can do to make a difference – in my family, my career and for others. Since the summit I’ve began to read more, connect with my faith, and learned to help others in ways that I can’t explain.

So to be chosen to work on this project shows the power of what you can do if you work hard and put yourself in the position to be open to opportunities. God puts people in our lives for a reason we all need to be conscious of that and take advantage of what comes your way.

They contacted me because they wanted a new direction visually with the event materials and something that portrayed the global aspect of the conference better. They saw the logo I did for The Centennial Park in Munster and from there they gave me the direction of a world map made up of icons that represented the mission of the summit. Below is an early mock up of what that could potentially look like. A final version is in the works this was used to show the visual direction of creating a world map out of icons.

Check out this years event here: The Leadership Summit Website Speakers included:

Tony Blair |  Dave Gibbons |  David Gergen |  Bono |  Dan Heath |  Chip Heath |  Wess Stafford |  Andrew Rugasira

Sign up for the 2010 event! Click here

I recently received my copy of the Big Book of Contemporary Illustrators and boy was I impressed. The quality of Illustrators in this book is outstanding. Martin and his team did a great job finding illustrators all over the world. And out of all of these extremely talented illustrators my work was picked for the cover…WOW! I’m very grateful for this opportunity and congratulate all those that were selected in this book.

Here are some more images from the book.

Here are some of the folks that I share some page space with:

Pulcomayo – www.pulcomayo.com

Derek Bender -www.derekbender.com

Roberto Marras -www.robertomarras.com

Sorin Bechira -www.bechia.com

Frances Beale -www.francesbeale.com

Nik Ainley -www.shinybinary.com

Edward Nugent

Dominic Witter – www.unfold-design.com

Harra's Casino East Chicago - Ironically I helped opened the hotel as a bellman.

I’m please to announce that I’ll be working with Stan of Stan’s Painting and Decorating on creating their new corporate brochure. Stan’s been in business for 25 years and started his business with nothing and is now a multi-million dollar corporation. They are the number one painting service in Lake County servicing every industry under the sun, from medical to municipal every client gets honest, reliable, top notch service and quality. I admire a man that has built his business on good old fashion morals and a strong handshake. It’ll be my job to translate that loyalty and craft in a corporate brochure. I’m looking forward to working on this piece, I haven’t done a multi-page high-end brochure in awhile. I’ll post some of the process while I’m working on it. Stay tuned.

Check them out on their website www.stanspainting.com 

Artwork by Jiri Adamek - PseudoPseudo

Well classes are starting up again and I’ll be teaching 3 classes at Indiana University Northwest in Gary, IN starting September 1. I’ll be teaching Photoshop Basics, Photoshop Intermediate and Illustrator through the adult education program at the college. Each class meets one day per week and each will run for three weeks one right after the other.

If you have wondered what it would be like to take your photos to the next level, or have wanted to expand your horizons on a creative level then sign up and learn something new.

Here are the course details:

Photoshop Basics

Unlock the potential of your photos and imagination with Photoshop, the industry standard for creating photo collages, retouching, and image manipulation. Learn the basics, from adding missing people to your group shots to instantly changing the color of you favorite flowers. Learn the techniques for special effects that will turn the most boring photos into works of digital art  all in easy step-by-step instructions.

Tuesdays, September 1-15, 6-9 p.m., $125

Register after August 20 – $135

Intermediate Photoshop

This session will dive deeper into the features of Photoshop. For those who have already taken the Basics class, this session will cover advanced selection techniques, color adjustments, blending modes, and how Photoshop works seamlessly with other Creative Suite software. Sign up to learn real world effects that you can use over and over again in a fun creative way.

Tuesdays, September 22-October 6, 6-9 p.m., $125

Register after September 10 – $135

Illustrator

Illustrator is a graphics application that artists, illustrators, designers and anyone who likes to work with graphics can use to create illustrations or trace existing ones. These illustrations can be modified to produce professional quality artwork that can be used in a brochure, ad, or publication or integrated into a page layout software document.

Tuesdays, October 13-27, 6-9 p.m., $125

Register after October 1 – $135

There are SEVEN ways to register for one of these classes so hurry before they are all filled up. Visit the college website to pick the best way to register for you.

Poster by Justin Wolf - mdctrl

I posted about our show awhile ago and since the show starts on Monday I figure I’d post again.

Gasoline & Vaseline is a three man showcase of Kevin Bruinsma, Justin Wolf and myself. The show will showcase our artistic talents which could be anything from a paintings and illustrations to a sculpture made of hand grenades. The show is a collection of personal work from three graphic designers.  The show will kick off the new semester at South Suburban College. Join us in the Dorothea Thiel Gallery from August 24 -September 30. There will be a closing reception on September 30 for students and faculty, and a public reception for friends and family sometime in between.

Here are a few samples from the Show:

Kevin Bruinsma: Drifter: Visit him at his website.

Justin Wolf: MediaCtrl: You can visit Justin at his website.

And me:

Come on out and let us know what you think we look forward to hearing all your feed back and we are happy to be sharing a little piece of us with you.

Gallery Hours are Monday – Friday from 9 am to 4 pm. Visit them online here.

Join us on August 26th for the primer of the St. Catherine Hospital history book entitled St. Catherine Hospital – A Family. The we will be signing books from 2 pm to 6 pm with a reception at 3 pm. Purchase your books in advance or buy one at the door either way it would be great to see some familiar faces and to meet some new ones. I posted awhile back about the book and some details about it (here). But to just to remind you, I designed all 416 pages of this beast from cover to cover and it took about 4 months to complete the design portion and over a year and a half for the entire project. So we are happy to see it come to life. If you are not busy stop by and say hello we are expecting between 300 and 500 people to attend so don’t be late.

If you need directions to St. Catherine Hospital click here. The event will take place in the lobby of the main entrance.

Its been almost a year now since I was contacted by Author Martin Dawber, he and his staff found my website and liked my work, they asked me to submit some files for review and one thing lead to another and they picked three of my illustrations to be featured in their new book entitled the Big Book of Contemporary Illustrations. As time went on he asked for an interview with some great questions that were not typical interview questions, like “where do you get your inspiration from” they actually made you think. (which is why I can remember any right now) A few months ago Martin contacted me stating that one of my illustrations was in the running for the cover. I was pretty excited but with more than 160 international artist I didn’t think I had a shot. Then one day I open my email and what do you know. I got the cover. I’m very excited and my friends over at allmightys are happy too. I originally designed the illustration for their design competition “Mother Nature” The design depicts the dual forces of us as people using up resources and nature leaving us as we fend for ourselves.

The book is for pre-sale on Amazon and here is the description:

Following the hugely successful Big Book of Fashion Illustration, this exciting new volume covers the broadest range of illustration available today. From digital drawing, pixilated pictures, and Photoshop fantasies to traditional sketching and painting, it’s a showstopping display of style and technique from more than 160 international artists. With close to 1,000 images, the illustrations range over such categories as architecture, fashion, logos, manga, maps, nature, people, packaging, and pop culture. This is an essential anthology for artists, creative professionals, students, and anyone who appreciates the fine art of illustration.

Here is the link to Amazon: Buy now

Here is the link to Allmightys: www.allmightys.com

Drying UP: You'll get a signed hand numbered poster when you order one of these tees

Four months and 416 pages later, I am happy to say that the St. Catherine History Book has just came in from Korea and it looks great! St. Catherine Hospital – A Family by Author Jane Bomberger is our second completed book to date. We have one more to complete for St. Mary Medical Center. This book marks my third published book and my largest project to date.

I designed this book from cover to cover, the nearly two inch thick, 9″x12″, perfect bound, hard cover, coffee table book is great for a paper weight (6.3 lbs) but also a design delight. It also comes with a dvd of photos to add to the more than 900 photos already included in the book (which 80% of those were retouched by me). Each page was designed and no two pages are alike. The book boast a painstakingly detailed time line that took more than a week to complete. There are many design gems throughout the book. The cover and other design elements are consistent with the Community Hospital history book which I was recognized (read The Times article) in the Graphic Design USA In-house Design Annual for. When all three books are done with will make a complete set.

A special thanks goes to Carl Heule and his staff at HeuleGordon for the print management of this book.

August 26, 2009 will mark my second book signing and first first for this book. The event is by invitation only from 2 to 6pm. I’ll post pictures after the event to this blog. In the mean time here are some shots below.

Far left: Author Jane Bomberger and I in a secret office signing books for the St. Catherine Hospital Executive Board

{Left to right} Donna Habel, Jane Bomberger and me, Dona was our key point person and avid historian.

To order your copy or to learn more about St. Catherine Hospital visit these links:

www.cfnibooks.com and www.comhs.org.

(Artwork by Justin Wolf)

I’m pleased to announce the Gasoline & Vaseline gallery showing of Justin Wolf (Mdctrl), Kevin Bruinsma (Drifter) and myself (Miracletwentyone) the show will run from August 24 through September 30 at the South Suburban Art Gallery (gallery tba).

Each of us are graphic designers by trade and we will all showcase our artistic and design skills. The show will kick off the new semester at the college. We are slated to have a closing reception where you will be able to meet the artist and ask questions about their work. More details are to come so check back often and mark your calendars.

Here are some samples of what I’ll be showing. I will also feature some hand drawn pieces as well as a couple canvas pieces. The show will be a good time.

You can see more of my pieces at www.issuu.com.