SlyBrand

Down here near north Mississippi we’re used to hearing the ongoing debate surrounding the University of Mississippi’s long-time controversial Mascot “Colonel Reb”.

Evidently the administration’s tried to “retire” and replace him several times to no avail. Personally, I think the elderly gentleman with the Colonel Sanders tie standing aloofly, leaning on his cane, needs to go. But chunking him altogether may not be the right approach.

So, I drew this concept art of what I call “Mad Reb”.

My attempt is to change the pomp to action, static to motion. Established to CRAZY. Sometimes a little self-deprecating humor (and good art) can save the day. And sometimes, the debate goes on and on and on… driving us all mad.

In 2000, when Shea and I moved to Memphis, there was something I had a hard time reconciling with the ideal of our new life together. We lived in Harbor Town, a clean, beautiful, but seemingly gentrified community. More…

This August marks my and Shea’s 10th anniversary in Memphis—and less important, but noteworthy, the 9th anniversary of Fox Design.

As we celebrate all we’ve done (and all we’ve not done) at Fox Design, I’m reminded of the old saying, “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.”

So here’s to 10 years of trying. And hopefully to 10, er, 9, more. And oh yeah, succeeding. We’ll take that too.

Over the last 7 months or so, I’ve been combing through my work looking for interesting, and perhaps forgotten, illustration work for the new site. I came across several pieces I’ve done in the past that I haven’t posted online in a format suitable for viewing. This vector drawing of City Hall in Oxford Mississippi, commissioned by a friend for the Oxford Tourism Council, is a good example. More to come soon!

Today is my daughter Lucy’s sixth birthday.

After dinner our family took a “Cinderella” carriage ride through downtown Memphis. We went by the Cotton Exchange building, which, In my opinion, could be the most beautiful building in downtown Memphis. We passed the newly renovated limestone Post Office building, that’s now the the new U of M Law School. We clopped on through Confederate Park and then on to Court Square. More…

After watching the Vancouver Olympics, and having a tight deadline on this project, I was inspired to go back and look at some of vintage Canadian Pacific Railway postcard art.

Shea and I went to Banff, Alberta, Cananda on our honeymoon and collected a bunch of those postcards, and they came in very handy for type and illustration style inspiration.

The structure in the back of this illustration is the dam at Pickwick Lake—where the retreat will be held.

By the way, how great are the design and colors of the Canadian Flag? A designer’s dream.

One day I’m gonna re-typeset this art to say “A Heart for MOM” and get it tattooed across my back.

Thanks to Scott Campbell and his Camel ad illustrations for the style and inspiration.

So, finally, after seven months of excruciating work. Our cleaned-up, loaded up with work, coded-to-web standards (thanks JD) website is live. Please take a look.

Dear God, please let something like this happen.

I worked for archer>malmo for about a year after I graduated college. While I was there, I was exposed to some great people and great design opportunities. One of those opportunities was to help design the new marketing logo for the oldest girl’s school in Memphis, Hutchison.

To me, the most interesting aspect of this project was the rich history behind Hutchison School. One tidbit from that story is that Miss Hutchison’s school on Union Avenue had a beautiful arbor, under which, on pretty days, the girls would sit to do their lessons. I was asked to develop an option for presentation, and the image above to the left is what I produced. The lines of the “H”, for “Hutchison”, becoming the arbor, and the hanging vine becoming an “S”, for “school.”

They ended up going with the image above to the right, designed by Richard Williams, Sr. Art Director at the time. I was bummed out then, but in retrospect, I understand why they picked the option they did. I do, however, still believe in the power of the vine logo to tell and preserve a wonderful story about a Memphis educational institution—even though the design may never see the back window of an SUV.

And one final note. Whatever I lost on the Hutchison project, I was able to redeem on this one.