Putting the X back in Xmas!

My 2015 Holiday eCard.

Supernatural Creatures

A series of stamps depicting four supernatural creatures that I designed for Canada Post. 

They were released in October 1997 to celebrate the Halloween season. 

The creatures were illustrated by Blair Drawson, Jamie Bennett, Thomas Hunt and Simon Ng. 

The first day cover illustration was done by Jamie Bennett. For the FDC envelope,
we used glow-in-the-dark fluorescent ink to reveal a skull face in the house facade.

Adventures in Space

Been a sci-fi nerd for most of my life. A recent collage, just for fun.

Book of Life | Recent collage

Tippy Canoe | Recent collage

Welcome Home! | Recent collage

Welcome Home | with apologies to Richard Hamilton.

The Serpent | Recent collage

Wonderland | Recent collage

Goddesses | Recent Collage

R.I.P. - 51 Camden Street, Toronto

51 Camden Street in Toronto's old garment district was the home of Reactor Art + Design from 1982 to 2014. And for 19 years before that, home to Camden Cooper Garments, my dad Nathan's schmatta business. Nathan and his partner Sam Warner bought the building in April 1963 for $53,500. 

Throughout my teenage years, I spent summers and weekends working for my dad, hauling rolls of textiles up to the third floor, and helping to lay down hundreds of layers of cloth on the long cutting table, to be cut into the pattern pieces for the stretchy slacks and ski jackets that were the mainstay of the business.

In 1982, upon my dad's retirement, I took over the second floor space where Bill Grigsby and I started Reactor Art + Design. I was Reactor's creative director for 13 years until 1995 when I decided to pursue life as a freelance designer/art director/illustrator. Through up-sizing and down-sizing, Reactor was a tenant in the building for over 30 years until it was sold in 2014.

Top photo: sometime in the 1990s.

Bottom photo taken June 25, 2015

ADIM 15 - Shakespeare Upon the Sea

I've been attending Russell Brown's ADIM Conference for many years, and always find it energizing and inspiring. Each year there is a theme, and the class of 75 or so art directors, designers, illustrators and photographers is given a project to complete in three days. The projects often employ cutting-edge output options like lenticular printing, computer-assisted embroidery, fabric printing and laser cutting and engraving. 

This year's theme was Shakespeare Upon the Sea, and the project was to design a six page book (printed on an amazing Epson large-format printer) and a laser-engraved and cut wooden cover/case. I chose to continue with the theme I'd started with the "Complete Plays of William Shakespeare" type poster that Russell asked me to design for the event, and created a book of selected quotes from the plays, with each quote rendered in a different font and accompanied by an appropriate image.

Below is a photo of the laser-cut and engraved wooden cover. Click to view a PDF of the interior pages.

The Complete Plays of William Shakespeare

A type-chart style poster featuring all of William Shakespeare's plays, using 33 different fonts.

Designed for Russell Brown's ADIM 15 conference taking place April 12-15 in Pacific Grove, CA. 

This year's theme is "Shakespeare Upon the Sea".

View the PDF

Global Brief #17 | Spring/Summer 2015 is online

Click on the cover to view the issuu-powered online facsimile.

www.fishauf.com/GB17

Global Brief #17 - Spring | Summer 2015

The Spring | Summer 2015 issue of Global Brief is at the printer, 

and will be on select newsstands soon.

This issue features an international roster of illustration talent:

Cover spot and lead feature illustration by Pawel Kuczynski (Poland), 

feature illustrations by Flavio Morais (Spain), Emmanuel Polanco (France), 

Christopher Nielsen (Australia) and Tracy Walker (Canada).

Facebook 5-Day Art Challenge

I recently took part in the 5-DAY ART CHALLENGE where participants were asked to post 3 pieces of art a day for five consecutive days, and nominate at least one other "victim" each day. I was nominated by Jean Tuttle, and in turn I nominated Blair Drawson, James Turner, James Marsh, Barbara Klunder, Nate Williams, Jim Allen, Nigel Dicksonand George Whiteside.
I've consolidated all the images that I posted over the 5 day Challenge into a photo album on Facebook for easier viewing. Click on the image below to view the album, or copy and paste the url at bottom into your browser. Enjoy!

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10153037468162812.1073741833.529347811&type=1&l=ab8148bfe9

Flattery or Piracy?

They say "imitation is the sincerest form of flattery", so I guess I should be flattered that the Toronto Star decided to "appropriate" the cover format (as well as a few interior design elements) of Global Brief, a magazine that I designed and have been art-directing for the past 6 years, for "Turning Points", a co-branded (with the New York Times) publication that was included in the Sunday January 18 edition of the Toronto Star.