JOHN FINNERTY DESIGN DOT COM

My buddy max made this short mockumentary about his father. It needs to be seen.

Here are some things:

I did this poster for the Doug Fir through the C4D (Center for Design), PNCA’s working design studio. The idea with these rock posters, I’ve found,  is go nuts, don’t think to hard about it, and get the attention of the masses. That’s the definition of high design, right? look for these on your local telephone pole.

Save the date! I designed these “save the date” cards for my good friends, Chris and Ali. That’s what the kids are doing these days. Everyone’s saving dates left and right. Frankly, I don’t understand it, but it’s more jobs for me, so I can’t complain. The design process is pretty similar to what I described above, with the addition of “get bride’s approval” on the end of it. I should also mention that these were beautifully silk-screened by Portland’s own Seizure Palace. I highly suggest you consider taking advantage of their services. They do exceptional work. I appreciate it even more now that I am doing a lot of screen printing myself. I set up a pretty insane design, as far as registration goes, and they nailed it. Sorry for the crappy photo. A better one will be posted somewhere.

ALSO: You should definitely check out the latest threads over at the Green Hill. Definite Christmas present possibilities. Who knew hoodless sweatshirts would make a comeback?

So maybe you didn’t know, but I’m part of a musical group called the Nandertys. The band is made up of myself, Chris Nye, and Alex Landers. Our debut album is titled The Landing Sessions, taking its name from the small landing at the house we call the Brosidence where we recorded all of the songs. check out thenandertys.com and click on my face to hear a preview track.

One band. Three posters. Three genres.

Haven’t posted in a while. I wanted to share this with you guys. It is a woodblock reduction print I did in my beginning print class I am taking. woodblock, for me, is basically an all out war between my clean  aesthetic taste and the gritty medium. A lot of them didn’t turn out, but I liked this one in particular.

Some of the fruits of my Film Center labor: The Fresh French Shorts Poster. I’m told this went to print today. The center is showing contemporary French short films next Friday. Come ready to have your ideas about french film to be shattered. More info…

My sister sarah just started college and she needed a poster for her dorm room wall. I made her this lovely portrait of the family dog, Sophie.

These pics may only look cool to me. Drawn on graph paper Field Notes given by Aaron Draplin last year, when he came to PNCA. Sometimes I wonder what would happen if I had access to graph paper on a regular basis. It’s just so satisfying.

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My design teacher assigned us a project in which we have to choose a TBA artist and design promotional collateral for them. I chose Gang Gang Dance who played Thursday night’s TBA kickoff at the Works. GGD are really good musicians, and I appreciate what they are doing, but I couldn’t help feeling disconnected from their music and the culture they create. I felt like I was in a club scene from an 80s sci fi movie; The kind where the band is made to be intentionally strange, in order to get your attention and make sure you know that the future is totally nuts. You know, people take weird drugs from florescent tubes and have cyborg girlfriends. To be clear, I enjoyed their set, but I could not engage in it the way my peers were – by dancing their hearts out. I was a spectator, not a participant. Here’s a taste of the final encore when every ironically mustachioed boy and baggy flannel-clad girl got on stage and danced like there’s no tomorrow. (side note: please notice the man, who wanders in about half way through and takes a long phone call onstage, while keeping a zen-like composure.)

Today I went with Chris to check out the Escher show at the Portland Art Museum (FINALLY). I enjoyed seeing his classic and most famous works up close, as well as some really cool early sketches and prints, displaying the artist’s more conventional talents. Here’s one of my faves: