kris johnsen . art

Portland Pins debut at Eli-Phant!

2009-06-10T17:35:00.000-07:00

This past week was Portland Pins debut at Eli-Phant on the East end of Portland. Here are some pictures of the process of making about 700 pins and the next few nights at Eli-Phants 1 year anniversary party as well as the rest of the night.

Here's the setup of 2 button machines on one table!

Jess also came to help us out! it was a big help and alot of fun to have her there.

The first customer!

Thanks so much Peter and Sally for letting us put our machine in your store!

I think we stayed up till about 7am on Saturday and watched the sunrise on the east end.

The Photos below are by Bryan Bruchman at HillyTown.com, and the ones labeled at the bottom are by Sam Cousins

Still working

2009-06-10T17:19:00.000-07:00

Still working on the large prints, they will be done someday!

Deer Tick is a really good band!

2009-05-16T13:16:00.000-07:00

Here are some pics from a new series of prints I've been working on, they are based off of a Coastal Ecosystems book I have and a class I took while at MECA. I really enjoyed the class and have always been a fan of very simple drawings of plants and identification drawings. Here is the first one, called "Seed Vessel", and below is a drawing of the next print I will be doing.

Pink Mountaintops Are Coming!!!

2009-05-15T16:29:00.000-07:00

Here is the process for my newest print that I finished up last night. It's for a band called Pink Mountaintops, its the side project from Black Mountain. I'm really pleased with how this poster came out, I also made smaller 1 color prints of the text mountain and hung them all up around town today. The idea of the poster is just to get people wondering about the show, the info is alittle hidden. And actually got asked a few times by passer byers asking where the show was. Which is kind of funny.
The larger Prints are 2 colors on white paper and a few on thin chipboard. I've decided I like all posters better when they are printed on chipboard!
Joy Hung out while I printed and drew a lovely self portrait!

The smaller versions are on all assorted construction paper that was laying around in SPACE not being used.

Heres a few pics of the posters in the window at SPACE, Ian and myself decided to line 2 of them next to eachother to make a larger mountainscape

show is this sunday

2009-04-30T16:08:00.000-07:00

Probably the best stealing of a poster ever! I love it.

The Contemporaries at the Artist Studio Building

2009-04-30T16:00:00.000-07:00

Here's a few shots from the night. The above photo is taken my Martha Miller, and below are taken by the lovely Jackie Richardson.

The Rest of the pictures from the night can be view here.

Maine Today also wrote up an article about the event. Read that here.

Also the WMPG Fasion show happened at SPACE Gallery the past week. this is a shot from Sam Cousins of the backdrop that was on the stage, its my poster that I designed!

Sketchbook 4-18-2009

2009-04-18T19:39:00.001-07:00

New Sketchbook pictures.

Here's a crazy long blog with alot of pictures about what I;ve been working on!

2009-04-18T18:38:00.001-07:00

Here is a massive update of pictures of the process of two of my last prints. The Feel It Robot print for my show that i booked at SPACE Gallery, the illustration is done by Ryan Lamunyon, this was a fun and frustrating print to do, I havent printed a poster like this yet so it gave me some trouble, but not much. still REALLY happy with the outcome. The Jellyfish print I'm really happy with as well. It turned into a show poster for my Friend Sean Morin, so 30 of them were printed with text while the other 20 as still just the print, I should be selling them soon. So ya I dont feel like writing to much about the processes, I'll just let the pictures speak for themselves.

The Contemporaries coming to the Artist Studio Building

2009-04-02T20:07:00.000-07:00

The Chariot hand stamping 25,000 copies of their new album!

2009-03-25T20:51:00.000-07:00

Hand Stamping the artwork of WARS AND RUMORS OF WARS

This is the band The Chariot hand signing 25,000 copies of their new album and signing them all by hand. I thinkt his is really cool of a band to do and is something new, especially since it's s many, I can picture a band doing a few hundred, but that many is crazy. Alot more bands should be this involved with the making of their albums.

New Sketchbook started

2009-03-25T19:59:00.000-07:00

I started a new sketchbook not very long ago, I'm a good 10 pages into it, I'll post more pictures from it later

Large Scale Drawings

2009-03-23T20:29:00.000-07:00

I'm working on some large scale drawings right now based off of pages from my sketchbook. 23''-30'' to be exact on white Rives BFK paper. I have been meaning to do this for awhile but never got around to it. This is the first page, I want to eventually have 3 large drawings and am going to screen print shapes, most likily circles over this is different ways, I have already made smaller drawings of these which I have not yet scanned in yet, maybe I'll do that tomorrow. Here's just a little peek into what I'm working on now.
Also working on...
-Poster design for the WMPG Fashion show at SPACE Gallery.
-Poster design for The Cambiata, this ones coming slowly, not sure when I'll get around to doing this.
-Possible poster design for The band The Thermals who are coming to SPACE very soon.
-The Artist Studio building is having an open house next month for this group called The Contemporaries. It's going to be our pen house and should be a big event, so i want to have work to show for this event!
-Working on an online store so i can eventually sell my prints.
-Booking my first show at SPACE, right now Feel It Robot, The 500's and The Bay State are confirmed, still waiting on one band, I wont mention them in case they never even email me back, and another possible band, this show will happen in May at SPACE.
-My good friend Meagan Anderson and i want to create work to sell at Craft Fairs this summer, so at some point we;re gonna sit down and bust out ideas, probably more posts on this later...

thats about it for work right now, and as always I'm doodling in my sketchbook and I kind of want to get back into making stencils.

picture!!!

2009-03-16T16:33:00.000-07:00

Awesome picture by bryan at Hillytown.com!

New Cambiata tshirt designs!

2009-03-11T22:46:00.000-07:00

Some new T-shirt designs I just did for the band The Cambiata, who are from the portland area and have just released their new self titled album, I've been listening to them for awhile since I;ve moved to Portland and have recently met a few of them and was pretty excited when I was asked to throw together some designs. I'm thinking of a few poster designs right now I could throw their way to possibly print, more on that later.
They chose 2 designs out of the 5 I sent them, the other 3 are shown below. I was pretty happy with the 2 that they chose, I kinda hate the 2 bottom ones after I ave looked at them for awhile, so I'm glad they didnt go with those, also the girl one is pretty emo and unoriginal. "Sorry to use the work Emo."

These designs are just mockups and DO NOT represent the band! just putting them on the blog to show my process.

^I actually really like this design, I might use that backround for something else in the future.^

Pictures from First Friday.

2009-03-08T15:52:00.000-07:00

Took a bunch of pictures during last First Friday, Check them all out here. Also alot of my posters were hanging outside of the Port City Music hall for the LA Riots show on Friday, very cool to have that many posters up. Here's a few pictures from the night.

How to open A Wine Bottle: by Tami

2009-03-08T15:44:00.000-07:00

Step 1: She asks you for a screw.
Step 2: she screws the screw into the cork.
Step 3: she brings her own leatherman!!!
Step 3: we both find it very hard to pull the cork out of the bottle with the leatherman, but there was success!

1 inch buttons!!!

2009-03-05T14:46:00.000-08:00

Whats better than 1 inch buttons?? nothing! want me to make some for you? check out my emblem blog for pricing.

I was in the Phoenix?

2009-02-25T18:10:00.000-08:00

Thanks Ian!

LA RIOTS digital version

2009-02-24T23:57:00.000-08:00

Here's the original image of the poster, designed my Andrew Guay.

LA RIOTS @ Port City Music Hall poster

2009-02-24T23:30:00.000-08:00

Just finished working on a new poster for the Port City Music Hall here in Portland, Maine. It's for my friends bryan at Hillytown.com and Andrew at Neon Garden. This was a tough poster to print, it's 5 colors, on 3 different color papers, so a good variation of colors and prints here, some work better than others but I'm pretty happy with it. I havent put this many colors in a prin in awhile so I wanted to push myself and do that many colors.
I also printed about 125 of these, and giving 100 of them to the music hall. Here's some process shots.
cutting paper is not as fun as it seems.
the basement!

I finally put in a hanging wire in my studio so I;m not putting the prints all over the floor and hallway to let them dry. This is probably one of the best things I've decided to do yet! very helpful.

jc

adriana lima

2009-02-24T22:42:00.000-08:00

sketchbook 2-19-09

2009-02-19T17:05:00.000-08:00

sketchbook 2-16-09

2009-02-16T18:09:00.001-08:00

New Sketchbook drawings as of latly, thats it.

Johnny Cash Night at SPACE Gallery poster pictures

2009-02-13T11:01:00.000-08:00

This Past week I Printed these posters for a SPACE Gallery's Johnny Cash Night, which is a free showing of a JC Documentary followed by a bunch of local musicians playing JC covers all night long. The print is 2 colors on kraft paper, I'm doing about a run of 100 of these on that paper and about 20 on thin chip board. Hopefully you'll be seeing these around town soon!

Walk the Line

2009-02-05T22:55:00.000-08:00

I'm working on a Johnny Cash poster for SPACE Gallery, who is throwing a JC Night later this month with a documentary followed by a bunch of local artists doing JC covers all night, should be alot of fun and I'm going to be screen printing these posters later this weekend. I'm planning on doing a big run of these, so maybe you'll see some around Portland.
Check back later for process pictures of the printing session plus the final version which will be printed on brown kraft paper.

Black ink layer

Yellow text layer

A Maximalistic Dance Party!

2009-01-27T22:02:00.000-08:00

I just finished a job for Neon Garden, for an events at the White Heart in Portland, ME. same guy that the Lady Magma poster was for, it's kind of fun printing these posters just becasue of the colors I get to use, the pink and teal are super bright and all of them are printed on Canary yellow paper, 11-17inches.
My good friend Shayna came by and helped me print for awhile, thanks Shayna! she took most of these pictures shown below. Its always alot more fun to have someone print with you and to just hang out and listen to good music with while printing. well enjoy the process pictures below!

Fucked Up (band) pictures

2009-01-20T21:06:00.001-08:00

Took some photos at a show the other night at SPACE Gallery of the band Fucked Up, pretty awesome show! and one that SPACE doesent usually see. I was really glad about the outcome of people as well since there was a huge snow storm that day. Here's a few shots from the show, to see all of the photos I took please go to the www.emblemstudio.org post.

emblemstudio.org!

2009-01-16T09:47:00.000-08:00

www.Emblemstudio.wordpress.com is now www.emblemstudio.org!!!

So if anyone has linked this page on their site or blog, please change it, or maybe it wont make a difference? who cares, either was this site has its own domain and doesent have the annoying ".wordpress.com" after it. And thanks to anyone who might have linked my page, I appreciate it!

to bad your beautiful

2009-01-11T20:58:00.000-08:00

I'd have to say I think my sketchbook drawings are going back to dirty looking design, always seems to go that way. I'm pretty happy with these few pages though.

New Poster!!!

2009-01-11T20:09:00.000-08:00

I just printed some posters for my buddy Bryan, he's putting on a show at Slainte in Portland on the 30th. I was glad he came to me to print up some posters, mostly because I really want to get into printing posters for people, bands, places etc. and second because I'm alittle rusty at it and these were the first things I;ve printed in my new studio, and the first time I burned a screen here, which was actually alot easier than i though. thanks Beth for letting me know how long it takes! 5 minutes to be exact on our light table in the basement.
I'm pretty happy wiht how they turned out, the images I had gotten printed at Kinkos were alittle bit off so I made the whole print alittle bit offset, I'm let down by Kinkos. oh well i kinda like it better this way actually. The whole idea was to make it a pretty simple poster and to use the pink and yellow which were in Bryan's first file he sent me, I thought having the bright colors would be awesome and very noticeable when put up everywhere. Possibly get people to actually see the posters and wonder what there all about if they maybe dont know the bands.
Well here are some progress shots from the night.
some pics of the dirty basement at the studio building.

another snow storm in Maine!

2009-01-11T20:00:00.000-08:00

It snowed again last night, it wasent very bad actually, but definetly made Portland white again! i took a few pictures as I walked across town.

I'm also growning my beard out, i'm pretty into it.
paper cutting startes.

Neon Garden & Hillytown.com Present

2009-01-08T19:13:00.000-08:00

This is a poster design I did for my friend Bryan's show that hes putting on at the end of the month. I'm going to screen print it this weekend, probably around 50, on bright yellow paper. Should turn out pretty good, i'm excited to print something, it seems like its been awhile.
More pictures later on the process.

beyond hypothermia

2009-01-01T20:39:00.000-08:00

Here's a sweet portrait my friend Alex drew of me the other day. Today has been a very productive day!

New projects!

2009-01-01T19:18:00.000-08:00

www.emblemstudio.wordpress.com

So all today I worked on and thought about this new project I'm working on. It's a site for my studio that I just moved into. I'm going to call this project Emblem Studio. The site is going to showcase my work as a studio, and also i want to be more active in the arts community as well as the community of Portland, which lately has been very good to me and I have met alot of great people since finishing up school. I've come to learn though that the web presence of Portland is not the greatest, I'm not saying there isent one or theres not great stuff out there, but sometimes it's really hard to find, and theres not much that link's it together besides a few sites.

I want this site to have a million links on it, mainly focusing on my surrounding area but also featuring people I have met or admire in my life. I also have the idea to showcase other artist, shows, music, blogs, websites and whatever I want I guess on this site. It could be fun just to keep this thing just a big work in progress and maybe I'll never actually know exactly what it is, but I want to keep up with it, possibly buying a new camera so I can actually go places and get some good quality pictures.

So I'll keep everyone posted on this thing, and if you have a website or blog I'll definetly link you, a link back would also be nice:-)

Also I think in the next few days I'm finally going to design some business cards for myself.

happy new year.

2008-12-31T17:49:00.000-08:00

its almost the new year. I hope this year is filled with lots of new things for me. I hope I can accomplish alot this year, I hope I can get my art thing going and not have to work at the art store anymore. I want to be able to make a living for myself doing what I love.
I hope I can find a girl that is actually into me and that I can create an amazing relationship with. I think I;ve been looking for that ever since I came to Portland.

I hope I can meet alot of new people and make alot of new friendships.

I guess thats all I can ask for right now. Also I just got a bunch of new music from my buddy Alex, and I finally got The Gaslight Anthem, I really like this band, there really good. Here's a video of theirs. Enjoy.

12-29-08

2008-12-29T20:16:00.000-08:00

New stuff from the sketchbook.

I'm also in my studio doing alittle work, finally hooked a hose up from my spray out booth to the sink which is right next to it, works pretty good. also got a new table top to print on, and soon I think moving the big press downstairs into the new print room in the Studio Building.

I also saw this amazing movie the other night st SPACE Gallery, called Let the Right One In, its a Sweedish Vampire movie. it's by far the best movie I'd seen in a long time, and am really glad i went. I suggest this movie to everyone.

Snow Storm 08!!

2008-12-22T19:42:00.000-08:00

The last few days in Portland and in New England period there has been a huge snow storm, which resulted in my car getting completly covered in snow and the only way of getting it out was by getting it towed. oh well. atleast its out now.
I've got to say though, besides the car thing I kind of didnt mind this storm, it was pretty beautiful and didnt really cause me any damage, I've been going to my studio at night and working during the days, I love my new internship, it's getting me back into music, which I feel like I;ve been forgetting about in past months. Free shows are always a plus as well.
So here are a few pictures of the snow...

I also went to the SPACE Gallery Christmas party and did a yankee swap, i think it was my first real yankee swap, and this is what I got. A robot made by my new buddy Bryan

New Internship

2008-12-16T19:04:00.001-08:00

I started interning at a local art and music venue lately called SPACE Gallery, if you live in Portland or around the area you probably already know what it is. I'm really excited about this and think its will/has been alot of fun, I've been working there for the past 2 weeks and its been a really fun experience so far, something new to me that I havent really tried before, but definetly up my alley, since I have always been obsessed with music and going to shows.

I'm helping out Ian Paige, whos in charge of events that come through Space, and it seems like he's in charge of alot more that I'm not even sure of yet. It looks like I'm going to be helping book bands, send out emails etc. gathering information about incoming acts and hopefully be really involved in the web presence of SPACE, and doing blog updates. which they are really looking to do, and I'm happy I came in at the right time it seems.
Really excited to be there and just be able to help out in what there trying to do. and hopefully learn alot from it. Since I've graduated I feel like I havent been involved in things in Portland, and this is one big step in the right direction for me.

Things are looking up!

SPACE blog
SPACE website

Thomas Boucher in CMYK

2008-12-16T18:54:00.001-08:00

My buddy Tom Boucher is being featured in the magazine CMYK this month, with his illustration "Vain" its pretty awesome, and really exciting to see his print in the magazine, I still have to pick up a copy but I took a peek at it the other day. Everyone should go check out his site and blog if you havent done so!Here's the print thats in the magazine V

pictures from the new studio!

2008-12-16T18:14:00.000-08:00

So I've been moving into my new studio for the past 2 weeks. its finally almost all set up and all my stuff is finally in it, including my printing equipment. All I really need now is a good surface to put on my table and attach the clamps on it to print on, and a hose to run from the sprayout booth to the sink right next to it. I have also worked out moving my printing press to the floor below me to free up alot of room in the studio. In the next month to a few months the Artist Studio building is renovating a room on the 2nd floor and turning it into a printing room for everyone to use as well as anyone around town to use, by paying a fee. "I believe".

So everything is going awesome, I'm trying to make it feel at home in here. and debating buying a new computer just for studio purposes. I have taken a few move in pictures from the past week, here are some of them. not necissarily in order. The next picture is the ceiling of my room, its pretty amazing to have that over me, and silver.

thanks alex and leah for helping me move my stuff! it was a big help!
Empty room!

V i feel like i never leave this place ever! "the art mart"
V Sean Newton, my across the hall/floor buddy and awesome guy!

V a print Meagan Anderson gave me, I hung it up in my studio since the walls are so bare right now. its a pretty awesome print! i love it!
V gettin the old book collection together.

Harpoon The Moon

2008-12-02T19:53:00.000-08:00

Here's a new page in de ol sketchbook, I'm getting pretty close to the end of this one. It's the first time in awhile that I've had a good sketchbook and actually might finish it, unlike others where I start out strong and never and up getting more than halfway through.

I just gathered all of my art supplies, well most of them to start to move everything to the studio tomorrow and to start setting it up. all i need now is a big table and some shelving to organize everything.
Oh and I got a new internship, more on this later...

just got back from NJ

2008-11-29T18:23:00.000-08:00

So I went to nj and ny for the past two days with my mom to visit my sister for thanksgiving, it was a really good few days, good to get out of portland and good to spend time with my family. Walked around New York a bit, went to the MET and had a good thanksgiving dinner. Cant say the bus rides were very good, but whatever.
Here's some pages from the sketchbook that i worked on and finished at my sisters.

well I had this hat that I lost in September, I miss you less than that you know.

2008-11-24T19:07:00.000-08:00

New page, I think I might make a series of these, maybe screen prints? like 4 prints 2 colors each? we'll see!

New Studio!!!!

2008-11-22T14:24:00.000-08:00

So I just signed a lease for a studio in Portland, its at The Artist Studio building. I'm super excited for this, not only have I been waiting for a long time to get a studio and searching so much with nothing ever turning up, but its in a real studio building so i'll be surrounded with all other artists, and there is a small printshop in the basement with a woodshop, that is if i'll ever need a woodshop. But ya, really good news, I'm really excited to start doing some work soon!
Here's a picture of the building, its right downtown in Portland, above SPACE gallery and two doors down from where I work at the Art Store.

the battle of portland maine

2008-11-16T17:32:00.000-08:00

Some new pages in my sketchbook, nothing more to say about them. The Dancing Girl reworked alittle bit.

TMNT

2008-11-15T18:58:00.000-08:00

Anyone else remember when the teenage mutant ninja turtles use to go on tour? i wish i went to one of these when i was little, i was only 5 years old though. I do remember that I met them when I went to Disney World with my family in 1st grade, I forgot that up until now. So I guess I did see them perform, probably one of these really bad songs.

And heres a funny video my buddy Alex showed me last night, Hard Core Ninja Turtles!

Dancing Girl

2008-11-10T18:22:00.000-08:00

Here's the new page in my sketchbook that I drew today. I was browsing through the new Bollard paper at work and there was the perfect figure of a girl dancing to base this off of. It was just what i was thinking of. I dont know if its done, I wish the brown was darker. i feel like it is more in real life, it made it alittle bit lighter on the computer. maybe i'll do a few more coffee washes.

The other night

2008-11-09T16:38:00.000-08:00

The other night me and my friend Jessica from back home in New Hampshire went to see Conor Oberst at the roxy in Boston, it was pretty amazing, besides the most expensive drinks I've probably ever bought! Really good night though. Here's a video from the show.

Bright Eyes Tonight!

2008-11-05T10:27:00.000-08:00

Some new sketchbook drawings I did last week and yesterday. let me know what you think!
I've been working with shapes latly, it doesent have much meaning its just me seeing what I can get out of just using basic lines and circles as well as painting with coffee.

These two red pages were inspired from listening to The Flaming Lips while at work, I've never really listened to them before, but I have to say its good art making music!

This page isent complete, I'll work on it later this week, I'm thinking a dancer/ballerina on the bottom with the red lines coming down kind of like the antlers page. We'll see.

HALLOWEEN!!!!!!!!
was pretty awesome this year, I dressed up like Popeye the Sailor if you couldent tell. I was pretty proud of my costume! here are some pictures of the night!
v this Photos by Ben, go check out his blog!v

newest in the sketchbook and Matt and Kim!!

2008-10-13T19:30:00.000-07:00

a few logo designs I;ve been sketching out, and still trying to think of a name.
A few weeks ago I went to the Matt and Kim show in Portland, it was one of the best shows I've been to in a long long time, matt and kim played, and then some DJ's from Brooklyn played all night after them, I dont think I left SPACE until 1:30, and bars close at 1:00am here in Portland. long night of dancing like a complete fool and drinking alot of pbr for me to do so.

Here's Amanda and Teresa gettin down! also a video with Tami going crazy!

Also all of these photos of the show are taked from the SPACE website by photographer Bryan Bruchman and please go visit Space's blog.

BOSTON

2008-10-13T18:49:00.000-07:00

I went to Boston the other day, mostly for a show at the Middle East that I've been waiting for for a long time...Chuck ragan, Ben Nichols and Tim Barry, the show was pretty amazing, I dont go to shows to much anymore, but when I go to great ones like that I kind of miss them. I also visited my friend Liz and stayed at her new apartment in Cambridge on a very small couch, but I'm pretty use to sleeping on couches latly so it wasent bad at all, i actually fell right asleep.
The next day i woke up around 10 and just walked Boston all day until I took the 8:15 bus back to Portland. I havent walked that much in a long time. I took alot of touristy pictures also.

Apparently this is the new way to pin point landmarks in Boston, huge pics with a red top and a little sign that hangs off of them, they were everywhere!!
This was a random grave yard in the middle of the city kind of near Faneuil Hall, I thought it was kind of cool.

I also bought Kanye West type glasses at Newbury comics for Brittney.

working

2008-09-19T08:55:00.000-07:00

so myself and Aaron have been getting more supplies together, pressure hose, screens, emulsion and such and finishing up the exposure unit, now we're thinking about a studio space in town, its alot harder to find a space than I thought it would be, I guess theres just not as much available as i thought. But i have faith that we'll find one and will work perfectly.

We're also rethinking our name, we need one as soon as possible i think, lets get this down aaron!

this is also my first post this month, thats pretty bad. I've been working full time at my job latly though and havent taken pictures of anything.

Big purchase!

2008-08-30T14:38:00.000-07:00

Finally starting a studio and going to get going on work again! My buddy Aaron and me made a big purchase the other day. I was roaming on Craigslist and all this screen printing supplies were for sale on there for super cheap. We bought a 6 color tshirt press, a washout booth and a portable dryer all for $350 I looked up online what it should of costed, somewhere around 1,700-2,000 so we saved alot of money. We're setting up shop in Aaron's apartment right now, and debating getting a studio space somewhere in town, just right now money is an issue.
Still need a few supplies, and we're building an exposure unit as well since those things are really expensive.
I'm really excited about this! I've been slacking it all summer and need to start doing work again now that everyone else is going back to school and I'm not, I was to actually make something out of this art degree I earned..
Hopefully we can get a studio space somewhere and I can move all the rest of my art stuff there so I actually have somehwere to work. Below are some pictures of the things we bought, and the exposure unit half done.

new in the mail!

2008-08-29T09:13:00.000-07:00

I got these two amazing prints in the mail yesterday, the first is an Aaron Horkey print for Boris and Torche tour poster, its 25" x 36", signed/numbered in an edition of 290. and is an 8 color screenprint. This thing is really amazing looking at it in person, even better than I thought it would be.

This piece by Dan McCarthy is called "Shared Memory: Pollinators". It's 19" x 25", 4 color screen print. signed/numbered in an edition of 550. Dan is one of my favorite artists and i've been wanting to get one of his prints for a really long time, but never do, so I'm glad I picked this one up to, its alot cheaper than the Horkey one to.

sketchbook 2

2008-08-14T12:20:00.000-07:00

Some more pages from my new sketchbook.

new sketchbook

2008-08-03T15:01:00.000-07:00

I started a new sketchbook yesterday, I worked on it alittle bit at work today, I just need to get back in the swing off things and start coming up with some ideas for work, some prints maybe, button ideas. so here are just some drawings I did today.

unknown album

2008-07-06T22:18:00.000-07:00

So latly I've been slow on producing much art work.. I definetly need to start my projects soon, but to be honest the last month or two since school ended has been awesome, I've seen some of my good friends more times since school has ended then I saw them all last year, and thats a good feeling, and I've been spending alot of time outside, going to the beach, cookouts, riding my bike latly, me and my friends Brittney and Teresa went on a bike ride fr around 3 hours today.
I've been keeping up on my blogs latly though, I go to them pretty daily and just to look at what other people are doing, my friend Aaron has a really cool one called mis-mused where he creates a comic and narrative for each day of his life, some of my other friends have started Illustration blogs, most notably Ryan's check it out!
I also came across all of the Dark Night posters the other day, I really like these posters and how there done, plus the movie looks amazing and I cant wait to see it.
I dont think I'm going to continue much with posting pictures of other posters and things I like, unless they are with work that I do because I always wanted to keep this thing/blog about me and my work, but I guess these things are about me and what inspires me so whatever, I guess I'm just trying to say I need to start doing work so I can keep posting it and not have to post other stuff thats not mine.
Check out all of the Dark Night posters HERE. Bye

Rogues Gallery bike map

2008-06-30T19:37:00.000-07:00

This is a project I've been working on for the past few weeks for Rogues Gallery, the clothing company I use to work and intern for. Its a bike map of Portland for the RG store, so people can rent out old cruisers and ride around portland and go to place that we like. The map is based off of older Portland maps from the 1800's with the updated street's on it. I'm pretty pleased with how it came out, it took alot longer than I thought it would, and went through alot of revisions. but here's the end result!

i dont usually do this...but

2008-06-30T15:47:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I was checking out my favorite blog, omgposters.com. And it had some pretty amazing stuff on it, so i figured I would show you. the fist piece is by grafitti artist Saber, its caled "Crunch Time". its a 10 color screen print, which is pretty amazing in my book, and is super detailed, some day I would hope to be able to print something like this. Jetsetgraffiti.com

This piece is by Aaron Horkey, definetly one of the best illustrators/poster makers out there, i love all of his work. This is his newest poster for the band cable.
James jean's new piece for an AIDS awareness campaign. Besides this piece having a bunch of dicks on it, its pretty amazing, not my favorite James Jean piece ever, but almost all of his work is the best thing you will ever see. check out his stuff if you havent.

Then in the same blog theres this new terrible Shepard Fairey poster, i have got to say I dont even like Shepard Fairey or Obey very much, it started out kinda cool, but now I find all of there work really annoying and unoriginal. Even know so many people copy the whole obey look now, i still dont even look at obey being the first to make propaganda posters, because they definitly werent. They have been around forever, So whats with it being so big? This poster is the worst poster I've seen in awhile, its a good message, but still retarded, and doesent deserve to be in the same catagory as these other artists.

sketchbook 6-15

2008-06-15T17:36:00.000-07:00

The newest from the sketchbook, alittle bit of portraits and a squid, inspired from tom's squid print, i guess i just had squids on the brain today at work. everyone go buy his Squid and the Cachalot print!

portraits 2.0

2008-06-05T15:47:00.000-07:00

3 portraits I did today, alot more than i thought i would get done. i used references out of magazines just to get me started, the first is OK GO, I'm not sure who the women is, and the guy with an insect body is made up.

portfolio

2008-06-04T17:22:00.000-07:00

I made a Portfolio for myself the last week of school about a month ago, this is to show my work at interviews or things of the sorts, since I didnt have any sort of way to show my work, here are a few examples of the pages, there are many more but its basically the work that I've already shown on this blog and my website. The book is all made by me, it has a masanite cover that is 16inches tall and 20 inches wide, and when opened up it spans about 40 inches, the pages are heavy weight paper with some double sided printing. its binded by 2 book screws, so the book comes apart and I'm able to insert or take away pages as I want. I'm pretty proud of it. and no i didnt get the L.L. Bean job.

Portraits

2008-06-04T16:32:00.000-07:00

So i think the next independent project for myself that i'm trying to come up with is going to be portraits, mostly of faces and facial features, its something i've never really delt with or have tryed. I want to make portraits of my friends and people i know, as well as just pictures i find, not always making the drawing look exactly like the picture or person i'm drawing from. I kind of like having them be alittle twisted, this is the first one I did today, its pretty normal looking but I might want to take the other ones alittle further. We'll see how this works out. I want to say i would do a portrait a day but I know that's not going to happen, so maybe one every few days.

pardon me, thanks alot

2008-06-04T16:27:00.000-07:00

no internet (sucks)

2008-05-19T11:15:00.000-07:00

so i dont have internet at my apt. right now and my whole studio is in boxes and i need to find a new place to live in about 10 days, not there might not be to many updates latly. not that anyone reads this anyways.

senior thesis wall

2008-05-09T14:35:00.000-07:00

Yesterday and today all the seniors at meca, "including me" hung up our walls for our senior thesis show, this is all of the work that we've been working on the last semester, well atleast what people want to show, these are two pictures of my wall. I wanted it to look like a little store you would walk up to, having to look through the shirts that I've printed, i also have 2 books to look through, free cd's and free post cards I got printed, our show is on sunday, right after our graduation!
hopefully no one steals my t-shirts, I'll write more about the show later, I will also have alot more pictures from graduation and the show. I'm also printing out a portfolio right now to because on Monday the day after graduation I have an interview at L.L. Bean for a design internship, wish me luck.

a new look

2008-04-28T19:53:00.001-07:00

I changed the blog look, obviously. good or bad? please give me feedback?

waiting...

2008-04-27T17:50:00.000-07:00

The last few days I've been waiting for my monograph/Thesis process book to come back from lulu.com, its the 160 page book I've been working on the past 2 weeks, and it was suppose to be here last wednesday, so hopefully tomorrow "monday" it will be here. I just want to be able to see how it printed out.
meanwhile as I sit at the computer where it seems like every key is sticking down as I write, here is the cover I created for the book. I designed my cd booklet to match the book design, or maybe it was the other way around, I dont remember which one I made first.

when life gives you lemons...

2008-04-24T13:59:00.000-07:00

I had my Senior Review today, it went very well I think. It wasent so much a critique, just an opportunity to show my work I've been doing for the last semester and a select few things from the past and talk about them and for teachers I have had to see what I've been working on and give some advice which is always helpful when your leaving school. These are a few shots of what I hung up and put on tables to show. It was basically books I've made and the tshirts I've been working on with the tags and mix cd's. My spreads for my monograph/Thesis Process book are also put on the wall because I'm waiting to get the printed copy back in the mail from Lulu.com. I think its actually at the other school building now so I might get it tonight.

like a future with no friends

2008-04-21T21:32:00.000-07:00

One small project that I have been working on for alittle while, "mostly last night and today." is this mix cd for my thesis that I want to give away for free at our show. I fugure its people like free stuff and I want them to be able to walk away with something. Its based off of my trips to BullMoose and looking through the free bin of samplers that they have, and sometimes liking them and sometimes not.
So I made this mix of 22 songs that i chose throughout the semester that I felt best describes the thesis and the songs that inspired me. So here it is.
the Tracklist is:
1. Moment-thirty-three, then?
2. Small Brown Bike-like a future with no friends
3. A Wilhelm Scream-famous friends and fashion drunks
4. Hot Water Music-not for anyone
5. Hot Water Music-freightliner
6. The Promise Ring-the deep south
7. Lucero-slow dancer
8. Sparta-Air
9. At The Drive-In-sleepwalk capsules
10. Refused-new noise
11.Dillinger Four-Twenty-one said three times quickly
12.The Promise Ring-Happy Hour
13.Lucero-nights like these
14.Hot Water Music-Bleeder
15.Jets To Brazil-conrad
16.Christie Front Drive-Instant Romance
17.Dillinger Four-"Honey, I Shit the Hot Tub."
18.Small Brown Bike-unsung zero
19.Small Brown Bike-the cannon and tanks
20.A Wilhelm Scream-anchor end
21.Moment-endal
22.Jets To Brazil-sweet avenue

Thesis Process Notebook...continued

2008-04-21T21:24:00.000-07:00

I posted the beginning of this book a few posts back, so I figure I would post the rest of it. its nothing to great, just alot of doodles in class and such.

www.krisjohnsen.com

2008-04-15T20:22:00.000-07:00

My new website is now up. I'm also finishing up on printing shirts this week for my thesis show, and getting that all together and documented. hese are some tags I made today for the shirts.

SHIRTS!!!!!

2008-04-14T21:46:00.001-07:00

I finally have some shots of my shirts for people to look at that arnt in my classes. Heres some shots of my friend Meagan modeling some of my shirts, this is about half the designs i'm working on, hopefully by the end of the week i will be done printing of all of the shirts. There should be a good amount done.
oh and i have my NEW website up www.krisjohnsen.com go check it out!

update

2008-04-07T06:29:00.001-07:00

Heres what should be done withing the next month...
all shirts printed, i'm working on around 12 designs right now i think. 4 or 5 of them are done printing, i'm wearing one right now actually. i'll take pictures soon.

tags for shirts, which i'm going to go buy paper for to print out soon, they are pretty much done. the picture above is just the size tag, there will be 2 tags for each shirt, one with the ponder logo and a design, and the size one above.

Process book and monograph book, which are being combined into one book, should be over 100 pages and will be printed at lulu.com. have to get 3 of those.

other dumb shit for academic classes.

take pictures of people wearing my shirts, "fashion shots". and make some sort of asvertisement/poster for my display at the senior thesis show. and design the wall which i will be displaying all of my work.

probably more stuff but that it the most important stuff right now, lots of work to do.

1974

2008-03-15T15:42:00.000-07:00

I've had this long going project in one of my classes, it's to create a monograph for ourselves, which is basically a coffee table type of book about ourselves. Its been a slow start, I'm just not in the mood to make any more books right now, I'd much rather just work on my thesis and website, they interest me so much more right now than a book that i will never do anything with.

This is a long drive for someone with nothing to think about

2008-03-12T22:01:00.001-07:00

I painted my first picture in years, its for the Index show we have in a few weeks. Its inspired from the imagery i'm using in my thesis profect with alot of drawing right on the wooden canvas'. I'm pretty proud of how it came out, i like it so much more from up close than i do from far away, i love the detail of the splatters, and the colors they create, it might be hard to tell from the pictures. hopefully it will look good in the gallery it will be hanging in.
The piece acrylic paint, coffee, micron pen, pencil, and root beer soda, "for the stain." it's approximatly 2.5 feet tall, and 5 feet wide. so its a pretty big piece for me, i dont usually work this big ever, my work tends to be smaller most of the time and very hand held. I'm not positive if I'm done with the piece, but for now i am, i might keep working on the left piece
alittle more, and have it have a better transition between the wood and the black splatter, but we'll see what i come up with in the next few days.
Until then, its bed time, goodnight everyone.

PONDER ...coming soon

2008-03-09T19:39:00.000-07:00

"Ponder" is the name I'm working with for my Thesis project, I've started creating tags and banners and such for this project. The semester is half over, I've got alot of work to do, including a piece i need to make for our "Index" show, which is just for seniors and we're suppose to submit 1 piece each, it can go along with our thesis, or not. i want mine to, hopefully I'll finish it by the end of this vacation. more on this later.

the interweb and drawing parties

2008-03-08T20:56:00.001-08:00

Its spring break now, woo hoo! not exactly as exciting as Mtv makes it out to be, most of my break will probably be spent in the studio doing some work, hanging out withfriendsand working at the Art Mart for a few days. i was thinking about going to new york to see my sister but dont think i will end up going. Latly I've been really into making a website for myself, "one that will actually go online." unlike my other one. its coming along nicely, i'd say almost ready to put up, i just need to buy a domain and some space and i'm set. so i'l be getting to that in the next week. I also made a store page, and hopefully when i start printing shirts for my thesis I will be able to sell some on there, i'm also thinking about opening up one on Etsy, it looks like they get alot of traffic and might be able to sell more on there. So here are some layouts from it, the top on is the main page, and the options on the page will change the picture of the works that will be displayed on the same screen.

Its also Spring break again, So heres me and a bunch of my friends being really drunk at my buddy's Aaron and Ira's party.

Thesis Process

2008-03-02T21:58:00.001-08:00

So the last semester has been my "Senior Thesis" work, besides the other classes on top of that, so I havent been able to do as much as i wish, but I'm starting to get into something I feel like, these are a few things Ive been working on.

1. My thesis is based around why I have always wanted to be a graphic designer, which is that i have always wanted to design album covers and tshirts for bands basically, ever since I started going to shows when I was younger. So I started researching these bands in the mid 90's, bands in the relm of Hot Water Music, Small Brown Bike and At the Drive In. and researching what there imagry was and how it was created. I also researched older bands such as The Beatles.
I then attempted to make designs off of the research I did, not necissarily referencing the bands or the imagry they already had, but the music and the lyrics. some things came out of that but not much.
I came up with two landscapes out of that based on lyrics and album titles. I'm enjoying that exploration, so Im going with it. These are a few I have been working on the last few days.

Some Logo ideas.V I'm also working "slowly" on the packaging on the soon to be tshirts, and a logo for the whole project, "which i guess is basically a limited edition Tshirt line. I want to have tags for all the shirts, and logos to go with them.
Some other ideas. not sure if i'll continue with them.

New Apartment and Peter's Book

2008-03-02T21:46:00.001-08:00

I moved into a new apartment exactly a week ago, with my good friend Liz, who is also a GD major at MECA. heres a picture of the building, its right downtown Portland and I'm connected to the building Bullmoose Music is in, i never thought I'd live that close to a BM Music store, so thats pretty awesome!
I also worked today, heres a picture of my work, and what i see everyday. It was sunday so no one really comes in.

These are a few illustrations I did tonight for by buddy Peter's book cover for his thesis, I dont really know anything about his book or what its about, all I know is he asked me to draw that type of tree which I cant remember the name of, and a guy hanging from his feet, I did one that turned out very illustrated, and then i did one that was just a sillioutte. "spelling?"

Listen to the world turn

2008-03-02T21:37:00.001-08:00

My friend Shayna said she made me a birthday present, "which I have yet to receive." not to long ago, so I found out when her birthday was, and its a month or two, but I decided to make her a birthday present, and i finished it pretty soon, its a little sketchbook, kind of like my journals I've been making, its recycled brown paper on the inside and a chipboard front and back cover, using book tape to bind the whole thing, and inserting a nice pattern on the inside so its not all brown. I drew on a few of the pages for fun. its about 5''-7''

Kate Bingaman Zine Workshop 2008

2008-02-10T20:38:00.000-08:00

The past week we had a visiting artist come to MECA, Kate Bingaman, who is from Mississippi and does alot of amazing work, she runs her own company/studio called Obsessive Consumption, which is very cool and does alot of hands on work and drawing, check it out in the link. Kate also has more good energy then anyone I've probably ever met, and that was great to have around meca.
She gave an artist presentation to the school that had a bigger turnout than any other artist presentation i've been to at meca and a Zine workshop for 2 days which I attended and came up with my own little zine. she also came to our gd studios and gave one on one talks with us about are art since we are all starting our senior thesis projects and are all pretty nervous and consumed in that. the workshop was also a good break from being in the studio not getting much done on the thesis project. I've made it a goal for myself to get off of the computer more.
Here's a flyer for her visit and some pictures from the workshop.

Kate made her own MECA zine for all of us who attended and gave out buttons, posters and other crafty things. also had a goco machine on hand and a button maker. "thanks for letting us attack your button machine when you left Kate! we made an insane amount of buttons!"

This is my zine i made for the workshop, its a very simple idea, I just decided to go around for the day and take pictures of some of my friends and other people in the workshop and draw them, I wanted to pictures to look like the person but be alittle different by adding my own hand touch to them. My friend Shayna drew the cover image, its a picture of me since I didnt draw one of myself.
"These drawings are also the first ones that i made, i didnt do any mess up's, I just went with the first one that I made of each person."

Doug Scott Workshop 2008

2008-02-02T17:18:00.001-08:00

The past thursday and friday the graphic design dept. had a visiting artist and we had a 2 day workshop with him. His name was Doug Scott, "he made the 'Zoom' logo." and some other stuff, i wasent to impressed with his body of work but he definetly knew what he was talking about and it was good to hear someone else not in our dept. talk about design and there experiences.
The project was to create a book using our influences, something i feel like I've done a million times this semester. I'm sick of talking about my influences and making pieces just about myself, after awhile its boring and all of my work turns out looking the same. which everyone constantly tells me.
The workshop was still a good experience and i had fun, seeing other peoples work was fun to.

The book is a accordian, 5 spreads, with a front and back cover.
"This project was a look into what inspires us as designers, so there is a lot of samples imagery in these pages, i'm not claiming that the mathew woodson or dan blakeslee images are mine."

This is a sketchbook that i made for myself the other day, I'm only going to use it for my thesis work, its just a sketchbook but i figure i havent put anything knew on here for aboout a month or more.

this is what i do at work when i get bored.

make the clocks move

2007-12-12T20:05:00.001-08:00

I made this clock tonight, its a park clock/part notebook with pages in the back of it, i know its not very practical, but thats not really the point. i'm pretty pleased with how it turned out.
and i finally got my This I Believe book back from lulu.com, the colors are alittle off and the printing isent to great, but its pretty cool to see it printed in hardcover, i also printed 2 nice jackets for the book the other day, as you can see.

6:43AM

2007-12-05T03:34:00.000-08:00

Its 6:40 am right now as I write this, I just made a mock-up of my portfolio with my work that I have so far displayed in it, its not finished, but wanted to put up some pictures of it because I'm pretty proud of the craft and time i put into this book, its 100% made by hand by me, and has 2 fold outs in it. its 13''-14.5'', made mostly of thick chipboard and medium size chipboard with binding tape and some glue, then print outs of my work.