20 Years of Teenage Politics

If you clicked on a link to get here or are already familiar with me then you may know that I created a lot of the original art for the band MxPx including their iconic band mascot, the Pokinatcha Punk (PxPx). I was greatly encouraged by the fantastic response to my blog post last October for the 20 year anniversary of MxPx's first album and so here I am again trying to remember what was going through my head two decades ago when I was working on their second one. I’m not sure this one will be as interesting because with that album came the creation of the mascot which made that art very special but I’ll try to make this post worth reading anyway. If you haven’t read that one from October or you would like to refresh your memory then I recommend checking it out. Here is the link. 20 Years of Pokinatcha

As has been well documented by the movie No New Kinda Story and other places the rise of MxPx happened pretty fast. I wasn’t paying a whole lot of attention to it at the time since my first son was born the same week that Pokinatcha released and my life was quickly changing. Four months after that my little family of three moved from Seattle Washington to Salem Oregon for me to start a new job. With that transition I kept doing freelance work for Tooth and Nail Records and other indie bands and labels but I was kind of clueless as to just what was happening with MxPx across the country. I knew they could draw a crowd in the Northwest when they played but I had no idea the real impact they were making until much later. When I was asked to create art for the their second album using the character again I was happy to do it and I was excited but also a little apprehensive. I’ll try to explain my hesitation.

I wouldn’t call myself a cartoonist and I never have. I’m a graphic designer and an Illustrator. If my designs or illustrations have cartoon-like figures in them I love it but drawing those same figures from a different angle or in a different pose is difficult for me. I’m not saying I can’t do it and I have learned some tricks in my 27 years of professional experience but I will admit freely that it’s a struggle. Then again I believe that styles are made as much by our limitations as our strengths so I’ve learned to embrace my weaknesses in some ways instead of getting frustrated with myself. I can’t say that 20 years ago I fully grasped this idea and was comfortable with my lack of skill in figure drawing. As I explained before when talking about the creation of the Pokinatcha Punk I thought I was creating a mascot much like a sports team would have that would be like a logo that wouldn’t change. It might be hard for you to understand why this was a big deal to me but think about it this way, I knew at this point that there would likely be more drawings to do of the punk in a lot of different poses so I knew I had to figure out what his true proportions were. People who do character development figure out how many heads tall a character is and how big their body parts are in relation to the rest of their body. None of this is really important when you are drawing a one-off character but as soon as you draw him in a different pose it all of a sudden becomes very important. At least it seemed crucial to me. I ran into this before Teenage Politics when I tried to draw him skating and jumping for the insert of Pokinatcha but now that he was going to be featured prominently on another cover that would be in stores and in ads all over the country I took it much more serious. For instance if you look at the original drawing and you see how big his hand in the foreground is and how small his hand in the background is how do you determine how big his hands are when he is standing with his arms at his sides. I don’t know about you but I have no idea. So I had to decide that although the first pose was great I would just have to do my best to keep the character consistent but that it wouldn’t be “perfect” and that would be okay. I feel like since Teenage Politics that the poses have felt more like they belong together because I always look back at that one when I’m drawing new ones. Even though his foot in the foreground is gigantic the rest of his body is more normally proportioned. That helps a ton. Basically the Teenage Politics drawing became my new standard.

The other part of the poses that I should mention is the PxPx's head. I had worked with some licensed characters at my first graphic design job where we kept the head the same on every pose and I thought that though it was kind of weird it also was great that way. So, I decided to flip it back and forth, rotate it, and move the pupil around but other than that I didn't redraw it. The only exception to this that I have drawn (others have redrawn his head) was on the inside of the Slowly Going The Way of the Buffalo booklet where I redrew him for legal reasons but even on that his expression and the viewing angle of the head is basically the same.

Here are some of my thoughts about the Teenage Politics art as I remember them.

• THE GENERAL IDEA - When I looked over the song ideas that Mike Herrera had sent me and thought about the title I got the idea that teenage politics was not necessarily a good thing so it needed to be destroyed. I don’t know if I was right about that but when I presented a couple pencil rough ideas of the art to the band and label they went for the smashing one. The other idea that you can see below is one of breaking the chains of teenage politics which later got turned into a poster. That one was very influenced by my love of old sci-fi and monster movie posters.

• THE STOMPING POSE - Since the idea of smashing the type had been settled on I had to figure out how best to draw the Pokinatcha Punk stomping. I had my wife shoot a Polaroid picture of me so I could see what the body should look like. This was before digital cameras were common so a Polaroid was a good way for me to get an instant shot of something I needed for photo reference.

• SHATTERED TITLE TEXT - Much like the warped type on the cover of Pokinatcha that I created with pre-digital methods the main title type on this album was done similarly by hand. I printed out the type in a straight and stacked format and manually cut it apart and glued it down so it looked shattered. I then took that and copied it bigger and did the same thing to that print. Once I had touched it up and felt good about it I scanned it and vectorized it.

• THE BACKGROUND - As I stated on the 20 Years of Pokinatcha post I was heavily influenced by the rock poster art of the time by artists like Frank Kozik. If you look at his and other poster art of the early 90’s you’ll see where I got the bright rays. I like for albums to have a defined color theme or palette so that they are easily distinguished from each other. This time I went with a bright green theme because it felt punk rock for some reason and it was very different from Pokinatcha’s blue and red scheme. As a side note, I heard this album called the watermelon album one time and wasn’t sure how I should feel about that.

• SIMPLE LABEL-LIKE BAND NAME - I used Helvetica Condensed Black because one time a snarky co-worker of mine said no one should ever use Helvetica and since I don’t like to be told what to do I promptly used it. I put it in a simple label looking rounded box because that seemed very opposite of what punk art should be which in my mind made it very punk. I put it in the upper left-hand corner because when you are flipping through CDs at the CD store (remember those places?) you would easily see it. Yes, I actually think about things like that.

• BACK MXPX TYPE - The only thing I want to say in regards to the back art on the CD is about the MxPx custom type. It was used for a while as their band logo and appeared on shirts and on the front of the album On The Cover. I inked it by drawing with the eye dropper of an india ink container. This technique purposefully makes a really nice uneven effect. The problem is because it’s hard to control and I want to control every aspect of my art it took me many many tries to get one I liked. And truthfully that one was created by taking pieces from a few and pasting them together. Once I was happy with the compiled version I then scanned it in and vectorized it. From there I squashed it vertically and italicized it a little. In addition to being used on the back It was also used on the spine of the CD and Cassette.

Back of Teenage Politics CD packaging and front of the On The Cover album art.

Some of my attempts at an inked logo-type.

• I DON’T REMEMBER - Here are some things that I wish I had a cool story for but I don’t. Why did I put the band’s name in the shoe tread (although I really like that part)? Why didn’t I draw PxPx with shorts on this time? Why did I think dark purple letters would show up against dark blue pants? Why did I twirl the art on the CD like it’s going down a drain?

THAT'S MY STORY AND I'M STICKING TO IT

That's all I can remember art-wise about Teenage Politics. I am very thankful for the chance to work with MxPx in those early years. I feel like I was in the right place at the right time with the right desire and experience to help out a band I was excited about. Things changed for me after this album because the next one which was On The Cover was laid out by the label and they decided to hire Coop to do the art for Life In General. I couldn't be upset about that because I think it turned out great. When I finally was brought back the band and Tooth and Nail Records weren't getting along so good. So I ended up doing Let It Happen for Tooth and Nail and some concepts and an internal drawing for A&M Records for Slowly Going the Way of the Buffalo. After that Tooth and Nail hired me to do some poses of the PxPx which later got used for Ten Years and Running and the deluxe edition of Let It Happen. Then they all stopped calling me and I got busy with life and we didn't work together for over 10 years. Then last year Chris Bartch found my portfolio website and contacted me. Chris helps the band with their social media and is the fan club ambassador. He asked me to do a 20 year anniversary version of the Pokinatcha art and the rest is history. I'm glad to be back in contact and working with the band again. Thanks Chris! My wife and I went to see them play last month in Portland and it was really fun seeing them again. It was a great show and they were really warm and welcoming to us. My hope is that they keep making music and that once in a while I get to design something for them. That would be great.

Below is the redesign of the Teenage Politics art for stickers and whatever and additionally there is a one color version of it that I did for t-shirts.

I hope this was worth your time to read. I know it's a limited amount of people who are interested in my ramblings but for the few I thought it was worth the effort. You can let me know what you think below as I've thought about doing one of these for the Tooth and Nail Records logo or for Blenderhead's album Prime Candidate for Burnout but if there is no interest then I won't waste my time.

The anniversary art I designed.

Click on an image below to find me on Instagram.

20 Years of Pokinatcha

If I would have known back then that the mascot I was creating for the band MxPx would still be used 20 years later, I probably would have over-thought it and had a massive creative block. Instead, I was having fun drawing a character for an album cover for three 16 year old punks. I just hoped it would help them sell some albums and maybe the art would end up on a few t-shirts and stickers. At the time that I was asked to design the cover I had already done a few jobs for Tooth and Nail Records like the label's corporate logo and an album cover for my buddies in Blenderhead. I jumped at the chance to work on more projects for the new company and especially for MxPx. I had seen them play a few times already around Seattle and knew they had something special that would carry them pretty far. Obviously I didn't know at the time how right I was or how hard of workers they were. I would have never guessed I would be writing about that first album 20 years later and that they would still be an active band.

I grew up being a rabid fan of music and especially 70's and 80's Alternative Rock and Punk back when it was new. I didn't pursue playing music after a failed attempt at trumpet playing in 4th grade and some embarrassing experiences in an all-boys chorus in 6th grade. I was fascinated by the connection between the visual art and the music though because, I was much better at drawing. Like most of us who grew up with vinyl and cassettes, I stared at the album covers while playing the music and considered the two inseparable. In fact, I'm pretty sure my love of design started when I saw amazing iconic band logos for bands like Black Flag, Dead Kennedys, DRI and Flipper to name just a few. My heroes were as much the artists who designed the album covers as the artists who made the music. I was in awe of Raymond Pettibon because his art was so much linked to Black Flag's image that he was like another member of the band. When I finally got a chance in my mid 20's to design art for local bands who I really liked and who were getting pushed nationally, I was super excited just to contribute my part.

For a while now I've wanted to explain certain decisions I made about the creation of the Pokinatcha Punk (PxPx) character and the Pokinatcha album cover. With the 20 year anniversary approaching I decided that if there was ever a time to do it then it's now. Also I received some much needed encouragement from a big-time MxPx fan named Chris Bartch. This is my longest blog post yet, but hopefully if it's interesting to anyone out there then it will be worth my time and effort. Most of this I've never shared with anyone. It's not for any good reason but mostly because no one ever asked me. Hmm, I wonder if that's a hint.

• ART STYLE & POSE - At my day job we had just been working on humorous, fake, team mascots for a clothing line and I really liked the idea of a mascot for a band. Mike Herrera had mentioned to me that he liked the album art for Screeching Weasel and I knew they had a cartoon-like character. So I tried to create an animated guy who would represent the band. As one example, think of Notre Dame. They have the Fighting Irish mascot. He is a clean, graphic mascot that represents the University and they don't change his fighting stance pose. That's the kind of idea that was in my mind when I created the first image. I made him running and used extreme foreshortening to create movement and make him dynamic. I didn't and don't today consider myself a cartoonist, but drawing a logo-like character was very doable for me. If I do another one of these posts about Teenage Politics, the second album, then I'll go more into detail about my struggles with creating other poses of the PxPx.

• EXPRESSION - I just looked back at my sketch book from this era and almost every character I drew was clinching his teeth. I must have thought it made them look intense. I made the PxPx smiling though, because I wanted him more mischievous than mad or in pain.

• HAIR STYLE - I had seen Mike Herrera wearing his hair in spikes that were held up with rubber bands and so I just drew the punk with a more extreme version of that.

• NON-SYMMETRICAL EYES - My favorite comic strip growing up was Bloom County and I always loved how wacko Bill The Cat looked with one eye way larger than the other. That's the only explanation I can think of for the weirdest part of my character.

• X EARS - I feel like I had seen this done before, but now I can't think of where I saw it. In my weird way of thinking I thought putting an X there instead of drawing a more complicated ear was more punk rock. It also doubled as a possible earring. I tried this again on an illustration I did for the band Shorthanded where I put an X on the guy's arm to represent a generic tattoo, but it just confused people and some thought it had something to do with Straight Edge which it didn't.

• CLOTHES - This might seem obvious but there were so many ways I could of gone with his apparel. So, I dressed him like I dressed when I was a youngster going to shows. I never understood why there were so many punk kids with leather jackets and Doc Martens because I couldn't afford those things. I also wanted him to be timeless and I figured Chuck Taylors, a white t-shirt and basic shorts were going to last. It was the 90's so I made his shorts baggier than I would now but that was the style skaters were wearing at the time. He's wearing an MxPx shirt because he himself is a fan of the band. I wanted the type on his chest to feel hand-drawn but since the rest of the art was so clean I built it with a few vector lines just freehand clicking with my mouse.

• ALBUM COLORS - I'm pretty sure I was heavily influenced by the Black Flag covers done by Raymond Pettibon as referenced above. He used flat bright colors. I was attempting to make the CD pop off the shelf when it was competing for attention at the stores. I was also influenced by the screen printed poster art that was getting hot in the early 90's by artists like Frank Kozik who used super bright colors. The red and blue were specifically picked because I loved the way those colors clash when they are right next to each other. I had played with this kind of op art before and wanted to try it again.

• PUNK & WAVY TYPE - I probably should of stuck with straight type, but I thought having it warped would give it more movement. There was probably a way to do this effect in Photoshop even back then, but I had learned to do this, pre-digital, by rotating the paper on the photocopier as the light was passing over the image. Also, the effect of the rough type was created by repeatedly copying it over and over until I got the desired effect. This is how much of the "punk" type was created back before there were "punk" fonts to buy. The song list on the back was created this way also.

I feel very fortunate that I got to create something for the music industry that is still being used 20 years later. I wouldn't say that the Pokinatcha Punk is as famous as a lot of other band logos or mascots, but I've got a taste of what it's like to have a piece of your art take on a life of it's own all over the globe. I know that there are fans that associate my art with MxPx like I mentally link the visuals with the music of so many of my favorite bands. It's wild thinking about kids sketching my art on their pee-chee folders or fans wanting to get it tattooed on their body. I give much credit for the endurance of this art to Mike Herrera and the rest of the band who have worked hard to keep their music and my art alive. Thanks to Brandon Ebel for originally asking me to do the work.

T-SHIRT DESIGN TO CELEBRATE THE 20 YEAR ANNIVERSARY OF POKINATCHA. YOU CAN GET ONE AT MXPX.COM

If you want to see more of my art for MxPx or find out what else I've been doing for two decades you can start by clicking my JND logo at the top which will take you to my homepage or look through more of my blog.

Thanks for reading this far and making my effort to put this down in words worth it.

Why I'm An Artist - part 1

My parents recently were de-cluttering their house and came across a pile of my art that they had saved from my youth. They gave it to me a few weeks ago and it was a nostalgia trip for me to look through it all. Some of the pieces I remembered but thought they were lost forever so having them now is really fun.

A school art project from 1973

The piece above is one I did when I was about five years old. I guess in school each of us was given a single feather and some black paint and could do whatever we wanted with it. The teacher told my mom that I was going to be an artist some day. I'm not sure exactly what she saw in me or my art projects that made her believe that but it has always amazed us how she could predict such a thing way back then. Picasso once said, "Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up." I give my parents so much credit for never discouraging my artistic endeavors no matter how silly they must of seemed. It would of been so easy for someone to squelch my artistic expressions with criticism and it might of made me self-conscious and soured my excitement to create. It must of taken some faith to encourage me to go to art school and pursue a career in design not knowing how I would actually make a living. I think after 25 years of getting paid to do design I can officially thank them for their support of my dream.

A drawing from second grade.

Another drawing from second grade. This one was mounted on a blue piece of craft paper and my name stapled to it from when the teacher displayed it in the classroom.

Licensed Nostalgia

When I was searching for the Bugs Bunny designs in the last post I came across a lot of other licensed character designs that I did in the early 90's. I set aside a few of my favorites to show here. So, here are some Jetsons designs and one Rocky and Bullwinkle. Of the many licensed t-shirts I did back then I preferred The Jetsons because it was one of my favorite cartoons as a kid.

Our work on these jobs at Sun Sportswear consisted of coming up with a concept and writing the copy and looking through style guides to find poses that then we redrew or tweaked to fit the purpose. We would mock the idea up and color it to present to our Art Director who would then either approve it or reject it. If the Art Director approved it then it would be shown to the company that owned the license to get their blessing on the design. If it got approved by them then we would take the steps to clean up the art and make it camera ready and do the color separations. Usually the Buyers for the stores wouldn't see them until they were printed on shirt samples but some times they would see the original mock-ups first. If a design got rejected by the Art Director or by the holder of the license or by all the Buyers it would be cursed for all time and if we tried to resubmit it in the future it was an immediate rejection again. We learned to just put them away forever, never to see the light of day. The designs above are some that made it to the printed sample stage at least so I'm pretty sure they were sold in stores but I can't remember for sure. In any case, they were really fun to work on.