This first black and white drawing was originally done for a magazine article. The topic was america and it’s voracious appetite. In the end we used another image for the article, but I liked it enough to revamp it and use it on some product. I just got rid of the flag on the arm and drew in I love Mom. This is simply a fond memory I harbor from my youth of big bikers in gangs professing their motherly love. I always loved that juxtaposition of the big, tough, violent biker gang and Love. I still do.
When I started thinking about this image for product the first thing I did was add the flag colors. I just scanned my original art in and colored it in photoshop. I kept the teeth, after discussing it with other members of the studio, because it seems to me that america is still showing ‘em. Well, not america so much as its politicians. We feel today like we felt in March of 2003; there’s just no way to justify the war in Iraq.

For a second version I started adding some backgrounds. This went on for a few days and after we discussed the various solutions I came up with we decided the cityscape was the way to go. It’s always an intrigue watching humans in overcrowded cities try and get their physical excercise in. I used to marvel at all the cyclists and rollerbladers in Central Park in NY doing loops at five a.m. I once saw Madonna running on the lower loop at five thirty a.m. That was cool.

We added the text “I have no freakin’ intention of stopping…” because that’s the feeling we got years ago when we crossed some of these rollerbladers. I mean most people stopped to be friendly, but some of them, man, were they pumped on adrenaline or somethin’. So there you have it. Two designs based around the same character. We hope you like ‘em.

Welcome to the Karavane : only passin’ through blog. This being our first post we felt some need to say what or who we are. We are scratching our heads and wondering why. Our mission statement is simple. We don’t have one. Maybe we’ll write something about the studio in some future post.

We’re trying our best to have fun with all this work. I think that’s as worthwhile a goal as any. I’m not even sure we have a goal. Don’t let us kid you; making a few bucks selling some product would be nice. Hey, we’ve got rent to pay and we do like to eat.

Valentine’s Day designs are the first post because that’s what we have just finished. We’ll slowly add all the designs we do for our cafepress website. We did four designs for VD and all anti-valentine’s day as a way to protest the business and the cold lack of compassion. You can click on the images and it’ll take you to the page on cafepress where you can buy them if you want.

Our four designs are pretty simple. 1. Valentine’s Day…Again. (and there’s a french version) 2. Take it, please. It’s broken anyway. 3. Down for Maintenance. 4. Sick of Love.

What do we want to do as designers? What is our goal? Do we think we can achieve something or change the world for the better? All good questions and maybe we’ll even answer some as the days and months go by.