I've always wanted to paint a kaiju. I think the airbrushed style of Eastern vinyl is just tops, and I wanted a stab at my own. I decided my first foray would be on this marvelous new figure from the Lake Monsters Series, Chris Ryniak's Big Muscamoot. Since the story goes that these monsters hail from the Great Lakes, I figured my custom would have to be from Lake Erie. colors were easy to decide, but I haven't airbrushed since I was making Star Wars and El Camino models as a kid with my dad. I even dragged out the old airbrush kit that I used almost 10 years ago. I think it went pretty well, but I may invest in a decent-er airbrush, any suggestions on a good model? I hear Badger is pretty good. I'll have more pics up on the flickr soon.

Mark and Beth tossed me a you doo doll so I could finish it and give an example of just how awesome this DIY voodoo doll is. This is the head... I think its gonna be pretty awesome when its done. #snap

This 20 year old italian boy danced like a straight boy, but I think he may be buysexual, and he was wearing some hot DKNY briefs... and his butt, what a waste of tail if he really is straight. #snap

It was drizzly and rainy at the fair today, so we all headed to Starbucks to dry up. Dad on the right, jerrie on the left... Aunt Becky, and Jay next to me. Mmm family and coffee... FTW #snap

What a fucked up and stupid thing to happen...

via Hero Design Studio - Local publication, Artvoice, stole original artwork that we created for the band Iron & Wine and altered it VERY slightly for a full page back cover ad, advertising their publication and their upcoming "Fall Arts" Issue. They even used our color scheme and textures. All of the major elements of the full page ad were stolen directly from our poster and used without our knowledge or permission! This is a violation of the copyrights associated with our artwork and we are not going to deal with this lightly, we plan to take action and we are prepared to do whatever necessary to insure that this doesn't happen again. Not only to us, but to other artists that the Artvoice and it's designers could potentially steal from in the future. Another point to be made is when stealing artwork from a local artist, like us, whose work is known in the community, this causes causes confusion with respect to the source, sponsorship and/or our approval of their products and the services of their company. Within hours of the issue being on stands, and before we even saw it, we began getting phone calls, emails and texts asking if we started working with Artvoice and why did our artwork look like that, etc. This is embarrassing and potentially damaging to us and our company's name and reputation locally.

Artvoice is aware of the copyright violation, but a solution has not materialized as of now.  It's really shitty this happened, and I'm sure everything will come out in favor of Hero Design, but the fact that the copyright violation came from just down the block, that's the fucked up part. Jamie Moses, are you getting to be too old to keep your company in check? I had a much higher respect for your company before now. Oh, and Hero weren't the only designers to be victimized by Artvoice.

We also learned that one of the two elements that they added to our original design (beyond the type elements) was also stolen, from our good friend Julian Montague's book cover for Mark Goldman's book City on The Edge.

Update: Zachary Burns attempts to clear his name. Attached below is a copy of the email sent to Hero Design, that was forwarded to me by Zachary Burns, one of the Art Directors at Artvoice.

I'd like to start off by stating that I was not the artist who plagiarized the poster that was so blatantly and embarrassingly lifted from your studio for the back cover of this weeks Artvoice. Let me restate that again, I unequivocally and absolutely had nothing to do with its' planning, conception or design. That being said, I would still like to apologize. You have every right to be supremely pissed (as any designer would) and whatever justice you seek is completely within your rights. I just joined the Artvoice staff as a graphic designer about a month ago after moving back home from Seattle where I was a designer at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. As a journalist and designer, this kind of thievery is an embarrassment to me and a mark of shame upon the newspaper. I'm sure you would like to know who was responsible for this, but unfortunately I don't want to name names. However, if you get a hold of Jamie Moses or Geoff Kelly they will tell you who the culprit was. Again, I feel completely embarrassed and ashamed to work at the paper right now. If I had any knowledge that a designer was going to so blatantly rip off an existing design, you can be sure it would not have occurred on my watch. It was very uncomfortable to be around the newsroom yesterday as this story broke and have to worry that by mistake or some miscommunication my name might falsely be attached to this unethical practice. Anyways, just wanted to clear my name and show my support for you guys. --zachary burns

Its beer thirty this Friday, and at the ole Hippie House, its the thing to do on a Friday night! Huw is snapping pics of the sunset, and I'm snapping a pic of him.. how cliche! #snap

This is my first blank, and I'm stoked to get started on my first custom. I prolly wont get it anywhere as near as awesome as the big guys, but I'll give it a proper stab. Props to Chris Ryniak for a stellar design. #snap

The Yeah Yeah Yeah's have been cool since "Maps," check out their latest single below, "Heads will Roll." I do love the DIGIRAATII remix though.

This used to be my Korg NanoPad. That was, it used to be until the micro usb port nicked off the board, rendering it useless. I already have plans to replace it with an Akia board and I didn't want to fix such a cheaply made piece of professional gear. It served me well, I suppose, that is, until it broke. #snap