Happy Thanksgiving. I’m spending it glued to the couch doing nothing. I can barely stand to type, as it is. Regardless, I thought it kind to alert you to a couple sweet Black Friday Deals..

First off, my buddy Yosiell from ProjectDetonate is dropping this sweet new limited giclee print, entitled  “sleep now for tomorrow may not come.” Based off of a revised old painting, the print is limited to 30 and is printed on Ultra Premium Matte paper (192 gsm). Dimensions, 13″ x 19.” It will be available at the ProjectDetonate shop for $35.00 shipped within the US (intl orders add $7.00). They are hand signed and numbered with certificate of authenticity. Print Drops tomorrow at 11am EST

Next up, KidRobot’s Black Friday Toy is this gnarly sweet Squirrel named Nutter. Fully custom figure designed by Kronk, this 6″ figure will be available at KidRobot Shops like Hero Design at Noon.

Hero Design is having their own Black Friday deals as well. Get all four posters from the Buffalo Art Print Series for $80, and save $40! Or you can buy each print individually and get $5 off. A shitton more good deals at Hero so if yer in Buffalo get down to 93 Allen at Noon Tomorrow, see you there.

The Yummy Breakfast Keychains were my first blindbox craze. I saw them at Hero Design (93 Allen St, Buffalo, NY) and started collecting them all. I had nearly every one of them, then suddenly… Hero sold out. I managed to cope, and the collection remained unfinished, on display at Angel’s store, Sai One (818 Elmwood Ave, Buffalo NY). People would come into Sai One and want to buy my collection, and Angel would send them to Hero to buy them. When Hero Design sold out, people kept going there looking for more until Beth asked me to kindly not send people to Hero with false hopes of the Yummy Breakfast series.

FALSE HOPES NO MOAR!

Hero Design is finally back in stock after over a year of  whining and begging from everyone all over. The supply is limited so get there now if you want to pick up the set. They are blindbox, but the duplicates will make excellent stocking stuffers this Christmas.

I noticed Beth was working on this new print last week. I almost stole one before she had put the final color on it, but I’m glad I waited… it looks so awesome! And since I felt bad about almost stealing one, I’m gonna penance and give one away to one of my readers.

Hero Design Studio on Etsy – Autumn is my favorite season of them all. I love all the colors, the brisk air and the smell of the drying leaves. Every year I find myself in the most wonderful mood come mid October!

This year I finally decided to capture that feeling in a print. This is a is limited edition 5 color 8″ x 10″ screen print, printed on Accent Opaque Smooth White 100# cover stock. Each print is signed by us.

I heard Beth is already working on the other three seasons, and maybe I’ll do a giveaway for those too. However, here’s how to win the Autumn print:

1. Contest starts from this post date, until Noon on Thursday, the 29th (of October, silly).
2. You have to comment with your FAVORITE  Fall activity in the town you where you live. I’ll ask Beth to help me pick the sweetest comment, since Fall is her favorite season ever.
3. The winner will receive a signed 8″x 10″ Autumn Print from HeroDesign, courtesy of your favorite snarky Buffalonian. If you live in the Buffalo, NY  area, you’ll have to stop by Hero Design Studio + Boutique (93 Allen St, Buffalo) to pick it up. If you live outside of Buffalo, or hate to leave your house (then how could you love Fall?), we’ll ship it to you.
4. Make sure you leave your real email address in the form (but not in the actual comment) or I can’t contact you if you win.

That’s it!

Time’s Up! Time to get with Beth to pick the winners, I’ll have a winner announced shortly!

Beth is co-owner of Hero Design Studio (with her husband Mark), a truly talented artist, a style diva, and one of my favoritest gal pals. AND… today is her birthday! Going back to the artist part, when she isn’t dealing me the best in vinyl crack, she’s grinding out gig posters, clever cards, and some pretty awesome art prints. I’m gonna highlight my favorites below and you should absolutely buy one or two or three or all of them! It’s her birthday remember, and money is the best present evar!

Get Well Soon Greeting Card – $4.00 each /$12 for 4-pack

Who likes pills? Pills are awesome, and these get well soon cards are classic and cute, if not to the point. 5″ x 5″ Three color silkscreened greeting card printed on100# Cover Cougar Bright White. Includes a frosted transparent vellum envelope and is enclosed in a resealable poly bag for protection. Limited Edition.

Birthday Cards – $4.00 each/$12 for 4-pack

Once again, simple and to the point, but absolutely awesome. I bought my two dads the “Happy Fucking Birthday” cards, and pops loved them. the card stock reminds me of a yummy chocolate cupcake too! 5″ x 5″ One color silkscreened greeting card printed on 113# cover Gmund Treasury in Tradition. It is a beautiful metallic, shimmery, chocolate brown paper with a matte black inside. Limited edition. Includes a frosted transparent vellum envelope and is enclosed in a resealable poly bag for protection. Limited Edition.

Raccoon Artprint – $20

This raccoon artprint glows in the freaking dark! I shouldn’t have to pimp this print anymore, because it GLOWS in the DARK! 16″ x 20″ Four color silkscreen, printed on 100# cover, French Dur-O-Tone Paper in Steel Gray. Signed and numbered edition of 100. The raccoon’s eyes, the stars and the moon all glow in the dark.

Owl Greeting Cards – $4 each/ $12 for 4-pack

Beth was rocking Owls before the hipsters got a hold of them and said they were cool. In fact: Beth said “Owls fucking rock” and everyone else listened up. for realz. 5″ x 5″ Three color silkscreened greeting card printed on 100# Cover Cougar Bright White. Includes a frosted transparent vellum envelope and is enclosed in a resealable poly bag for protection. Limited Edition.

Grizzly Bear – Chicago, IL / 07.19.09 / Pitchfork Music Festival - $25
You really have to see this poster to know why I love it. behind the thumbprint is menagerie of spirographs, offset just enough to show that awesome hand screenprinted style that makes poster shops like Hero design stand out from the Kinko’s poseurs.  16″ x 20″ Four color silkscreen, printed on 100# Cover Cougar Bright White. Signed and numbered edition of 150.

While these may be my favorite, there is a butt-load (indeed) of posters, art prints, and greeting cards on the Hero Design Studio webstore. They also rock on on Etsy, and GigPosters.  Beth and Mark are an awesome team, I’m glad to have friends/dealers like them.

Just to recap, its Beth’s birthday.. and yer gonna buy some of her stuff right? Good.

p.s. – any time of the year is a good time for buying posters, you don’t just have to wait for a birthday.

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