Shapes & Smiles Available in our Shop!
After a very successful show opening at Subtext Gallery in December, the work from “Shapes & Smiles” is up in our Etsy shop. Many prints and other goods from this art show that we poured our souls into are available: Jolby.etsy.com
Announcing “The Legend of Zelda: A Triforce Tribute”
While we were busting our buns on “Shapes & Smiles” we began planning another art show as an excuse to collaborate with our awesome pals Tyler and Elsa aka Always With Honor. Being the avid gamers we are, we thought what a better subject matter than the Legend of Zelda. The show opens at Land Gallery in Portland on March 9th and features over 30 amazing artists. Check out the full line-up and some sneak peeks right here: Triforce Tribute Site.
11 Favorites From 2011
Along with having an amazing year in general, we’ve pinpointed 11 of our favorites from 2011. We’d both like to thank all of you for your support over the years. We can’t do this without you!
Colby’s Favorites:
Album: “Camp” by Childish Gambino
Book: “Game of Thrones” by George R.R. Martin
Person: Steve Jobs
Burger: Lucy’s Original
Place: In a cabin at Nisswa, MN
Moment: Speaking at Design Camp
Podcast: Doug Loves Movies
Project: “Shapes & Smiles” show
Beer: Hopwork’s Pig War
Show: The Walking Dead followed by The Talking Dead
Game: Skyrim
Josh’s Favorites:
Uni rice at Sushi Mazi
Lunch at Chez Sovan in San Jose, CA
Watching the Vancouver Canucks lose the Stanley Cup
Geoff Mcfetridge x Heath Ceramics show
Successful mushroom hunting
Speaking at AIGA Design Camp in Minnesota
Working on the Frogs Are Funny: Muppet book
El Bulli the movie
Thrice - Major Minor
Bon Iver -Bon Iver
Blind Pilot - We Are The Tide
Wishing you all an amaze-balls New Year. Love, Jolby.
View all of the work from “Shapes & Smiles” now!
It’s here! All of the work from this 3-month long art factory experience called “Shapes & Smiles” is online for your viewing pleasure right now! Visit our Shapes & Smiles mini site (designed and developed by our intern Frankenspace).
“The King’s 6th Finger” Hardcover is Available! *Update
*Update! You can now purchase this from our Etsy shop.
It’s here! The King’s 6th Finger is now available in hardcover through Ginkgo Press. This new edition sports a hardcover, new art pages, and a slightly revised ending (the wording, but not what happens). We’ve been told they’ve been spotted in a lot of shops all over including the Museum of Contemporary Art in San Diego and the Walker Art Center in MPLS. Check your local book store to see if they carry it or watch our Etsy for a way to buy it straight from us!
Artists We Love: Sunny & Stumpy
We haven’t written about an artist we’re really digging in a while, but we wanna take a break from all of the show posts to bring you someone special. Our great friend and co-author of the King’s 6th Finger, Rachel Coddington makes all of those pretty products that you see above in her shop, Sunny & Stumpy.
She cuts and glues all of those pedals by hand and assembles them into these amazing pieces. Her products range from wedding bouquets and flower magnets to wedding invite templates and pins. Visit her Etsy shop and if you’re heading to Crafty Wonderland make sure to stop by her booth and say hi. She’s even giving you guys a 20% discount code: MERRYMERRYHOHO (enter on check out).
“Shapes & Smiles” Preview Video!
It’s here! The preview video for Shapes & Smiles which opens 2 weeks from today at Subtext Gallery in San Diego! In the video you’ll see lots of sneak peeks of some of the pieces from the show, us making some art, and a few cans of coconut water. The video was shot and edited by our super-buds Matteo Gamlen & Cohen with music by the great Lord Huron.
Help us spread the work and share the video! Let us know you’re coming to the show on Facebook. You can also help us spread the word on Twitter using #ShapesAndSmiles
“Positive Apocalypse” 2012 Studio on Fire Letterpress Calendar
Not only is Studio on Fire the most well-known letterpress shop in the design world, but they do an awesome calendar each year that has become a collector’s item. This year we were invited to be a part of their 2012 “Positive Apocalypse” calendar amongst other great artists. Our two pieces are in the middle: Sun Hug & Zombie Snack. SOF is so good at what they do! Look at those photos! Look at that letterpress! Go get you one by clicking here.
Shapes & Smiles Preview #03: Shapesters!
With each show we typically do a recurring character that embodies a story or a message throughout the show. With Shapes & Smiles we wanted to take a different route and created a large cast of characters that we call the “Shapesters”. To us, they embody all of the positive emotions and good times that we’ve had in our lives which is perfect since each piece is a memory from our past. These little dudes run around inside of each piece and are hidden everywhere. Above are some close-ups of them as well as a few of the pieces from the show. More to come!
Shapes & Smiles Preview #02: Screen Prints
For Shapes & Smiles, we are doing a lot of prints both giclée (like in show’s past) and screen prints. We spent the last two days with Nick and Fran (aka Seizure Palace) cranking out 3 different screen-printed designs. We’ll have a few color variations on each design that’ll be rare, too. Above are a few sneak peeks for you to gaze at while we continue to piece together the show. We are really proud of what’s coming out of our brains for this new body of work and we’ll have much and more to share with you in the coming weeks before the opening.
There are 3 Shapes & Smiles art piece previews in this pic. @subtextgallery #Shapes&Smiles (Taken with instagram)
Introducing our Hello!Lucky Holiday Cards & A Chance to Win a $100 Gift Certificate! *Updated
*UPDATE: This drawing is over! Thanks to everyone who participated. Your support has been awesome. The winner will be contacted by Hello!Lucky directly.
Hello!Lucky are a specialty letterpress printer and design studio and have been creating wedding invitations, greeting cards and personalized stationery since 2003. Each year they do a holiday card collection and we were invited to be a part of it this year. A really cool thing about these cards is that you can personalize them by adding a photo or a special message. The super nice folks at Hello!Lucky want to give one of our lucky supporters $100 to spend online on their cards (that’s 50 customized flat holiday cards)! You can use the gift certificate to grab up some of ours (above) or any of the other cards in their collection.
Here’s how you can be entered to win:
1. Spread the word about Hello!Lucky’s new Holiday Card collection by:
• Liking this post on Tumblr
• OR by liking this post on Facebook here
• OR by retweeting this post on Twitter here
2. Then you’re entered in a drawing to win $100 to spend at HelloLucky.com
3. The final step is to be rad because you’ve finished steps 1 and 2.
We’ll give everyone until Friday to enter and we’ll then choose a winner at random to receive the prize (WINNER HAS ALREADY BEEN CHOSEN).
You can also view more detail of our designs in our portfolio.
Shapes & Smiles Previews #01: Sketches
It’s time to start showering you with previews from Shapes & Smiles opening at Subtext Gallery on December 16! Here you can see us sketching away at two different pieces. The work is largely about what makes us happy and we’re pulling from many different places for inspiration. Enjoy.
Announcing “Shapes & Smiles” Our New Art Show
We’re really excited to announce our next art show, “Shapes & Smiles” opening at Subtext Gallery in San Diego, CA on December 16, 2011. Here’s a description of the show:
Somewhere between the shared brains of collaborators Josh Kenyon and Colby Nichols is a land occupied by their beliefs, passions, thoughts, and memories. Returning for their second solo show at Subtext, these seasoned creators will guide us on a voyage through their past, present, and everything inbetween to find out what makes them happy. For “Shapes & Smiles”, Jolby has been exploring new ways of storytelling through drawings, paintings, wood-cut shapes, screen prints, plush, home goods, and more. Follow the artists on their blog for sneak peeks and previews: blog.jolbyandfriends.com
More updates to come so keep your eyes peeled right here! We’ll be in San Diego for the opening, too. Can’t wait to show you guys what we’ve been making.
Re: Design Camp
AIGA Minnesota invited us out to speak at Design Camp which is one of the largest regional design conferences and we’ve just returned from the long trip. All-in-all our time at the conference and in Minneapolis was incredible, but here’s a smattering of the bits that we really loved about our trip.
The Speakers: We were introduced to the amazing folks that we’d be speaking with once we landed. The first of them was Jamie Koval of VSA Partners. He’s such a great guy and was very humble and helpful. His presentation was great and gave us a better understanding of the inner workings of his awesome agency. Next was Peter Buchanan-Smith of Best Made fame. Another amazing dude; So nice and humble. Peter presented his story of Best Made along with a few promo videos that captured his products really well. Then there was Michael Osborne. Smart, funny, brash, and honest. His presentation gave everyone a very close look at the inside of a designer’s heart. Lastly, we met and listened to Jan Wilker of KarlssonWilker in NY who was a fascinating character. Hanging out with and speaking alongside all of that immense talent was so humbling and we couldn’t thank them enough for the opportunity.
The Woods: We stayed in a cabin by Gull Lake right next to the Grand View Lodge with over 300 attendees and many more who were volunteering. People were swarming everywhere and we got to meet a lot of really nice folks who made us feel all warm and fuzzy inside. There were workshops to attend, meals that everyone ate together, bon fires (both on the lake and secret ones), drinks, activities, and little-sleep.
The City: We enjoyed some great coffee and stopped by our new friends at Target inHouse (who did all of the amazing branding for this years Design Camp) and got to tour their offices. We had lunch with a few designers there and they were so damned nice. Then it was onto the Studio on Fire Wonderland of Printing™. They showered us with letterpress samples and showed us their many presses turning and churning out great work. They took really great care of us and we can’t thank them enough.
The People: Big thanks to Michael Osbourne for his heart, Jamie Koval for his wisdom, Peter Buchanan-Smith for his lessons on getting back to working with your hands, and Jan Wilker for his originality. Phil, Amanda, Sara, Kristen, and Ted from Target inHouse for their hospitality and tales. Dianne, Heidi, Seth, Brent and everyone at AIGA Minneapolis for being with us through the weekend. Finally to Studio on Fire: Selina, Ben, David, and Sam for showing us a great time and inspiring us to want to letterpress everything we design from now on.
Until next time, Minneapolis.
