aerial ardour

‘Back to the Future’ Poster & Cupcakes

The BEST GIFT EVER for a ‘Back to the Future’ and cupcake fan: a custom illustrated poster featuring Marty, Doc, and Einstein as cupcakes.

But wait…

…ALSO having those cupcakes exist in real life. Ahhhhhhh!!!!!!!! (Report: They. Are. Orgasmically delicious!)

I could not contain my giggling and jumping.

My deepest thanks to talented illustrator and dearest friend Justin Castaneda and his wonderful girlfriend Nicole for blowing my mind, making me cry, and making my heart and tummy happy. :D

TV Blog “What’s a Rerun?” is LIVE!

My blog with talented writer and Second City editor (oh, and brother) C.J. Arellano is up! “What’s a Rerun?” dusts classic TV episodes off the shelf at random and aims to examine, through art and analysis, why we continue to watch and re-watch. Do these stories still have value in a relentlessly modern world of visual ephemera, or are some better left in the vault?  And just who was the better Darrin? (Just kidding, it was Dick York, duh.)

This is a labor of love, and we hope to share our passion for classic TV with you. The creativity of classic TV has positively influenced our lives so much, and this is our way of saying, “Thanks for inspiring our livelihood, TV!”

To launch the site, we started with a show that set the bar for comedy on TV: “I Love Lucy.”

Stop by the site, check out my artwork, read C.J.’s whip-smart and insightful reviews, and feel free to leave comments. We’d love to hear your thoughts on the episodes we discuss. Thanks and enjoy!

Cooking With Skrillex: Aerial Ardour Submission

For the past few months, I’ve been pumping my work sessions with the super awesome sick beats of Grammy-nominated dubstep artist, Skrillex. You can imagine my absolute delight when the new meme, “Cooking with Skrillex” made its way onto the Internet’s consciousness.

As stated by the Huffington Post’s weekly list of 7 Sites You Should Be Wasting Time On Right Now, “some brilliant Internet minds have recently come to the realization that when he’s standing at the turntables, he looks an awful lot like he’s cooking. Thus Cooking with Skrillex was born, and this world was never the same.”

I was thrilled to see unity between two of my loves, Skrillex and Photoshop. I was also excited to be able to mix it up and use Photoshop outside of client work.

My thanks to Cooking with Skrillex for posting my submission. :D I hope you enjoy!

Now I wonder if I’ve conditioned myself to crave sushi whenever I hear Skrillex now… ;P

TV Rerun Blog? TUNE IN: January 23

The project I’ve been über excited about will finally launch this coming Monday, January 23. My brother and I are writing and drawing, respectively, about classic TV reruns. Why do we keep watching? What do they mean to us now? Find out on Monday.

New Year. New Logo.

I’ve decided 2012 is not just going to be riddled with jokes about the apocalypse. It is also going to be all about brand confidence.

Namely, my own.

After a recent experience of needing to take a long, hard look at my current branding, it was finally time to give my logo a much-needed facelift.

Here it is!

I think this more accurately reflects my personality and my capabilities.

It’s confident, playful, and it shows some skill, mang!

Here was my old logo:

And here was the even older logo:

(Hahahahaha, do you like the creepy-cute character? The eyes are made of lowercase As. GET IT? Hahaaaaohhh boy. ;P)

As you can see in the new logo, I kept the stars and heart, as the imagery helps go hand-in-hand with the name, and I made the colors more dynamic. I also made the type in all-caps to push the confident tone.

I started out in Illustrator to tweak the type and make little adjustments in order to get the slight arch. It was painstaking, but it was well worth the effort. Then I used the 3D tool to add depth. Afterwards, I brought it into Photoshop to bring it to life with color gradients and light effects.

I think it’s a good sign when you actually love your logo and are proud to show it instead of handing out a business card and grumbling an apology about how you plan to update it soon… ;P

What do you think? Is it time for me to print up some shiny new cards with my new logo or what? :D