Growing up skating, there were always certain videos we would watch before a sesh. Videos that would get us all hyped up, amped, and ready to hurl our carcasses onto a handrail down a flight of stairs without a second thought. This video is right on par with that… but for drifting. It incites that same urge to do something ridiculously dangerous with little regard for consequence, and I CANNOT get enough of it!

* I did not edit this piece, only helped with some mograph muscle. Huge thanks to Andy Laputka (director/editor), Brian Casse, Mark Lenardon, and Chris Szczypala, Chris Boon, Hertrech Eugene, and Mike Vogt for their efforts shooting.

It’s about time, right? I nearly killed myself making this documentary… so it sure feels great to see this up there. I also found out recently that the retail release that nobody ever saw is up on Netflix as well. It would be interesting to know who got paid for that. Regardless, it is awesome that such a large audience has access to it like that.

Be sure to visit the Slide America IMDb page and give it a vote/review!

Back in November at Artistic Image, I was tasked with creating an animated book trailer for Thinking Small by Andrea Hiott about the history of the Volkswagen Beetle. Armed with photos from the book and a script… I tried to come up with a look that was remnant of the classic VW ad campaigns by DDB, while trying to take the viewer on a journey through some the history behind the car. I enjoyed utilizing some typographic muscle to try and pull all the moments together with a cohesive look by using various weights of the Volkswagen typeface.

This project was right up my alley in so many ways… and was a lot of fun to work on! I learned so much about Volkswagen’s history in the process, and can’t wait to read the book!

Back in September, I was part of the team at Artistic Image that got to work on the player introduction for the Falcons Jumbotron. This piece plays at each game before the players leave the locker room and run onto the field. The player footage at the beginning is mocked in for placement where they shoot a live feed from the locker room/tunnel area.

Ed Dye directed the piece, while Daniel Wiggins and Daniel Barnes handled the 3d animation. Lee Kordel and Jeff Ling did the texturing, shading, and lighting. Owen Chikazawa animated the mid-section with the rotoscoped player footage, while I was responsible for compositing/effects. I learned a TON putting these elements together and helping bring this piece to life. This was an awesome piece to work on, and it is definitely exciting to know that a stadium full of people see this every game!

The rivers will run red with the BLOOD of the non-believers. East coast drifting will never be the same after this video hits.
Trust me.

*I didn’t edit this video. I only slung the plasma around for the titles.

These guys know how to party.

Apparently this film is from 2009… but was perhaps never released? I can’t find it anywhere, but I spy a certain pack of wolfs…

My “Year of the Beard” ended in a massive battle. You know, the kind that involves switchblades, rope, and Eddie Van Halen guitar solos. This photo was snapped one year to the day.

Farewell, friend… until we meet again…

Thanks to those that passed the post along through various social media outlets… especially Facebook (for which I do not have an account).

As a creative, I have been ripped off more times than I can count. I’m sure it happens to all creatives at some point. Sometimes the would-be thieves appropriate it in one way or another… altering it from what was originally created. Sometimes they take a slogan and create their own design around it, or just half-ass a rotten knockoff altogether. It happens all the time.

You can imagine my surprise, when a kind fan from Poland e-mailed me inquiring about the usage validity of the Keep Drifting Fun logotype on t-shirts by the Polish Federation of Drift. Imitation is supposed to be the most sincere form of flattery. In this case, it is outright theft.

This is the original logotype I designed in 2009.

The “OR ELSE” was later dropped, so that Will Roegge and Joshua Herron could use it (with full rights/usage permission) for their grassroots documentary, aptly titled… you guessed it… KEEP DRIFTING FUN. Here, you can see Lieze in front of the KDF van with the guys (May 2010), sporting the first run of orange KDF tees. Look familiar?

Meanwhile, in Poland…

Out of all the times I have been ripped off as an artist… this instance infuriates me the most. It violates the entire ethos surrounding what the logo means, and I cannot for the life of me understand the lack of moral code involved to think that it is perfectly fine to plagiarize like this. They even went so far as to conveniently drop my Slide Style™ logo from the sleeve in lieu of their PFD logo.

In addition to printing the logo on shirts, they also chose the same shirt colors, and made printed collateral/pop-up displays to show off ‘their’ line? The internet has made the world infinitely smaller than it already is… and has made the drift community even smaller at that. I cannot fathom how someone would do this and think it would not make it’s way back to me. Had I been contacted me in advance, I would have been happy to work together to make something happen. Especially since the message is so important to me.

This is not what KEEP DRIFTING FUN is about.