Eric Shalley

An unlikely duet.
Ballpoint pen on paper.

Our family is expanding, which meant the chance to create a new room for my 3-year old son. I really wanted to paint a special mural that would commemorate his favorite things to do in our town. So with this crazy idea, some paper, and a pen, I got to work. I interviewed my son and together we came up with a list of possible locations.

Sketching out the buildings and transferring them to the wall was by far and away the easiest part for me. When I began to paint I quickly realized how steady my hand would have to be to create the level of detail that I was going for. Frustrated, I tried painter’s tape and was thrilled at the crisp lines it produced. As you can see from the image above, I went through a ton of tape. I’m fairly certain that I could give a master’s class on creative use and application of painter’s tape after this project.

So, after a coat of primer, 2 coats of blue and green sky/landscape paint, 7 transparencies (to transfer the sketches to the wall), 3 jumbo rolls of tape, 19 different tubes of acrylic paint, 100+ hours and too many Diet Dews to count, here is the finished product.

View of the left side wall.

Detail of  the art museum, clock tower, Sample Gates, and Assembly Hall at my alma mater, Indiana University.

The courthouse on the square in Bloomington.

My son is a big fan of construction equipment, so he requested a huge crane.

The firehouse that we pass each day on our way to preschool and the Kirkwood Observatory since he is interested in space shuttles and the moon.

His first request was Target, which is his favorite store in the entire world. (Sounds odd for a 3-year old, but it’s true.) And Curious George flying a kite to the left.

WonderLab, a local science center for kids and some playground equipment from his favorite park.

I knew this would be a rewarding project to take on, but when he gave me a huge hug and said it was beautiful, it made it all that much more worthwhile.

Cover creation from Peter Belanger on Vimeo.

I love the sense this time lapse gives someone who is unfamiliar with marketing and design on just how much effort goes into some of the artwork we encounter on a daily basis. Seeing a video like this makes me question my sanity, as I do stuff like this on a daily basis. I guess it is the love of the process and seeing something complex through to completion that keeps me at it.

Let me start with this: Being a tech nerd at heart, I was well aware of this “gotta have it” product Apple was developing, but I wasn’t interested. I thought for sure that I would have no use for a giant iPod touch, no matter what whiz-bang features it had on it.

I kept this opinion for about 30 seconds into the intro video for the product. I have long admired Jonathan Ive’s design work at Apple and his interpertations of Dieter Rams design work at Brauun. (I’m pretty convinced that I’d be interested in buying any product from their design portfolio.) They just look so darn good.

Will I get one? Definately not at first. The $500+ tag is a bit pricey for something that my MackBook Pro can do minus the touch screen. But I expect that come my birthday or Christmas I’ll be giving these a second look. I think the 3G+WiFi would be the only way to go. Internet wherever, whenever is pretty tempting. I’m very curious to see how the world embraces this new product.

Here is a cube pattern I came up with a while back. Created with a ruler, pencil, and my trusty Design 2 markers. Actual size: 32″x24″

I recently launched a site refresh for an area hospital’s Heart Center. It is a hybrid microsite of sorts that brings together several new and innovative services all in one place. The refreshed site features new patient testimonials, a more streamlined layout, and a softer red color palette. My favorite part is that it is W3C compliant. A big thanks to our developer for taking the extra step to validate the site.

You can visit the site at heartattackcare.net

Having a bit of fun with type and came up with this little pink piggy. Constructed from different sizes and weights of Bembo.

Inspired by Bembo’s Zoo.

Another blast from my portfolio past. A sculpture of my rocket ship lava lamp. It is slightly larger than life size and constructed from thin wire and solder. The real thing sits on my desk at work.

I recently had the opportunity to develop an icon set for use in both print and television. The icons needed to be built in a vector format, but the desired look was to feel watercolored. I expiremented with several techniques and ended up making my own vector watercolor brushes from scanned watercolor strokes. The icons are traced from my original ballpoint pen sketches. I am pleased with the results and wanted to share them.

My wife’s uncle (Unk as they call him) makes some of the most amazing sauces, dressings, and egg noodles you will ever taste. He gives them out at family get togethers in plain canning jars with the contents labeled in marker on the lid. Not a bad system, but I wanted to suprise him with a label and logo of his own. It will be fun to see his face when we sneak these onto his creations.