Alexa Thoen Design and Illustration

Bunny and Face in Pacific Coast Style

2011-11-17T14:13:00.000-08:00

Fun with working in the Pacific Coast Indian style, native to mostly Canadian and Alaskan territories. There is a distinct set of ovoid, feather, and connectors that identify it. I have been teaching myself the ropes of the style but definitely took liberties with the rabbit; the color palette gets a little treacherous.

I am enjoying a period of time making work for myself and exploring Minneapolis. An opportunity to collaborate with a couple of very skilled designers has also come up, and I am looking forward to hearing from them soon.

Senior Project Progress: Splash Page

2011-02-15T01:15:00.001-08:00

Here is a splash page I illustrated for my senior project--redesigning classic novel, The Magus.
The subject matter has to deal with the Greek island and manor that the story takes place in. More progress to come soon.

Inuwashi Board

2011-02-14T02:35:00.000-08:00

Hypothetical skate deck design for Element based on the idea of creating an updated Japanese scroll with neon colors. Golden Eagles (Inuwashi) rendered in the traditional Japanese style are my favorite, mine turned out a bit more comic-y.

Urban Outfitters Kudu Tunic

2011-01-29T14:29:00.001-08:00

This is a hypothetical tunic/tshirt design for Urban Outfitters. I tried to capitalize off of the current infatuation with the occult (K▼L✝), tribal patterns, and power animals--trends with I think are all sparked by a similar interest. I am going to look in to producing this. I broke my promise to myself that I wouldn't use the pyramid cliche and regret nothing.

Also, I can't say I'm a James Blake fan, but this dubstep track is pretty much amazing

Redstamp Teen/Tween Girl's Birthday Invites

2011-01-25T15:21:00.000-08:00

These are some invites for teen and tween girls (mostly tween) that are going to be available on the new Redstamp website soon. I find it stimulating designing within highly specific guidelines regarding font and color, it is like solving a puzzle.

24 Pyramid

2010-12-01T12:28:00.001-08:00

Redesign of a Droid mathematical game. The object of the game is to use up all the numbers and symbols to get to 24. While this is supposedly a childrens game, I think a game like this caters to an older audience, which is why I prefer option two over one.

Woodblock Final : Metamorphosis

2010-11-29T11:33:00.000-08:00

Just finished the series. I've got to love that residue--and although translating vector drawings in to woodblocks in difficult I love the texture it achieves. Perhaps I will revisit this medium some time in the future, after my hands have had a chance to rest a bit.

SALE SALE SALE

2010-11-22T09:23:00.000-08:00

Sale Sale Sale
The MCAD Art Sale is over and I sold a lot, my woodblocks did particularly well which surprised me a bit. Still I've got some prints left over and I don't like multiples so I'm pretty much giving them away at a discounted price. Email me at hello@alexathoen.com if you would like to purchase something.

Organic Forms Woodblock $10

Untitled Woodblock $10

Wood Tones Woodblock $10

C Screenprint $20

Eco Bombs Screenprint $20

CC Screenprint $10

Inuit Screenprint $10

Blue Blood $40

Visual Drone $10

Bad Romantic $10

Bon Voyage $10

Sushigraphic

2010-11-19T10:17:00.001-08:00

An infographic dealing with the ratios of ingredients in sushi. Made it a while ago but haven't gotten around to posting it.

Organic Forms Woodblock

2010-10-15T10:51:00.000-07:00

Still working on conquering this medium. This is a redo of the last woodblock print I posted, a meeting of organic and human forms; I think that the layers and colors work slightly better in this version.

Also, Dunian. He cuts up what appears to be Cocteau Twins in this track and for that he is my hero.

Selective Memory

2010-10-09T13:51:00.000-07:00

My entry to the all school project this year, a show dealing with Memory. This piece in particular deals with the obscured nature of memory that is selective, almost as if it is a crumbled note in the brain.

Baths is rocking my world right now, this kind of music is the best working music

Wood Tones Wood Block

2010-10-07T12:46:00.001-07:00

Such an imprecise medium, still I love it. This project is a follow up to the last piece involving the integration of human circulatory and ecosystem.

No Age provides the soundtrack to my life right now.

Untitled Woodblock One

2010-09-01T19:39:00.000-07:00

I've been listening to Baroness as of late and am making some metal-inspired art. Loosely based around the concept of a human burning bush.

MCAD Welcome Screens

2010-08-26T17:18:00.001-07:00

Sequential slides for announcements before MCAD lectures.

All School Project Poster: Memory

2010-08-26T17:09:00.000-07:00

*Pictures of posters in environment soon to come

Final Screen Print One

2010-05-03T13:35:00.000-07:00

Gigantic scale, four color, copies available for sale if anyone is interested.

Listening to The National's "Lemon World".

Neurosis: Hysteria

2010-04-18T17:23:00.000-07:00

As a joint final project in illustration seminar and screen printing, I am creating a series of abstract representational screen prints based on neuroses--hysteria, obsessive compulsion, and pyromania (which oddly enough, it its own category). I want to explore the combination of organic and geometric elements in order to portray a psychological state. The palette is going to change and there might be another layer of base color for the screen print.

Edit: with final color scheme

Crystal Castles CMYK Screenprint

2010-04-02T16:40:00.000-07:00

Experimenting with the screen printing process that mimics what a printer does. Can't say that I'm a fan, but it was an interesting learning experience nonetheless. It is just that the photo ends up dull and pixelated and I think that it would be a challenge to work that in to the process of layering flats that I am fond of, but who knows.

I love Crystal Castles so it was great to have a chance to make something promoting them.

C

2010-03-31T10:51:00.001-07:00

Finally finished this, been working on it since winter break. The character is the visual representation of the Copyright, which I decided to make after reading numerous William Gibson novels, in with artificial intelligences and other non-form based objects are treated as characters. 90% of this illustration is also made out of Helvetica letterforms--I like the idea of taking something almost completely characterless and making it into a character.

You Are My Favorite Commodity

2010-03-21T21:56:00.000-07:00

According to the humble observations of this artist our use and discard mentality as a society extends to more than just the consumption of goods. Second part of the previous post, same blue palette, size, but different feel completely. Wish I could say more but it is meant to be a pretty quick read.

Muse is the choice music for working in this style, perfectly dramatic. Despite their widespread popularity Muse has retained a lot of their integrity, and they make superb music on almost every album they come out with. Matthew Bellamy's voice is operatic.

Blue Blood

2010-03-16T14:25:00.000-07:00

I broke my resolution to be more economical with my line work. The modern aristocracy has all of the coke and this illustration is basically exploring that idea. I tried my hardest to get this done in time for merits, alas, it didn't pan out. I'm going to probably make a large color kip print of this anyway, as it was illustrated to be printed huge.

Green Bombs Screenprint

2010-03-10T23:09:00.000-08:00

Here is the final screenprint on the subject of green bombs--bombs that reduce carbon emissions. I decided on the shape to represent more of an explosion and ditch the small text. Overall I'm happy with the message it conveys, as it remains observant and neutral rather than too confrontational. Can no longer feel my feet, I did this eight layer screenprint in two days. Had to expedite my process because of an upcoming interview and merit scholarships. Overall a great success in comparision to my first couple of screenprints.

Also Fischerspooner covering Wire <3

Screenprints

2010-02-28T01:58:00.001-08:00

This is what has been occupying my time lately, I fear that I have fallen in love with screenprinting. These are a couple of preliminary trials. The bird is an inuit pattern that I carved out by hand and the circle is an illustration following up the last dealing with the acquired desire of cute animals. Much more to come. I am looking to sell a couple of these prints so if you are interested message me @ hello@alexathoen.info :).

Pack

2010-02-24T03:56:00.001-08:00

It feels good to finally draw something by hand, at least it did until I finished inking it, long periods of digital illustrating lead to thumb atrophy. Subject is on the pack mentality, a desire to conform that I believe is an innate desire or compulsion depending on your particular set of beliefs. My friend Courtney was leaving her job one day to find herself amongst a throng of nearly identical teenagers in blue plaid shirts and long black hair, who proceeded eye her with disdain. Courtney has been wearing plaid since grunge.

If I don't go dancing this weekend I am going to bust some kneecaps. Kneecaps will be busted. If I get to dance to this dance porn then I might even be able to stave off busting kneecaps for another couple of weeks.

Visual Drone

2010-02-08T22:18:00.000-08:00

This is a follow up piece to the last post. I used this opportunity to explore the ways darks can be used as the lights functioned in the previous piece. The piece started out as a portrait of the electroclash band Ladytron and ended up as a piece representing electronically influenced music in general. Again, mostly an experiment in color and effects, cyan and yellow to complement the magenta of Lady Gaga. Strangely, this is one of the most intensive illustrator projects that I have worked on, the line count is huge. I will gladly cross the finish line of this waterfall project.

Also, I have come upon a wealth of new music at ISO50 (designer/musician Scott Hansen/Tycho's blog) This is just one of the many finds, I like the direction this kind of pop music is going.

Bad Romantic

2010-01-23T16:29:00.001-08:00

If you do not know who this is, you need to crawl out of the culture-proof refuge you are hiding in. When asked to do a waterfall-themed illustration, I thought of "making rain" (throwing money), then auras of affluence, and finally arrived at this image of Lady Gaga. I enjoy Lady Gaga because she is in to trash culture and fashion, which I think arrives closer to the essence of pop music than the bubblegum image that was popular when I was going to high school. Lady Gaga's voice is slightly less than mediocre, her lyrics are terrible, but her presence is gargantuan and her songs are catchy--so I guess that would make me a Gaga supporter, whoo Bad Romance.

On a completely separate note I think that this is the most beautiful thing I have heard since I first listened to Slowdive's When The Sun Hits. I blame all the Gregg Araki movies I was watching over break, every soundtrack is shoegaze and industrial-infused gold. This band out of Lima made the best shoegaze album of the year two years ago, and I can tell why.

Fatality

2010-01-05T13:43:00.001-08:00

I know that we have all puzzled over this question at least one time during our lives. What happens when a bear luchador cyborg meets a wolve luchador cyborg? A fatality, a fatality happens. Happy birthday Emily, it is only a few months late.

The Only Certainity, Now Calculatable

2010-01-01T17:59:00.000-08:00

Piece illustrating the Reliability Theory of Aging and Longetivity. After much research I concluded that the most important part of the coagulation of psychiatric and sociological terminology was the idea that the theory could be used to apply mathematical models to the human process of aging. Insurance agencies like this. Excited that it will be appearing in Nomenclature Issue 1, curated/edited by Chris Santoso . More pages to come in perhaps a little bit. I, um, wrote a poem for it but I'm editing that done quite a bit, it might not make it.

Also, Science! has gotten in to the Society of Illustrators Los Angeles exhibition 48. It will be exhibited beginning Spring 2010. Much love to the West Coast and more on that soon to come.

Persian Snow

2009-12-28T14:39:00.001-08:00

A project from last semester I haven't gotten around to posting until now, persian letterforms assembled to look like falling snow.

Bon Voyage

2009-12-24T19:13:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas Eve All! My entire family decided to go to church this evening so my nonbelieving butt is finishing up some illustrator projects, I await their return to watch Gattaca . In the meantime here is a piece I did to illustrate my perceptions of travel. I am also excited that it will be appearing in We Saw That Issue #3 (The Travel Issue).

Also, this band emerging out of Minneapolis deserves some love

What if I Add Antlers to It?

2009-12-07T10:15:00.000-08:00

That apparently is the difference between a go and a fail when I presented the idea of making a Target-infused Dala Horse on a gift card. Apparently any kind of cultural reference is too narrowing and they wouldn't go for the idea before I said I would make the Dala horse in to a reindeer. So if it bears resemblance to anything familiar...yes. The second set is just some interesting ornamentation, I am leaning towards to white on red.

Also, rap can be about consumer culture

Putting Hair in Your Hair and Other Hair Spectacularities

2009-12-03T01:09:00.001-08:00

More croquill and ink illustrations for the book of period hairstyles that Lindsey and I are making. These posters will be pullouts exhibiting hair utensils and wigs. Surprisingly, the most difficult thing was trying to fit the objects together in to formations. I tried to vaguely reference Cabinet of Curiosities but I don't know if it came across.

Also, Immolate Yourself is quickly becoming my favorite Telefon Tel Aviv album despite my initial reservations. It started sounding too eighties to me for what I was used to hearing from Telefon, not enough cuts, not enough glitch. However, there are a few key songs that are absolutely epic and impossible to stay away from, this being one

Explaining Pop Surrealism and Lowbrow Art

2009-11-29T20:27:00.001-08:00

I am not a fan of Powerpoints, so I spent too much time designing this for my liberal arts class, The Grotesque. Might make a good zine.

Polychromatic Tiger; A Tribute to Lisa Frank

2009-11-22T17:16:00.000-08:00

I went through so many different design ideas with this I'm just a little flustered, I really tried to incorporate more type but it wasn't right for the Lisa Frank tribute part.

Binary Opposition

2009-11-03T23:16:00.000-08:00

Revised binary print to be produced web press, gray will be metallic silver. The idea was to create an opposition in the cmyk layer, subvert it, and then embellish. I made my own bit map.

Kafka's Metamorphosis

2009-10-30T01:01:00.000-07:00

Final illustration for Kafka's The Metamorphosis. The concept is to provide insight in to Gregor's fleeting humanity as he becomes accustomed to being a gigantic cockroach. His only lonely love is a glossy female magazine cutout that he has framed, she is wearing a gigantic fur coat. In this illustration her coat is made out of hairy cockroaches.

About three shapes replicated mostly for the figure, and Modern No. 20 exclamation points and question marks make up the background. I am loving working in black and white lately, the possibility of making gigantic kip prints of this for junior review is seeming like a good idea at this point.

Finally, Jill Tracy, definitely the soundtrack for this piece:

Why?'s By Torpedo or Crohn's; A Typographic Rendering

2009-10-23T15:57:00.000-07:00

This is a typographic rendering of a text of personal importance to me. Whether it is his creative use of metaphors or his frank, bittersweet delivery, Yoni Wolf speaks to my soul. I tried to capture the complexity of the rhythms with the woven typography in the background and pay homage to the lyrics with an imperfect but expressive rendering of the type.

I hope that it did the song justice; small thing that I could do for all the joy Why? has given me.

Binary Canary

2009-10-21T17:44:00.000-07:00

Also known as the uncann-ar-y. Concept was to create a piece of artwork that would stand up to each CMYK ink being removed in turn. Also, the piece has to subvert itself once the black layer is added, making it an un-canary instead. The 25 percent gray will be a PMS Silver Metallic in print.

*edit* the plaid-like overlay is creating weird optical illusions and making it dirty for some reason

Little Giant Cover Design

2009-10-13T21:50:00.000-07:00

Last time you'll see this damn rabbit illustration, I swear! This is the cover of the textbook I am redesigning, The Little Giant Encyclopedia of Superstitions. I intend to post full spreads when I have the time to make a serious update, in the meantime this gives the overall feel of the book. I am going for an updated 'storybook' feel, thus the illustrated manuscript-esque illustrations paired with the modern functionality of DIN. This is for a comp, so the color scheme might change in the final.

Woven Type

2009-10-10T19:40:00.000-07:00

These are bits of process work for a booklet that I am creating. The finished piece will be a typographic rendering of the Why? song "By Torpedo or Crohn's."

Updates to come soon as I am currently designing two books

Manson

2009-10-03T10:10:00.000-07:00

Illustration of Charles Manson and his concubines, digital. The idea of this assignment was to create an illustration that would also look like it was from the time period that the murder crime occurred in. I took a stab at the seventies, but didn't really want to portray psychedelia because of the dark nature of the crimes and the fact thta Manson really wasn't into the drugs as much as he was in to the psychological manipulation.

20 Jahre Mauerfall

2009-09-27T17:33:00.000-07:00

Commemorating twenty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall. The fonts are CST Berlin East and West by Verena Gerlach a type designer from Berlin who created the fonts based on the type found in those respective areas. I am still unhappy with the colors, an update may come soon.

Science!

2009-09-19T17:21:00.000-07:00

A series of modular figures depicting the broad subject of science. I have been experimenting with a method of coloring in illustrator while using traditional line wo-k, all of the elements are actually vector. The lettering is the only part I am still unhappy with, they are drawn as detailed robots and they just get lost at that size.

Space/Time; A Drama in Ten Dimensions

2009-09-10T22:01:00.000-07:00

Yes, the name is a play on the title of Flatland, which I found pretty appropriate for this particular publication project. For this paper I curated a number of articles from Wikipedia that would help explain the first ten dimensions, one per page. The diagrams and photos on each page also involve elements from the environments of the particular dimension. Since I am sure you are burning with curiosity, here they are:
1-3: a line, a line intersected (plane), a plane intersected (cube) {x,y,z-most familiar}
4: your life spread out as a tesseract, a onion-skin of sorts in which you can see every stage of your life at once, also known as time
5: another possible lifeline intersects yours, you can see that alternate reality
6: you can travel through this dimension (fold) to spontaneously reach that alternate reality {I was an graphic designer, and then all of a sudden I was an accomplished physcian}
7: The birth and death of our universe is spread out as an onion skin, in which we can see every stage
8: Another possible universe intersects ours, we can see that universe
9: We can fold to travel to that alternate universe {I spontaneously travel to the universe in which humans are all inside out}
10: All possible lifelines and universes exist as a single point, infinity, beautiful

The final piece was printed on graph paper and bound with silver mylar. Fan-plastic.

Point of Purchase Display

2009-05-27T19:55:00.000-07:00

I am designing gigantic cardboard balloons as an idea to pitch to a group of creatives on Thursday, they are supposed to function as part of a point of purchase display for a major U.S. distributor. I would be thrilled if they were accepted, as I would love to see these gigantic cardboard things pop up in grocery stores across the nation. The idea is that the product sits in the rack, which can be of varying sizes/standalone/suspended depending on what is called for. The top can be switched out with various decals.

St. Paul Winter Carnival Ambassador Spots-Summer and Spring

2009-05-21T10:01:00.001-07:00

lots of projects in the making, updates soon to come

Organic Fashionistas

2009-04-30T20:10:00.000-07:00

A re-visitation of a previous piece, Organic Fashion-Nation to round out the portfolio. The subject matter is organic and eco-friendly clothing. I have again fallen in love with the angular style and might ditch curvilinear swoops for a while. Sorry updates have been so long in the coming, it is finals week at MCAD and I am sorting out details with two internships I'll be doing this summer along with setting up another. Things have been busy, but art is happening. I have three illustrations in flat-color form right now that should be done at the latest next Tuesday.

Manolo Blahnik Redesign

2009-04-09T23:36:00.000-07:00

My design for the bag and box cover of a stiletto called the Burga. As of late I have been craving new ways to work so I enjoyed experimenting with assembly the illustrations traditionally with origami paper and scanning them in to Photoshop.

Mired

2009-03-08T19:28:00.000-07:00

Just trying some new stuff out. Digital paint and texture really isn't my style, but the ink for this particular illustration ended up not working out so I decided to bring it in to the computer. The object was to illustrate a phrase, I tried a more classic approach and am still fond of the idea. Just different media next time.

Melonverse

2009-03-08T15:39:00.000-07:00

Here it is, another infographic system. I am not one hundred percent happy with the layout and would have liked more to do info-wise, the graphic part got a little out of hand. Otherwise, I like the spin on the traditional food illustration. The text is my back-story on this strange corner of the universe.

Tea is my Business and Business is Good

2009-02-27T01:40:00.000-08:00

This evening I transcribed my tea-making process in to a pseudo-science.

Hot Spot Colored

2009-02-24T18:31:00.000-08:00

Here is the final for the City Page illustration, colored in Prismacolor marker. I am fairly happy with how it turned out but would have liked to push the sheet smoke in to a fuller range of greys. Time dictates that I move on right now though, I am beginning an illustrated type project that I am very excited about.
*updating with illustration in layout

Fritterman

2009-02-19T19:58:00.000-08:00

This illustration is for the editorial "The Binge From Hell and Back," a delightful tale from Oprah about a person who buys a ton of apple fritters and binges. My concept was to make the person look like an apple fritter and it looks like I succeeded in creating a character that looks a little like the bee girl from that Blind Melon music video. I don't have a full grasp on acrylic yet, and I am not sure that I prefer it much over gouache as I can not mix colors spontaneously or create lines as easily.

*updated with illustration in layout

Storms of Acquittal

2009-02-07T12:37:00.001-08:00

Illustration of the metaphor "Storms of Controversy."
The concept is that the murderer was just acquitted and the widows of the husbands he killed for a storm cloud.
gouache and ink

The Don of the Lost City

2009-01-30T21:44:00.000-08:00

Just finished this brush pen and ink illustration for Concepts and Metaphors, the theme had to have something to do with the words lost and city. The city has lost because it belongs to him, the Don of the Minneapolis skyline. I am a huge fan of brush pen and india ink now, there is no substitute for the blacks you can get. At this very moment I am planning to do my Prof. Practice illustration in pen and ink. Also, got an internship this week, interviewed at ICP, Going to wait to get back to them after I contact Baker, at which an internship looks promising right now. I am sleep deprived already, sleep now.

Around The Circle

2008-12-02T18:18:00.000-08:00

Hey guys, Alexa here, and this will be using this space as an official blog to post inspirations/current work/findings.

As for me, I am currently a student at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design with an equal interest/focus in Illustration and Graphic Design. I've worked freelance illustrating for a children's psychology book, designed backgrounds for an animated short, and interned in the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum's PR department, with another internship on the horizon at Baker Associates. I enjoy doing a bit of everything. My primary medium started out traditional with Prismacolor markers and expanded to include Gouache and large amounts of Illustrator CS3 in school.

I've got interests in the tech, cultural, and natural world. When not exploring the limits of the Adobe Suit I enjoy running, hiking, and biking long distance. Movies at the Uptown are a do and I'm heavily in to the music scene. Different forms of electronic generally interest me the most but truthfully my musical tastes change almost daily. Favorite genres include: Shoegaze, N.Y. Rock, Dream Pop, some Folk
and electronic genres: IDM, Minimal, Electro, Electronic/Hip-Hop Hybrids, anything that is expertly cut.

As for illustrative/design findings I will post here there will not be a singular style. I prefer bits and pieces from a lot of different styles. Historically a lot of my favorite work has been Cali-style popart, graffiti-inspired art, designer vinyl ala Robot Love, new weird folk stuff; colorful, highly graphic styles that splice design and illustration. I also appreciate renaissance-style painting--especially when paired with distinct modern stylization of the figure/grotesque elements. And for that matter anything futuristic/modernistic/grotesque (think Matthew Barney's Ram Bagpipe from Cremaster III). Warm, organic, streamlined design like a lot of what comes from Scandinavia inspires me. Print makers like those of Aesthetic Apparatus and Faesthetic inspire me, the list is pretty long.

Check www.alexathoen.com. for more work

x Alexa