Once again Marist School contacted Jayro to create an illustration for the Last Word feature in their quarterly Marist Matters alumni magazine. This quarter’s article is about a clerical error and typo that lead to the discovery that the publication was actually founded a year later than previously thought. As a result, the magazine magically gained an extra year in advance of celebrating their 40th anniversary. Jayro sought to create an illustration that took a light-hearted approach to match the tone of the article.

Thanks again to Novelette Brown for the opportunity!

Jayro was recently invited to become a member of the Planet Pulp Rogues – an esteemed collection of illustrators gathered together to create works of pulp, and pop culture. As part of the indoctrination, Rogues participate in monthly shows based on specific themes. February’s show theme was Hanna-Barbera, and Jayro chose Secret Squirrel out of respect for both the character design, and the righteous theme song. Jayro is thrilled to be a part of the Planet Pulp community. Many thanks to Jayson and Adam for the invitation!

February 19th marked the release of the most recent episodic DVD for Cartoon Network’s Adventure Time. Jayro had the pleasure of working with Cartoon Network on the cover and back cover illustration, packaging design and DVD Menu design. A simplified character art style was implemented to match existing Adventure Time volumes at retail. Check your local retailer to purchase one, or you can order one here.

Here are some select images from the project.

It’s been busy here at Jayro and Twitter Doodles have fallen by the wayside lately.  These have been great creative warmups and a good excuse to draw, so the goal is to reinstate a more weekly frequency. For those that are new, Jay periodically takes doodle requests via Twitter, draws them, then tweets the result back.

Here is a gathering of the last several since the last blog post. Stay tuned for more doodle opportunities via @jayrodesign on Twitter!

For @timlampe: “Bear instagramming his French Toast”

For @hero: Jayro going out on a high note to end the week

For @conordesign: A magnet who is also a detective. With a moustache. Called “Magnet, P.I.”

For @adamgrason: “Surprise me!” (This is a doodle of Adam)

Jayro recently worked on a series of illustrations for a mobile-focused app blog for the client Fun Mobility. Their character, Dr. Tapalot is featured on the site as the editorial voice of the blog. She was adapted from an existing character design and reworked by Jayro to fit different personalities in addition to blog-specific needs and scenarios. Styled typography, custom props and backgrounds were created to assist in the visual storytelling. [Click images for larger versions]

Another year, another resolution. Thanks again to Chris Streger for the opportunity to participate in the To Resolve Project, a site to help you achieve your New Year’s resolutions by having a constant reminder on your phone lock screen or wallpaper. You can download it from below or over here on the To Resolve Project site. Enjoy and Happy New Year!

If you’re in the Minneapolis area tonight, there’s an opening reception for a group Tarot Card art show I was part of at Light Grey Art Lab. A cadre of 78 artists was brought together to create a piece for each card of the Rider-Waite deck. There is some unbelievable knockout work in the show, so do yourself a favor and see it in person if you can. They are holding live tarot readings with the decks among other things to celebrate the opening. More information can be found here: OPENING RECEPTION.

If you can’t make it to the show or aren’t in the area, you can view all the pieces, and order individual prints at Light Grey Art Lab’s online SHOP.

My piece is HERE. 

Enjoy, stargazers!

Today marks the 30th anniversary of EPCOT at Walt Disney World. To commemorate the event, Jayro created a series of posters celebrating the robots of the early years of the park.

The first poster in the series begins with SMRT-1, the greeter and trivia host at Computer Central in the original Communicore area of Future World. SMRT-1 is widely known as the mascot of Communicore, which showcased the latest in technological advancements in telecommunications, computers and robotics.

The second poster showcases GYRO, who was voice/remote-controlled from backstage and roamed around Future World interacting live with guests. GYRO was frequently seen wearing an EPCOT baseball cap which could rise and retract on command. See 1:33 of this clip for more.

EPCOT was a big personal inspiration, and helped us all shape our great big beautiful tomorrow. Here’s to another 30 years of inspiration!

#epcot30

Marist Matters, the alumni magazine of Marist School, recently underwent a complete redesign. In order to add more hand-done elements to the new visual language of the publication, the Communications department felt strongly about incorporating custom illustration.

Jayro was given the opportunity to illustrate the The Last Word, the final article of the publication which was written by 3 current students. The piece discusses the current pressures, challenges and distractions facing today’s students, and how important it is to keep the longer view in mind amidst the hectic schedules and seemingly important small details of the day-to-day.

Working from photographs, Jayro incorporated the trio’s images into the illustration. The limited palette was chosen from one of the signature school colors, and as a complement to the black-and-white photography that appears in the opening welcome of the publication.

Thanks to Bob Fisher and Novelette Brown for the opportunity to be a part of the new publication. The new redesigned issue of Marist Matters magazine debuts in September 2012.