I’ve often felt product lust over those shiny Moleskine notebooks on the shelf in Borders, and this is why: guys like Jeff Finley use ‘em - they must be good.
As I was flipping through the Moleskine that sits on Jeff’s desk here at Go Media, I thought you might like a peek at it too! Read on for scans of the first few pages of the notebook, and Jeff’s comments on his sketches.
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Hey it’s Jeff here, first thing I want to say is that the sticker on the front is from one of my favorite artists Aaron Horkey of Burlesque. I absolutely love his work. You could probably tell my work is influenced by him ever so slightly.
The first photo below was some lettering and typography studies. I had ideas for the Fest 7 shirt design I had planned on doing and started sketching around. That’s what I ended up with:
I sent the sketch to Tony at No Idea Records (the guy who puts on the Fest) to see if he would approve it and allow me to keep going. But he shot it down with one sentence: “Not feeling it, sorry.” Hah, so yeah, I was bummed but I didn’t really think it matched their style anyway. It was just a typography study that I happened to develop in the name of The Fest.
Note: I have since designed another tee for The Fest and I’m still waiting on Tony’s approval. I’ll keep you posted on that.
This following sketches were for Paint the Stars - a clothing company from the UK. I eventually took these sketches and finished some “candy lettering” in crisp vector form.
The next two images are sketches for the band the Human Abstract. They had asked me to develop some cool type driven shirt designs.
Those are just a few pages in my sketchbook. Maybe I’ll post more in the future for you to see if you’re interested.
June 19th, 2008 at 4:13 pm
It’s always cool to see people’s sketches. I wish they were blown up a bit though.
June 19th, 2008 at 4:48 pm
As a moleskine and sketches fan, yes, I would be interested to see more in the future.
And your link to The Human Abstract points to ‘http://www.gomediazine.com/design-tip/moleskine-artists-notebook/www.myspace.com/thehumanabstract’, I’m assuming you were only meant to put ‘www.myspace.com/thehumanabstract’
June 19th, 2008 at 6:07 pm
Iteresting. What would have been even better is to see the sketches in comparison to the final product (if any)
June 19th, 2008 at 7:45 pm
Moleskine notebooks are great, although I have no idea how to pronounce the brand name. I use the pocket size ones, and one of the most tragic things ever was that I lost 2 of them once when moving, chock full of sketches, poems and other random irreplaceable stuff. I now make sure to keep the “If found…” address in the front of the notebook current. (And list a big reward as well.)
June 19th, 2008 at 8:29 pm
@ patrik,
You’ll be seeing those finished versions in our portfolio soon once they’re approved and ready to be made public.
@Chris OBrien - that’s unfortunate, I would hate to lose that kind of stuff.
Having Adam post these on the blog just makes me feel like I NEED to keep sketching. It’s worthless unless I use it!
June 19th, 2008 at 11:41 pm
Please keep up the sketch postings! I always enjoy seeing into the life and work of artists and illustrators. I can’t wait to see how some of your sketches turn out in the final product!
June 20th, 2008 at 8:18 am
great work, definately keep posting some of those sketches, its alwasy good to see inspirational work in its beginning stages.
June 20th, 2008 at 9:51 am
+1 for more sketches, I love getting to take a peek at the work that doesn’t make it into the portfolio.
What pencil/pens do you use? I’ve been a fan of Pilot Precise Extra Fine since high school, but I’m starting to play around with different gels.
@Chris OBrien: mol-a-skeen-a
July 30th, 2008 at 4:28 am
Love MoleSkine notebooks and find it interesting to see what everyone has in theirs. If I was even half the artist you were I’d be stoked.
July 31st, 2008 at 2:35 pm
I’ve been hooked on the Moleskines ever since I picked up my first one. They’re well made, easily fit into whatever bag I’m using or into my pants pocket, and are incredibly continent for sketching ideas out. I’ve been through four in the course of three or four years (The binding/spine usually gives out just as I’m about to run out of pages).