In Which We Recreate The Colossus/Guardian Sticker As A Vector Drawing

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Just very recently I had another absolutely satisfying interaction with the people at Living Computers in Seattle, who wanted to use the Colossus/Guardian 2020 campaign sticker design for stickers meant to be sold in the gift shop.

This is always a good thing. I really adore the LC people, who are some of the most straight-up ethical people you'll encounter when it comes to creatives.

The original design was a quick one-off done in JPG format in Adobe Photoshop CS4. They wanted to release a limited edition sticker in a bigger size, and more durable - appropriate for a car's bumper, for example. But the trouble with the pixel image is ... well, I'll be everyone reading this knows. You size up, and the jagged edges show. So, a vector version was called for.

Break out the old Illustrator CS4 and hit the old iMac.

Was it fun? Yes, it was fun. Also, since I'd gotten to see Colossus: The Forbin Project a couple-three times since, I'd noticed that the Guardian logo, which I'd recreated from memory, was a bit 'off'; the starbucks on the red star were a bit squat, which gave room for a larger capital G letterform in it. I rectified that in the vector file, and, because AI has layers you can turn on and off, I included the original version as well as the updated version, so Living Computers can, as the President said Colossus can do with its weapons, select and deliver whatever they consider apprpriate.

The updated version looks like this. The Guardian logo is much closer to the film version now.

The Campaign Stickers For Colossus/Guardian 2020 Have Arrived ...

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... and they look pretty spiffy.

As any designer or artist I imagine would tell you, it's one thing putting together a work of art, commercial or otherwise. But to have someone produce it so slickly, especially since you love pop culture and being a part of it is a real high - well, that's truly something other than else.

A few missives ago I explained how the Living Computers: Museum + Labs, in Seattle, was having a First Thursday free showing of one of my favorite movies, Colossus: The Forbin Project, and wanted a free giveaway and stumbled on my Colossus/Guardian 2020 campaign sticker design and offered to buy rights. And they did. And they gave it out at that First Thursday showing.

I asked for a handful of the stickers, and they said okay. And yesterday, they showed up.

I got about ten of them. The actual sticker itself breaks out of the backing as an oval 3 and 1/3 inches long by two inches high. And don't they look subversively cool?

As can be seen I didn't just get that. A little promotional collateral came with, including a handout that illustrated some trivia pertinent to the movie. And do you know what else is cool here?

I got credit there for designing it. I'll tell you, I was lucky that LCM+L stumbled on me. They believe in paying for your design, they believe in dealing on the level, and they believe in also giving credit for what you did. 

They do things the way they should be done.

Oh, and vote Guardian/Colossus 2020, because they'll do a better job than humans. Though I understand that the conservatives will be running on an MCP/Sark ticket, though that's just a rumor at this point.

In Which I Sell A Design. As In, Get Paid For It.

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So, some time ago, during the last year of this time of extreme dexterity, I thought that the chances of being Presidented over by one less-than-impressive Republican vs another less-than-impressive Republican meant that maybe D.F. Jones had the right idea all along, and I created a graphic.

This graphic:

Doesn't it just kind of speak to ya?

Last week, I was contacted by a representative of an organization in Seattle called Living Computers: Museum + Labs. They're doing a showing of Colossus: The Forbin Project for First Thursday and they wanted to do a limited run of stickers as giveaways to people who came. And after they checked all the stuffs to make sure everything was on the level, we came to an agreement.

There is money resting in my PayPal wallet as a payment for the use of the design for the sticker giveaway. They are also looking into using it for other things, and I will keep the errant reader posted on that.

But it's nice not only to get paid for something, but to interact with a group that understands that, if you want to use something, the first thing you do is ask. From what I'm hearing out there, that's getting rarer and rarer. So these are indeed sterling people.

If you go see Colossus at the museum in SoDo you might not meet me, but you'll meet my work. It'll be fashionable, too. Who knows where those stickers will show up?

Yeah. I'm happy here. Thanks, Living Computers!