The Cars Show

That's me in the middle of one of the coolest places on earth, the atrium at the Pixar Animation Studios in Emeryville, California. They were nice enough to hang up the Cars 2 posters I had worked on along with my coworker Stephane Kardos and Pixar's Harley Jessup, John Lee, and Craig Foster. When you enter the Pixar campus, you can immediately feel the creative energy in the air. There's tons of development art, maquettes, and huge statues of many of their beloved characters everywhere you go. It's quite an honor for me to visit the place where all of those amazing films are generated and it's an even bigger honor to have something I worked on hanging up anywhere in their building, let alone the main area. Amongst my daily duties at work, the posters are definitely the most difficult and time-consuming projects. I believe this particular series stretched over 4 or 5 months. They also are the most fun because they combine everything I like to do - layout, illustration, and typography.

When we started the project, we knew that there had to be 12 individual pieces, rendered in different styles, that had to hang together in harmony. When I hear they're printed and ready to be hung, I always tend to panic a little because I never know if it will work, or look like a confusing mess. When I walked in to see them this morning, I breathed a HUGE sigh of relief and thought they actually looked pretty cool as a series. The idea of having Italian, Japanese, British, and vintage Spy designs as inspiration worked! Just when I could enjoy feeling that they were finally up and I was completely done, I got word that they may need a whole new set for their next film. Oh well, back to the drawing board. ;)