Toast of the Nation

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Hey Blog. Last night was the Champions of Jazz concert at the Lincoln Center, and it was AMAZING. I had box seats, and had the best view. The Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra killed it, and brought out a lot of great guests. My personal favorites were Nikki Yanofsky (who did a brilliant rendition of an Ella Fitzgerald song) and Ernie Andrews (who did an original composition). John Hamilton stated it best when he said, "If you don't don't feel this man's soul, check your pulse...because you're probably a cadaver". Well, he didn't say the "cadaver" part but he should've.

Anyway, on the jazz tip here's an ad I did for WBGO and National Public Radio (NPR) for their annual Toast of the Nation broadcast on New Year's Eve. Its running in both Jazz Times and Downbeat magazines.

Honestly, I hope I did the event justice, as I wasn't sure if the three glasses concept would even work. They liked it fortunately so we went with it. The type at the top refers to Anat Cohen and John Pizzarelli (no disrespect to these amazing artists but I would've preferred to have no top text). Simplicity rules.

That's it for this ordinary day. See you later Blog.

Posterized

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Hey Blog. This is the poster to promote WBGO's Champions of Jazz Benefit Concert on November 3rd. Its going on display at the Lincoln Center and I'm looking forward to seeing it in the display boxes. The dimensions are 36" x 54".

Also, if you're in the tri-state area on September 29th, come to the opening reception of The Book Show featuring work from the SVA MFA Illustration as Visual Essay Program. Wine and cheese abound.

Benefit Concerts and Awards With Benefits

Hi blog, should I just put the image(s) at the top from now on? I probably should right? Right. This is the save-the-date card for WBGO's Champions of Jazz Benefit Concert on November 3rd. They're celebrating their 30th anniversary this year and its a pleasure to have them as a client at this moment in their broadcast life.

They're definitely going big this year and having the benefit at the Lincoln Center. NBC's Lester Holt is the Master of Ceremonies and the show will feature performances by the Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra. I'm not sure when tickets go on sale, but it'll be a great evening to say the least.

In other news, been busy these past couple of weeks. Picked up a couple of new clients and been entering a few illustration competitions. Notably, the Altpick Awards is having their open submissions and its reasonably priced with awesome prizes. I also entered the Swatch Young Illustrator Awards, which looks pretty fun. They only take personal work (no commercial work) and submissions had to be in pdf format. I included a bunch of stuff along with a resume at the end. Feel free to download it here:

Rich Tu's Illustrative '09 Submission

So that's it for now.

This week went by much too quickly.

All That Jazz... The Fundraising Edition

Sup Blog. Yea that's right, I'm blogging on the regular now so you better keep up. I recently got another call from WBGO Jazz88, the best jazz station in the NJ/NY/CT area. This year is their 30th anniversary, and like always they depend on contributions from their loyal listeners, as they're a non-profit organization. Anyway, part of their fund raising includes neighborhood and community interaction and they needed some banners to be displayed outdoors.

Its fairly simple, and incorporates elements on their logo (the sax player) as well as their official purple. Its about 2 feet tall, so they'll be displayed at a good size.

Also it goes without saying, but WBGO is easily the best jazz station in the NY/NJ area, and they need support to keep doing what they do. If you want to contribute, you can click here. Also, tune in to 88.3fm to hear awesomeness.

Till Later Blog.

All That Jazz

Hi Blog. Last week was INSANE, in the best way possible. I took two buses, 3 cars, and several brisk walks from Newark, NJ to Palm Springs, CA to meet my brother Eric for the first time. It was an amazing trip, and I got to see and do so many things. Eric and his boyfriend Ron were so amazingly cool that we definitely need to hang out again. Also, this is my third time doing the cross country thing, but this was the first time I did it solo. I stopped in Dallas/Houston, TX, Las Vegas, NV, and Diamond Bar/Palm Springs, CA. I spent the largest amounts of time in places where I knew people. I also fit in an illustration for Alpha Magazine immediately upon my return, so it was an extremely productive nine days.

I'll post that Alpha illustration soon, but in the meantime here's some work I did for the tri-state area's best jazz station, the world famous Jazz88 WBGO. Their 30th anniversary is coming up and they needed a new header for their jazz e-newsletter. So, using elements of their existing logo, I created this. I felt that the anniversary was the most important thing, so I made that the main focus, and used their official purple.


So many thanks to Brandy Wood, WBGO's marketing manager, for giving me a call because I have the utmost respect for the quality and integrity of this station, and jumped at the chance to work with them.

Also, because of an initial miscommunication (probably an oops on my part), I actually did concepts for a logo redesign that wasn't intended. I thought I'd show them because I dig them and I liked what I was going for. I tried to stir the logo towards iconography, using fashion of the Blue Note era to evoke the time period. The fedora works the best, as it "sits" on top of the type extremely well, but I do love the idea of a jazz station potentially using a wingtip shoe for their logo.







So that's it for now Blog, I'll post some pics of my trip soon. Later.