Today the great state of Nebraska turns 150 years old. To mark the occasion, I drew a little logo.
The issue of Hail Varsity on newsstands now, which covers the Huskers’ signing day and 2017 recruiting class, focuses on the strong connection the program has with California. It’s been dubbed “Calibraska,” so for the cover, I imaged the connection as a rail line bring talent to Lincoln. So, I illustrated the cover with a train engine using the style of mid-century travel posters.
HPS’s most fun project of the early part of 2017 has been a series of six full-page illustrations featuring more than 60 Omaha landmark buildings for The Omaha World-Herald‘s annual Outlook section. The goal was to use uniform, thin stroke weights to create a heavy image with lots of contrast. Similarly, the buildings were simplified elements in a sea of dense pattern and detail. The very simple color scheme (four colors: blue, green, black and grey) kept things from getting too noisy, and also suited the newsprint background. Even the slight shifts in registration help its simple, lo-fi but highly detailed look.
A few highlights from the lot.
Transmississippi Exposition Arch of the States
UNMC Medicine Fred and Pamela Buffett Cancer Center
Plattsmouth’s Carnegie Public Library
Creighton University Administration Building
Mercer Block No. 3 (M’s Pub and Nouvelle Eve)
I generally don’t relish glibly criticizing others’ design work. Designing a logo is a hard enough job, and artists who design logos for bowl games likely have far more stakeholders influencing the design than a typical project, which is generally a recipe for a weak product. But I decided to have a little fun by ranking and briefly critiquing all 41 bowl game logos for Hail Varsity this year.
The Blackstone District hosted their (generally) annual festival fundraiser last month, and this year I drew the poster a little more organic than the 2015 version. Based on the Mitchell Block on the corner of 40th and Farnam Sts., the two-color screen-printed posters turned out pretty sharp, I think.
With Nebraska’s 24-17 win over Minnesota last weekend, the Huskers’ record-setting sellout streak stands at 353, nearly 100 ahead of second-place Notre Dame’s current streak of 256.
To commemorate Nebraska’s 350th, against Oregon, I put together a graphic detailing the dizzying numbers of the streak.
With the (very long) 2016 election season closing in the next 36 hours or so (we hope), and with a seemingly universal disdain for the process, we look back at a Hail Varsity project from the spring, in primary season. Each year the publication conducts an informal survey of Husker fans, and with stumping and polling and voting on everyone’s minds, we decided to present the data in a Nate-Silver-meets-ESPN-Magazine sort of way.
We produced campaign buttons for Huskers heroes of the past, largely based on the designs of historic pinbacks from the past century. Then we designed survey data with the same visual vocabulary you’d see on political sites.
While we encourage everyone to vote, it’s inadvisable to write-in Tommie Frazier (compelling though it may be).
We’ve teamed up with the awesome guys at Omaha Screen Co. to create a limited-run shirt. It’s printed with a design adapted from the 1941 Nebraska License plate. They’re available here in a range of colors and sizes, in both t-shirt and sweatshirts. The pre-sale runs through Oct. 23, so make sure to get your order in this week. Use the promo code “HanscomPark” to save a few bucks at checkout.
Photos by @EastOf72nd
In Omaha’s most recent round of civic nearsightedness, the Public Works department intends to tear down the 111-year-old Omaha and Council Bluffs Street Railway Company streetcar barn at 26th and Lake Streets. For the past 60 years, Public Works has used the site as a base of operations and now it intends to tear down the building for surface parking. In addition to being an architecturally significant structure, it’s an anchor of a vibrant stretch of Lake Street in a neighborhood that has otherwise been wantonly neglected by city services for decades.
With interested buyers, there’s no sense in tearing down yet another community asset to clear land for yet another open lot in North Omaha. So, it’s time again to call city council members, Mayor Stothert and Mayoral Candidate Heath Mello (who, with any luck, will be elected next year and will help put an end to the Stothert demolition drive) to show your support for saving the complex.
More information: Omaha World-Herald story and Restoration Exchange post.
As with the successful campaigns to save the Specht Building and Yates Elementary, I’ve created a logo for use in the effort. As always, it’s free to use in any way that advances the effort to preserve the building.
Here’s a full suite of logos in various formats, including vector: Logos.zip
Councilmembers
District 1: Pete Festersen Phone: 402-444-5527, Pete.Festersen@cityofomaha.org
District 2: Ben Gray Phone: 402-444-5524, Ben.Gray@cityofomaha.org
District 3: Chris Jerram Phone: 402-444-5525, Chris.Jerram@cityofomaha.org
District 4: Garry Gernandt Phone: 402-444-5522, Garry.Gernandt@cityofomaha.org
District 5: Rich Pahls Phone: 402-444-5528, Rich.Pahls@cityofomaha.org
District 6: Franklin Thompson Phone: 402-444-5523, Franklin.Thompson@cityofomaha.org
District 7: Aimee Melton Phone: 402-444-5526, Aimee.Melton@cityofomaha.org
Mayor Stothert: 402-444-5000, mayorstothert@cityofomaha.org
Heath Mello: info@heathmello.com
Last week, Admiral District released a months-long photo project in the form of a book I was lucky enough to design. Photographer Brad Iwen spent much of the past year bringing about a dozen Omaha chefs into his studio to cook his or her favorite recipe and tell the story behind it. In addition to short documentaries on each dish and cook, he compiled the stories into a book and hosted a gallery opening of a bunch of his prints at his studio last week. Check out the documentaries and pick up a book over at MidwestFoodStories.com.
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