DKNG Studios » Nathan

Introducing Jeff Ratto

Nathan — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 03:58:17 +0000

We’re pleased to announce that Jeff Ratto, long time friend and collaborator, will now be a contributing member of the DKNG blog. Jeff is currently the principal at Ratto Design in Monterey, California, an agency specializing in the design of brand identities, logos, print collateral, websites and mobile applications. Ratto Design and DKNG often collaborate on design projects (a few examples included below), so it was a natural step to include Jeff as an active contributor to the blog. If you haven’t checked out Jeff’s first blog post on the topic of action sports filmmaking, it’s a must see. Please join me in welcoming Jeff to the blog and stay tuned for future posts.

The National – Columbia, MD Poster

Nathan — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 19:39:24 +0000

↳ Click on the image above for a high res version

We’re excited to announce our second concert poster for one of our favorite bands, The National. We got a lot of great feedback on last year’s Tempe, AZ poster, and we were honored that the band asked us to create a poster for one of the shows on their current US tour.

The poster is a 24″ x 18″ 4-color print screen print on 80 lb. French Speckle-Tone Sand. Last year’s poster was an exploration for us in halftone printing and this year involved some experimentation as well, using dither patterns rather than halftone dots to achieve the textured look of the grass and concrete.

Check out some close-up shots of the poster below as well as our original sketch of the design. A limited number of prints are available in our store.

THE SKETCH

CLOSE UP SHOTS

Phish Descends on the Hollywood Bowl

Nathan — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 22:58:51 +0000

↳ Click on the image above for a high res version

Phish is arguably one of the most epic bands touring today, so it’s fitting that their stop in Southern California is at the legendary Hollywood Bowl. We were thrilled to be asked to create the poster for the show, and decided on an other-worldly theme, depicting the Bowl itself as a spaceship arriving on the California coast by way of Phish’s home state of Vermont. Below is a quick video going over our process of designing the poster.

The poster is a 4-color screen print on Astro Black paper and has a signed and numbered edition of 1,100 (our biggest ever!). A limited number of prints will be available in our store Today, August 9. Check out some shots from the show and close-up photos of the poster below.

THE SHOW

CLOSE UP SHOTS

Gallery 1988’s Crazy 4 Cult gets ‘BIG’

Nathan — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 18:19:20 +0000

↳ Rollover on the images above to see the print glow in the dark!

Over the past couple years, we’ve had the opportunity to participate in several exciting shows and projects at Gallery 1988. This year, we were thrilled to participate in what is arguably their marquee exhibition: Crazy 4 Cult. Crazy 4 Cult is a celebration of cult film through art prints, paintings, sculptures, and a variety of other art pieces.

After creating a list of some of our favorite cult and childhood films, we arrived at Big, which coincidentally was released in 1988. After re-watching the film, we determined that the iconic scene of Tom Hanks and Robert Loggia performing Heart and Soul on the FAO Schwartz giant piano had to be the focus of our print. We decided to put our own spin on the point of view, and approached the print with a bird’s eye view of the piano, creating the composition as a diptych with one panel dedicated to each character.

The prints are each 24″ x 9″ and are available both framed and unframed in our store. There are 5 ink colors, the last of which is a glow-in-the-dark ink that lights up the white keys when viewed in the dark (rollover the images above to see an example). Detail shots of the prints are below including a photo under a black light.

Come In! 2 at A+D Museum

Nathan — Sun, 12 Jun 2011 18:23:16 +0000

↳ Logo for A+D Museum's second annual Come in! exhibit.

We’re excited to be participating in A+D Museum’s second annual Come In! exhibition, showcasing installations from L.A.’s up and coming designers. We had a great time creating an installation for last year’s first ever Come In! spatial intervention, which you can check out here.

This year, in addition to creating an installation for the exhibit, we were honored that A+D also asked us to create the branding for Come In! 2. The logo we created for the event is above, and a few of the other marketing pieces we created are pictured below. The exhibit this year adds the theme of Los Angeles’ surf, skate, and bike culture with participants ranging from the Girl Skateboards Art Department to the LA Derby Dolls.

The museum will be open during the installation process starting on June 14, with a party culminating the artists’ creations on July 7. We’re also excited to announce that our very own printer, Danny Askar, will be on hand at the July 7 party for live screen printing. For full details about the exhibition and the July 7 reception, visit A+D Museum online.

↳ Invitation to participate for this year's Come In! artists.

↳ Come In! 2 custom skateboard deck.

Beef Eaters United

Nathan — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 02:24:55 +0000

Closing out 2010 in style: Phish’s New Year’s Run

Nathan — Thu, 30 Dec 2010 05:54:15 +0000

Phish’s ‘New Year’s Run’ is a staple of their annual touring schedule and we were thrilled to be asked to create a poster for their two-day stop in Worcester, Massachusetts. In the late 1800s, Worcester was known as the home of early ‘lunch wagons’ or dining cars that were eventually shipped all over the Eastern Seaboard. We decided to use the interiors of these classic diners as the basis for the poster, with plenty of Phish references thrown in for good measure. Check out the photos below for some detail shots of the poster. A limited number of prints are available in the store.

There are also some beautiful photos by Dave Vann of both nights in Worcester on the Phish Facebook Page .

DKNG in Print Magazine

Nathan — Wed, 24 Nov 2010 01:55:02 +0000

The Print Magazine 2010 Regional Design Annual is hot off the press and we’re excited to announce that our Monsters of Folk Poster is a featured entry. We’ve been reading Print’s Design Annual since we were kids so we’re thrilled and humbled to have our work appear in its pages.

L.A. Gets Dangerous

Nathan — Sat, 20 Nov 2010 20:18:39 +0000

Tonight, Aziz Ansari’s ‘Dangerously Delicious Tour’ hits The Orpheum Theatre in Los Angeles. We had a blast creating a poster series for Aziz’s three-day stint in San Francisco, and we’re equally excited to have created a poster for his stop in our city. If you ever wanted a behind the scenes look at Aziz’s pre-show dressing room, look no further. The man in truly dangerous. A limited number of posters will be available in the store later this week.

Road Trip

Nathan — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 03:50:45 +0000

DKNG had a packed weekend in the bay area earlier this month. We went to San Francisco to participate in the Renegade Craft Fair and were able to visit our poster and t-shirt printers along the way.

FRIDAY: OAKLAND, CA.

↳ Forward Printing. Oakland, CA.

When we got into town on Friday, our first stop was at Oakland’s Forward Printing. Forward has been printing our t-shirts for a couple years and we’re big fans of their waterbased printing. On this trip, we were picking up a fresh batch of Lion tees and got to check out Forward’s setup from burning screen to mixing ink. Thanks to the Dans and the rest of the crew at Forward for the warm welcome. Here are a few shots from our visit:

↳ The factory floor: 10-color press and conveyor dryer.

↳ Checking out the new 10-color auto-press.

↳ Bucket-o-ink.

We also had a chance to visit our friends Rick and Alicia who took us on an awesome tour of the Oakland Cemetery.

↳ The Oakland Cemetery.

↳ Oakland, CA.

SATURDAY/SUNDAY: SAN FRANCISCO, CA.

↳ Heading into SF on the Bay Bridge.

Saturday and Sunday were spent selling our wares at the Renegade Craft Fair San Francisco. A lot of fellow poster artists were exhibiting as well and several friends stopped by to say hi. With views of the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz just outside the fair, it was a fun location for DKNG’s third Renegade show.

↳ Our booth at the Renegade Craft Fair.

↳ The Renegade Craft Fair.

↳ And the Golden Gate Bridge in the distance.

MONDAY: EMERYVILLE, CA.

↳ Monolith Press. Emeryville, CA.

Bright and early Monday morning, we headed to Monolith Press in Emeryville to check out the shop and attend to the business of hand signing and numbering 1000 posters. The poster, for Phish, was by far the biggest edition we’ve numbered thus far, but in four short hours, we had them all finished and ready for delivery to the show in Wisconsin the following week. Thanks to Mauz and Ross for their stellar work on these prints and stay tuned for a more detailed blog post about the making of the Phish poster on Bang Back.

↳ Auto-press and drying rack at Monolith.

↳ The ink selection at Monolith.

↳ Monolith's vintage guillotine.

↳ Dan limbers up to sign 1000 posters.

↳ Lupe supervising our progress at Monolith.

↳ Poster signing in progress.

After the work was done, we had a couple days to kick back and visit friends on our way back home. All in all, a fun and busy trip. We look forward to being back in the Bay soon.

↳ Unwinding in Moss Landing, CA.