Reagan Ray

Second Street Showdown Poster

Mon, 05 Mar 2012 12:55:00 -0500

So I finished this design last week and decided to screen print it in my garage on Sunday. Needless to say, it went pretty smooth (not a single screw up)! It’s just 1 color (flat black) on some lovely Mr. French kraft paper.

Forever in Blue Jeans, Baby

Mon, 27 Feb 2012 14:02:07 -0500

A piece I did for Hiut Denim’s first Year Book. Pre-order it here.

1st color down

Sat, 18 Feb 2012 19:22:17 -0500

A few (kinda crappy) iPhone shots from laying down the 1st color today. It’s an 18x24 poster on Mr. French steel gray. The white that you see now was the easy part and only a very small part of the finished product - lots more artwork to come tomorrow as I lay down color #2.

Second Street Showdown

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 15:56:00 -0500

handdrawnwords:

Second Street Showdown : by @raygunray

The Road Goes On Forever

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 12:44:00 -0500

handdrawnwords:

Road Goes on Forever : By @raygunray

United Pixelworkers + Paravel

Fri, 13 Jan 2012 12:52:20 -0500

A larger look at the design for our United Pixelworkers shirt. Available to purchase here.

Night Moves

Tue, 03 Jan 2012 11:00:56 -0500

Method & Craft Redux

Wed, 09 Nov 2011 11:54:22 -0500

Had the random urge to play around with the colors on the Method & Craft wallpaper I did a while back.

Illustrating the CSS Off

Thu, 20 Oct 2011 15:32:00 -0400

In case you didn’t know already, Trent, Dave & I were recently asked by the kind folks at Unmatched Style to create the PSD for this years CSS Off. The CSS Off is a “competition for front-end developers to show off their skills in a no holds barred display of CSS and markup skills.” Always up for a challenge and a little fun, we gladly accepted.

We spent the afternoon together brainstorming ideas for a fun site to design and stumbled upon the greatest video on all of the internet. You know when a video is titled “‘Double Dare kids eat shit on obstacle course - 1986” you’re on to something special.

Triple Dare was born. Rather than ramble on any more, I’d like share a handful of snapshots from the project. All of the sketches are done with a Pigma Graphic 1 pen and then finished out in Photoshop.

Be sure to check out Trent’s post over on his site. He designed the site once I handed over the illustrations. Go Team Paravel!

There’s also a Dribbble bucket with even more goodness.

Designing the 2011 10k Apart Contest

Wed, 03 Aug 2011 17:02:45 -0400

It’s hard to believe that it’s been close to a year since Paravel had the opportunity to be a part of the Lost World’s Fairs project for the launch of IE 9. But what’s not hard to believe is that we were downright giddy when Nishant Kothary, our friend over at Microsoft’s Mix Online, approached us this spring with a new challenge: design a responsive site for the 2011 10k Apart contest.

Brainstorming

If you know Paravel well enough, you can probably take a few easy guesses at what kind of direction we had in mind. It’s no secret that we’re all big fans of the vintage automobile vibe.

Whether it’s a 1967 Mustang, a parts box for an old distributor or an owner’s manual for a 1965 Cadillac, we’re all over it. For inspiration, I headed to the old car manual project and flickr.

Mood Boarding

With the vintage auto vibe in mind, I felt that putting together a mood board would be a great way to kick things off and was immediately drawn to an old 1960 Ford Owner’s manual. The simplicity of the yellow and black color scheme was really inspiring.

But I wanted the look to be a little less like an owner’s manual and a little more like an instruction manual. I was stuck on the idea that this would be a “Responsive Toolbox” of sorts… like if responsive web design existed in 1970 and there was a Motor Instruction Manual you could buy at your local Sears.

I found additional inspiration from old oil cans, labels and parts packaging.

Branding

With the mood boards approved, I sketched out 4 or 5 iterations of the 10k responsive logo.

In framing the logo, I tried everything from a hexagon to a square to a circle. At first, I settled on the hexagon. Dave kindly reminded me that I had never watched Lost so I went with a rectangle instead.

Web Fonts

I had used Futura a bit in the past for Mustang Mania, and was excited about the opportunity to use it again. The only problem was it didn’t have a great web font offering. ..yet. I think we were actually in the process of presenting mood boards when Typekit announced that ParaType’s Futura PT was available, manually hinted and looks great on Windows. Everything else was proudly set in Proxima Nova (another office favorite).

Color

Color schemes were the next challenge. I tried a variety of colors inspired by vintage automobiles, but they all seemed too formal and forced.

The site needed to look like it had been photocopied and handled with greasy hands rather than something handed out in a showroom. So I arrived back at the yellow from the 1960’s Ford, grunged it up and went with a white background. After a few iterations, I arrived at this.

Tweaks, Tweaks and more Tweaks!

With the logo, type and color scheme pinned down, we were moving right along with a traditional banner. Headline and copy to the left, product shot and call to action to the right. We decided to get together for a Paravel work day to wrap up the remaining details.

But you know what we decided? The traditional banner was boring as shit. It needed a tri-force punch in the face. This site was supposed to be “responsive with a Paravel twist” yet we hadn’t:

a) shown off responsive in the banner or

b) utilized illustration to make it unique

So we spent all afternoon getting frustrated and tearing off page after page of graph paper. For us, that’s how every great site is born. If we don’t get worked up while staring at a wall all afternoon, we’re doing it wrong.

Finally, A Solution

Trent suggested I spend the next few days drawing a bunch of devices. We wanted it to look like a parts catalog with all kinds of diagrams and labels. That went through a few iterations as well.

We are super happy with how it finally ended up (and it’s responsive!). Thanks to Dave, it’s even swipe-able on your iPhone. A true team solution.

As Trent said in a previous post, “The only downside to our project is that we’re finished.” It’s not every day that a client puts the amount of faith in our team that MIX did. We were honored to put our own personal stamp on the latest 10k contest and I know I speak for Trent and Dave when I say we hope you have as much fun with it as we did. Be sure and check out the other posts about the project:

Trent

Dave

Nishant (Rainypixels)

Mix Online

Mustang Mania

Fri, 27 May 2011 15:22:00 -0400

A couple of completed mustang illustrations for Mustang Mania, a new & used parts store for vintage mustangs in the Texas Hill Country.

Green Mesquite BBQ

Thu, 07 Apr 2011 17:24:51 -0400

Slowly chipping away at all of the Barton Springs signs.

Hipster Yeti

Wed, 06 Apr 2011 12:16:37 -0400

Just for fun. Sign up for the Goodfoot beta here.

Shady Grove

Mon, 21 Mar 2011 17:32:00 -0400

Tortilla Fried Queso Catfish. Tortilla Fried Queso Catfish. Tortilla Fried Queso Catfish. Tortilla Fried Queso Catfish. Tortilla Fried Queso Catfish. Tortilla Fried Queso Catfish. Tortilla Fried Queso Catfish

P.S. Jalapeño Lime

Garage Party Poster

Wed, 09 Mar 2011 10:53:00 -0500

If you happened to catch the sneak-peek on dribbble, here’s the finished version of the Austin Town Hall Garage Party poster. I’m pretty happy with how it turned out. All of the type was drawn by hand, scanned and then cleaned up digitally. The actual party features 6 rocking bands and is next Thursday during SXSW. Check out the details over on the Austin Town Hall website.

Sandy's

Mon, 07 Mar 2011 12:05:00 -0500

Delicious frozen custard, holla!

Austin Motel

Thu, 24 Feb 2011 10:43:00 -0500

Spent some time wandering around Barton Springs Drive and South Congress this weekend and ended up with a great batch of reference shots for the sign illustrations. I couldn’t resist starting with the infamous Austin Motel. Love the disclaimer on their website… “Also all room themes and decor are subject to change.” If you didn’t know, the Austin Motel has “themed” rooms, including “Polka Dot Surprise,” “Safari” and “Great Wall of China.” I kind of want to go stay there for a week in a different room each day. Visit their site, it’s totally worth it. Lots of great history.

Top Notch

Mon, 14 Feb 2011 14:38:00 -0500

Austin has a handful of circa-1960s/70s signage that is still going strong today. What happened to the days of hand-cut lettering, exposed neon and blinking bulbs? I’ve been thinking about starting up a series of illustrations based on the signs, and this is my first stab at it. The Top Notch sign has always been iconic for me since I was young, as it was featured heavily in Austin’s very own Dazed and Confused. Alright Alright Alright!

Oregon Trail Cover

Fri, 28 Jan 2011 11:07:00 -0500

Love this hand-made cover to the original Oregon Trail computer game.

Alamo Drafthouse Posters

Tue, 09 Nov 2010 15:21:03 -0500

If you know me, you probably get tired of me saying how jealous/in awe I am of the quality of movie posters that Alamo Drafthouse continuously pump out. It’s even more rewarding knowing that these guys got their start here in Austin.

Tyler Stout has been leading the pack for Alamo for a while. Take for example this amazing poster for The Monster Squad (mentioned in our latest The Many Faces post):

You can see more from Tyler here. There are is also a new batch for sale on the Alamo/Mondo Tees website , including a stellar set for Dead Alive by the super-talented Adam Haynes.