Our latest interview is with designer Jamey Erickson, from Minneapolis. We got the low down on his background and hobbies, from working with bands, to running his own agency, then folding that agency, to taking pictures of the moon from his backyard and teaching little kids to love science. Read on to get the scoop.



CB: Give us a little background: How’d you get into graphic design? What was your first gig?

JE: How did I get into design? Good question. I think it started when I was a youngster. I used to draw baseball cards of my friends and I, then cover them in packing tape so they were glossy like all the other one’s I had. I was always super excited about creating the logos for the fictional teams we played for. Then I got into flags for awhile in middle school. I would draw flags for fictional places in the world. I even won a flag design contest for our middle school and my “design” hung in the gymnasium for 10 some odd years.

It was around that time I was running giant 10 page long, dot-matrix printed banners for any occasion around our house.

[Football Helmet Icon] Go Minnesota Vikings!! [Football Player Icon]
[Birthday Cake Icon]Happy Birthday Megan!![Birthday Present Icon]

Anything that was happening I was designing a banner for it and printing it on as long a string of perforated paper as I could.

When I was a teenager I started re-creating super hero logos on our new fancy PC running Windows 3.5. I learned HTML in my free time and started creating websites for local bands in Rochester, MN area. Spent a few years doing that before heading off to college in St Paul, MN.

During college was when it really came together. Was touring with bands, doing posters, websites, merch, basically whatever they needed. Bands would get big and I’d work for their labels, or they’d get deals with clothing companies, so I’d do a new website for the clothing company, or they’d break up and get “real jobs” so I’d wind up helping build a website for the company they worked for. I was pretty much self employed for a good part of college before getting a “day job” at Target.com my last year in school.

Worked at Target for a few years, then bounced around a few agencies, ran my own 8 person digital creative studio, Sevnthsin, for almost a decade and now design complex software systems for companies aiming to make the world a better place over at Software for Good.

CB: That’s quite the varied experience you’ve had. Do you still do any work with bands outside of your full-time job? If not, what kind of side-projects are you drawn to now?

JE: Yeah, I still do some work with bands. I do some art/tech brainstorming with the guys from Rhymesayers Records on an occasional basis. My little agency did the most recent Bon Iver website, so I keep in touch with those guys about future projects. I do a bit here and there with Doomtree as I’m still running their site for them.

As for side projects, I’ve got a strong passion in using technology to empower more meaningful interpersonal human interactions. So I’m working on my own socially curated bicycle routing/guidance app to roll out with our local bike share program NiceRide. I’m also working with a local group called Dishcourse which is a sharing economy model aimed at connecting people, neighbors, strangers for lively discussion over home cooked meals. Both projects are VERY early in their lifecycle, but they’re my current passion projects.

I’m ALSO huge into backyard astrophotography. So I’ve been working on building a community around that here in town. Starting a space-club-for-regular-folks sort of thing, getting folks together to talk about the things beyond our own skies in a down to Earth sort of manner, as well as working with a Portland based developer to expand the capability set of his otherwise amazing backyard astrophotography planning app.

I also, also worked on a pretty great project recently, releasing an album for a local jazz trio’s side project doing tribute music from the old 90’s cult classic TV show Twin Peaks. Helped them record, get a double vinyl produced and then threw a costume party release show at a local theater. Great night for sure!

So I definitely have side projects I’m jamming on.

CB: You are one busy dude! Dishcourse sounds like something I’d be totally into - what fun projects you have in the works! Between the tees you’ve done for us (and your tumblr full of space/Twin Peaks reblogs) we’re not surprised to hear you’re working on projects involving your passions. How did you get into backyard astrophotography?

JE: Well, that’s another long story. I grew up out in the country in southern Minnesota, so looking up at the stars at night was something we always did. Used to love just staring up and finding patterns in the sky, even before I knew what the constellations were. Then as I got older, moved off to college in the city and lost sight of the skies (thanks, light pollution), I just kinda fell out of it. It was sometime around 2009 that I realized I was working like a maniac and missed the things that used to inspire me when I was younger. A friend of mine and I had recently seen an article on Wired about a group of students who’d launched a weather balloon up in the air to take photos of the edge of the Earth against the blackness of space. After looking into it, we realized we could easily do that, and do it all with cell phones. So we started a project called YAVIN IV (cough, nerdy star wars reference, cough). Did that for a few months before realizing how amazing it could be when we did it with kids and used it as a platform to inspire a younger generation. So I ran a kickstarter campaign to raise money to fund the follow up project BESPIN. Got my HAM license and did a bunch of launches to then ultimately launch with a group of kids in Chicago in the early summer of 2012. During a launch in September of 2011, I inadvertently got photos of the Moon rising over southern MN and something sparked in my brain. I figured if I could get cool photos like that from my little point-n-shoot on the weather balloon, I could probably do something pretty awesome if I put a little more effort into it. I tried renting some massive telephoto lenses for my DSLR and had some fun shooting the Moon, but knew the real deal would be with a telescope. Since I’d gotten my HAM license, I’d been up to a local radio shop near my house and knew they had a consignment telescope section in the back. So I went up there and scored a pretty sweet setup for an unbelievably reasonable price. Started tinkering, reading, trying (and failing) until I started getting the hang of it. Met a bunch of folks on Twitter from all over the world who were backyard astrophotographers and we all just started chatting and learning from each other. Over time I really started to get the hang of it and now I’m looking into getting out of my backyard and shooting from darker skies on a more regular basis.

All in all, it’s been an amazingly wild adventure and I’ve really enjoyed the uphill battle that is learning to shoot deep space photos.

CB: Wait, you’re shooting pictures of the Andromeda Galaxy with a telescope in your backyard?! That’s amazing. How did the kids like the BESPIN project? Is that ongoing?

JE: Yep. I absolutely shoot in my backyard. I live up in Northeast Minneapolis, so it’s pretty light polluted, but I make it work. I keep it all on my back patio and just drag it out when I get the itch to shoot. There are certain objects I’ll never be able to shoot in the city because even with a high band light pollution filter, I’ll still get too much city light before I pick up the faintness of the object. It’s also much more difficult to find any object that isn’t a planet or the Moon, as again the light pollution washes out any real object detail to the naked eye. So I have to do a lot of aligning based on what stars I can see, taking long test exposures, then blowing out the histogram to see if I’ve got what I need. I also spend a lot of time comparing my test photos against the star patterns in some software I use to both find objects, and if it stays connected properly, control my scope to slew to the right spot in the sky. So it’s not easy to get set up and start tracking things in the sky, but it’s not bad once you get the hang of it. Then just start letting the computer run long exposures and you go sleep on the patio until you hear the creepy computer voice tell you your series is complete. Then you start another series :)

As for BESPIN, the kids loved it. I started small, just launching with like my little cousins or some of my friends’ kids. Then that’s what led to the idea to do it with a larger group. So I worked with a 3rd grade class in Chicago. A good buddy of mine’s daughter brought some photos I’d sent her into her “show and tell” and the teacher got in touch with me about launching one on their own. I suggested it’s not hard, but not really easy either, and that I’d love to come down and launch with them. So we did that for one of their last days of school in 2012. We attached a Beaker doll from their classroom to the outside and officially called the project the BEAKER-I, so the kids were just losing their minds thinking Beaker was going to space. We lost it in Lake Michigan for a day until, by some strange miracle, one of the electronics turned on long enough for us to get a position and a fishing boat captain happened to have the day off and was willing to take us out there. It was all pretty amazing and we had a big “Welcome Home” ceremony at the school where we were awarded badges of honor by the kids for helping Beaker make it home safe. You can read all about the adventures here. There’s an amazing video at the end made by Dave, my buddy whose daughter’s class it was. We showed that to the kids at the event and there were kids just going nuts over it. Really rewarding experience for sure.

CB: That’s really, really, really cool. Was your Moon tee inspired by any of the backyard photos you’ve taken?

JE: Yeah, actually. The Moon shirt was from one of my first attempts through a telescope. Borrowed a buddy’s Refractor and put it on a camera tripod and snapped this thing.

Thought it’d be fun to make the shirt based on one of my first astrophoto attempts.

CB: Beautiful photo. The tee turned out pretty well too, we think. Moon was CB’s first glow-in-the-dark tee, pretty cool! Thanks for chatting with us, Jamey!

To keep up with all things Jamey, you can follow him on twitter and tumblr. He also has a brand new website showcasing his work which launched this morning. Let him know how much you dig it, cool?

Mikey Burton is a self-described “designy illustrator” based in Chicago. After ten years in the biz he’s found a great sense of his own personal style. To find out about his newest blog, Barrel Body and how he got to where he is now, read on.



CB: Why/where’d you come up with the name/concept for your new tumblr, Barrel Body?

MB: Even though I’m 6 feet tall, I wear a 30 length pants. So, I’m like Michael Phelps, all torso… minus all the athleticism. Most of my weight gathers in my center which creates a barrel like frame. I think it’s commonly called barrel chested, but my girlfriend Carli likes to call it my “barrel body”. I’m happy with my man shape, but I’m getting older and I like to watch what I eat. The initial idea was just to record my daily calorie intake visually to maintain my barrel.

CB: Ha!, that’s pretty awesome. How do you go about making these illustrations? They almost look like watercolor paintings. Do you draw them and then vectorize them? Or are they all created digitally?

MB: Everything usually starts as a pencil sketch, but then I will scan that in and build the art in illustrator. I’ve been exclusively using the blob tool rather than the pen or shape tools though. It has a looser quality that I really enjoy, and has forced me to change up my style a bit. I’ve also been drawing some of these with my phone using adobe ideas which is a drawing app that exports vector files. It’s basically just the blob tool from Adobe Illustrator in it’s own app. I purchased a bamboo stylus solo too which is a little easier that trying to draw with my finger. It’s not in anyway like actually drawing, it’s something completely different… kind of like playing a video game.

The soft “watercolor” like texture is a process I’ve been working on for the past few years. This effect is accomplished by using my crappy black and white laser printer. I try to buy off brand toner cartridges so when I print something out, I get great chalky mottled textures. So, basically I create vector shapes and print them out through my crappy printer, and then scan those back in. The variety of halftones and different texture qualities comes from printing things out at different sizes.

CB: That sounds really cool, but also like a lot of work. How long does it usually take to complete each illustration?

MB: Start to finish, it usually only takes about a half hour to an hour.

CB: Wow - that’s fast! You’ve been designing for awhile now, how much has your aesthetic changed over time? Are there things you’re doing in design now that you wouldn’t have imagined you’d be doing when you were in school?

MB: When I was in college, my focus was completely on graphic design. I wanted to graduate and get a design job making logos, posters, brochures, etc. I even focused on environmental design which seems really weird now, like doing way-finding, signage and such. I didn’t have much interest in illustration cause it seemed hard to make a living at. In school, my biggest creative outlet was designing gig posters for bands. I did this for about 4-5 years, and through that process I developed somewhat of an illustration style. What started out as a rock poster aesthetic, became much more editorial in nature (or at least more refined). An art director at Wired saw one of these posters and asked me if I did editorial illustration. I thought in my head “no, but I do now”. That was in 2010, from then it’s just been a steady build of illustration work. I still do a lot of design too, and I love to incorporate typography into my illustration. This is the main reason why I call myself a "designy illustrator". I think it’s the mix of doing a lot of different things that makes me happy with the work.

CB: Being able to see how you’ve grown and developed your own style over your lifetime has to be a pretty great feeling. For those of us who don’t do creative work, it can sometimes be difficult to see a progression in our abilities the same way a artist, musician, or chef might have the opportunity to. Last question, if you weren’t a designy illustrator, what would you be?

MB: My dad is a jeweler and my grandpa and my great grandpa. It has always provided really well for the family, so part of me always has a little regret that the family business might end at this generation. My folks were always so encouraging with my art and I really owe them a lot.

CB: Sounds like creativity runs in the family! Thanks for chatting with us Mikey.

Keep up with all things Mikey via his twitter or Instagram. Sign up to be notified via email anytime he launches a new CB tee, here.

Adé Hogue (pronounced ah-dae) is a young Chicago based graphic designer. While his time in the design world has been short, he’s had no problem coming up with ideas for how to get his creative ideas out into the world. Click through to learn more about this up-and-coming designer.



CB: How did you get on the path to graphic design? Your personal site lists a background in engineering & drafting; did you originally go to school to be an architect?

AH: I originally went to school to become a civil engineer. Growing up, my dad was a computer/electrical engineer, so it felt natural to go in that direction. After studying engineering for two years I realized I wasn’t ever going to be happy doing it (and the fact that I failed Physics), so I decided to change majors. I’d never even taken an art class in high school before, but for some reason, I felt like it was the right direction. I ended up becoming a pre-Art major, and eventually landed my way into the BFA program at UNC Charlotte!

CB: Wait, what?! You’d never taken a formal art class until you were halfway through college? That’s amazing to decide to just leap in a totally different direction. Were you nervous?

AH: Well, I took one in elementary school, does that count? Haha. It was pretty nerve-wrecking to make that transition. When I told my advisor, she looked at me like I was a little crazy. Maybe I was!

CB: Seems like it turned out just fine! How long have you been in the graphic design world now? Do you feel like you’ve figured out your own style/voice?

AH: I guess technically I’ve only been in the graphic design world for about two and a half years now. Although I had a few legitimate design jobs while I was a student, those years don’t really count! I honestly don’t know if I have found my style/voice yet. When I pick up a brush pen, yes. But for anything else, I feel like I’m still searching for it! I don’t think that’s necessarily a bad thing!

CB: Are you doing anything to stretch yourself/try new things? What kind of stuff do you work on “for fun”?

AH: Yeah, all the time! Both of my Cotton Bureau shirts were random designs that I created for myself. I was lucky enough to have other people like them as much as I do! I work a lot with type now, and it all started with a small, 30 day personal project I did. I did it just to learn how to work with type, and now I’m able to do it full-time. Recently, I started a new personal project (Letter On Me) because I wanted to get more practice doing type on objects! Hopefully, I will have some more personal projects in the near future. Those are the kinds of things that are fun for me!

CB: Letter On Me looks super awesome! What a creative way to turn things people may not have a use for/be tired of into beautiful art. One last question, are you still searching for good sweet tea in Chicago, or have you finally found some?

AH: Thanks! Chicago is an amazing city full of so many awesome things, but sadly, sweet tea is not one of them! Can’t find a quality glass to save my life. The search continues!!!

CB: Good luck on your search, Adé!

If you’re familiar with any good sweet tea haunts in Chicago, reach out to Adé via his twitter, dribbble, or instagram accounts.

Simon Walker is a freelance designer and custom typographer based in Austin, Texas. He’s donated the proceeds from both of the hand-lettered tees he’s done on Cotton Bureau to a friend battling cancer. Nice and talented, read on to learn more about the man behind the Super Furry moniker.

CB: What’s your story? How’d you get interested in design and typography?

SW: My love of letters began as a young teenager in England in the 80s, when hip hop culture was starting to make itself known. I’d always loved drawing, but I was immediately enamoured with graffiti and the way those letters warped and flowed and became abstract art. It wasn’t until my twenties in college when my love for lettering resurfaced during an art class, where I was making all these drawings and adding words to them without really giving much thought as to why. My professor at the time told me what I was doing was actually a thing called “graphic design”, to which I responded “what’s graphic design?” He then handed me some brochures to a couple colleges that offered courses in communication design - one of which was for the University of North Texas. I wish I could remember his name, because I genuinely owe my whole career to that one conversation.

CB: Aha! Further proof that everyone who lives in Austin, isn’t actually from Austin. How did you decide to go to school in Texas? How’d you get from there to Austin?

SW: We moved from England to San Antonio when I was 15 years old, back in 1988 (I’ll let you do the math). After a few years there and then another 5 at UNT in Denton, I spent about two years working in Dallas before being asked to interview at GSD&M Advertising in Austin. That was kind of a no-brainer, and I ended up staying at GSD&M for 12 years before finally, this year, breaking out on my own and going solo.

CB: How is freelance life treating you? Have you had any challenges going from a structured environment to a looser one?

SW: Freelance life fits me absolutely right - I love working at home, being at home with my family every day. I don’t even mind the bustle of the comings and goings of everyone around me. I loved working at GSD&M - there are few agencies, I’m sure, that offer that exact blend of freedom, respect, and creative passion - but there’s nothing quite like being on your own schedule and making your own rules (and then breaking them). The biggest challenge is of course financial, in that you’re never 100% sure where and when your next paycheck is coming from (a big difference to getting paid every 1st and 15th without fail), but I’m staying gratifyingly busy so it’s all working itself out pretty well I think.

CB: That’s great to hear - some people (myself included) really struggle to get work done at home. Going back a little, you mentioned being enamoured with graffiti as a teenager. Does it still interest you? Where else do you find inspiration these days?

SW: I still appreciate graffiti, for sure, and I feel like those sensibilities come back to me sometimes when I’m taking liberties with letterforms, but it’s not a world I spend any real time in these days. I get my inspiration from anywhere and everywhere - it’s not even necessarily anything I go looking for, we just live in a world surrounded by letters so, you know, it’s hard to get away from them. The kind of lettering that excites me the most is the stuff you see in the world that’s sort of accidentally good, like a logo on some cheap, obscure brand of hair gel on the bottom shelf at a Diamond Shamrock - there probably wasn’t any practiced skill involved, but the stars aligned and a killer treatment emerged and now there it is, hiding away in plain view, waiting to be noticed.

A big thanks to Simon for chatting with us. To be notified when he releases new tees via CB, sign up here.

Our latest interviewee is a Pittsburgh local and CB pal, Mundania Horvath. Dane is very active in the local design/maker community, runs a popular local blog, and supports various events year round. Read on for more about her background and her ever evolving artistic endeavours.

CB: When we were first introduced to your work you were making amazing collage posters, but over the last year you’ve started making house portraits. What caused the shift?

DH: I’ve always been in awe of Pittsburgh architecture and knew I wanted to incorporate that into my work but I wasn’t sure how. In 2013, I worked as a designer for a local architect firm and while I was there, I came up with the idea of illustrating Pittsburgh houses as a year long project. I wanted to challenge myself into doing something in a medium that I wasn't entirely comfortable with, with a subject that I was passionate about. At that point, I hadn’t done illustration work since college. I actually practiced a few houses before I launched Pittsburgh Digs. Once I started posting the series, it took off unexpectedly. I received some press and then people started requesting commissions. I do still work on collage pieces and recently started a new collage project. It's hard finding the time to keep up with both and my full time gig on top of that. I wish we had more hours in the day!

CB: That’s great to keep yourself interested and learning by working in new mediums. Of the homes you’ve done, has there been a favorite?

DH: (editors note, she couldn’t pick just one; neither could we).

CB: These are all so beautiful! How did you get started in the graphic design world? Were you creative as a child?

DH: I was very creative and organized as a kid. I would sketch daily and keep my drawings dated, numbered, and signed in folders. (I still have them!) I later went to art school intending to focus on illustration, but a professor encouraged me to pursue design instead. So my introduction to the graphic design world was pretty traditional; I went to art school, did a design-focused internship, and then got a job with a small company in the Pittsburgh area.

I think that my illustration style was incongruent with the way that my professor taught, and he wasn’t very encouraging. I don’t regret ultimately focusing on design, but I wish I had continued with illustration too. I stopped sketching after that and didn’t return to it until I began my house illustration series in 2013.

CB: Do you ever thinking of going back to school and focusing on illustration? Or is working on that skill on your own time what works for you?

DH: Over the years I have learned that illustrations can come in different styles. I feel very comfortable where I am and I have the pleasure of working on house commission portraits for clients. During the day I have a full time gig at a university as their web content editor. I love my job and want to focus on that for now.

CB: It’s great to have a side project where you can continue to build upon a skill set you already have. Is there anything you’re interested in trying in the future that you don’t already have much experience with?

DH: I want to paint a mural, learn how to play drums, do a collage series that uses fiber art techniques and publish an illustration book.

CB: Wow - those are some ambitious goals! Good luck Dane, we can’t wait to see what you turn out next.

To keep up with Dane on the many things she is involved with, you can follow her on twitter, instagram, or her blog, Steeltown Anthem. Sign up here to be notified the next time she releases a tee on Cotton Bureau.