When In Doubt...

These words have been dancing around in my head for a while now, and I finally got them properly down on paper. When in doubt, be rad.

It began with a 4H graphite pencil sketch followed by a 005 micron outline. The 01 micron gave more definition to the letterforms with the help of a ruler to straighten some of them out. From there I roamed freely with a 005 blue micron to fill in the RAD.

Separate Songs

I have quite a love for the band Restorations, and one of my absolute favorite songs by them is Separate Songs. This band is one I can listen to any day of the week, when I am in just about any mood. That's more than I can say about many other bands and music groups. Separate Songs has some of the most well-written lyrics in my opinion. From "You said you worry about me leaving, I fear I'm already gone" to the chorus of "all singing the same time to separate songs" and going into the killer bridge...

Anyways, listen to it. Listen to all of LP3. While you're at it, listen to everything you can and then go see them in person and be wowed. 

The other night I played around with hand lettering ideas and came up with this. The next time you see it, it'll be on my gray 3/4 Bell helmet. Stay tuned, the 1shot is drying.

"Congratulations"

One of my close friends got engaged in Florida this past weekend and asked if my friend and I could decorate their place while him and his girlfriend were away. He had a bunch of ideas to make the room very special when they got home. Of course we said yes, and so did his now, fiance.

I ended up making them a "Congratulations" banner out of ripped canvas. I had seen some ideas on burlap but had extra canvas around for when I would stretch them for paintings. I made each letter have a square of canvas that was torn on the sides to give it an unfinished look. I simply used sharpie for the hand letters. They were strung together with a brown hemp-like string and tied to each side of the room. My friend and I hung a string of white lights with it. On the other side of the room we hung photos with small clothes pins. It's simply a 'just for fun' kind of project that came together quite well that I thought I would share.

mrsjjfive

One of the greatest things that has come out of being a part of the Aid to Injured Riders nonprofit has been the friendships I've developed with the other girls involved. I am proud to call them my friends and work on personal projects with them as well. Jodi Johnson has been a rock star behind the camera this season snapping some really awesome candids of racers and their teams. Because she was snapping more and more photos, she came to me wanting a logo for "mrsjjfive". I was happy to take on the project and sketched up some hand drawn logos one evening. After only one round of revisions we landed on one that she could use to make stickers, use it on autograph cards and, most importantly, as a watermark on her images she shares. Below are the various sketches that had been turned to vector and the final logo Jodi chose. 

 Above are the initial unorganized logo sketches on paper. Most times I sketch first to brainstorm various ideas.

 Above are those initial sketches in vector form. These are fairly rough vectors and I later cleaned up the line work on them. These are what I presented to Jodi for round one.

 The logos shown above are round two based on Jodi's feedback from round one. She wanted to incorporate some dots within the one logo so I provided various options to choose from.

Eventually she settled on the above logo that I had cleaned up, yet still allowed for the handwritten feel to remain. I look forward to seeing it around the flat track community!

Another Idea I Woke Up With

As you can see, this idea began as a drawing. I photographed it and vectorized it. I'm sure you'll be seeing this in some form via Throttle Down Speed Co., so stay tuned. I just need to determine what that form(s) will be. I'm pretty amped on it, so I hope you all are looking forward to see what I come up with!

Doodle Turned Into Vector

Last evening I had a spike in creativity and felt the need to create some handwritten typography and toss it over one of my new photos from the trip to Austin. Below is one of the doodles I made last night and its transition from a sketch to vector to photograph.

Hand Drawn Typography

Throttle Down Speed Co.

Throttle Down Speed Co: a lifestyle brand revolving around motorcycles, founded by two friends looking for an outlet to explore business & creativity. It's a vague sentence, but for now the minimalism will work.  Essentially the company originated from an idea, a name, a logo and an Instagram account.

The logo was inspired by the many handwritten typefaces and hand-painted signs throughout the vintage culture. From there, I started experimenting with painting motorcycle tanks and helmets just to get my feet wet. Going into it, my business partner Brian had come up with the business idea while emphasizing that this is a side gig that will allow us to explore many other things that we just won't get in our day jobs. For me it allowed for a very creatively experimental world that is not managed by anyone but myself.  The creative liberty was all my own, which was very exciting. "All things creative" was my loose "title" within the company, if you will, and so it began. We started with one t-shirt design, the Garage T-shirt, or what I refer to now as the OG.

It features a silhouette of a cafe racer, a bobber and a tracker along with a secondary version of our logo on the back of the tee. It truly represents the origins of the Throttle Down Speed Co. brand. Two-wheels was the primary theme and so it began. Throughout the first year we relied heavily on sales to everyone we knew and our growing Instagram following. Brian and I went to a ton of events that includes professional and amateur flat track races, hillclimbs, motocross races, vintage motorcycle shows, the race of gentlemen, bike nights, motorcycle shops, etc. The list was endless and is still growing today. We managed to make a lot of essential connections on the way to build our network that has benefitted the lifestyle brand quite well. 

The first time the Throttle Down Speed Co. logo began to make public appearance was on August 8, 2014, at the AMA Pro Flat Track Indy Mile race mounted on national number 51, Steve Murray's XR750.

It was an exciting moment to begin with, and even more thrilling when Steve Murray put his XR into the main event. Looking back, this moment feels like somewhat of a turning point for the company as we opened the door wide open to the flat track community and other forms of racing. Steve Murray later represented the Throttle Down Speed Co. logo within his graphics on his frisky two-stroke Yamaha in the various motocross events he rode in the 2015 season.

In 2015 I traveled to the 74th Annual Daytona Bike Week in Daytona Beach, FL. At the opening flat track races I was unofficially "scouting" to pick up our first sponsored racer within the GNC2 class. Dan Bromley, #54A really stuck out, and shortly after he would be one of the first professional flat track motorcycle racers to be sponsored by Throttle Down Speed Co. Throughout the year he represented the brand better than we could have ever expected. With stickers on his Motorcycle Superstore helmet, stickers on his 450 and t-shirts and snapbacks in the pits, he wore our name proud that initial season. He ended the season with a win at the Flat Track Finale in Las Vegas, NV and finished in second place in the GNC2 Championship. Did I mention he did us proud?

Aside from a successful race season, Throttle Down Speed Co. also launched several other t-shirt designs, snap back hats, beanies, long sleeve shirts and hoodies throughout 2015.  The long sleeve featured above on Bromley was one of my favorites showcasing that various bikes within the flat track races. I could go on for days telling you about my connection with flat track throughout my life, but I'll keep it brief. Art and motorcycles have been with me my entire life in one form or another. Those two things are the only things that have been with me from the beginning, so they mean everything. As far as flat track goes specifically, I got into it before I ever knew which way the bikes were going around the track. My dad always took me to watch the races, his parents always took him, and the family tradition lives on. Therefore, whenever I get the chance, I try to work in motorcycles within my art and art within my motorcycles. It's a pretty good deal if I do say so.

Below are several other designs that developed the brand early on. All designs originated from either a drawing, painting or sketch of some sort.

View all of the others here: throttledownspeedco.com.  2016 is looking to be a promising year for Throttle Down Speed Co.  I can't express how exciting it has been to build this brand to what it is today and to invent what it will become in the future.  A spring launch has been in the works for a few months, so please stay tuned to see what we come up with next-we've put in a lot of hard work and passion into it.  I look forward to traveling to even more events and exploring the culture further to continue to build the brand's culture.  I hope you all hang out with me along the journey because it's a fun one.

Cafe-X Design

I briefly mentioned Throttle Down Speed Co. in an earlier post and wish to expand upon that eventually. Unfortunately, tonight is not that night. I will, however, give you a look at one of my favorite pieces I have designed for the motorcycle lifestyle brand. It originated as a sketch on paper, turned into a one-color vector piece. Inspired by the vintage cafe racer motorcycles and the tape X on the headlight, you can purchase this original design here (also available in Mens crew.) Shirt Modeled by Colleen Bauer; photo taken by Brian Matthias.