The portfolio of Boston artist Logan Faerber is full of surprises. On one end of the spectrum there is his design work – clean, iconic graphics and elegant typography. Then there’s his beautiful illustrations full of lively brush strokes and interesting color choices. They have a surprising energy and personality you don’t initially detect in his design work. It’s rare to find someone so skilled in both disciplines. Check out his portfolio – particularly his Dribbble account – and you’ll see the versatility of this talented artist. The Monsters, Inc. piece he’s created for us definitely shows off his lively illustration side but includes nods to his design work as well. It’s a perfect marriage of his styles and we’re so grateful for his time on this. Read on for more about Logan in his own words!
NAME: Logan Faerber
LINKS:
Dribbble (most up to date)
Twitter (process sketches)
loganfaerber.com (not updated over the past 1-2 years)
tumblr (not updated over the past 1-2 years)
I currently live in…Brighton, MA
Hometown: Portsmouth, RI
Favorite Pixar Movie:
Wall-e (UP is a close second)
Favorite Pixar Character:
Wall-e
Tell us about your piece:
I really love the portal-like doors in Monsters, Inc. and absolutely love the overall concept of the movie. While I think that Pixar has improved their craft over the years, the pure originality, crazy character designs, and the unique creativity that shows through in this film is fantastic. I would love to see more of this world explored beyond just the cinematic realm and wanted to embrace the opportunity to lend my own version to such a classic cast of characters.
Who/what inspires you?
I read a ton of comics, books, and play a decent amount of video games, so each of those media outlets have had a clear influence on my subject matters and character designs. I also watched a lot of cartoons growing up, so while I’m not directly involved with animation, I do tend to incorporate a great deal of my stylistic choices to shows such as Ren & Stimpy, Spongebob Squarepants and Adventure Time — especially the close up acrylic painting like rendering of various objects they want to highlight, the background environments, and the title screens that typically include hand lettered typography. My favorite artists now tend to stem from the comic book world or the design world. I really love Craig Thompson’s work, Jeff Smith, Dave Cooper, Ryan Putnam, Justin Mezzell, Justin Pervorse, Mike Mignola, James Jean, Paul Pope, Patrick Leger, Michael Cho, Chris Samnee, Paolo Rivera, Mike Allred — I could go on forever. I’ve been on a big Nintendo kick recently, so a lot of that has begun to inch its way into my work.
Recommend something to our readers:
I’ve been reading a lot of Murikami recently, which is always inspirational and thought provoking, so I would totally tell everyone to read Kafka on the Shore and see if he’s something you might be interested in. The Invincible comics by Robert Kirkman and Ryan Ottley are absolutely phenomenal and have consistently told a story that has, by far, exceeded my expectations. And it’s been going for about ten years now – still as strong as ever. The new Batman comics by Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo are amazing and should not be missed. Listen to Sylvan Esso, Son Lux, SOHN, Casino Versus Japan, The Field, Jon Hopkins, Amon Tobin — all wonderful musicians that continue to inspire me everyday — they’re also great to work to if you have to get through a tough project. Oh, and see The Raid 2 if you like martial arts at all. It will blow your mind.
Shameless self-promotion:
I’ll be at HeroesCon this year. I work at DockYard.com building websites for various companies. If anyone out there needs a sweet website, we are always happy to help! Also, we have created a Tools of the Trade, which is a collection of free icons for everyone to use. The site is http://toolsofthetrade.dockyard.com/ and we try to update it weekly with fun icon sets made by a variety of different designers. Each one will be a specific theme chosen by that week’s designer.
Last year, I completed a book with SVG Publishing called The Cartoon Guidebook to Absolute Failure, which you can find on Amazon and most local bookstores. Lastly, I will be working on a comic series with BOOM! Studios this year that I’m very excited about, but will have to keep it under wraps for just a tad bit longer.
If you’d like to be considered for a PixArt feature, send us a link to your portfolio for consideration. Contact Us today!
View all previous PixArt pieces here.
