It is always an honor working with extremely talented and creative groups. This is especially true when collaborating with musicians on album artwork, band logos, posters, and general killer designs. The Sugar Prophets are no exception to what I call the ‘band rule’. These dedicated hard hitters of the blues knock the design flavor into Jolt-coca-pop-rocks code red! With their debut album ready to hit the airwaves, interweb, and a presence at the International Blues Challenge in Memphis this multi-talented blues-entourage is about to engage and burst into the blues scene like a bear outta hell!

Canopy Club Show Poster ©2010 Nick Beery

After putting together a show poster for a few local acts which included The Sugar Prophets in the line up, frontman Josh Spence hit me up to put together TSP’s image and logos. The group loved the “record head” element from the show poster. We spun some ideas for additions to the logo making it more streamlined and ‘blues’ proper which ultimately ended up utilizing the wavy beard of the logo to divide and create a Fender telecaster silhouette with the negative space and thus produced “the prophet”.

The Sugar Prophets Logos

The Sugar Prophets are due to release their record at the end of January 2011 and continues to garner new fans and a devoted fan base wherever they play. Their raw, intense energy and blue collar lyrics are both danceable and deep. Blending sounds across Blues, Rock, R&B, Funk, Country, Soul, and Gospel; The Sugar Prophets have the sound of a soul-inspiring locomotive heading straight to your door. Listen and become a believer in this heartfelt message of amazing music.

Design/Photo/Composites by Al Brandtner

From The Sugar Prophets Press Release:

The Sugar Prophets: www.thesugarprophets.com

The Sugar Prophets are an interesting amalgam of backgrounds and talent that have seemingly merged together in the right time, place, and groove. Fiery singer and harmonica slinger Josh Spence had been around the Central Illinois Blues scene as a regular guest performer with both local and national touring acts for years before deciding to form the band in March, 2009. The band played several shows and went through a few personnel changes until February 2010, when the present day lineup was set. Since then, The Sugar Prophets’ profile has continued to rise in Central Illinois Blues circles and beyond. After playing just over 100 shows in their first year, The Sugar Prophets were chosen to go to Memphis and represent the Illinois Central Blues Club at the 2011 International Blues Challenge.
Now, don’t get the impression that this band is just a group of young pups trying to run with the big dogs. No, The Sugar Prophets have a lot more experience and savvy than that! In their current form, collectively, they’ve logged over 5,000 shows. In fact, some have recorded and played with some of the finest musicians in the worlds of Blues, Gospel, R&B, and Blues-Rock.
Guitarists Joe Asselin, former member of the Kilborn Alley Blues Band, and A.J. Williams, who has logged miles with Murali Coryell, Shirley King, and legendary blues sax-man A.C. Reed, combine with bassist Al Chapman, best known as the rock-solid groove-man in Billy Galt’s Blues Deacons, drummer extraordinaire, Aaron “A Train” Wilson, who has performed with Nick Moss & the Flip-Tops, the Kilborn Alley Blues Band, and Joe Moss, and front man, Josh Spence to form the The Sugar Prophets.

For more info, show dates, interviews, and audio tracks from The Sugar Prophets:

www.thesugarprophets.com

Contact: Josh Spence

Email: thesugarprophets@live.com

Here is the design Flight I did a while back for Pacific Northwest based apparel company Ruthless Ink. The design coalesces an urban landscape with nature-inspired accents. The city scape was produced from photos I took in Chicago. Hence the large spiring towers on top of the skyscraper via downtown Chi-town. Silhouettes of birds rise from the buildings to positive fills bursting out into the sky. Hidden as a structure amongst the cities geometric fortress sits an old school boom box giving a little street flare to the design. Graphics that depict the juxtaposition of nature and metropolitan lifestyles seamlessly together always make for great marketing on many levels.

Flight ©2009 Nick Beery

Silhouettes of birds rise from the buildings to positive fills bursting out into the sky. They flutter up to the large eagle which delicately caresses the side of the left breast on the women’s garments.

In Flight Black

When Ruthless Ink took the design to production they removed the lettering, thus making this tee not speak so much branding but beauty in an art-inspired graphic tee. The two color print ended up on women’s sheer black and gray short sleeve cap tees with distressed edges on the neck, sleeves, and hemline. The company had bought several designs which are to be released in upcoming seasonal lines.

In Flight Slate

These tees look stylish on the body and off! Check back for updates with the Ruthless Ink crew soon!

Flight on Slate | Black | White

Here’s a peek at how I ink the insane…

I’ve been working with Skinny Buddha and The NOC crew since the giddyup. It’s a solid bond and we keep one another energized like pink bunnies with drums each and every step of the way. Building an ark to carry our precious treasures and potions of intoxicating creations we set out across the nation spreading the word of sages and leaving a trail of masses screaming for more. As collaborators in a saucy day and age such as this it is rewarding providing platforms to endorse those who strive passionately with their spirited appetites and create a means of structure to grow together. Is a reciprocated, viciously beautiful cycle of power we pass back and forth so when the lacy gems of brilliance come to fruition the bounty is shared and we dine like blazing lions fresh on the kill. For we are always hungry…

Here’s the latest blast on the NOC apparel designed by the Beery. Love touch action tees blessed with the iconic NOC logo. This time around I switched up the classic logo branding the beer bottle of the C and swapped in a spilling oil drum paying homage to the South Atlantic and the BP bullshit. We love our coasts. That’s where we enjoy our fun in the sun carnage. Seriously it is an incredible force working with solid talent. Expect another explosive year…Beery Method + Skinny Buddha = 2011!

Nicki Zwiesler for Skinny Buddha

Classic NOC logo illlustrates the groups fresh flavors through letter elements. The “N” – Joint and hand sort of implying the bird though not literally. The “O” – an eye peering out surrounded by teeth: the old there is more to the inner sense and style that will hit you when the lyrical mouth lets loose and the snake eating itself (ouroboros): The Ouroboros represents self reflexivity or cyclicality, especially in the sense of something constantly re-creating itself, the eternal return of K Sos and The NOC The “C” – The lyricists best friend the pencil. A tipped bottle of booze “pour out a little liquor”! and the wave: giving homage to Florida roots.

The NOC classic

The NOC Oil Logo boasts the same classic graphics except for changing up the top element of the C. We agreed that an oil drum and monochromatic color scheme would enhance the logo for the Southern crowd. After playing with some color ways we had a vivid velvet purple and royal blue that really made the printing pop off the black garments. Below is the muted ‘oil’ color way.

NOC Oil Logo

Another stunning model, Meredith Brooke,  sporting the royal blue NOC tee. Check out www.skinnybuddha.com for the freshest gear, hot tracks, and more killer artwork by Beery Method.

Meredith Brooke sports The NOC tank for Skinny Buddha

Maya civilization reeks of brutality through religion demonstrated as human and animal sacrifice, bloodletting of tongues and foreskin, and even the extraction of children’s still beating hearts. Kinda takes you back to Indiana Jones and The Temple of Doom (que big head dress guy “Ah mumshee bi-Ah mumshee bi-Ah mumshee bi”). Those tales of this extremely advanced and prolific civilization is exactly what fascinates and inspires the inner Maya in myself and sometimes my visual art. In MMXII is the symbology behind the villains, vagabonds, murderers, and misfits.

I’ve been obsessed with the Mayan history, culture, art, prophecies, and religion since ancient history class. The Maya are an intriguingly industrious and detail oriented civilization with a central focus on astronomy. This is usually where the reference to the Mayan calendar and the year 2012 come into play. For those who think it is a doomsday prophecy, all I can say is you need to do some homework. This coming of age and end to their provincial eon cyclical calendar is simply a shift in the ‘chaosmic’ energy and it’s extended effect on current global societies mind set and states. It is this reverberation of energies spit across the galaxy and into our world that seems to feed the planets ancient ways and not allow us to get too far away from the bigger picture.

Archeologists claim that the Maya began counting time as of August 31, 3114 B.C. This is called the zero year and is likened to January 1, AD. All dates in the Long Count begin there, so the date of the beginning of this time cycle is written 13-0-0-0-0. That means 13 cycles of 400 years will have passed before the next cycle begins, which is December 27, 2012. The new cycle will begin as 1-0-0-0-0. This is my Roman Numeral reference of MMXII. The calendar itself was divided into cycles 3 million years long, subdivided into units of 20 years, 400, 8,000 and 158,000 years. There were also subunits for marking the death and rebirth of the sun and fire. Rituals punctuated the cycles and acted like the needles of a clock, marking the passage of time. This is where the Mayan games and sacrifices would typically take place.

The death god was called Yum Cimil. He also could be called Ah Puch, the god of the Underworld. His body is predominantly skeletal. I like to depict the dark lord as more of a warrior and give him scales somewhat representative of a serpent. Yum Cimil is my go to evil-guy for this piece. Solely dedicated to the chaos of which was likely the end of the Maya development. He is depicted in MMXII reigning the mouth of an odd serpent head. The maya vision serpent symbolizes the passage of ancestral spirits and the gods of Xibalba (the maya underworld) into our world. In states of ecstasy and usually following bloodletting, particularly as graphically depicted at Yaxchilan, maya mobility invoke the vision serpent. The vision serpent can be the vehicle by which ancestors or deities make themselves manifest to humanity.

MMXII ©2010 Nick Beery

Below the strange serpent head is a jaguar which is also represented at the upper right hand corner. Mayans believed that four jaguars, called bacabs, held up the sky at each corner of the earth. Every bacab had a different color. Each corner represented a cardinal direction. Each direction had a color: east-red; north-white; west-black; south-yellow. Green was the center. This is why you will find several jaguar heads at each corner of the piece.

To the left of Yum Cimil is Cizin, “Stinking One”. Cizin is the Mayan earthquake god and god of death, ruler of the subterranean land of the dead. He lives beneath the earth in a purgatory where all souls except those of soldiers killed in battle and women who died in childbirth spend some time. Cizin is often depicted holding a smoking cigarette. My Cizin is adorned with a falcon’s head and a rolled smoke.

Click any of the photos below for a full view of close ups and detail shots.

It is now ever present with the onslaught of technology in our lives that we are blinded to see what the Maya knew as constant energy around us. While your busy texting, blogging, playing video games, and talking on your cell while watching television you just missed out on the true energy that provides you with the will to keep going. It’s like stepping out into the bright sun in spring after a harsh grey winter. We need to stay tuned in to the cosmos, our galaxy, the seasons, and slow down just enough to not turn our backs on the star dust that is truly our heritage.

For an excellent reading into the Maya and educated, somewhat scientific meanings behind the culture and calendar I highly recommend picking up a copy of The Mayan Code.

I get to do some really rad tattoo artwork for a varietal mix of clientele from time to time. As a lover of ink both on paper and on skin it seemed proper to document the process of going from concept to body art. Usually when I’m hired to design tattoo pieces for the millennial culture I get to do crazy stylization and Beery twists on even zanier ideas. I recently illustrated a tattoo for fellow Skinny Buddha crew member and rapper of The N.O.C. K Sos. K Sos and I work hand in hand to create visually stunning album covers for his musical entourage and South Florida crew. He spits the fantastical concepts and I work the pen to produce the visual offspring.

K Sos and I began the discussion of subject matter and how the artwork would reflect his musical endeavors as well as his personal history. As someone who tours and does shows across the nation it seemed fitting to produce a kind of ‘traveler’s tattoo’. He decided it would be appropriate to reference a few great festivals that inspired Sos and his movement with The N.O.C. I believe his initial description was something like a Voodoo Doll riding an alligator on the Golden Gate Bridge. This was to become a symbology of three capital states, the festivals, and icons of the regions. The Voodoo doll represents the dirty Southern state of Louisiana and Voodoo Fest. The alligator obviously represents the South and even more specifically Florida with regards to Langerado. The trickier part of the design was including Golden Gate Bridge with indelibly speaks San Francisco and the California festival Outside Lands.

Voodood Tattoo ©2009 Nick Beery

The line work as basis for the tattoo had to be created to utilize the curve of the calf muscle and placement on the leg. Hence Golden Gate bridge at a sweeping ‘fish-eye’ lens perspective. I didn’t hold back on the details with the actual tribal mask face from Louisiana to the singular ‘shroom element on the voodoo doll’s chest. These are small but specific elements relative to the treasured place and times of K Sos’s traveling.

It is a real pleasure working on the artwork for the N.O.C. albums and collaborating with such a positive group of energy-pushers. The creative momentum seems to be a cyclical feed that allows both visual and audio artists to gain drive and the end result is nothing short of amazing. All our collaborative projects bleed bad ass dedication always. The tattoo may be just line work at the moment, but I know once K Sos gets back on the leather table it is going to be epic. Below is just the beginning phase.

Voodood Tattoo on K Sos calf muscle.

Here’s the badass color…

Color!

I’m always available for tattoo art commissions so hit me up if you need great ink!

In the spirit of the harsh winter season I will delve into even darker subject matter. With the extreme chill in the air I go to my demons to keep me warm. Armed with my wood burning iron and thoughts of fiery brimstone I embrace the smoke that becomes imagery and get some really wicked results. Devil’s Poison is another addition to my ode to tattoo art series that is a collection of similar previous works such as King Kong Chaos, Fast Life, and Cthulhu.

Devil’s Poison is a meaty take on my perception of the Dark Underworld King. When I think of the Devil I picture multiple horns, eyes, jagged teeth and a sinister stare from a gaunt face. In the tradition of my Hobo-Eater stylization the real aesthetics boil down to the intense line work and hard outlined ‘cartoon-strokes’. Mix these elements with some vivid dyes and stains and suddenly a very ordinary piece of wood becomes an intricate piece of witchcraft! Keeping in line with the devilish theme and symmetry of the work it is necessary to add spiky flames, knives, piercings, and a violent cobra. Serpents and horns say EVIL always!

Devil's Poison ©2010 Nick Beery

I’ve been busy tinkering with some new sloganish pieces for  stenciling and branding on the fly. Below is my bold new slogan GET FUQD. A new brand to be out on the streets and coincide with all that is Beery. So if you don’t like it …

Get FUQD

Cut stencil...not sprayed