Chalkboard Art: Superzoo 2013

Hey now! Apologies for not posting more frequently lately but I have been busy busy busy (which is a good thing.)

I wanted to post a recent Chalkboard Art piece I did for Darford/ CanAm on site during the build day of Superzoo 2013, a massively large Pets/ Animal supplies convention here in Las Vegas which features everything from dog biscuits to aquariums.

This piece took about 6.5-7 hours on a 36"x24" board. I am quite the perfectionist so I wish I would have had more time for the clean-up process but I am very pleased with the way this one came out. Usually I am accustomed to doing this type of work at my studio but due to the short notice and circumstances of the project I actually went on site and did this during the exhibit build. Check it out!

And here is the original digital mock-up I put together:

As you can see the final product came out slightly different. This is pretty common when translating the digital information on to the physical board as spacing and layout adjustments have to be made to account for text size, legibility, etc. of final typography. All and all I would say I definitely captured the essence and was even able to make the final product a bit more fun. For an in studio project it is common that I spend 4 hours just working on the block-in and layout of the elements on the board.

Chalkboard Art; "The Beat" Cafe

** You can find more examples of my Chalkboard Art at these two posts:

http://jonathankaplan.blogspot.com/2013/07/chalkboard-art-superzoo-2013.html

http://jonathankaplan.blogspot.com/2010/11/chalkboard-art-update-elegant-script.html

A few months ago I was contacted by "The Beat" Cafe in downtown Las Vegas to do some chalkboard art. The project was for the wall menu. They wanted a hand drawn/ eroded feel to the piece. 

While I am used to clients wanting something fancy and shiny, this was a nice break. The Beat was right on in wanting the work done in a style cohesive with the mood of the rest of the establishment. This menu had a lot of items to fit on a small space, so the most difficult part of this project was the space management and placement of all the menu items. I frequently stop by "The Beat" for coffee when I am downtown and always feel a sense of accomplishment when I see how many people actually use the large chalkboard menu as opposed to the paper menus. Chalkboard art doesn't always need to be done in the style of a renaissance masterpiece. Work like this gets more exposure than most gallery art. This is one of the main reasons I love doing chalkboard art.

www.kaplandesignlabs.com

Pismo Series Addition & Chalkboard Art

Hello World! The first picture is of the rough draft/ progress shot of a chalkboard art project I am working on for a few high end restaurants here in Las Vegas. The second is a painting I did to add to a series of paintings I am working on based off of some photos I took on my Pismo Beach vacation. Enjoy!