Over the past couple of months I've used my down time between editorial illustration assignments to launch an online T-shirt business. As someone who wears a lot of tees and has always appreciated the medium as a form of personal expression, designing my own shirts is something I've always wanted to do. The push to finally take action came from my wife, Lynn.
Lynn is an associate professor of gender and sexuality studies at the University of Nevada Las Vegas, and has a new book entitled Vibrator Nation: How Feminist Sex-Toy Stores Changed the Business of Pleasure. Earlier this year she asked if I'd like to design some merchandise for her book tour. Of course I did, so I designed a series of T-shirts featuring images of some vintage and classic vibrators that were popular during the early era of women-friendly sex-toy businesses in the 1970s. I also created some simple vector drawings of 25 different vibrators and sex toys that we had printed on tank tops and tote bags. You can click on over and take a closer look at HappyOrangeDesigns.com.
Vibrator tees, tanks, and totes are only the initial line of merch. In the coming months I'll be releasing some new designs featuring images that, you know, aren't sex toys. Be sure to sign up for the mailing list, so you'll be the first to know when they're available … and you'll also receive a discount code for 15% off your first order!
In other news … I recently completed illustrations for Orange Coast, Desert Companion, and The Economist. The piece for Orange Coast is about a ride-hailing service for the children of busy parents. (Art Director: Mindy Benham)
The illustration for Desert Companion is about Nevada Republican's desperate recall efforts. (Art Director: Brent Holmes)
And the piece for The Economist is about the sexist "Google Memo" kid and how Larry Page should have responded. (Art Director: Mirabel Fawcett)
I also completed a website redesign for Katrina Karkazis, who is a Senior Research Scholar at the Center for Biomedical Ethics at Stanford University. Katrina is currently working on a book about "sex testing" and sports policies that ban women athletes for having naturally high testosterone.
Aside from work stuff, this summer Lynn and I took a drive up the coast of Maine. We ate seafood every day, did a lot of hiking, and spent two nights on Monhegan Island, which is one of Maine's 4,600 islands. It is truly a beautiful part of the country and I highly recommend you pay it a visit. OK. Bye!
–Ryan
