Scott Hull Associates

Our very own Mikey Burton took a trip to Portland to accept his honor,“Mikey Burton Week” an official national holiday plus to hang with the Friends of Graphic Design from Portland State University! Mikey came to talk to students about their work, shared his process of his thesis project during Show & Tell, and hosted an all day mark making workshop where students created an *almost* portfolio ready logo in one day.

The challenge of the Mark Making workshop was to create a thoughtful, meaningful mark through the process of brainstorming and sketching within one day. The assignment was to create a mark for a festival for a randomly drawn city and festival type. Some examples include New Orleans Sandwiches, DC Doughnuts, Honolulu Comic Festival and other crazy festival concoctions.

Check out the process and results!!

When Mikey Burton decided, as the subject of his graduate thesis project, to create a series of re-imagined illustrations of what the covers of such literary classics as “Animal Farm,” “Lord of the Flies” and “Fahrenheit 451,” among many others, could have looked like, it’s safe to assume that he did not anticipate that his illustrations would make their way onto the t-shirts of adolescents nor that they would lead to the donation of over 20,000 books to several bare cupboard schools and libraries in Africa.

The thesis project was part of Burton’s graduate studies program at Kent State University; a program that resulted in a Master of Arts in Graphic Design for him. In the time since, Burton has become an accomplished artist who has done design work for such well-known clients as The Sundance Channel, MTV2 and the popular band, Wilco. Burton’s design work has received awards from Communication Arts, Print, HOW, CMYK, and Logo Lounge.

Recognizing Burton’s talent and the appeal that his modern interpretations on classic literature would have on younger audiences, Out of Print Clothing, a Brooklyn-based purveyor of stylish, youthful t-shirts that feature iconic and often out of print book covers, recently utilized the re-imagined literary graphics to launch its first collection of originals. Now, Burton’s designs can be found on the trendy, comfortable t-shirts and sweatshirts that Out of Print prints in Brooklyn and ships throughout the world.

Since launching in January of 2010, Out of Print vowed to give one book for every shirt sold to their charity partner Books for Africa, with the goal of selling enough shirts in 2010 to send 20,000 books to Africa before the end of the year. Thanks in large part to the sale of t-shirts featuring the popular designs of Mikey Burton, Out of Print reached their goal three months early and was able to send 560 boxes containing over 20,000 books to schools and libraries in Dares Salaam, Tanzania in October of 2010.

Although Burton could not possibly have foreseen the reach and success potential of his illustrations when he first created them, his comments on the goals of his design work show that what has transpired must be tremendously satisfying for him: “The whole reasoning behind my project was simply to get young adults interested in reading. I was never a big reader myself and it was something I regret every day of my life. Maybe if I thought reading was cool when I was a kid, I would have done it more. Also, in a time where people are doing less reading, I think it’s more important now than ever to make reading seem more appealing,” Burton explains.

The partnership between Burton and Out of Print turned out to be perfect for both parties. Out of Print needed access to a designer with a youthful appeal. And Burton’s creative idea and admirable goal were only in need of a specific audience, one that Out of Print provided in the form of fashion forward young adults and, most unexpectedly, a book-starved region of Tanzania.

What’s your story? Wear it proud when you send a book to Africa: Out of Print Clothing

Mikey Burton of Scott Hull Associates is named ADC Young Guns Winner

The Art Directors Club has announced 50 young creatives, from 14 countries, to claim the prestigious Young Guns 8 Title. The ADC Young Guns award is the only international, cross-disciplinary, portfolio-based awards competition identifying today’s creative professionals aged 30 or under. Selected from entries received from 37 countries, these ADC Young Guns 8 winners represent an impressive global roster of young talent! Ready, Aim, Fire…. Congratulations Mikey Burton! Check out Mikey’s winning entry at: http://www.adcyoungguns.org/enter/winners8/?id=111 or on www.scotthull.com for a  complete portfolio.

This Spot Illustration by Mikey Burton for the June/July Issue of ReadyMade magazine was used in the “Place Setting” feature about Tucson, AZ. The client was thrilled with Mikey’s face-paced turnaround and original expression of the city’s colorful character.

This six foot long illustration was printed digitally on glass tables for this years Facebook Developer’s conference. SHA artist Mikey Burton kept with the theme of the conference, “Roll up your sleeves and get it done.” in his illustration. He created a piece of art littered with exactly what it takes to get any job, literally or figuratively, done: tools.

Tim Gough joins the SHA family from Philadelphia, bringing both brotherly love and a passion for silk-screen conceptual art. Tim melds images of spies and monstrous creatures with bursts of color and densely clustered patterns, creating dynamically rich works that are equally inspired by mid-century graphics and the screen-printing process itself.

Tim has been working a designer/art director for various agencies and design firms for the past 8 years, but in 2007 he left the agency life behind to pursue illustration and art full time. His work can be be found in books, magazines, newspapers, and other ephemera nationwide and abroad. Tim also publishes a limited edition zine called “Cut and Paste” – a regular consortium of his various drawings and ideas – and frequently shows his illustrations and screen-prints in galleries and shows.

So far Tim has worked with The New York Times, Business Week, The Progressive, The Philadelphia Weekly, Nylon Magazine, Bust Magazine, Fast Company, Burton Snowboards, Poketo, Leo Burnett, Warner Bros. Records, and Urban Outfitters. And who knows? If you’ve got a need for some visually arresting, conceptually interesting and rough-textured art, your name could be next on that list.
An Ohio native, Mikey Burton proudly describes his design aesthetic as “Midwesterny” and draws much of his inspiration from artifacts found throughout the hardworking, blue collar Rust Belt: old type-specimen sheets, arcane equipment manuals, ancient textbooks, you name it. “I’m fascinated with how past designers had to come up with ideas and solve problems using limited resources,” Mikey says. “For instance, figuring out how two colors can work harder than four. It helps me get to better solutions myself.”

Mike worked hard and got to a BS/MA in Visual Communication Design from Kent State University, in addition to helping found Little Jacket Design. Since then he has worked with Wilco, The Sundance Channel, MTV2, Facebook, Spoon and Wired magazine, among others, and received awards from Communication Arts, Print, HOW, CMYK, Logo Lounge and recently Print’s New Visual Artist. Mikey now lives in sunny Philadelphia, where he enjoys the myriad culinary delights of his adopted hometown, and continues to nurture his lifelong obsession with bears, which are “so cute and lovable,” despite being “probably the most dangerous animals ever.”

In keeping with the “roll up your sleeves and get it done” theme of the “f8” conference for Facebook developers, Scott Hull Associates artist Mikey Burton did exactly that. In his illustration, Mikey created a piece of art littered with just what it takes to get any job done, whether literally or figuratively: tools. The six-foot long illustration was printed digitally on glass tables for this year’s event.