Our latest Gift Cards for Target, The Love Meter and Glow-In-The-Dark Space Maze are now available in stores or online. Grab one for that special someone, and two for yourself.

It's been another fantastic year at IC, so we thought we'd share the love a bit. With any purchase over $30 until December 21st, you'll receive our new 11" x 14" Giclee print 'Snowballer'. Inspired by our recent snowmageddon experience here in Seattle, we thought it would be pretty neat to have a large orange pachyderm friend on our side in case that looming snowball fight with the bratty neighborhood kids does indeed happen. Tell your friends.

I couldn't pass up the opportunity to design a poster for one of my favorites, Killing Joke. Their music is like the soundtrack to the apocalypse, so naturally, a punk-orchestrated riot seemed like the perfect direction.

We'll never forget that day in 1983 that our mom brought home a bag of Legos the size of a small car. She had picked it up at a garage sale (who sells Legos?) for $8. From that point on, we were hooked. For obvious reasons, Legos ended up being our favorite toy for years to come  - and as with most things in parenting life, it's come full circle and is now my son's favorite toy. Like many folks, those bricks have been a big part of our family.

So as you can imagine, I wish I could hop in one of these to go back and tell my 8-year-old self about our newest project for Target, the Lego Build A Bullseye! Gift Card. We've been fortunate to work on many cool projects over the years, but this one was sorta special. We actually wrapped this up in May, so it's fun to finally see it in stores for the holidays.

Below are some shots of the carrier on press a few months back:

And here is the endcap fixture at the store. They were sold out at noon today, so I'm guessing there are other human beings that like Lego as well.

Thanks to our (always) amazing art director Ted for the brains behind this project, and the fine folks at LEGO for giving us the green light.

Oh, and check out the cool little animation below:

Here's 4 new (ish) books that we've been featured in recently: 1000 Indie Posters by John Foster (out in January), The Graphic Design Exercise Book by Carolyn Knight and Jessica Glaser, Typo Lyrics by Slanted and 1000 Supreme CD Designs by PageOne (This one actually came out in '08 but we spaced on it). Now you know what to get your favorite uncle for the holidays.

Found this one just in time. Happy Halloween everybody!

Just wrapped up this cover for Hawk Nelson's forthcoming record titled "Crazy Love." Each of the band's previous records have featured paper airplanes somewhere in the artwork, so our task was to incorporate an airplane on the cover.

It's a slow day for Mumford and his offspring. Here's our new poster for the Mumford & Sons show happening on 10/24 at The Paramount. These will be in the shop on 10/25. Oh, be sure to sign up to our mailing list to get the scoop on upcoming poster and product releases.

Here's our latest spot for Wired's 'Burning Question' series. This month's question: "Why do we still get so much spam?". If you own an iPad, check out the (simple) animated piece in the upcoming digital issue as well.

More editorial goodness from Grandpa.

As They Sleep is a new band on Solid State Records, bringing some much needed brutality to the masses. This is the album cover that we recently completed for their upcoming release titled Dynasty. We again enlisted photographic/set design whiz Jerad Knudson to help us see the vision through, and we couldn't be happier with the results. Apparently the model is a homeless man that sells newspapers near Jerad's house in Seattle's Capital Hill neighborhood.

It's always a treat to work with comedians - but in this case it's extra fun as Aziz is one of our favorites. Aziz commissioned us to create posters for the New York and DC shows of his upcoming 'Dangerously Delicious Tour'. If you're a fan, you know that Aziz loves food ... and if you have his last album, you know he also loves walking with dinosaurs. These are limited in quantity, but will be arriving in the shop after the dates.

Today is a monumentous occasion in our house: First day of kindergarten. I whipped this up last night and hid it in my little girl's lunchbox. I think the first day jitters are worse for parents. Either way, I'm a proud daddy. Update: Enough of you asked, so I decided to make it a small print.

These 3 pieces are some of my favorite from the AP vault. Not only are they a fun batch of mix-n-match monster features, but visual proof that buried somewhere deep within my DNA lies that love of creating monsters. My beloved grandmother recently just turned 86, and as my mom put it - we are 'attempting to mine her memory as much as possible' in regards to grandpa's work. There is just a lot she doesn't remember. My uncle states: "I'm not sure what the purpose was. He may have used them as examples when he was negotiating or demonstrating options to a client". Ahh, character comps. Sounds familiar.

Grandpa was always larger than life to Ryan and I. His career laid the foundation for our love of art. Unfortunately during most of our youth, we lived in different states and didn't get to see him as much as we would have liked. We grew up in Central Oregon while our grandparents lived in a little town called Oroville, about 90 miles south of Sacramento. I remember the yearly visits and the family gatherings at Christmas, but like most families at that time, we didn't have the money to travel often. Unfortunately, my memory of art conversations with him are fairly limited. I just remember always being in awe around him. He had a deep, soothing voice that commanded the attention and respect of everyone nearby. And I remember him always smiling and laughing. I like to think that had something to do with loving his 'job'. But on the other hand, I'm not convinced that artists really differentiate 'job' from 'life'.

In 1989, my father landed a new job in Sacramento. Relocating from a sleepy town in Oregon to a larger city was a big culture shock for me. And ironically - shortly after that, grandma and grandpa actually relocated to Washington state. Grandpa passed away in 1995. I was 20.

At the time of his passing, I was playing music and touring. Being in a band was my life. Art (visually at least) was on the back burner . I knew that it was something I was going to circle back to, but it wasn't in my immediate future.

Now that I'm 35 and have been doing this 'professionally' for almost 10 years, you can imagine how many questions I wished I would have asked him. It's something I can't spend a lot of time thinking about because of the obvious reasons.

I am grateful to have most of his pieces that he left behind, and the many family members who are helping to remember/research where and when these amazing illustrations came from. Many, many, many more to come.

Thanks, grandpa.

Here's our new poster for Arcade Fire, a band that we haven't been able to get enough of lately. I was inspired by the song 'City With No Children' from their new album, 'The Suburbs'. Available in the shop on September 27th. See it larger.

Here's a fun project we recently wrapped with the fine folks at Creature and JanSport. Catch the bus to see The Cave Singers - performing at an undisclosed location. A quick synopsis of the event:

'This summer, JanSport presents the first installment of the Bonfire Sessions, a free concert series celebrating the epic memories that can only be made outdoors. Here’s how it works. The hidden location of the concert is kept secret until the day of the show. All August long, check in here at Unzipped , as well as Facebook and Twitter , to get clues about the band and where to hitch a ride on the 28th. We’re taking a mere two busloads of people, so you’ll want to stay on top of the bus stop spot. And get your best lining-up/dancing shoes on.'

The poster was designed in 2 sizes: 24" x 36" and 18" x 24". 8 colors, screen-printed.

Check out your local newsstands now for the new issue of Revolver Magazine, featuring Zakk Wylde. We did the photo-illustration work for the cover and the feature, which meant many hours of cutting out little demon people to create the elaborate scenes. The cover image itself pays homage to recently deceased Frank Frazetta's classic artwork.

I first met Nate Wragg shortly after I stumbled upon his brilliant work for the film Ratatouille. Namely the 'Your Friend The Rat' short and his great books that were inspired by the film. Many of you are familiar with his fun illustrations and epic character work for Pixar and now DreamWorks. We began chatting as we seemed to share an obvious affinity for all kinds of misc. critters. Namely Sasquatch and the elusive Yeti. It was only natural that a trade was in order.

It took me weeks to nail down an idea, but decided that a 'biker Yeti' may be a funny prospect. I quickly started sketching and 'Freddy Mushyeti' was born. He may look a bit menacing, but I guarantee he's harmless. As for the rest of the 'Mushyeti's' crew, I can't exactly say the same.

Nate had the idea that we'd just surprise each other with the Yeti's and ship off the framed pieces without a clue as to what we'd be receiving. It was a great idea and I can't tell you how cool it was to unwrap. I think I may have even injured the UPS man as I ripped it out of his hands. I absolutely love it.

Next year: Swap Of The Sasquatch.

Nate's Yeti: 'A Break from the Snow' / 10" x 16" / Acrylic & Paper Collage / 2010 My Yeti: 'Freddy Mushyeti' / 17" x 23" / Digital / 2010

Here's another one from the files. Most likely late 1970's. Post NASA freelance. Looks to be something for 'Butte County'. Possibly a small local newspaper.

Many of you know that our grandfather, Alfred Paulsen, was a gifted illustrator who worked for NASA for 25+ years. During his tenure there (and after), he dabbled in all kinds of fun freelance work on the side. Recently we've started unearthing loads of his work and will be posting it on the blog from time to time.

I'm not sure what this spot was done for, but couldn't help but crack a smile just looking at it. Circa sometime in the 70's.

Much more to come.