Hip-hop culture is all about the bling. Bling is big, bling is flashy, and bling is meant to impress. It is meant to symbolize success, which is the theme of “Self Made 3”, the third volume of the successful series by Rick Ross’ Maybach Music Group.

For the album’s cover art, Greg Burke, Creative Director for Atlantic Records turned to the artists at John Taylor Dismukes & Associates to bring the bling. Working from a preliminary design influenced by US currency, the Dismukes team created a precise 3D model, which was rendered to perfection in virtual gold.

Popular Hip-hop magazine The Source sums it up in their July 6th article:

“Rick Ross and company evoke jealousy with their new album art. Maybach Music Group, headed by everyone’s favorite Big Boss in the game–Rick Ross, released the cover art for the third installment of their Self Made series. Featuring a luxurious three decked out in shiny gold, the cover promises that the contents held within will be extravagant as ever.”

Read the original article at theSource.com

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Scare tactics.

After concepting and creating many blockbuster movie posters for renowned LA agency Seiniger Advertising, John Taylor Dismukes & Associates was selected to create a new campaign for Universal Studios’ Halloween Horror Nights. With fierce competition from other regional amusement parks and other venues, attendance was dwindling and Universal was contemplating removing the event from its annual calendar. Under the direction of Mel Sant and Hal Kaufman, Dismukes & Associates was commissioned to create an attention-grabbing marketing campaign to re-energize the event. We agreed that the creative needed to be powerful, yet simple.

John Taylor Dismukes was the perfect choice to lead this project — his art has always been extreme. His team shot numerous reference photos of people, skulls and animal jaws under tightly pulled plastic bags, satin and other materials. It took an amazing amount of work to get the textures and feel just right. The initial designs were deemed “too scary” according to focus groups, so they were reworked to be more family friendly. The terrific collaborative team of Universal, Seiniger Advertising, and JTD & Associates enjoyed the entire creative exploration process.

Universal’s on-site billboards face the busy 101 freeway, and its trams are highly visible to passersby, so both were wrapped with the finished art to maximize ad dollars. Locals and tourists alike saw the artwork every day, which created quite a buzz.

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The result was an overwhelming success. Universal’s annual Halloween event has become legendary, and these campaigns were relicensed by Universal’s Florida Park. Since then, our team has continued to work with Seiniger Advertising to create the Islands of Adventure theme park logo, as well as campaigns for many Universal attractions, including Waterworld, Jaws, The Hulk, and their annual Christmas event.

Got a monster of an idea? Let us help you bring it to life.

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Taking The MotorCity Casino Logo Out For a Spin

Designed with input from renowned automotive designer Chip Foose, MotorCity Casino Hotel is Detroit’s most innovative entertainment venue and the crown jewel of the city’s skyline. Much like the building itself, the Motor City logo is a salute to Detroit’s celebrated era of tailfins, white-walls, and lots of shiny chrome.

To capture the mirror-like quality of chrome, John Taylor Dismukes & Associates was commissioned to create a version of the casino’s monogram in 3D. Created for ESW Partners Agency, under the direction of Greg King, we developed a 3D model of the logo which was then animated. “Adding dimension to an existing logo creates excitement and allows you to extend its display options across multiple platforms,” says John Dismukes. “I’ve been called upon to create metal effects many times for clients like Sid Meyers, Steppenwolf and Harley Davidson, using traditional airbrush techniques or Photoshop” says Dismukes.

Today, modeling with 3D software is by far the best way to capture the reflections and detail necessary to create a convincing chrome effect.

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Modeling a logo or product in 3D also offers a lot of versatility and flexibility. A 3D model can be rendered in high-resolution from any angle for print use, animated and composited into video, or allow for user interaction in multimedia applications.

MotorCity’s new 3D logo is used for video, multimedia, web and in many other business and consumer-facing applications… but it would also be right at home on the hood of any piece of fine detroit steel.

Today, modeling with 3D software is by far the best way to capture the reflections and detail necessary to create a convincing chrome effect.

— John Taylor Dismukes

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Have you’ve picked out your costume for this year’s Halloween party? While you’re deciding between Lady Gaga or Hellboy, take a moment to consider dressing up your brand as well.

The typically sluggish month of October is a great time to have a little fun with your brand, and Halloween is the perfect excuse to break the rules a little or show your mischievous side. Here are just a few ways you can bring attention to your brand under the harvest moon:

• Put your website in a clever disguise. Use CSS stylesheets to temporarily change the colors and graphics, without affecting its functionality. With this approach you can easily “re-theme” your site for any holiday or season.
• Send a halloween card or email to your customers. Don’t wait for Christmas or New Year when everyone’s mailbox is full of similar sentiments. Your message may be lost among the heap.  Reach out to your customers now, before the holiday rush.
• Sponsor a halloween event or party in your community. A small investment can reap lots of goodwill among your customers.
• Have fun with your print advertising. This is one of the few times that you can get away with deviating from your brand standards, if you do it cleverly and with purpose.
• Hold an online costume contest for your customers. Invite them to share photos of themselves. Tie in your product or service if possible (perhaps your product must be included in the photo). Let your customers vote for their favorite.
• Create special holiday packaging for food and beverage products. Candy, cookies, cereals, snack foods and beverages have shelf great appeal to customers and their kids when they’re dressed up for the party.

Here are a few great examples of Halloween-branded campaigns that were done by other companies…

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Testing Our Metal with Sid Meier

Civilization III: Gold Edition was one of the first illustration projects in which John Dismukes partnered with legendary game designer and creator of the Civilization game series, Sid Meier. The partnership was introduced after executives from gaming company Atari, and Meier came across Dismuke’s award-winning artwork for the Unreal game packaging and logo he created in 1998.

Working with Meier and the creative team at Atari, Dismukes produced illustrative packaging for Civilization III: Gold Edition in 2001. For stand-out shelf appeal in the ultra-competitive gaming market, John rendered the package in vivid, metallic hues of gold and purple, with rich, intricate detail.

Following the success of Civilization III, Atari and Meier once again commissioned John to create packaging for their new game, Pirates! in 2004, and, again for  Civilization III: Complete Edition.

Throughout their working relationship, John Taylor Dismukes & Associates and Meier have successfully collaborated on many other packaging designs—and we look forward to even more projects in the future.

Are you ready to play what Time Magazine calls “the best computer strategy game of all time”? Visit the Civilization III website and get your copy today!

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In this example, an image of Broughty Ferry Castle in Northern Ireland, the late afternoon sun casts a harsh glare against the facing castle walls, while the sides of the castle and the river in the foreground are in deep shadow. The brightest parts of the image are nearly blown out, while the shadow areas are so dark that it’s hard to see any detail.
Luckily, there are a few great methods in Photoshop that can help bring this image back into balance. This particular method is one of my favorites, because it’s fast and practically foolproof.

Open your Layers and Channels palettes. In the Channels palette, Hold down the Command key (or Ctrl on a PC) and click on the RGB channel icon.
This will select the brightest parts of the image, according to their Luminosity.

Press Command-J (or Ctrl-J on a PC). This creates a new layer containing the selected area only.

Name this layer “Highlights” and set the blend mode to Multiply.

This has the effect of darkening and intensifying the color and contrast in the bright areas of the composite,If your image is overexposed in one area and underexposed in another, like this example, add a layer mask by selecting Layer→Layer Mask→Reveal All.

Use a large, soft brush, or create a black & white gradient on the layer mask to hide or reveal portions of the layer. For best results, avoid hard edges when painting the mask, or apply a gaussian blur to the mask.Is the effect too strong? Simply lower the opacity of your highlight layer. Want it even stronger? Duplicate the layer, as I’ve done here.

These same steps can also lighten shadow areas by choosing Select→Inverse after making your selection in Step 1.

Then set the blend mode of the layer you create in Step 2 to “Screen” instead of “Multiply.”

In this example, two “Highlights” layers and one “Shadows” layer are combined to create richer color and better contrast.

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“Brooks & Dunn” has been a completely pleasant project for me. John has provided great art as well as friendly customer service. I was also impressed with the speed of his team. All in all a great experience!

Thanks,

Chris Lussow
The Integer Group

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Hi John and Jo-Anne,

Colorblind just took “Best Documentary” in the Garden State International Film Festival.  It was a lovely, loving festival that honored the gentleman that created the Batman and Catwoman films (a Jersey native) and Frank Vincent from the Sopranos for a lifetime achievement award (also a Jersey native). Also attending was Julie Gold the composor of the 1990s hit song “From a Distance”.  Her heartfelt rendition of that song was so moving.  The entire evening was very magical.  It was held in an English Manor and that added to the aesthetics.  When Colorblind won it was so very exciting.

I’m off to the Palm Beach International Film Festival (a major festival).  Colorblind has been chosen by the judges there as one of six documentaries up for the Audience Award.  It is quite an honor to be there and it should be a wonderful week.

I already have one distributor who wants Colorblind . . . but . . . I’m holding out for more offers!!!

Thanks again for seeing the message and the magnitude of the story behind Colorblind.  John’s poster is still my first “calling card” in introducing the film and that makes for one fabulous introduction!

Much love and appreciation,

Pamela Peak
Pamela Peak Productions

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One of Group Publishing’s top corporate values is producing quality materials for our market and that’s why we were thrilled to have John Taylor Dismukes create our Tesoro cover for our Buzz line of Curriculum. John was a pleasure to work with, his creative spirit and ability to hit our deadlines was exactly what we were looking for. We look forward to working with John and Capstone Studios in the future.

Randy Maid
Director of Creative Services,
Group Publishing Inc.

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Jooohnnyyy!!

My friend, you and your team have done an exceptional job!!
Everything you have produced for us has been far and beyond what we wanted and could have expected. You have always met your timelines and even been early on several occasions.

Communication is flawless, and always a pleasure. The quality of your work never ceases to astonish (making me look very good in the process).

I want to thank your whole team for their tireless efforts in helping us to achieve our goals. You are lucky to have them and I hope to meet the crew on my next visit to LA. (preferably over some Jack!!). I look forward to the next project, what ever that may be.

Thnx John, your the man bro.

Cristopher Bassels
Sr. Art Director
The Synapse Group

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