Welcome! Spear Collective is our artist management collective, and we're proud of it. We believe it's comprised of some of the most promising, progressive, and definitive talent in the art and design world today. Our aim is to curate art and design in a more sustainable and honest way within brands - not just as advertising, but as true reflections of what a brands mean through our artist's eyes. If you're interested in chatting with us about potential opportunities for shows, artist-series products, or if you see something that catches your eye and would like to talk about working with any of these talented creatives, please feel free to contact us today!
Boardeli Longboards, a tiny start-up out of Canada, already has the kind of reputation bigger companies ache for. Maybe it’s because their boards are awesome-looking, limited-edition pintails from worldwide designers (including longtime JS favorite Adriean Koleric, and our very own Motomichi), or maybe it’s because the boards have bragging rights to an incredible ride, but something about the company has sent parts of the longboard/design community abuzz. Boardeli’s first round, Series 1, features 15 boards by 15 designers, each produced in a run of 100. Soon to come is another set of three boards produced in a run of 10, which we will undoubtedly find reason to post on, so watch for it here, (or there), then get yourself on some nice Canadian wood.
What’s not to like about these new 5-color prints from Grant Barnhart, our friend and fellow Spear Collectiver? The one on the left (grrrrr!) is actually a concert poster for Andrew Bird who, by the way, is one hell of a whistler. The one on the right, ‘Conversation with Asphalt,’ has all of the traditional Barnhart animal imagery, but this time it’s tied into a sea-faring story. If you can read his writing, maybe it will guide you to the sunken treasure. They’re available online at DUI Studio– $75 for ‘Conversation with Asphalt,’ and $20 for the Andrew Bird poster. Hurry up, before Carmel buys them all!
I’ve been anxiously awaiting the release of the inaugural line of iPod-protecting Styles from People Like Us for sometime now, and it looks like they’re finally here. Jeremy Somers, a member of the Spear Collective and head of People Like Us has been working hard, and it looks like — once again — the Aussie didn’t disappoint. With so many iPod protectors on the market, do we really need more? I think so, because Styles aren’t your ordinary boring skins, and are not only made from non-destructive vinyl adhesive for protection, but also boast original art from a slew of some of our favorites– Chuck Anderson, Hejz, and Electric Heat (’Bad Horsey’ design shown above), to name a few. They’re available in an impressively wide selection of designs for most of the iPod and iPod Nano chassis for about $15 USD.
When I had the idea to form an artist collective and ultimately launched the Spear Collective with Jamie last March, we had no idea that we would garner such incredible recognition in such a short period of time. This month, our esteemed collective appears on the front cover of Computer Arts– the world’s best-selling creative magazine. The cover is 1 of 3 limited edition artist-covers that hits news stands today. For this project, Chris Cox, Dan Funderburgh and Ingi Erlingsson collaborated on a design to help share both our collective aesthetic and their vision of true collaboration. The cover itself is seriously awesome, and the inside story sheds some light on the step by step process the three guys used to create the cover.
The collective has been — and remains — one of our passion projects, and we’re humbled to be surrounded with such diverse and distinguished artistic talent. When we assembled these 26 “chosen ones” and began to sense the group dynamic build, we knew something special had been set in motion. Head out to your local news stand pick up this issue– it may be worth something one day. And to the entire Spear Collective: you make us proud! Keep your eyes peeled for more Spear Collective projects coming very, very soon.
For the last six months or so, our U.K. based friend Tom Judd – who’s no stranger to this site, and also a member of the Spear Collective – has been working on this kick ass animation called “Wheel Time.” It’s somewhat of a historic project for young Tom, because it marks the end of his undergraduate education– this summer he’s leaving Man Met University for London to begin a two year Master’s program in animation at the Royal College of Art. As great as this short animated film is, I’m sure we’ll all use it as a benchmark by which to gauge his animation progress from here on out; no pressure, Tom! The YouTube version you see here has slightly lower sound and sync qualities than the one on his website, so I recommend viewing the latter. On a related note, Tom has also re-worked the look of his site a bit with a fresh layout and some new work, so be sure to check that out as well.
Our good friend and Spear Collective comrade RoyalRemarkable has been busy with a few projects lately that I thought I’d relay to you all. First and foremost, he has some sick type work featured in a forthcoming catalog entitled Hand Job, recently completed by Mike Perry of Midwestisbest. It’s is a compilation of work by 55 of some of the most talented freehand typographers out there; slated for release at the end of August, you can buy it on presale at Amazon for $23.
RoyalRemarkable is also gearing up to do a permanent installation for Ogilvy & Mather’s new digital agency outpost in Durham, North Carolina. He promised to send us some photos when his art comes to life in the next few weeks, so we’ll keep you posted with his progress. When describing the gig to me, he said: “think nesting dolls and old school security gates.” Suffice to say, all of us here at JoshSpear.com are excited to see his concept come to life.
Designgive is a group of designers who’ve assembled to both showcase their work on fabric and kick some funds to some important charities. At this point, the featured designers include Brooke Nunez, Si Scott, Paul Macgregor, Scott Bartlett, Kronk, and the Spear Collective’s own Jeremy Somers. Each design is available in either guys or gals t-shirts ($15), long-sleeved tees ($18), or hoodies ($25). Several of my favorites are only available for pre-order May 14th through the 25th, so you’ll need to act quickly. When you check out with your merchandise, you can designate which charity you want to support. Your donation is included in the price, and is $1 for tees, $2 for long sleeves, and $3 for hoodies. Also, if you’re a designer and want to get involved with this project, you can fill out an application here. It’d be great to see this group grow in size to be able to more effectively fulfill its mission: design for a worthy cause.
The Spear Collective’s own Josh Feldman has just started a new Knacktion project called Nameau. It’s basically a site where you can buy company and product .com names, ready-to-go with logos. Dreaming up a name for a new business venture can be a challenge to say the least, so the goal with Nameau is to help people with that important first step. To me, it’s an interesting way to think about about the initial step of a company’s branding– to go shop for an already constructed name and logo. But then again, why not leave it to the pros in this age of made-to-order everything? Nameau’s prices are all over the board – and some names look to be on sale – but each does include a domain name and a logo design. They’re also available to do custom name and logo creation, site development, and hosting. you can contact the Nameau team here.
Spear Collective artist and super-good-friend of mine Jason Thielke has a show with Jeremy Wineberg at the Space Gallery in Denver. The artist reception is this coming Wednesday, May 9th from 6-10pm– if you make it, be sure to congratulate Thielke for his recent entrance into fatherhood. The work looks to be amazing…as always!
Wallpaper master, Spear Collective member, and soccer aficionado Dan Funderburgh’s ‘Ciphers’ work is currently being featured at Williamsburg based gallery Servicio Ejecutivo. They also posted an interview with Dan on their website, so all of you aspiring graphic designers can gain some insight into what it takes to be able to live off of your design work alone. All of his featured designs contain ciphers: What’s this all about? The word ‘cipher’ can refer either to a circle or to a code. In cryptography, a cipher consists of two or more alphabets that are written in concentric circles. When one of the circles is rotated each symbol or character in that alphabet is rotated to match with a new corresponding symbol or character, and you have a created a new encryption. Go try to solve the puzzle for yourself. Also on the website, there’s a high res wallpaper image for your downloading pleasure.
What’s not to like about these new 5-color prints from 
I’ve been anxiously awaiting the release of the inaugural line of iPod-protecting 
Our good friend and 
