Friday, September 4, 2009

Friendly Friday

Hello blog world!

Monkey got a little caught off-guard by today, as last night he was diligently meeting with Rebecca from Jim Dandy's to plan a (as of now) super secret collaborative project between the members of the SF Etsy street team. We're all super excited to get this underway, and definitely check back for more updates on that!

Overall, our experience with SF Etsy (an Etsy street team) has been super positive and helpful. We highly recommend checking out any (and all) street teams that may be useful to you if you sell on Etsy - they're an awesome resource!

Anyway, sorry for the short post. We should be kicking off our next newsletter on Monday, so make sure you're on the mailing list if you haven't already signed up! Also, Monkey + Seal is thinking of switching over to MailChimp for our newsletter provider - after all, it seems to have an easy UI (we're not programming geniuses over here) and plus, the logo is a cute-ass monkey (Monkey has been sold on this idea for weeks, but wants feedback). Thoughts anyone?

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Cool new zines: Ochre Ellipse 3 + Bird Brain

So Monkey is buddies with Jonas Madden-Conner of Family Style, but disclosure aside, his newest work Ochre Ellipse #3 is pretty amazing. Both Monkey and Seal have been re-reading it the past few days and we have to say that it is a damn good comic.

The illustrations are cute, but the overall storytelling shown here is damn good. The story follows a man of the future who travels back in time (a common recreational pursuit in the future) to try and revisit his childhood. The whole thing unfolds as smoothly as..well, something that unfolds really smoothly, and the ending is sure to pull at a few heartstrings (or you are a cold, dead human being).

Monkey is also buddies with Francois Vigneault, editor of Elfworld, creator of Friends, lead Family Style dude, and grand organizer of the SF Zine Fest. Francois also happens to be an avid bird watcher, and he mixes his love of comics and nature in his latest work, Bird Brain.

Filled with illustrations of various birds around the SF Bay Area mixed with hand-written observations, Bird Brain works well as it is such a personal work. Not only are there little stories about identifying birds, but there are little snippets of Francois' life while watching the birds, and the trips he took while checking them out.

We highly recommend heading over to Family Style to pick up a copy of each comic/zine ASAP (although Ochre Ellipse 3 isn't up yet, issues 1 + 2 are, and are also awesome) and you might as well browse the entire Family Style offering to find something great to read tonight!

Monday, August 31, 2009

Illustration Friday (on a Monday)

For everyone who loves art but doesn't know about Illustration Friday, you should definitely go check it out. It's an online community that takes a no-pressure, supportive take on creating art. Every Friday, the organizers send out an email (or publish on the site) a new, single-word topic that artists all over the world can illustrate. They have one week, and can (at no cost or obligation) submit their link to a blog or something that hosts their image. Artists submit thumbnails, and you can browse galleries to see all the myriad of interpretations people can have for themes like "Wrapped," "Contagious," and "Unfold."

Monkey does his best to participate weekly (although often he ends up being a week late), but you can find his entries at his personal blog Politics Art Culture. Monkey is currently working to catch up on last week's topic (Caution) as well as the current topic (Magnify), but his response to "Wrapped" is up.

Anyhoo, you should definitely check out Illustration Friday as there is a whole global community of awesome artists (from students to hobbyists to professionals) out there!