Marie Curie Eclipse Glow Reactor

I’m working my typical day and the word came down that MVP HQ is experimenting with a new & improved Eclipse Glow blend of plastic with overmolds. With the recent success of the Reactor mold; both ideas hit me at once and we pitched the idea to try Reactors & see how they would mold up. The initial idea for a Glow Reactor Special Edition came in the form of glowing toxic material and powerplants.

Some say it’s not always good to roll with your first idea. We marinated a bit on the qualities of the plastic and used them to our strengths. The natural look of the Eclipse 2.0 blend in the daytime gives off a milky white/greenish appeal. I felt using this opportunity to honor the late Marie Curie and her life as a scientific pioneer. She would be the first woman to win multiple Nobel Prizes in both sciences. She’s also the first female featured in MVP’s Limited and Special Edition scientific line of stamps. We use this platform to give nods to some of the notable humans that have contributed to the world of science. Her magnificent and intense story led MVP down the path to honor her in this stamp.

While diving in and reading about Marie Curie; I jotted a few notes that would aid in design cues and decisions while building the vector art. Marie and Pierre found and named a new element called Radium that was 4x more radioactive than Uranium itself. Long story short, She and Pierre would take the next 4 years to process an incredible 10 tons of pitchblende down to 1/10th of Radium Chloride residue. She was able to give an atomic mass of Radium of 225.9 (226) and place it correctly in the Periodic table. I thought that was a pretty significant number that took an immense amount of work to arrive at. I would later use that number of radial lines from the discs’ center.

I used a variety of images of her from both her early years as a college student and those of her later years to compose a set of thumbnailed ideas. There are era-appropriate shapes and symmetry to really help merge the unique plastic color. MVP stamping and marketing worked in conjunction to test and make the transparent foil worked with the artwork. The molecular compound of Radium is featured as a clear holofoil backdrop that appears a muted grey when illuminated in the darkness. The new 2.0 Eclipse is so bright that the white foil we used allows light to soak through giving even more depth in the darkness. Marie’s pose is intense as in her work. Time is not wasted. Electrometer and infamous MVP shaped beaker are placed behind her. In her lower pocket is a glass tube of Radium. She was known to carry it around in the lab; as she wasn’t aware of the effects of radiation.

In the end, it’s the overall goal to honor a legend in the science field with tact and class. Use the plastic qualities as we did in the 2018 Am Worlds ”Queen Charlotte” and make it feel like it belongs in the lineage of MVP stamps created to honor those featured. We felt as a Marketing Department that this stamp did just that. These Special Edition Marie Curie Eclipse Reactors will be available at most major MVP Disc Sports dealers for a small amount of time. Be sure to inquire about them before they’re gone for good!

Robokitty 2.0

I received a request from an Team MVP member to change up a 2018 stamp design. Amanda Melwiki had a great 2018 year and her Robokitty design was a hit. She came to me with the idea of changing up the foils and adding a few elements to last years design. I had bigger plans for Robokitty and I’m glad she trusted me to do something new but a continuation of the concept.

I knew I wanted to show a fiercer side of the kitty. I wanted to marry the concepts of cute/friendly with the deep down drive and determination of getting better. That fueled the fire going into the concept stage. I had the idea more stored in the back of my head so this design didn’t really consist of a lot of reference gathering. Bringing in that exaggerated anime pop and allowing the opportunity to expand on the Robokitty character were the goals first and foremost. From there it was a few experiments with stars and how I was going to incorporate them into the design.

A huge thanks goes out to Amanda. Were you able to snag one? If not, she has a few available but will be selling out fast. Follow her here:

https://www.facebook.com/AmandaMelwiki

MVP Open-LE Resistor

With the success of the MVP Open Pro side Limited Edition Fireball stamp, it was now time to turn my focus. The goal was to take the same general theme as the Fireball and create a triple foil stamp with the same visual appeal for the Amateur side of the MVP Open tournament. Since this disc will also debut in the same new "Firebalm" Plasma plastic as the Fireball, it should me for a pretty nice pairing. 

Going into this design, the idea of inverting/ flipping of what was done previously, was brought up among the marketing team. I really liked that idea and ran with it. The Resistor is a widely used utility fairway driver that also has a lot of overstability (the typical flight of a disc that turns left for a right handed backhand thrower). Since I couldn't use the shot mimic'd in the first stamp, I have the disc golfer throwing a typical backhand hyzer that follows the overall circumference of the outer edge of the stamp.

The Fireball had it's font treatment on the bottom of the design, I also wanted to change this up as well. For the Resistor wording on the top portion of the design, I would design that area to act as if the circuit board and different pathways connecting itself to it. As I continued to layout out the circuits and pathways, it felt flat. I switched gears toward the end and made the call to work around the Resistor typeface and create bolts to simplify.

All in all, it was awesome to continue a theme from one Limited release to another. That's a first for me and hope everyone digs it. Thanks so much for stopping in and reading about this design. The MVP Open was a huge success and I can’t wait to see what next year brings for MVP Disc Sports.
 

Hyzerbomb-Mortar

I was reached out to by the owner of Hyzerbomb Discs to create a special stamp for the attendees of the Nick Hyde Memorial. This design was going to be on Swirl and Glow "Mortar" discs found in their players packs. While military and pre-production experience is a huge plus, I can't stress enough how much reference gathering plays an important role in the final image. 

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Starting out, I really wanted to emulate an inspirational Marine Corps war propaganda poster that featured a Marine charging over the hill with a mortar gun painted by John A. Coughlin. It's such a powerful image. I love the silhouette and action within this shot.

I've had my share of firing .50 cal's, M249's and M203 Grenade launchers... Mortarmen require a special ability and something I never trained in. After doodling out those initial ideas with the poster reference in mind; I took to YouTube to find footage of a Mortar team working in harmony and really got to know an outside looking in view. I found a great video reference "Mortars Fly in the Hills of Ft. Carson" and knew this would be the center point of the design. A loader took a pause with a mortar shell primed with a cheese charge. I instantly thought: "Whoa.. who does that? This dude is a bad ass!". It gave me that same type of feeling that the poster did and worked a bit better because he's somewhat in a pause before firing the round. For stamp simplification, I chose to show the loader. This idea felt straight forward and could be easily understood by people who know nothing about mortar firing and or history. 

Lastly, I chose to chisel him up a bit. Create edges and bold, sharp angles to show a more aggressive vibe. I kept shading pretty even and clean to pair with the overall style of the stamp. Smoke in the background  clears out a bit of business to frame him up in the foreground.

All in all, seeing the reactions from Nick Hyde Memorial tournament goers and from Matt Siri is what it's all about. I want to give a huge shout out to Hyzerbomb Discs, their supporters and everyone who signed up for the Nick Hyde Memorial. It was a great pleasure being able to do a military themed stamp. 

Unique Hyzerbomb Mortars are located here while supplies last:
http://hyzerbomb.com/pro…/swirly-frontline-mortar-mortarman/

Limited Edition-Streamline Pilot

I received a task to assemble a Limited Edition rendition over a short period of time. A Limited Edition run refers to a design that has a specific number of discs available for purchase. MVP Disc Sports Headquarters usually runs a thousand of these designs and then retires the stamp art. 

I knew that one day, whether it would be for my employer or as a separate release through my freelancing opportunities; this idea was going to happen. The short film called "Paths of Hate" by Damian Nenow had a renown affect. I remember watching this film for the first time and being so taken away by the sheer beauty of the clouds and flight of the planes. The look of the film was rather inspirational as well. Another huge influence was the "Aces High" art created for Iron Maiden. With these two fantastic references and a nice sheet of helmet and stylistic goals, it was off to the races. 

The only challenges were the hands, yoke and overall look of the pilot. I scoured through countless old war plane movies to help improve the drawing overall. The way the thumb pads are putting weight on the triggers from my initial drawings, was the reason I left them be. In the  "Aces High" example, the thumbs are exaggerated; as if "Eddie" was quickly willing to fire. I feel they were an important part of the story but the main focus and action lines went more toward the pilot's piercing menace. Halftoning is a popular method of shading using one color, but sticking with clean heavy to light parallel lines kept the overall design less chaotic. This method also allowed me to take focus on the curvatures of the hard surfaced elements. Goals for the look of the fighter pilot were to mix old and new. Keep the overall style clean with a slight retro feel to it. The use of initial symmetry in the vectorizing process, helped keep this stamp balanced. In the end, I actually really like and recommend this disc to players. That enthusiasm and the chance to create a limited edition, really helped me pull through to get this stamp ready for production.

These are available online on April 20th from most major MVP and Axiom retailers. What do you all think? Please like, share this with your friends and comment!