black ops studio

@johncmayer

duane fernandez — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 18:32:32 +0000

As some of you may have noticed on twitter, I didn’t get to the painting portion of this project until late last night. May have been a little too close for comfort, as the concert is tonight, but I’ve been working on a handful of video projects as of late and didn’t have the time. Anyway, it’s complete, it’s delivered and I’m stoked on it. I ended up really distressing the jewelry box this time around. I used a high grit sand paper to create a lot of texture. Painted the box. Sanded. Painted the box. Sanded… etc. [You get the point.] I used his heartbreak logo on the top and a simple MAYER stencil around the side. John Mayer will receive the piece tonight in Tulsa just before his concert.

The wooden box is 4.5″ x 4.5″ x 3.5″

when it is silent

duane fernandez — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 18:43:19 +0000

I spend way too much time coming up with titles for things that I will never create. Movies, songs, books, articles, etc. It’s one of my favorite games to play. I usually play the game while I am bored, or waiting, or talking with someone [who has nothing important to say], or while I am enjoying a meal by myself. It’s a fun game. A lot of my favorite “titles” end up becoming titles for my blog entries. However, they are not intended for this platform, so the authenticity of my games stays intact.

We’ve been transitioning from one dwelling to another. So pardon my lack of posting. Along with moving, I’ve been wrapping up a series of projects and starting a series of new ones. I’ve had a lot of time to think in between and I really wish I could dump it all right here in this “post.”

As it turns out, sports and politics are some of my favorite things to think about when I am packing/moving. Another thing is: punctuation and pronunciation. [this is a new hobby I have discovered]

Back to the madness. Be back soon.

Re: The image associated with this post.
I wanted to see what “google” thought “silent” looked like, so I searched. Perhaps the most frightening photos I have ever seen. Don’t do it. Since that didn’t work out the way I had hoped, I decided to search a word that I knew would produce some gems: eames

The Pee-Wee Poster Design Competition

duane fernandez — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 18:41:19 +0000

I took the Pee-Wee Herman piece out to LA a couple weeks ago and I will be honest with you, I wasn’t feeling it. I decided not to hide him. Over a year ago, when SEEK came to me, I was really excited about it. I thought it would be overly entertaining, and it was, for the first six months. Then it lost momentum. Mostly my fault. I also blame the term “hide and tweet” – a term that was made popular by athletes trying to build their personal “brand” using social media. [way too many quotations in one sentence, however, the irony must be expressed properly] I was bored with the concept the moment it hit popular culture. With all that being said, SEEK is evolving.

Instead of hiding Pee-Wee, we were thinking about a Pee Wee design contest. But in true Black Ops fashion, nothing could ever be that easy. So here are the guidelines: (a) Per my case study, this design competition has to be tied into twitter. (b) If you would like to participate, you will need to put it out there in the twitter-verse and get our attention – www.twitter.com/duanefernandez (c) Once it is known that you are excited about this competition, we will send you a direct message with rules of the operation: Including the official entry form and template. (d) You like the idea of this challenge but you are not a designer, find one on twitter and team up. We love collaborations.

The winner of the competition will receive the hand painted Pee-Wee Herman jewelry box* and a piece of SPEXTON jewelry – together they are valued at over $1000. The winner will receive 10 copies of their poster. We will be sending 5 of the posters to Pee-Wee Herman himself. The winner will also receive a pair of socks, a one year subscription to DWELL magazine, a one year subscription to HOW design and a couple of other things.

It is important to note that this is for fun and we will not be selling any posters/designs.

*We are keeping the box under wraps until the project is complete. You can look here, for an idea of what it looks like.

Let the games begin.

Woody Guthrie Festival: Day 3 + 4

duane fernandez — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 15:06:22 +0000

The last set of photos from WoodyFest. Photos of our dude Maurice Baker [from Newcastle], Annie Guthrie, the incredible David Jacobs-Strain [take a look at his tour schedule, if he is coming to a town near you - be there], the wonderful and extremely talented Rachel Davis, Jess Klein, John Wort Hannam and Sam Baker.

Photo info:
One photo of Maurice Baker – If you missed my thoughts on Maurice, read more here.
One photo of Annie Guthrie
Two photos of David Jacobs-Strain - The kid is incredible. I mean, absolutely incredible.
Four photos of Rachael Davis – Looking back at the festival, Maurice was our favorite story, David Jacobs-Strain was an impressive musician, but Rachael Davis was my favorite overall artist. She was adorable. She was accompanied on stage by her husband who played the upright bass. She was a great story teller. Her song selection was on point. Loved them!
Two photos of Jess Klein
One photo of John Wort Hannam
This next photo is of Radoslav Lorkovic‘s Accordion transport case.
And finally one photo of Sam Baker

Main photo: Our favorite artists from a couple years back – the Broken Wing Routine

Woody Guthrie Festival: Day 1 + 2

duane fernandez — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 15:05:56 +0000

I found some time to post a few of my favorite Woody Guthrie Festival photos. As most of you know, since meeting my wife, I have taken to Mr. Guthrie. She introduced me to him and my life hasn’t been the same since. It’s hard for me to think of a greater American icon than Woody. [He'd probably prefer that I call him Woody and quit with the "Mr. Guthrie."] I hope that you all find a moment to look into his life. “Life has got a habit of not standing hitched. You got to ride it like you find it. You got to change with it. If a day goes by that don’t change some of your old notions for new ones, that is just about like trying to milk a dead cow.” – Woody

Needless to say, I was honored to be one of the event photographers at WoodyFest. My job was to cover the historic Crystal Theatre. In the song booklet Woody and Lefty Lou’s Favorite Collection: Old Time Hill Country Songs (circa 1938), in reference to “Midnight Special” Woody wrote: “At the Crystal Theatre down in Okemah, Oklahoma, I heard Otto Gray’s Cowboy Band play this old song. I just barely could hear above the rattle of them pop-corn sacks, so I had to add the last three verses myself. Nobody knows where it got started, I don’t guess. I don’t even know what a midnight special is…”

Days one and two:

Photo info:
Two photos of Ramsey Midwood opening for Arlo Guthrie
Two photos of Arlo Guthrie, one photo of Arlo with some of his family
Thursday we went out to the Pastures of Plenty to enjoy a few of the evening shows – two photos
A multi-media presentation “My Name is New York: Exploring Woody Guthrie’s New York City” by Tiffany Colannino with the Woody Guthrie Archives
Two photos of Jack Hardy and company
A photo of Jonathan Byrd
A photo of Audrey Auld
A photo of Ronny Elliot
A photo of Don Conscenti
Four photos of the home town hero: John Fullbright

Days three and four coming in the next few days.

Hard Traveling Man

duane fernandez — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 16:15:19 +0000

When I think back and try to determine my favorite memory from this year’s Woody Guthrie Festival, I am continually drawn back to the performance by one Maurice Baker. To understand my reasoning, you must first sit where I sat and hear what I heard.
Maurice found his way to Okemah, Oklahoma by way of hope and fate.
My favorite way to travel.
I arrived at the Crystal Theatre that morning eager to find my seat and begin the day. I knew I would be shooting the next seven hours and I had this feeling that I might witness something grand. It was uncomfortable outside, temperatures were soaring above 100 degrees and the humidity was off the charts. I was wearing shorts. My camera pack was about 25 pounds. The Theatre was dark and cool. An oasis on main street.
Okemah is about an hour east of Oklahoma City. The population is roughly around 3,000. The city doesn’t see much traffic. However, Okemah is home to Woody Guthrie.
Maurice Baker is a kind fellow from Newcastle, England. I had the pleasure to chat with him for a few moments following his performance. I decided halfway through our conversation that I’d like to take my wife and travel to the UK and have a pint in his hometown. After all, he was kind enough to venture out and visit us in “ours.” [I'm not from Okemah, but my wife is. So I can use "ours" loosely for this story.]
From what I gathered, Maurice was surfing the net one day and stumbled upon the Woody Guthrie Festival web site. He says that Woody was an inspiration to him and he was very intrigued about this festival. He told his wife he would like to attend Woodyfest, she wasn’t thrilled with the idea. After all, Maurice is a school teacher and not only would the trip be costly, it would take him away from work. He didn’t mention it again. He did however, submit a song he had written about Woody into the song writing contest – “Hard Traveling Man.”
Needless to say, Maurice’s song placed and he had an opportunity to perform at Woodyfest.
Maurice was perfect. His songs were brilliant. His smile was contagious and in the heart of a man, I saw a boy.
I really wish you all could have been there.
I like this story because it has to do with following the heart. Sure it doesn’t make sense to fly halfway around the world to perform a couple of songs in a town an hour east of Oklahoma City.
Most of the beautiful things in life are done by listening to your heart and taking that risk.
I imagine this world would be a far better place if we put aside logic and reason every once in a while.

Thank you Maurice.

Photo: I took many photos of Mr. Baker. Here he is at the Crystal Theatre in Okemah Oklahoma. I will be posting more soon.

Woody Guthrie Folk Festival

duane fernandez — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 19:33:59 +0000

Black Ops Studio was very pleased when we were asked to create the artwork for the 13th Annual Woody Guthrie Festival Folk Festival – 2010. We worked with the Woody Guthrie Coalition to build a cohesive family of pieces for the festival, including: Posters, tee shirts, brochures, pamphlets and a comprehensive advertising campaign.

We also developed a marketing plan to establish the group in new markets using social media outlets: twitter and facebook.

It was a great honor to work with such an incredible group of people.

Nike x black.ops.studio

duane fernandez — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 22:20:28 +0000

Black Ops Studio with with Nike to create a set of limited edition Nike Dunks [low] and Air Jordan Alpha 1s.
One of the greatest skateboard films of this decade: Girl’s “Yeah Right”

Justin Bieber

duane fernandez — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 18:56:28 +0000

We were asked to create an abstract piece for a world class venue.
This project was especially fun, Justin Bieber is a mega pop star and we really enjoyed working on his illustration. Those bangs are awesome.
Here we have Justin Bieber holding a piece we made for them.
If you are interested in a copy of our case study, please send us a note.

Simple.

duane fernandez — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 16:14:55 +0000

I have no idea where to begin. My last post was on the 5th. What is today’s date? The 19th?! Jesus… Needless to say, the last three weeks have passed me by with very little interaction with the internet. I seem to have these patterns. Out of the studio for weeks at a time. Then back in the studio for a few weeks. Out of the studio for a few more weeks. Then back in the studio. And so the story goes.

Getting caught up on life and work over the next couple of days. If all goes as planned, I should have plenty of updates to this site. July has been flooded with photography and travel. Which typically leads to abstract and critical thinking. Especially the travel portion of that previous statement. Nothing like a great big city to get the juices flowing. And there is nothing like a long flight to organize one’s thoughts after a journey.

To infinity and beyond.

The photo. Always a note about the photo. This was taken in Hermosa. Grabbing some brecky with my good friends and trusty photography assistants Matt and Thomas.

Movies you must see [that have come up in recent conversations]:
(500) Days of Summer – I didn’t appreciate how beautiful downtown LA was until I saw this. Very well done.
The Fantastic Mr. Fox – If you haven’t seen this… I’m not sure what to say. It’s my favorite movie of 2009.
Manufactured Landscapes – A documentary that you should see. Incredibly powerful imagery.