ERA404

/ Don

Target Benchmarks Central Park Illustrations

In archiving old era404 projects, I just came across these twenty illustrations I created in 2003 for the Target Benchmarks Central Park event at Christie’s Auction House in the Rockefeller Center. The event was an auction to raise money for the Central Park Conservancy and produced/designed by Rand Burrus of Phoenix Event Productions. Each illustration was enlarged and reproduced on colossal 8′ x 8′ canvases to provide the backdrop for each of the benches being auctioned. In fact, after the bench auction was over, they began to auction off the illustrations too!

My last forays into illustrating for clients were for the Global Investment Literacy project and the Brooklyn Wine Company Sparkling White Wine Label. Target Benchmarks Central Park was a fun project and a chance to contribute artistically to a good cause. More information about the event can be found on the era404 website, here.

/ Don

The Eyebrow and The Costumed Fish

When I was a little kid, I learned the difference between long and short vowel. The teachers explained that an ? (long I), found in words like mile and fine, were signified by a macron, or horizontal line, over the letter. And an ? (short I), found in words like mill and fin, were signified by a breve, or tiny u, over the letter. Read more

/ Don

The New era404 Stationery Goes to Press

This afternoon, I had the pleasure of taking a press run to PermaGraphics to watch the production of the new era404 stationery. Mike Caloni, the founder of the 13-year-old printing firm, led me on a tour through the facility, starting with the 70-year-old duplicator his mother bought to print wedding paperie at their kitchen table, and ending with the incredible Komori 6-Color press (you can see one in action here). Our business cards are a #130lb Cover, far too thick for the in-house Heidelberg presses. Operators Pete and Frank even let me nit-pick to get the spectrometer below .03 difference between the letterhead and buisness card stock (in fact, they seemed eerily content with my perfectionism).

PermaGraphics obviously has a passion for their craft—an increasingly rare trait in an industry squeezed financially by the eVendors—and provides more than competitive rates for the New York City metro area. I highly recommend the quality and professionalism of their services. And Mike is genuinely a great guy. More photos after the jump.

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/ Don

era404 Site Relaunched

After 10-years and a response to the new branding campaign for era404 Creative Group (read the press release here), we’ve finally relaunched our site to promote the new identity and better feature our newer work. The site will continue to be updated for the next few months, as we finish cutting our new demo reel and enhance our product offerings, but we felt it necessary to update the interface in the meantime to show the complete embrace of our new identity and updated mission.