Rock Arabica Vol. I by Sardine Studio

“It never rains but it pours!”

So they say …

But I know … better!

Life in the past few months threw some rather interesting challenges in my face.

I am not going to talk about these challenges as this is not a rant blog. However, I am going to talk about my latest project Rock Arabical, part of my work as an illustrator.

My background in radio, love of music and my work as a Disc Jockey, I’ve been working at Radio Jordan 96.3 FM since 2003, were the main reasons that I started this design series.

I am not a type designer but I am a t-shirt designer. I now have over 20 t-shirt designs and merchandise with Mlabbas, a t-shirt company based in Amman, Jordan.

Rock Arabica is a typography and logo design series through which I turned renowned rock band logos into Arabic ones.

The best part about producing these rock band logos was the challenge I faced in maintaining the spirit of the original design by using the geometry and angles of the original logos. 

My project on Behance:

https://www.behance.net/gallery/Rock-Arabica-Vol-I-by-Sardine/14251713

The designs that you are about to see were all created using Adobe Illustrator CS5 (the construct of the type) and finished with Adobe Photoshop CS5 (the distress layer).

Remember: Never go full distress on a design as it is an overkill!

Hope you love them enough to buy the t-shirt ;-})

Mike V. Derderian,
Writer, Illustrator & Designer,
Sardine

I Did Not Ask For Change Yet Someone Handed me Some Today!

So between waking up at 6:30 a.m. to host a radio show that I’ve been presenting for eight years, contemplating life; the passing away of an aunt I only knew through photographs and via telephone; drawing a heavily armed geisha; taking my lovely girl to her first day at kindergarten; submitting new t-shirt designs to Threadless; and work I find myself gazing at this screen that reflects my cyber existence and thinking of what to do next!

A lot of lessons learned today. This should be a blog entry. Maybe it is time to write my open letter to Shepard Fairey with the following title:

“Don’t You Think It Is Time For You To Renounce Your Obama ‘Hope’ Poster Mr. Fairey? He Tricked Everyone So No One Really Blames You!” Will keep you posted on this one.

On a different note dear Arabian friends who post V for Vendetta images as their profile header and banner. Do you have a clue what V stands for? V most certainly does not represent your backward thinking.

V stands for freedom. Freedom of thought, freedom of soul, freedom of sexuality and freedom of existence and since a lot of Arabs, especially the backward ones, do not believe in any of these refrain from using him as your header and banner.

If you read the comic book than you will understand the above comment. So read the comic book, understand who V is and then use his image. If you got offended by my comment than maybe you should not be following me. Piss off!

No off to do some drawing after a rather interesting life changing day. I really hate those days when they happen but then I try to do what a cat that was flung head first from the roof of a tall building would do – try to land on my fuckin’ feet. Me-ouch!

Sorry for not posting much in the past few months but it has been a crazy year. A rather good year. I will most definitely get back to blogging more. Will tell you more in another blog post; maybe when I land on my feet and dust off my clothes.

A good evening to all the bat out there!

Mike V. Derderian a.k.a Sardine

August 29, 2013

Illustration: Anna Cosmonauta by Mike V. Derderan, ink on paper

Science Fictitious: Cosmonauta vs. Anna Karenina & Solaris

Cosmonauta by Sardine – Mike V. Derderian

This is in a way a twisted Valentine greeting with Cosmonauta 13.

I know I haven’t been blogging much, and I apologize for that, but I’ve been posting a lot of pieces, writings and illustrations, on Facebook as the interaction there is more direct and instantaneous.

I promise you that I will resume my blogging consistency as soon as possible with a couple of fiction pieces, a critique of a blog post about Rainbow Street, work-and-life-related updates, and a couple of other issues that are of importance to this Homo sapien.

The below piece is what inspired the word bubble for this Cosmonauta illustration.

By the way Cosmonauta 13 will be the heroine of a small tribute piece I wrote; a tribute to Anna Karenina and Solaris.

You can now suspend your imagination ;-})

Word bubble:

“Vronsky my love where are you?”

The chambers were flooded. Air was scarce. Electric signals were incessantly flashing with broken and unconnected thoughts rushing. The pressure was mounting.

Submerged!

It wasn’t water in which he drowned; yet the undercurrent was strong. Emotions flowed. His muscles ached. His mind was confused.

Yuri Vronsky was still alive in the safety of his bed when the sun gave warmth to his chafed cheeks. His space suit was floating next to the aluminum bed stand that was fixed to the metallic floor.

“I shouldn’t have finished reading the book. Anna would still be alive and with me through out this endless mission!” rubbing his eyes he said to himself.

“Karenina! Activate the gravity simulator …”

February 2, 2013
P.S: Cosmonauta 13 is from my series Cosmonauta,  high quality limited edition prints, that are available at the Mlabbas Store at 28 Rainbow Street. This is the link to how some of the posters look like: http://on.fb.me/11voLWZ
I hope you like them!