Khulami Phase by Lauryn Hill. Album Art. (Photo-illustration for Vibe Magazine by Gluekit, 2009)

Dream Factory by Prince and the Revolution. Album Art. (Photo-illustration for Vibe Magazine by Gluekit, 2009)

We were recently commissioned by Vibe magazine to create album art for some of the most anticipated “lost” albums of the last few decades, which included albums by Prince, The Commission (a Notorious B.I.G. side project), Lauryn Hill, and 50 Cent. This was such a fun assignment to work on, since it allowed us to do some really intensive image and typographic research while we immersed ourselves in each artist’s catalogue. Mark Shaw, the art director we worked with on the project, asked us to do a short write-up for Vibe about how we went about making the illustrations, and our inspiration for each of the final four covers. The interview is up here!

Above: some skateboard proposals from the Gluekit factory. These decks aren’t printed (yet!) but… someday…

Another set of proposed Gluekit decks. Hotness!

Here at Gluekit, we like to imagine possibilities. Here’s one possibility we’ve been working on: Gluekit skateboard decks! We’ve been collecting decks as art objects for a few years now (one of us skating some) and all the nice work out there prompted us to play with some ideas ourselves. These two both draw on a Beastie Boy illustration done for Stereoptype magazine, published by Red Flag Media back in the day. Word to the wise metalheads out there: RFM’s Decibel is something to check out.

In this year of the big election, the VOTE! speech bubble in the Yellow Ch-Ch- design seems particularly apt.

Gluekit likes the grind, the click of wheels on cement, and fresh grip tape!

Here’s another design in our Imagined Shirt line-up. We can already see the photo shoot for this one, brilliant against a gritty brick wall. This shirt tempts us to pull out our spray cans, what about you?

Gluekit loves bricks, buttons, badges, and imagining games.

Gluekit loves bricks. Blank walls too.

In the spirit of our Ping Pong tee, here’s a proposal for another Gluekit shirt we hope to make some day soon. There’s just something about simple lines and spare design that makes us woozy. Bricks and stones may dress our bones, and new designs always make us chuckle.

In our spare time– oh, train rides and car trips and waiting in line– Gluekit likes to think of t-shirt proposals. Often, these do eventually pop out the production side. To be truthful, many Gluekit items are simply things that make us laugh, or that we’d like to wear around the house. What’s nice is when other people feel the same way!

Anyways, we thought it might be nice to log some of our tee ideas here, as a way of keeping stock of them and sharing potential wardrobe options with others. If you spot a favorite, give a hollar, because that just might urge us to move this into the “Made” category.

This particular shirt is envisioned as coming along with a medium-sized white button that can be moved around as the wearer likes. The Gluekit team was very busy playing ping-pong this summer, and inspiration struck while the paddle was hot. What’s not to like about a very simple minimalist design like this?

Gluekit likes bouncing white balls and simple geometric concepts!