today is for tomine

i've wanted to write something about adrian tomine for some time, but fearing both another melt down from blogger and the idea that adrian's work is so widely revered i'd somehow mangle a review- i've postponed it until now. but today i decided, blogger is giving me a headache so if i'm going to struggle to get something up, i'd like it to be something i'm really interested in.

so, enter adrian tomine. first of all i have to admit i knew nothing of adrian tomine until i met ac. i was never a comic book person, and still am not, but i was drawn instantly to how beautiful tomine's work is. born in sacramento, tomine took to comic books at a young age and, while still in high school, he started writing and illustrating stories, which he published in his first mini-comic optic nerve (a series i read in one sitting, thanks to ac). a year later, he was hired by pulse magazine to produce a monthly comic strip which lead to publisher drawn & quarterly offering to produce 'optic nerve' as a regular comic series.

what i love so much about tomine's work is not so much the content (which is equally amazing) but the style. tomine's style is equal parts haunting and elegant. the lines are clean and the design is flawless- his drawings are strong enough to stand on their own and tell their own story (see the new yorker cover below) and certainly deserve to be framed and appreciate for their graphic prowess.

the long and short of it is, adrian tomine is a phenomenal artist whose work is something i thought those of us in the design community would enjoy- it has structure, style and most of all, a visual integrity that makes each piece timeless in its own simple, but beautiful way. you can see more of adrian's work here. enjoy...