Thursday, June 07, 2007

A Song for Chad

Rejected album cover design (notice the typo on Monáe)

A Song For Chad


First, I'd like to apologize for not blogging yesterday.

On Tuesday night, after Janelle's show at Girls Rock Too (at Studio 900 in Atlanta- you should have been there!) we took off for Miami.

Janelle had a radio show and then a performance at The Bohemian Room in Miami. All went amazing. Show was crazy, and her radio interview was one of the best interviews I've heard. (Really shows what research and great questions can do for an interview.)

Anywhoo, i'm here to talk about Chad. Chad Weatherford. My childhood best friend who is now married and in New Zealand. Chad and I have a couple of companies together that we founded based on our respective passions: art and writing.

Over twenty years ago, we met on the playground, realized that we both had a love for Spider Man, and set out to create our own comic book universe. Since then, we've done more together than the law allows.

Today we have two companies: Blak Milk Productions, which does graphic design, merch, illustrations, etc. And Wism, a new company, that we're hoping will one day be our Lucasfilm.

Everything started with comic books back in the day, and now all this. Currently, Chad and I are both doing "imaginography" on the Metropolis project, which includes but is not limited to: graphic design, album artwork, art direction, concept art, video treatments/pre-production, story direction and character design, and hopefully at some point, screenwriting. Yes, I like all of you, would love to see this Metropolis saga on the big screen.

We also have an exciting animated epic named Adam's Song that I'll tell you much more about when it's time.

Anywhoo, this is a Song for Chad. He works in the dark. Lives in New Zealand. And no one knows his name. Recently, I introduced him to the Purple Ribbon family, and they were like "You do exist!" He'd designed album art for Big, done all this video treatment stuff, and yet no one had seen his smile.

Well, in tribute to his hard brilliant work, I've posted some assorted pics below. These come from the Metropolis universe.



Flying ships anyone?




Of course, if you're gonna do Star Wars, you have to have your own stormtroopers. So Chad's been at work searching for the droid control marshals. The first thing he turned in was this:


To which Janelle responded "NOT FUNKY ENOUGH, YOU BIG NOOKIE!" No, just kidding. But she did send us back to the drawing board to reach for more ideas that were more 28th Century. So Chad went back to work. Here's some of his latest droid control sketches. As you can see, everything's a process. And it's like making Star Wars for real.



Not sure yet if any of these will end up as final designs, or if we'll start all over again. But if you're creative, you know how fun the journey can be!

Everyone clap for Chad! This is his song! And he does great work!

4 comments:

Dot Techno Mania said...

This art is amazing! Droid control is looking pretty scary! Wou;dn't want them after me...Poor Cindy! And that wide shot of metropolis is chilling!
Good show you guys...This is the next star wars epic.

Chuck Lightning said...

Thanxs man! but really thank chad!

Baron Mynd said...

Yeah I had to do a double take at most of the artwork done by Chad. He has a extraordinary artistic vision from these skecthes alone, I can see why you two have been in each others company. These only being a rough draft shows that you guys have some BIG things coming for Metropolis, I can't wait.

Anonymous said...

clap clap clap for the illusive chad


go chad go