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Joe Lacey

ILLUSTRATION BLOG

Halloween Scrapbooks

10/17/2019

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Joe Lacey talks about the Halloween Scrapbooks he designed and illustrated for Wilton Industries. Illustrations for five different die cut seasonal scrapbooks including a haunted house, a witch, a black cat, a skeleton graveyard, and a pumpkin patch.
Here's a Halloween item to get you in the mood for ghosts, witches, and black cats.... the Haunted House Shaped Scrapbook and the Pumpkin Patch Shaped Scrapbook from Wilton Industries, makers of baking and specialty party products.
Wilton Halloween Scrapbook
Halloween Scrapbook
Each book came with 20 patterned pages for kids to use as a scrapbook base (candy corn shapes, bats, etc...) and were roughly 6" x 8", although, I did see some smaller versions as well. The books were bound with heavy metal posts that could be unscrewed for more pages to be added. Originally intended to have low-tech battery light-up LEDs, that feature was dropped, but the die cuts and window openings remained.

I designed four concepts — a black cat, a witch, a skeleton graveyard, and a haunted house. Of these, only the haunted house was chosen to go into production. I was then asked to redesign the skeleton graveyard into a pumpkin patch, which became the second book in the series. There were also two Christmas themed scrapbooks I designed. I'll post those later.
Wilton Halloween Scrapbook Black Cat pencil sketch by illustrator Joe Lacey
Wilton Halloween Scrapbook Black Cat pencil sketch by illustrator Joe Lacey
Wilton Halloween Scrapbook Witch and Cauldron pencil sketch by illustrator Joe Lacey
Wilton Halloween Scrapbook Witch and Cauldron pencil sketch by illustrator Joe Lacey
Wilton Halloween Scrapbook Skeleton Graveyard pencil sketch by illustrator Joe Lacey
Wilton Halloween Scrapbook Skeleton Graveyard pencil sketch by illustrator Joe Lacey
Wilton Halloween Scrapbook Haunted House pencil sketch by illustrator Joe Lacey
Wilton Halloween Scrapbook Haunted House pencil sketch by illustrator Joe Lacey
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Tattoos and Vicious Animals

6/17/2019

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Bubble Gum Tattoos With a Bite!

“Vicious Animals” Tattoo Champ by Richardson Brands Bubble Gum Temporary Tattoos illustrated by Joe Lacey.Picture
I've been on a bit of a nostalgia kick the past few months. Probably from watching old episodes of Beverly Hills 90210. You see, Brandon just broke up with Kelly, Donna is still with Ray and Dylan is...oh sorry! Back to the point of this article --

Ultra Tattoo Champ was another one of my very early commercial projects from the 90s for Richardson Brands, best known for Beechies Gum*, Richardson Mints and rock candy. During this time, they manufactured a sizable series of these temporary tattoo packs. Sold in foil packs and in large 180 piece tubs for individual purchase at 5¢ each, the tattoos were wrapped around a piece of gum inside a wax wrapper. The gum had another selling point for kids beyond the tattoos — purple gum turned the mouth purple, green gum turned the mouth green, and... you get the idea. I illustrated two lines for this series, Vicious Animals and Sports. For this article, I'm showing my favorite of the two, Vicious Animals!

*Beechies Gum was originally made by the Beech-Nut Company and introduced in 1933. Richardson Mints have been made sine 1893. They also make a product called Gravy Master which has nothing to do with bubble gum or candy, although, a gravy flavored gum would probably be a big seller! There's my free million dollar idea.
“Vicious Animals” Tattoo Champ by Richardson Brands Bubble Gum Temporary Tattoos illustrated by Joe Lacey.Picture
This is the complete set of Vicious Animals tattoos. Each tattoo is roughly 2.5 inches tall and 1 inch wide. I don't recall exactly how Richardson Brands had contacted me, but I do remember driving to their office in Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania twice, once to show my portfolio and once to deliver the art. I met with the art director, was given samples of previous tattoos, and some gum that I chewed on my drive back home.
“Vicious Animals” Tattoo Champ by Richardson Brands Bubble Gum Temporary Tattoos illustrated by Joe Lacey.
Over 25 years later, these tattoos still work and still look pretty cool! No, I did not eat the gum.
“Vicious Animals” Tattoo Champ by Richardson Brands Bubble Gum Temporary Tattoos illustrated by Joe Lacey.
The original art was painted with gouache on bristol board at 300% reproduction size. They worked really well at the tiny 1 inch tattoo size and were remarkably bright and colorful! The original art is owned by Richardson Brands and all I have are 35mm slides. I had enough sense to have taken shots of most of my work back then as I never liked sending the art away, never to see it again. It was a lot tougher to keep good records of my artwork prior to digital scans and photos. It took A LOT MORE TIME but it was well worth it!
“Vicious Animals” Tattoo Champ by Richardson Brands Bubble Gum Temporary Tattoos illustrated by Joe Lacey.
I did quite a few sketches for project. They were done pretty quickly as I remember in order to meet the deadline. The art director sent a good amount of them back asking for "more blood" and everything that went along with it, which made me really happy!

I look at these today and only wish I could do them all again! I'd add EVEN MORE GORE! C'mon Topp's, give me a call! I can do this!
Tattoo Champ by Richardson Brands Bubble Gum Temporary Tattoos illustrated by Joe Lacey.Picture
Here he is — the Tattoo Champ! ready to chew gum and kick butt! Kinda looks like Steve Sanders!
“Vicious Animals” Tattoo Champ by Richardson Brands Bubble Gum Temporary Tattoos illustrated by Joe Lacey.
The foil packs came with an XL big tattoo 3.5 inches by 2.5 inches. I bought about five or six packs to get one of my illustrations. Glad it was the piranha, they're cute!
Famous Illustrators of the Golden Age Coloring Portfolio: American Edition 1898-1927 adult coloring book by illustrator Joe Lacey.
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Dixie Cup Movie Theater Design

9/17/2018

 
Movie theater paper cup design and illustration for Dixie Cup by illustrator Joe Lacey.
A few years back, I designed some rough concepts for the Dixie Cup Corporation. Dixie is now one of the brands owned by Georgia-Pacific, makers of Brawny, Sparkle, and numerous janitorial supplies. This is the only example I have of the work I made for Dixie. About 13 years ago, a major computer crash caused the loss of quite a bit of my digital art, my Fisher-Price work was hit the hardest. The crash even wiped out my back-up drive!

I believe I did three or four designs, two with characters and two without, all meant to be produced in full color. Because the work was conceptual, I simply did pencil sketches and some quick inkings by hand to show the basic ideas. The inkings were scanned, colored, and then mocked-up to took like cups. I wanted to do something that looked like a MAD Magazine comic book from the 1950s or novelty candy packaging from the 1970s. It kind of got there. Dixie never took these concepts any further, but I wish they had. I wanted it to be a series of five-ten cups with different genres of movies or decades. A silent movie cup, the 1950s, science fiction, and a bigger tub for popcorn or maybe some plates. Probably too much of a targeted subject for home purchase, but it would have been cool!
Pencil sketch for Dixie Cup movie theater design. This version shows all the characters looking toward the right. I changed this in the inking to have them looking toward the center, because the art was a wrap-around. Illustrated by Joe Lacey.
Pencil sketch for Dixie Cup movie theater design. This version shows all the characters looking toward the right. I changed this in the inking to have them looking toward the center, because the art was a wrap-around.
Hand inking for Dixie Cup movie theater design. I did this with a brush and technical pen on slick vellum that allowed me to use a knife and scratch away ink for different effects and clean-up. Illustrated by Joe Lacey.
Hand inking for Dixie Cup movie theater design. I did this with a brush and technical pen on slick vellum that allowed me to use a knife and scratch away ink for different effects and clean-up.
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    Joe Lacey illustrator

    Joe Lacey

    I produce illustrations and creative idea solutions for toys, packaging, publishing and advertising.


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    ADULT COLORING BOOKS by Joe Lacey

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    8-bit Kingdom: Medieval tales of computer technology
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    Famous Illustrators of the Golden Age Coloring Portfolio
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