Memphis Convention & Visitors Bureau — London Taxis
Copywriting
As part of a London-Memphis music tourism campaign, St Francis Elevator Ride was commissioned by the Memphis CVB to design vehicle wraps for a special fleet of London-based taxis. I refined the music narratives to present the final art direction.
Taxi photo courtesy of the MCVB.
DAYLIGHT / NIGHTLIFE
A-SIDE: The Classic Tune You Know
From Stax to Sun Studios, BB King to Al Green, this is the Memphis music-lovers dream about, where the air is filled with honeysuckle and soul.
Lush botanics and painterly washes of color, people melded with place and a familiar snap to evoke a familiar sound.
B-SIDE: The Deep Cut You Don’t
From Royal Studios to the High/Low, juke joints to dive bars, this is Memphis seen through the eyes of locals, all too happy to bring newcomers along for the ride.
Swirling lights and a heady buzz, glam-meets-grit — creativity, energy and possibility.
OLD SCHOOL / NEW SHINE
A-SIDE: Memphis Legacy
Funky and original, this is Booker T tickling the organ keys while the green onions fly.
Saturated red-orange and green, a veggie nod to the original album cover, keyboard snaking through the groove to its own beat.
B-SIDE: Memphis Contemporary
Subdued and sublime, this is Amy LaVere with her upright bass surrounded by lost motel mirrors.
Warm wood tones and a rich blue-green, like driving on the open road under an open sky.
CAMPUS SCENE — Get Weird. Work Hard. Never Stop.
Feature Story Editing
Written by Bud Grimes
Story editing by Lindsey Butler
Photos by Nathan Morgan
Twin Peaks — Postcard Illustration Series
Product Photography
This, excuse me, damn fine illustration series was originally created for Monster Market, a freaky pop-up shop that offers a new collection of curated art, apparel and decor each October. Memphis locals can shop in person and weirdos around the world can order online.
Looking for a Twin Peaks art fix? Postcards are sold out, but you can still order poster prints from the SFER store.
Lush Interiors — Wall Sculpture Series
Exhibition Statement + Photography
Lush Interiors is a collection of mixed media works aimed at exploring “sensual machines,” a term St Francis Elevator Ride uses to describe the mechanized trappings of modern life, as we all become increasingly enmeshed with our gadgetry. Common household appliances burst apart to reveal human anatomy and vegetation, both in various states of bloom and decay. From a distance, the works appear as vibrantly colored, otherwordly scenes, but a closer viewing reveals grim details: human teeth and headless birds, rotting tissue and melting organs.
The extravagantly macabre, though often comical, images represent the manner in which our intended conveniences often become burdens that weigh us down and define us in unintended ways.
Lush Interiors features direct-to-substrate collage prints on birch plywood. The prints are intricately milled and cut by a CNC router, and then the multilayered, three-dimensional pieces are assembled using common hardware components, like nuts and bolts.
Village Voice — 2016 Best of NYC Issue
Copywriting + Supplemental Art Direction
Collaboration with graphic designer/visual artist, St Francis Elevator Ride, presenting the art direction for Village Voice’s final printed Best of New York issue in 2016. I sourced reference imagery and wrote a concept treatment for each of SFER’s atmospheric illustrations.
The NYC subway system is a place of literal and metaphorical intersection, where people of radically diverging walks of life routinely share a small, intimate space, if only for a stop or two. Sometimes there are collisions between individuals, sometimes moments of connection afforded nowhere else. It’s a symbol of opportunity, challenge and exploration — one of the truly universal experiences of the average New Yorker. The twin sensations of being at once solitary and communal resonate in the hart and mind, humming along the same frequency as art and music.
In this series, I use the visual trope of the subway to anchor my compositions, hoping to convey the viewer through each Village Voice section just as its physical analog conveys the traveler through each borough. The sections spell out the ultimate point of departure and arrival: New York.
COVER
A suave young man grasps the brass ring, the city looming behind him. The stripes in his tie are color-coded to the subway lines, NYC being more a part of who he is than where he lives.
N — Culture
The New Museum holds a lot of personal attraction for me, in the way it honors the artistic tradition without being bound to it. It’s a formal space that doesn’t embrace formalism, and the building is as unconventional as its contents. To complement this cultural misfit, I’ve added touches from two other artistic practices that have used NYC as a proving ground for accomplishing the unusual: theatre and fashion.
E — Food & Specialty Markets
Rather than focus on the haute cuisine of the city, I decided to turn my eye to the everyday nourishment that keeps most people sustained: delis, bodegas, diners and groceries. It’s a mashup of staples like pizza and bagels, nestled alongside fresh cuts from the neighborhood butcher. Everything is comforting, tasty and a little sticky.
W — Nightlife
After dark, the city melts meet-cutes into a manic crush of light and sound. Every stranger’s glance is a possibility, and every cocktail is better than the last. Stars compete with neon, and music overtakes conversation.
Y — Shops & Services
From vintage shops to high-end runway fare, retail therapy in NYC is next-level. There’s an eyebrow wax waiting on every corner, tucked between an art gallery and a spin class. When the pampering is this good, it can really go to your head.
O — Recreation & Sports
Recreation is about imagination and the inverted world. The hard, angular city is literally turned upside down, allowing a child’s summertime Coney Island reverie to take center stage: a candy-colored afternoon, cheeks flush from running around to take it all in.
R — Smart City
The best way to set the curve is to stay ahead of it. From environmental sustainability to public art, NYC bubbles with forward-thinkers dreaming up ways to make things better.
K — Civic Life
Combining august city institutions and verdant outdoor spaces, views from the Carnegie Hall terrace and the Manhattan Municipal Building spring from Prospect Park and the High Line. Good works and good spaces meet, one of the best views of the city jutting into the foreground.