I was given a really odd brief the other day from the band Drop Dead, Gorgeous. They wanted a T Rex fighting a Shark in a bucket of fried chicken. After drawing for awhile, I came up with the overall design and this is what became of it. I tried a new way of doing the line-work, which is using my wacom tablet and the pencil tool in Illustrator. I was surprised and really happy with the outcome.

Shirts for a Cure contacted me and asked if I could a detailed and gruesome design for the band Of Mice and Men. They wanted something violent and bloody for them and asked if I was able to do a design like that.

For some reason the move Evil Dead popped in my head. In it, there is a monster you never actually see thats always shown in first person chasing Bruce Campbell. I imagined what it would look like if it was a round fuzzy monster that would run around fields and eat goats and cows. Fun Fact. Goats have green blood.

Also, I was screwing around the other night and came up with this promo ad for my new clothing brand, Wonderful Life. I had the “store” link here on my portfolio site changed so that it went directly to the Wonderful Life store too in case you needed a quick way to get there.

Here’s two newer designs I’ve done recently that are both on the goofy side. I’ve been spending so much time recently trying to add more detail and depth in my designs, that it’s fun to do simpler, bolder designs now and again.

The first is this Unicorn farting a rainbow. Blood on the Dance Floor’s Dahvie sent me a photo of a birthday cake w/ the same idea on it and asked me to turn it into a shirt design.

This second design, for the band We Are The In Crowd, is a viking astronaut riding a bear.

Let me know what you guys think of these! Also don’t forget, our Clothing Brand, Wonderful Life is open for business! The store website is www.wonderfullife.storenvy.com. Use the promo code “Wonderful” for 15% off your order!

I’m still in Rome Italy until Sunday. We been traveling around looking at as much as we can and eating and drinking as much as we can. I have been getting alot of great inspiration for new designs here. One is a skeleton bust (see photo below) that I seen in a church here the other day. It’s dressed in a robe w/ it’s arms folded over it’s chest. I’ll be posting the design as well as the photo of it when I complete it. There’s so much behind all the statues and architecture I never realized  before. There is a giant giant stone in the center of the Vatican courtyard (called an Obelisk). Apparently these obelisks are all over Rome. They are humongous and extremely heavy. I was surprised to learn that none of them were made here in Rome. Instead, all of them are were seized by the Romans when they invaded Egypt. Spoils of war! Here’s a few select photos I’ve taken.

Also, I can’t believe how much graffiti there is in Rome. It’s everywhere! And alot of it is really good. So much talent over here I never knew about. There’s a crew near my hotel called The Hot Boys” with amazing lettering. Great name I know. haha. If I can spot one again I’ll take a photo. The font looks like hot dogs.

Our clothing brand, The Wonderful Life is open for business!!

We’re still starting out, so any feedback you have for us would be greatly appreciated. The online store can be found at

www.wonderfullife.storenvy.com

and our myspace page can be found at

www.myspace.com/wonderfullifeclothing

Please add us as a friend, spread the word, and show your support!! Thanks!

I’m in Rome Italy. I’m gonna go explore

I was asked to do a design involving Hamsters attacking a city. Here’s what I came up with. The design is 5 colors on Dark Blue.

Here’s a new design I did for the band Close to Home. Hopefully, it’ll be available in Hot Topic soon. If not, look for it at their shows.

Working on some new stuff for Blood on the Dance floor, Jonny Craig, and Travie McCoy from Gym Class Heroes right now. Stay posted for new images!

Sorry for the lack of updating. I’ve been super busy. I’m going to Rome at the end of the month, and getting a tooth pulled tomorrow, so I am trying to get as much done as possible before these things happen!

The clothing brand I started w/ Four Letter Lie singer Brian Nagan will lauch in SUPER early March. Everything was finalized today.

In the meantime, here’s a new design i did for The Devil Wears Prada. It’s dedicated to my favorite X Box Live game. Castle Crashers.

Don’t forget to follow me on twitter. @mattgondek

I finally got around to making a design based off one of my favorite video games of all time. Metroid. The band I designed it for is “The Word Alive”. Check it out and let me know what you think.

I posted the tee on emptees.com. You can check it out here.

I also recently wrapped up some work for Shirts for a Cure. I designed a necklace that will be on sale at SXSW. From what I’m told, it’ll be made out of vinyl records and will say F*** Cancer in a cursive font. Be sure to look for it.

Winds of Plague asked me to create a logo/ crest for them based off the “W” in their pre-existing logo’s font. Using some ideas that Johnny from the band suggested, we came up with this idea.

Here’s one of the two new designs I’m doing for the band Of Mice and Men. The band has an ampersand in place of the word “and”, so I turned it into a snake.

I posted the tee on emptees.com. Click here to check that out.

Right now, I’m working on some new designs for the band The Word Alive, a necklace for SXSW from Shirts for a Cure, an Attack Attack! design, and an X Men themed tee for the Printed Mind. Check back to see the new work and it’s finished!

I was really excited when the band Kids in the Making approached me to help them create the album artwork for their new EP, titled “The Talk of the Town”. They wanted a very crowded town scene, and I suggested I add a bunch of little hidden items to give it a Where’s Waldo feel.

This is my first album design and I think it came out well. I’d really appreciate you’re comments on it!

I did this Devil Wears Prada design awhile back, but never got around to posting it here on my site. It’s one of my favorites that I did for them, so I hope you guys like it!

Hot Topic released two new designs I did for the band Breathe Carolina. One is a pinball machine design (image of it under “Illustrations”) and the other is a green dude playing a keyboard sitting atop some skulls ands junk. That one is posted on their web store here.

The other day I was kinda bored so I shot a video tour of my new studio and put it on youtube. It shows off all the different stuff I use to make my designs. If you wanna check it out, it’s right here. I think I swore once or twice in it because I was nervous shooting it, so watch out for those.

I’ve been wanting to try other stuff besides just mainly shirt designs, so recently I’ve been trying to work on album designs. So far I’ve done two. I’ll be posting them on the site here as I finalize them. One is for the band Kids in the Making. Their EP is called talk of the town, so I drew out a town crammed w/ all sorts of people and aliens and junk and hid a bunch of little things in the drawing, sort of like those old Where’s Waldo books. The second band I’m working on is called Exit Cleveland. The design I’m making for their record, “Get a Clue”, is based around the board game Clue.

My clothing brand, Wonderful Life has sent off the final print designs to the printers and we are negotiating prices and whatnot now. We’re so close to launching!