BrainstormOverloadBrainstormOverload - Small design studio. Big ideas.

Local Talent – Brock Davis

Todd — Sun, 28 Apr 2013 19:09:21 +0000

If you’re like me the long awaited arrival of Spring is awakening your body. Shake the cobwebs out of your mind with a trip through the collection of clever photography by Brock Davis. Lot’s of great stuff in his make something cool everyday collection too.

Artcrank Proud Papa Jersey

Todd — Sat, 06 Apr 2013 15:25:06 +0000

At last you can wear your Proud Papa on your sleeve. We’re excited to announce that BrainstormOverload has partnered with Donkey Label to present a sweet, high-end jersey sporting our Proud Papa design from Artcrank Minneapolis 2012. Check out the Donkey Label site for more details and a discounted pre-order deal. We’ll try to get Todd to wear his to the Artcank 2013 opening tomorrow evening. Here are some preview pics.

Chez Panisse Posters

Todd — Sat, 09 Mar 2013 05:00:39 +0000

Today the iconic Berkeley restaurant Chez Panisse survived a fire (SF Chronicle). Alice Waters, a pioneer of the local and organic food movement, started the restaurant in 1971. It went on to be named not only the best restaurant in America but one of the 50 best restaurants in the world. In an effort to help Chez Panisse bounce back our good friend and artist David Lance Goines of St. Hieronymus Press is donating 100% of the proceeds from the sale of any of his extensive collection of Chez Panisse poster to the reconstruction. The month of April is your chance to get a beautiful, limited edition, hand-printed poster (often as many as 14 colors) and help the slow food movement get on the fast track to recovery. See the full collection on David’s website. Here are a few of our favorites to entice you.

Artcrank Minneapolis 2013 Artists Announced

Todd — Sun, 03 Feb 2013 17:17:23 +0000

100 artists submitted for this year’s 44 Artcrank Minneapolis slots so it goes without saying we’re excited to have made it in. It’s always a stellar show and an epic cycle culture scene. Last year’s gathering above – this year’s artists listed below. We’ve listed company sites and LinkedIn profiles in cases where we couldn’t find a personal portfolio site. Check ‘em out as a great reminder of how much creative talent there is in the Twin Cities. And, it will all be on display in one place on April 06, 2013 at Grain Belt Studios.. Hope you see you there.

Aaron Purmort
Adam Hoganson
Adam Turman
Aesthetic Apparatus
Aimee Gauthier
Allan Peters
Amy Barthel
Amy Jo
Andy Wood
Anne Ulku
Antonia Maistrova
Big Table Studio
Brian Geihl
Clinton Lugert
Daniel Jenstad
Dan Souligny
David Schwen
David Paul Seymour
Eric Drommerhausen
Erik Hamline
Erik T. Johnson
Greg Brose
Hannah Johnson
Ian Davies
Jason Craig
Jesse Lindhorst
Jordan A. Smith
Kyle Coughlin
Liz Adamsick
Lonny Unitas
Michael Lizama
Milton Un
Natalie Wynings
Nate Johannes
Phil Jones
Rachel Roddy
Ross Bruggink
Sam Michaels
Sarah Schlesser
Shannon Pettini
STEAKMOB
Studio On Fire
Todd Zerger
Wink

Winter Solstice Card 2012

Todd — Fri, 21 Dec 2012 16:06:51 +0000

After today every subsequent day will enjoy a few more minutes of sunlight as we rotate inexorably back toward the planetary orientation we like to call “cycling season”. Just in time to celebrate (it’s been a very busy year) we’ve finished this years winter solstice Info graphic card. We’re excited to deliver them to our incredible clients whom we appreciate very much (it’s been a very busy year). It’s also become a tradition to provide a print quality pdf for download. We’re all in this thing called Winter together after all and we really appreciate the requests we get every year. So, with that stay warm and enjoy.

For this year’s graphic each month of 2012 is represented as a circle divided into two arcs with the total hours of night on the left and the total hours of day light on the right. The arcs for each month have been colored using a gradient that represents the quality of the light (nobody said info graphics can’t have a subjective layer). The circles are then set concentrically and overlapping each other to cause the creation of serendipitous effects, labeled as minimally as possible and voilà.

We should add that these are the product of a completely manual process. We add everything up by hand, rotate all the angles one at a time in Adobe Illustrator and adjust all the details until we’re happy with them. Probably “there’s an ap for that” but we enjoy spending the time with the design. Check out cards from past years.

Poster Offensive Show

Todd — Tue, 06 Nov 2012 17:34:22 +0000

There was a great turn out for Poster Offensive 6 at Big Table Studio. Here are a few photos. There are a few more on Flickr. And, a bit more detail about the show and our poster in a previous post. We printed a small edition of 25 but a few are still available at Big Table Studio and on Etsy.

View from the back by the big table.

Our poster “Freedom” with someone’s shadow driving the point home.

The man himself Mr. Peet Fetsch. Thanks for throwing another Poster Offensive show Peet.

I got caught pointing the camera at the capacity crowd. It was super packed so probably best in the end that no one invited the Fire Marshal.

Poster Offensive 6

Todd — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 22:25:21 +0000

Washington is in overdrive and has drawn the rest of the nation into the potent conversation about who should be running things and in which direction they should run. That means it’s time, once, again, for Poster Offensive. This year’s show promises 24 artists each expressing his or her take on any and all things political. From the future of marriage to the future of Big Bird, bayonets in the military and binders full of women in the White House. It’s all fair game.

We hope to see you November 3rd, 2012 for the show opening at Big Table Studio and the Amsterdam Bar (showing a retrospective of past shows). Bring whatever money you didn’t blow on a super pac and spend it encouraging local (and possibly outrageous) poster art. Below is a list of participating artists and a sneak peek at our poster entitled “Freedom”. If you can’t get to the show you can still get a poster on Etsy.

Poster Offensive 2012 Artists:
David Dresbach
Bill Ferenc
Dale Flattum
Ruthann Godollei
Amy Jo
Craig Johnson
Jeff Johnson
Andrew Kiekhafer
Ben Levitz
Jesse Lindhorst
Cory Loven
Steven McCarthy
Samatha Michaels
Bill Moran
Jamie Paul
Kelly Perlick
Andy Powell
Derek Presnail
Aaron Purmort
Jenni Undis
Andrew Weydt
Todd Zerger
Nick Zdon

Wheel Art

Todd — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 14:35:50 +0000

There was a great turnout for the SED open house last night. Cyclists, techies and families with small kids all lingered to enjoy the delicious food, and to enjoy and bid on the wheel art. We had a blast and want to thank the team at SED Paul Krumrich (founder and the man behind Donkey Label jerseys) and Gretta Fry for including us and for all the support. Thanks to Graphic Systems for contributing the sweet 3M graphics wrap. Also, thanks to yet another awesome, local, bicycle industry player HED for donating the wheels. The auction proceeds were donated to the Full Cycle program in Minneapolis that exposes homeless youth to the magic of the bicycle.

Here are a few photos from the event starting with our design “Color Wheel” which was as much fun to spin as we were hoping it would be.

Fly Wheel by Rachel Roddy (Creative Director at Lee Branding) was a show favorite.

A Hard Day’s Ride by Todd Thyberg (owner of Angel Bomb Design)

UNiTY by freelance artist Susan Montgomery

KISS your Penny-Farthing Goodbye by Teri Harriet

Wendy Ruyle (co-owner 5 by 5 Design)

Synthetic Lifestyle by tcb

Happy kids. Always a good sign.

Spagat Studio Denmark

Todd — Tue, 25 Sep 2012 17:08:47 +0000

We’re always on the lookout for inspiring studio spaces to help us improve our ‘micro-studio’ and just discovered Spagat Design Studio in Denmark. They recently moved into a new space which looks lovely and bright. We’ve got a brick building too and dig what they’ve done. We’re excited that a Typometry print will soon be part of the decor.

For the Love of Letters

Todd — Wed, 05 Sep 2012 17:17:57 +0000

‘For The Love of Letters’ is the newest show at Big Table Studio and opens this Friday evening (Sept. 7, 2012) at 7:00 pm. It will feature the work of a dozen artists including Andy Powell, Annie Donegan, Bill Ferenc, Bill Moran, Chank Diesel, Jamie Paul, Jesse Lindhorts, Jon Forss, Kelly Perlick, Namdev Hardisty, Nick Zdon and Todd Zerger. You should totally go! RSVP via Facebook if that’s your thing. Either way, hope to see you there. Below is the show poster designed by Evie Moran. Our poster is here.