It’s not every day a client gives you artwork like this:

and tells you to run with it. I’m designing a valentine’s day invitation advertising a romantic meal for two for a local bar/restaurant here in Brooklyn.

The owner is going to be serving erotic food and sexy deserts. It should be a pretty cool night, actually. (Should any locals wish to attend, send me an email at mihow at this domain dot com and I’ll sign your asses up for some of this:)

I just went ahead and started scanning all of it. Some of it has nothing to do with what the project. Take this one, for example.

And she gave me hundreds of items to work with.

And what is this woman doing to this tiger?

Artwork from the past occasionally blows my mind. One of the things I am working with is a calendar from 1968. It features photo manipulation (obviously done in the darkroom) like I have never seen before. Here, you will see woman with three boobs, boobs that are hanging below their waste, boobs that come from the back, boobs on their butts, boobs with four nipples, boobs all over the place.

I’m trying to figure out what, if anything, we are creating now that people will one day look at and say, “Ummm, what the hell?” Or “That’s totally mind-blowingly kick ass!” Because I can’t think of anything. Maybe I can arrange a photo-shoot with her hot waitstaff and sexy bartenders. Maybe we could hit up the Staten Island construction crew and borrow some of their gear.

I’m in love with this stuff. Next up, we’re creating menus. I might take something from an old TOC like this:

Oh, are the creative juices ever flowing. (That’s not a euphemism.)

Anyway, if you’re out there today and bored, I’d love to hear what others have seen, present day, that might one day be considered as intriguing as what was being created 40+ years ago. I am totally digging this stuff. Introduce me to exciting new artwork. Introduce me to the bizarre, the overlooked, the weird. I’m all eyes today.