DAN STILES IS FAKE NEWS
A short segment the local news did on my Portland Wonderland window installation. > CLICK HERE
ELECTRIC POSTER FOR MARS ATTACKS
Here is my latest Electric Poster. I'll be posting more detailed information in a bit.
ELECTRIC POSTERS IN SCREENPRINTING MAGAZINE
The folks at Screenprinting magazine have featured on of my electric posters on their esteemed pages. >CHECK IT OUT
PENCIL VS. PIXEL INTERVIEW
I sat down a few weeks ago for an interview with Cesar Contreras. You can read or listen to the whole interview >HERE
AUDIO POSTER PROTOTYPE
Workin' on some new stuff in the design lab. Stay tuned for more...
DAN STILES SQUANCHES RICK AND MORTY
Officially licensed poster for Cartoon Network's Rick and Morty. Part of their Gallery 1988 show. You can still buy one through the gallery >HERE
INTERVIEW ON KODAK CREATIVE COMMUNITIES BLOG
I was contacted a while back by Kodak to do an interview on their blog, >CHECK IT OUT HERE
DAN STILES V. PORTLAND TRAILBLAZERS
This official limited edition serigraph was commissioned by the Portland Trail Blazers as an exclusive gift for their closest partners. Inspired by Portland landmarks, the spirit of Rip City and the pebbles and seams of a basketball. Printed in 2016 using official Trail Blazers team colors in a limited edition of 150, each print is hand-signed and numbered by the artist.
DAN STILES ON AUSTRALIAN DESIGN RADIO
In this episode, we spoke to designer and illustrator Dan Stiles from Portland, Oregon.
This was recorded during the Adobe MAX conference where we were surrounded by some international superstars, so we broke our own rules and made Dan our first non-ANZ guest. We also took the opportunity to give a quick run down of what we were seeing on the first day of the conference and how we were feeling about it.
DAN STILES AT ADOBEMAX
Last week I was down in San Diego at the AdobeMax design conference. They were nice enough to tape my presentation and make it available for free on their site if you would like to check it out. CHECK IT OUT
DAN STILES: LOST AND FOUND
Over the last couple of years Adobe has been extremely supportive of my career. Hiring me to do artwork for Illustrator promotions, hosting a talk at San Francisco Design Week, and now bringing me to San Diego to speak at Adobe MAX. Leading up to that event they've put together an in depth interview at Adobe Create. DAN STILES: LOST AND FOUND
AN INTERVIEW WITH ART REPORT
I sat down with Art Report in June and answered a few questions. You can find the full interview here
DAN STILES AND COMMUNICATION ARTS
Communication Arts is running a profile on me leading up to my presentation at the Adobe MAX design convention this fall in San Diego. Check it out.
WORKING LATE. SF DESIGN WEEK INTERVIEW
Together with AIGA San Francisco Design Week, we asked designer Dan Stiles to present his projects and his process at Working Late on Wednesday June 10. READ THE INTERVIEW HERE
TALKING PORTLAND RETAIL ON BIZ503 RADIO
An A-list panel of experts discuss retail trends – whether digital or storefront – on this week’s Biz503. Join Mark Grimes of NedSpace and Perry Gruber of Copiosis and the Transamorous Network this Friday at 1 p.m. for a lively panel discussion about Reinventing Retail. Tune into the stream at PRP.fm or join us at 99.1 fm in the heart of Portland.
Hear the podcast HERE
BLACK METAL KITTEH IN THE LA TIMES
Many thanks to the fine folks at The LA Times for featuring my Black Metal Kitteh pillow in their Hot Home Ideas and Resources for 2016 feature. The pillows are available in my store.
SPARKS - HOLLYWOOD BOWL
$60.00
MAYBE I SHOULD HAVE LEFT IT AS A PAINTING
I’ve been working on a painting called Trigger Happy for the last several weeks, and when it came time to print some new T shirts I thought the image was powerful enough to come off the canvas and onto some merchandise. I don’t strive to be a controversial artist, I don’t get off on being shocking. I also don’t want to beat people over the head with political messages. Nobody likes Bono. What I try to do is to combine powerful symbols in new ways. I want people to look at my work and develop their own meanings. For that reason I don’t put text with my images, or lengthy artist statements. We all have our own interpretations of art. The problem with that is that sometimes I catch flak for the meanings people come up with. Take this email exchange I had today.
Person: Gotta a say, I love your stuff… but was disturbed by the picture of t-shirt with gun and smily (sic) face. REALLY??? with all the violence today, your (sic) selling this?
Me: The real question is what does it mean? Is it a statement about violence or a celebration of violence? Perhaps a statement about the American psyche? Usually I don't beat people over the head with overt messages. Guns R Bad, is a little heavy handed for my taste. Look at it, think about it. Think about the title of the piece especially. Art is supposed to be challenging. But thanks for your input. I mean that.
Person: Thanks for the schooling and take me off of your email list
Me: I honestly meant thank you for your input. I like having conversations about art with people, but I see this didn't end well. Sorry I offended you I'll take you off the list.
So, that’s that. Artistic discourse at it's finest.
To me the interest in a piece like this lies in the tension between the saccharine sweetness of the smiley face and the implied violence of the gun. This is an experiment in meaning. Giving it an implicit message would be as easy as turning the smile upside down. Gun with frowny face = guns are bad. That simple maneuver relieves the dissonance between the two images, immediately making one single meaning easy to understand, and also serving to render the art trite and boring. There is no remaining room for interpretation, there is no larger message, there is no deeper meaning. Bono has spoken.
I honestly think that if I had left the image on a canvas this person might have been more inclined to think about it as art and give it a little more thought. Or maybe not. You can't please everyone I guess.
STUBBORNSTILES POP-UP SHOP IS OPEN FOR BUSINESS
From November 10 through December 24 my wife and I will have a Pop-Up shop at 438 NW Broadway in Portland OR, along Draplin Design Company and Folk. We started with a leaky, gutted industrial space, and turned it into a showroom with about 7 days of around the clock work.
Beyond giving us a brick and mortar store where we can sell for the holidays, it's also allowing me to experiment with some new products that I don't typically make.
This also marks one of the first times that my wife and I can sell our complete lines together in the same place. Mel has been selling her Stubborn jewelry all over the nation for the past ten years, but we rarely have the opportunity to show together.
We've been getting a ton of media attention
SOME THOUGHTS ON BLACK FRIDAY
Shop shop shop! Buy buy buy! Everyone hates the consumer feeding frenzy that the holidays have become. And nothing embodies this vile form of consumerism more than knuckle draggers duking it out at 4am over a half price TV at Walmart. But this year, for the first year in my life, I’m a retailer. We have a pop-up shop, which isn’t quite as real as a genuine store, but nevertheless I find myself looking forward to Black Friday. Do you know why it’s called Black Friday? Because it’s the day retailers hope to get out of the red (debt) and into the black (profits) for the holiday season. Like all retailers we've invested quite a bit of money into inventory and setting up the shop. Money we don’t know if we’ll ever see again. So the notion of hordes of shoppers descending upon our store like locusts sounds marvelous.
We have become accustomed to dismissing everything in this world. Like petulant teenagers who know it all. Sometimes it’s good to look at situations from a new angle. Like when I hired people and became a boss for the first time, suddenly I saw work and employment in a whole new light. Reversing the roles and appreciating what it takes to run a profitable business is a learning experience. I still squirm at the thought of mouth breathers savagely beating one another for bargains. But the idea that people may come in, appreciate what we make enough to buy it, and move my store from being a money loser to a money maker sounds great to me.
Come on in, we’re open and we would love to see you.