December 2020

Client | Hideaway Pizza

Art direction | Robot House Creative

Every trip to Stillwater for basketball camp in my youth included a stop at Hideaway Pizza, so being asked to contribute an Elf-inspired illustration as the 2020 edition of their annual holiday pizza box was a real treat.

Working with Robot House was a lot of fun and really helped the idea evolve from the first draft to finished product.

July 2021

Client | 405 Magazine

Each month, 405 Magazine has a different illustrator create a unique spot to accompany a humorous column that wraps each issue. Nearly all of my favorite illustrators have contributed one in recent years, so it was an honor to have lil’ ol’ me join their ranks.

The column merged true crime obsessions with the daily inconveniences that the writer could see as their own personal final straw, “snapping” them into a streak of heinous crimes. And as a frequent recipient of robocalls about my car’s expiring warranty, I get it.

May 2021

Client | The Depot

I was happy to give The Depot a fresh image for the return of their Summer Breeze Concert Series to Lions Park in 2021. They also turned it into an adorable ringer tee, which I’m happy to see sported around town.

October 2021

Client | Curbside Chronicle

You’d be hard pressed to find me turning down chances to work with Nathan Poppe, Curbside Chronicle and Homeless Alliance. Good people doing good work, and creatively fun, too!

Nathan conceived of the Highlights-style cover to capture the intent of this special kids issue of the monthly street paper. I drafted the illustration on the front, as well as an accompanying picture find activity for the back cover. I especially enjoyed the latter, filling it with OKC imagery and the people who make Curbside Chronicle what it is.

If you are interested in ordering prints of any of the illustrations, please contact me at thejoshuaboydston@gmail.com!

Prints are available as:
12”x12” print on photo paper: $25
8”x8” print on wood: $75
16”x16” print on wood: $175

Created | May 2020

What a year, huh.

When word of a “murder hornet” buzzing into North America came into my newsfeed, it felt like 2020 had jumped the shark and instantly recalled the sort of ridiculous ’80s arcade fighter games where a murder hornet would conceivably be a playable character.

A lot of my illustrations take on a cute, playful identity, which I think this retains but with a little bit of added edge and toughness to it that was fun to navigate for a change.

Created | April 2020

Client | Guestroom Records

In reaction to the COVID-19 pandemic, Guestroom Records was greatly affected in the way that almost nearly all local businesses were. Physically closed and with online orders not nearly capturing the same level of sales that normal walk-in traffic commanded, the owners wanted to capture the moment with a t-shirt whose proceeds could go on to help their employees.

Guestroom Records’ logo and iconic orange couch naturally leant itself to the societal message of staying home, and so I came up with the tagline of Stay Home. Spin Records. to encourage not only continued social distancing but also celebrate the love of music and support of local record stores that is near and dear to the heart of their customer base.

I gave the couch a friendly update with retro flair, spinning a record on his finger like a basketball. It quickly sold out of its initial run, leading to a second run of shirts that also sold well, becoming a successful fundraiser for the store.

Created | February 2020

Client | Wheeler District

Each year, Wheeler District asks a different Oklahoma artist/illustrator to create the poster for their annual cycling series, Wheeler Criterium. The design has to include their signature bear wearing aviation goggles/helmet on a bicycle but is otherwise open to the artist’s interpretation.

I aimed for a strikingly adorable rendition of the bear, cycling amongst a couple of nearby OKC landmarks (including the districts’ iconic Ferris Wheel) with twists that made them feel more of nature fitting of the humanoid bear.

Created | October 2019

A horror and sci-fi binge through the month of October manifested itself in this little monster alien creature, which felt like the perfect match for weirdo psychedelic garage bands Pearl Earl and Helen Kelter Skelter and a gig they had at Opolis set for the next month.

Created | October 2019

Client | Opolis

With Andy & Marian of Opolis being big fans of mid-century modern design aesthetic, that seemed like the perfect avenue to create a look for their annual holiday shindig that combines music, poetry, comedy and more in support of good, local causes.

The abstracted tree was a good vessel to hold a lot of fun ornaments that in turn became great fuel for a GIF to animate the whole affair, and I’m pleased with the combination of typography in creating a clear but captivating palette for a fair bit of text necessary for the poster.

Created | March 2020

Having grown up just north of where the utterly ridiculous Tiger King is set, it couldn’t help but want to put my spin on Joe, transforming him into one of his beloved big cats with like sight gags from the show sprinkled around for fun.

Thunder Watch editorial illustration

Created | September 2019
Client | Curbside Chronicle

Winner: 2020 Great Plains Journalism Award for Best Graphic/Illustration

The Curbside Chronicle — a street paper that combats homelessness by empowering vendors to sell issues for income — reached out about having an illustration done to accompany an article written by Thunder diehard fan and vendor John.

The article was about the dawning of a new era of Thunder basketball with the recently departed cornerstone Russell Westbrook and what that meant from there. Russ’ landing spot with the Rockets (and former teammate James Harden) begged the space-theme on the left, including planets where other former Thunder stars had landed, while the right side of the illustration focused on incoming players Chris Paul and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and the path back to playoff — and championship — contention.

Created | November 2019

I’m a big OKC Thunder fan, but I’ve been an NBA fan for even longer. I was thrilled when the Thunder relocated from Seattle to my homestate, but that transition was a little, uh, rocky, and so the Thunder doesn’t quite boast the heritage of most NBA franchises and some of the lovable, throwback logos that many teams featured in the early days of the league.

So just as a fun, personal project, I reimagined the Thunder’s bison mascot Rumble as what he might have looked like if the team had existed back in the ’70s.

Created | October 2019

Client | Norman Arts Council

When the Norman Arts Council decided upon the theme of Alice in ONEderland for their upcoming fundraiser, I knew that I wanted to get away from the Burton-esque aesthetic that had taken over that world in the past decade or so and throwback more to the feel of the ’50s animated movie without very literally translating it.

The result is a storybook-inspired color palette that feels both vintage but current, told through iconography that ties in neatly with much of Norman Arts Council’s established brand identity.

NMF 2019

Created | January 2019 through April 2019
Client | Norman Music Festival

Festival poster artwork can be tricky in that you want to have that visual impact, but you are serving these large, long lineups with — in the case of NMF — hundreds of artists. This year I challenged myself to fit every artist playing the festival onto the poster, and though the font got comically small out of necessity, it was great to fit everyone in and still have some graphic interest from the instrument/concert iconography to balance that.

The grouped, wavy lines became a great vessel to illustrate the loose vibes of a festival, against the more deliberate nature of the schedules maintaining some semblance of organized chaos, all while harkening to the idea of soundwaves and the way they emanate off of instruments and sound equipment and around the city during the weekend of the festival.

I think this was the most balanced and complete branding of the festival, to date, reflective of the festival’s continued growth in organization and execution, itself.

Created | 2012 to present
Client | Norman Arts Council

When I began working at Norman Arts Council, the 2nd Friday Norman Art Walk poster was simply a word file printed out and stuck into a transparent folder that stuck up at select downtown Norman locations. Which — though understandable with an arts non-profit resources — seemed to undercut the excitement of the event, made it feel a little static and didn’t do much to reflect the impact on the arts community it was beginning to have.

As a fledgling designer at the time, it was the perfect opportunity to challenge myself to make something new each and every month and grow. Which it definitely did, especially going back to the earliest iterations.

It’s fun to have a vessel to create anything that feels reflective of that moment in time, and a perfect breeding ground to experiment with new ideas and techniques that have stirred a lot of my evolution, especially as an illustrator.

Created | January 2019
Client | NAC + Guestroom Records

When I was told Colourmusic would be treating a 2nd Friday Norman Art Walk in-store at Guestroom Records as an album release show for a long gestating and shadowy record, I wanted to make it a special one.

I let the album cover — a woman floating in water — as the impetus for the design story. I took colors from the cover as the basis of the palette. A more literal dive into water was the original design thought, but a more abstract, Scandinavian-inspired illustration of that concept became the more intriguing idea. It was a little out of my normal wheelhouse but found a pretty comfortable home fast, and I’m excited to carry more of this into ideas moving forward.

Created | January 2019
Client | NAC + NMF + Opolis

I had conceived of this sort of old-timey alien gentleman some time prior, and this gig featuring some of my favorite bands from Oklahoma (Husbands and Lacey Elaine) and Texas (Pearl Earl and Hall Johnson) felt like the perfect tonal fit for it. The hazy, psychedelic framing came later and seemed to only further that idea of a man outside of his time, a good fit for Pearl Earl’s psychedelic garage sound and Husbands’ vibrant guitar pop.

Created | June 2018
Client | NAC + Guestroom Records

Jarvix is a wonderful Oklahoma musician and music journalist with a quirky, experimental streak that I adore. His shows feature no shortage of improvisation, out-of-the-ordinary instruments and sometimes even puppets … so I wanted to give him something a little special and transform him into a cartoon right our of Steven Universe.

It was an immediate crowd-favorite, and it eventually became part of a button set of his.

Created | February 2019
Client | NAC + NMF + Opolis

Between the band name Smokey Motel and the proximity to spring break, road trips were definitely on my mind. The gray motorcycle fumes started as a simple means of balancing the design and filling the frame, but it immediately became an opportunity to further tell the story. The light, tan background giving way to layers of gray and, finally, deep, starry sky became a means of translating this idea of the road trip going from early morning to late at night and back again, and I’m pleased with the journey this “journey” took from conception to end result.

Created | August 2018
Client | Audio Book Club

When Audio Book Club reached out about creating a poster for their live debut, I was most interested in challenging myself with color and to come up with a palette that still evokes the warmth that I seek in my work but also decidedly different from what I normally do.

I love the end result, and in experimenting with a set of elements found a trio of different but still connected images that made sense as a set. So instead of just sending one, I sent all three to the band and let them use the tandem in promotion of the gig.

NMF 2018

Created | November 2017 through April 2018
Client | Norman Music Festival

I wanted Norman Music Festival to be referential to the city itself with the branding for the 2018 edition, which is where the playful illustrations of some of the city’s landmarks — Sooner Theatre, Redhawk Mural, the clock tower, the Chouse — came into play.

The color palette of deep, rich blues and soft orange pinks is one the festival has continued to run with in nearly all event branding ever since.

Created | January through March 2018
Client | Norman Arts Council

Each year, Norman Arts Council hosts its ONE fundraiser, and each one centers on a different era of art and/or cultural significance. Bal Chat Noir was centered around the French cabarets of late 1800s, but it was important to me and the committee planning the event that the event not too closely resemble the Moulin Rouge-themed events you often see.

Centering around the black cat of the famed Le Chat Noir, the branding is certainly reminiscent of the Art Noveau movement of the era, but plenty updated to keep it hip and current.

As a party favor of sorts to sponsors, I also took iconic ads from the era and updated them to include our present-day sponsor’s name instead, hiding the black cat in each poster as an easter egg to the event itself.

Created | January 2016 & 2017
Client | Norman Music Festival

Each year Norman Music Festival hosts an annual Stupid Cupid Pub Crawl in support of the festival. It's become something I look forward to designing for each coming year. 

Created | July 2017
Client | Levelland Productions

I've long been a fan of Foxygen, and it's always a fun process to create a poster for a band you really enjoy. The psychedelic pop sound helped informed the trippy, but polished look a strove for here.

This is the first time creating a variant set, as well, and fell in love with creating a whole, visual identity for a stand alone show like this. 

Created | March 2017
Client | Fowler Auto

Fowler Auto approached me about creating a billboard and web ad set for a fitness series they help sponsor at Guthrie Green in the heart of downtown Tulsa. I wanted to create a pleasant, colorful scene mirroring the park and the variety of different activities the fitness series included. 

Created | September 2017
Client | 89th Street

89th Street reached out wanting GIFs for select shows on their upcoming calendar. Ought is a favorite band of mine, so it was a fun initial project to take on. 

Created | July 2014
Client | Levelland Productions

This was a fun project. I looked to create a old-school hip-hop meets modern music festival vibe. The color palette — quietly evoking it's home in Stillwater, home of Oklahoma State University — was different for me at the time, but I love how it turned out. 

Created | September 2017
Client | Norman Arts Council & Norman Music Festival

A poster set created for the 2nd Friday Concert Series. This month featured Oklahoma hip-hop and R&B artists Josh Sallee, Gabrielle B., Fresh and S. Reidy. 

Josh Sallee is a Denver Broncos fan, which inspired the color way. 

Created | March 2017
Client | Norman Music Festival

Collateral made around a logo created by Matt Goad. 

Created | December 2014
Client | OKC Comedy

Maria Bamford is a long-time favorite comedian of mine, so I was excited to create a poster for one of her stops in my home state. 

I wanted a Pixar-look, channeling the wide range of emotions, perspectives and asides that Bamford instills into her style of standup. 

Created | November 2014
Client | Guestroom Records

I love my local record store Guestroom Records and always love to collaborate with them on any design project that presents itself. They asked for a poster to advertise their Record Store Day (Black Friday-edition), and I created an electric color palette to draw attention in. 

Created | February 2017
Client | Norman Arts Council & Norman Music Festival

For some reason, folk music and the sea go hand in hand for me. Who knows why? That tie became a naval captain, his pipe smoke becoming an anchor, all inspired by ’70s cartoons and advertisements.