Introducing Ally Originals, A New Design Contest Series

Creative Allies is proud to introduce the Ally Originals series, an exciting new type of creative opportunity for our community of artists and designers. Like our other design contests, Ally Originals let you submit designs for rockstars for a chance to win cash, prizes and a percentage of sales if your design becomes a product. Here’s what makes Ally Originals unique:

1. Celebrity guest curators. Ally Originals celebrate rockstars of innovation, inspiration and originality. Our guest curators have led lives of passion and accomplishment and brought positive change to the world. Our first guest curator is pro surfer, model and eco-adventurer Holly Beck. Guest curators will judge contest entries and choose one overall winner plus a selection of designs that will become products for sale. (more…)

Want To See Your Artwork on One Million Cans of AriZona?

Creative Allies is thrilled to be hosting one of our biggest and most unique creative opportunities to date; the chance to design AriZona’s 20th Anniversary can!

In addition to winning $5,000 and a year’s supply of AriZona beverages, the winning designer will get his or her name and design on one million cans of AriZona’s 20th Anniversary flavor, Cherry Lime Rickey.

We’re extra excited because AriZona is a super cool company that’s been known for creating unique, eye-catching artwork for its signature 23-ounce cans and giving its fans a voice through social media. For instance, AriZona asked its followers to choose the 20th Anniversary flavor from three finalists: Cherry Lime Rickey, Chocolate Fudge Float and Orange Creamsicle — which one would you choose?

You can learn more about AriZona’s 20th Anniversary (and submit your creations) at www.arizona20years.com and here on Creative Allies.

Ally Spotlight: Tolani Lightfoot AKA Thunderbird & Lightfoot

Since submitting her first contest entry last summer for the legendary Paul Simon, Tolani Lightfoot—aka Creative Ally Thunderbird & Lightfoot—has been a familiar presence and a force to be reckoned with on Creative Allies. The Philadelphia, PA-based artist/designer has picked up wins for singer-songwriter Julianna Raye and the Wounded Warrior Album Charity, submitted multiple runner-up designs and been nominated as a 2011 Ally of the Year finalist.

Read on to learn more about the prolific designer behind tons of awesome submissions for Feist, Susan Justice, Rick James, the String Cheese Incident, the Shins, Sondre Lerche and many more.
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Essential Design Tips from Vans Warped Tour Founder Kevin Lyman

Design by Jandrei Sanchez

Founded in 1995, the Vans Warped Tour is one of the longest running events of its kind in North America. In a series of day-long festivals around the country each summer, Warped Tour mixes performances by punk, hardcore and metal bands, displays of skating and other extreme sports and the chance to connect with like-minded fans and the musicians and athletes themselves. The 2012 tour will travel to more than 40 cities, with headliners like Rise Against, Taking Back Sunday, Breathe Carolina, Yellowcard, Falling In Reverse, Of Mice And Men and many more.

Vans Warped Tour has partnered with Creative Allies to let Warped Tour fans design an official poster for the 2012 Warped Tour with the theme, “Music Makes the World New.” We had the unique honor and pleasure of sitting down with Warped Tour founder Kevin Lyman to talk about the tour’s history, its unique style and how it’s changed over the years.

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Keeping the Grateful Dead’s Artistic Legacy Alive in ‘The Epic Tour’

Copyright Grateful Dead Productions

Creative Allies has teamed up with the makers of The Grateful Dead Game – The Epic Tour to let fans design a poster for the Grateful Dead show voted “Most Epic” by fans and help create the visual look of the new online game, to be released April 20, 2012.

The Epic Tour aims to be the definitive online experience for those who love The Grateful Dead, so we recently sat down with Adam Blumenthal of game developers Curious Sense to learn more about the upcoming game, classic psychedelic artwork and tips for designers looking to score $1000+ in cash and prizes by creating an epic poster for the Grateful Dead Game. (more…)

Ally Spotlight: John Conley

We at Creative Allies have been fans of John Conley (known on CA as jc_conley) since he submitted the winning poster design for Ben Sollee’s Bicycle Tour shortly after joining Creative Allies last summer. Since then, John’s work has been a welcome staple on the site, with striking submissions for Feist, Bell X1, Bassnectar, Counting Crows and many others.

We contacted John to learn more about his background and how he developed the elements of his signature style of geometric arrangements, rich textures and smart use of color. It’s not surprising that, like many Allies, he’s also a musician and thrives in the overlap of music and art. Read on to get to know one of Creative Allies’ star contributors.

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What You Ought To Know About Rose Falcon

Rose Falcon is a singer/songwriter who has been in the music industry since a very young age. She has written music for a large variety of artists and productions including Faith Hill, Lady Antebellum and TV shows like Dawson’s Creek.

She has released two albums of her own music, Rose Falcon in 2003 and Fingerprints in 2008. Recently signed to Show Dog–Universal Music as a recording artist, Rose approached Creative Allies with a contest to create her new logo and took some time to speak with us about her musical background and upcoming projects.

Creative Allies: Can you tell us a little bit about yourself and your music? What’s your background?

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3 Reasons The String Cheese Incident Have Such Rabid Fans

Photo credit: Geoffrey Squier Silver

The String Cheese Incident, formed in Colorado in 1993, are one of the most iconic jam bands in the world today. Fusing elements of bluegrass, funk, rock and psychedelia and touring almost non-stop, SCI has garnered an incredibly loyal fan base, some of whom follow the band to every single show.

The String Cheese Incident are collaborating with Creative Allies to give artists, designers and fans from anywhere in the world a shot to design the official graphics for their upcoming Summer Tour, which will be featured in web assets, flyers, print ads and more this summer. To help out the uninitiated members of the Creative Allies community capture the band’s unique vibe, we identified three big reasons that fans can’t get enough String Cheese.

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Living Music, Breathing Art: An Interview with Mark Valkwitch

The artist's self-portrait

At Creative Allies, we love when music and art overlap, co-mingle and cross-pollinate, creating a messy, beautiful feedback loop of creativity. We love to hear stories about artists who are just as at home on the mixing board as the drawing tablet, pulling in inspiration interchangeably from the stroke of a brush and the stroke of a chord.

The Creative Allies community is home to an outsize contingent of these creative polymaths, some of whom have been profiled in this blog. Mark Valkwitch is one of these unique talents. An active contributor to Creative Allies throughout the last year, taking home wins from Camp Bisco and Lights All Night, Mark is also a DJ and electronic musician based in Buffalo, New York, who has shared the stage with huge international artists like Amon Tobin and Eskmo. We asked Mark to tell us a little more about his background and approach to mixing music with design and illustration to create unforgettable artwork. (more…)

Good Clean Fun: Design Secrets of The White Panda

Mash-up duo The White Panda recently approached Creative Allies to give our artists and designers a chance to design the album cover for their new release, Bambooyah!

Since 2009, the DJ duo of Dan Griffith (DJ Griffi) and Tom Evans (DJ Procrast) have been prolific in their craft, putting all their content up on their website for download and releasing a steady stream of new tunes through their “Mashup Mondays.” Their original brand of dance party music has proven popular, and they quickly developed a reputation for outrageously fun live shows. Bambooyah! is set for release this March, and we had the chance to interview one half of the pair, Dan Griffith, in the midst of the group’s Pandamonium Tour.

Creative Allies: How did The White Panda come about?  How did the two of you connect?

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