The Creative Work of Jonny Mack

American Needle is a family owned and operated business based in Chicago, Illinois. They were founded in 1918, and until contacting us in late 2009, had yet to establish a substantial presence on the web.

In preparation for an extremely high profile Supreme Court case against the NFL, American Needle asked us to help them develop and integrate both a meaningful brand strategy and e-commerce solution.

With over 600 pieces of product across 6 different categories, 3 collections, and a plethora of styles, we were able to wireframe, photograph, design and develop a highly functional, user-centric, e-commerce website.

Our hard work paid off as the site received over 27,000 hits the day the Supreme Court made its decision; 9-0 in favor of American Needle.

You can read about the case at the Wall Street Journal, Yahoo, The Huffington Post, Chicago Tribune, and Forbes.com.

Responsibilities: Information Architecture, UI Design, (X)HTML, CSS, & Javascript.

Ryan Lovelace is a young shaper out of Santa Barbara, California. He shapes a wide variety of mind-altering surf craft, from 5 ft., Greenough inspired flex spoons to 11 ft., single fin gliders.

The principle challenge of this project was to organize his diverse product offering into an intuitively navigable, yet structured, and cohesive website. It was also important that this user-friendly interface extend itself to the e-commerce component of his site, which is hosted and powered by BigCartel.

Responsibilities: These challenges were met through Information Architecture, Art Direction/UI Design, (X)HTML, CSS, & Javascript.

The Coals are a Los Angeles based country-folk/rock band helmed by the sophisticatedly handsome, internationally savvy, and always cordial Jason Scott Mandell, a.k.a. The Jolly Jewish Giant.

After a few failed attempts at putting together an album cover that accurately portrayed The Coals' music, without relying too heavily on stereotypical 'Americana' leitmotifs, we decided that less would be more; bold typography, heavy-weight craft paper, silk screen printing, and a little bit of thought went a long way in creating these unique and custom CD sleeves and inserts.

Responsibilities: Art Direction/Design, Screen Printing, Cutting, Folding, Gluing, & Trimming.

Nobory Bitoy, a.k.a. The Vicious Nobolicious; perennially charming, artfully witty, and sharp as a tack. Noboro needed a website that functioned both as a blog and showcase for his musical talents. We worked together to design a site that was clean, unobtrusive and that addressed these specific needs.

Responsibilities: Information Architecture, Design, (X)HTML, CSS, Javascript & Wordpress Integration.

Four Songs, Three Short Stories was a project I did in late 2007. It combines my love of short fiction writing, design, printmaking, solo acoustic guitar music, and audio production.

In true DIY fashion, I packaged these together in a hand signed and numbered, limited edition of 50. If you're interested in purchasing one, let me know, as I still have a handful left.

Responsibilities: Art Direction/Design, Screen Printing, Writing, Music Production, & Packaging.

Chrysalis Music, artist and songwriter, Jason Scott Mandell needed a simple, clean, brochure-based website that showcased his diverse background, as well as his guitar and songwriting services.

Responsibilities: Information Architecture, Design, (X)HTML, CSS, & Javascript.

Steve McCormick is a Los Angeles based, DIY music production and audio engineering super-maven. He runs a recoding studio out of his house, moonlights as a session guitarist and sideman, and builds homemade tube microphones in his spare time.

Steve and I worked closely to develop his brand identity, website design, and ancillary marketing materials.

Responsibilities: Art Direction, Graphic Design, & UI Design.