Jon MacNair

In 2023 I was commissioned by Chobani Yogurt to provide artwork for a special spooky seasonal release of their ‘Chobani Flip’ line of products (this product is made up of individual size flavored yogurts with fun toppings to add-in).

My task was to integrate my own black and white elements with the existing food illustration packaging (bringing these delicious ingredients to life with fun and ghoulish personality), as well as providing additional creepy components. Just as each of the 7 different yogurts had a distinct flavor, they also each had a specific spooky visual theme which I needed to adhere to. Quite a lot of artwork was needed for each design since all four sides of the packaging would feature the illustrations.

In addition to my artwork being used on the Chobani Yogurt packaging itself, 3D animated characters were also created by a team of artists for a commercial to feature the product. These animated characters took inspiration from both the original food packaging illustrations as well as the illustrations I created.

Many of the elements I created were used in different and isolated ways by the company, including various social media posts and advertisements. A QR code on the product packaging allowed consumers to play games and even win prizes. These games heavily utilized the illustrations I created and animated them in a fun way.

The Chobani Cafe in NYC also used the illustrated components of the seasonal packaging to decorate the inside and outside of the establishment during the fall season, including menus and window displays.

This is a Halloween poster I created on my own time to celebrate the spookiest time of year, as well as my favorite season. The trickiest part was deciding what all to include as far as imagery, and also assembling everything together into a single harmonious composition. The spooky elements were all created as smaller separate ink drawings on paper which I then scanned and brought together in Photoshop to create the finished poster.

These are some spot illustrations I created for a summer edition of the New York Times (kids section). All of the imagery I was tasked with making had a playful sea-life/ocean theme, including some very kooky octopuses. I also created a bunch of smaller decorative elements such as coral and seaweed that were sprinkled around the issue and used in the headers, footers and margins.

In 2015 I provided artwork for a limited beer release by Gigantic Brewing Company (based in Portland, Oregon) called ‘Kiss the Goat’. This was in collaboration with a 7” vinyl release by Portland band Sons of Huns. Their album artwork also featured the artwork showcased on the beer label.

This is some album artwork I created for a 2023 release by the band Arrow In The Sky. The band is comprised of a musician duo, Conor McCauley and Brian Murphy, hailing from Ireland.

For this album cover, initially the request was to use an existing art image of mine. The band felt that this image perfectly fit some of the concepts and themes portrayed in the songs on the album, hence why they chose it. While I was fine with the artwork that was being requested, personally I wanted to create an alternate version of the work due to the fact that the original was created a very long time ago (on a technical level I felt an improved version could be created). The end result is the alternate version of that original work.

The artwork was used for both a limited vinyl release as well as a CD digipak version.

Here are a set of ten (3-color) spot illustrations I created for a feature about strange and unexplained things (creatures, objects and events) for the kids section of the NYT. These were pretty straightforward and fun to illustrate, particularly because I also enjoying learning about such mysterious things in my free time.

In 2019 I was contacted by American independent book publisher Quirk Books to illustrate ‘Cursed Objects ~ Strange but True Stories of the World’s Most Infamous Items’ by J.W. Ocker.

The project itself was fairly large and spanned about 5 months, requiring me to create over 30 illustrations in a limited color palette, to accompany the text describing the history and lore about various cursed objects throughout history.

The sizes of the illustrations were mostly either half-page or full-page. The 3-colors limitation for the most part was fairly straightforward, although some of the full-page illustrations definitely took more time as the rendering could be quite detailed and complex.

While initially we planned to have me create a separate illustration just for the cover, after much trial and error we eventually decided to use four illustrations from the interior of the book to make up the design on the cover. This was expertly executed by designer Ryan Hayes.

In addition to illustrating many of the cursed objects themselves, as well as some of the circumstances surrounding these curses, I also created a repeating pattern to be used as the end papers of the book. This in particular I found very enjoyable, mainly because of the freedom it allowed me, in comparison with the historical visual accuracy required to illustrated the rest of the interior contents of the book.

The finished book was published and released in 2020 and distributed by Penguin Random House.

Created this album cover for Canadian hardcore band, Usurper, and their 2014 release of Human Waste. The inspiration for the image was the idea of human mutation and also added the entrails as a nod to the album cover title. The hand-drawn brush lettering was pretty fun to do for this one.

I created this logo for Talon Gallery in Portland, Oregon in 2018. They requested a heraldic type of image that merged a bird with a beast-like creature and could be used for signage and merchandise.

This was a fairly involved illustration assignment I did for the NYT kids section around Halloween time. I created many different b&w illustrated elements to be used in various ways, including for a featured story about witch hunts, another about extinct animals, and an excerpt from a newly released middle-grade book. I also provided quite a few spot illustrations for small blurbs as well as some purely decorative elements to adorn the headers, footers and margins of the issue.

I was fortunate enough to be able to work with Portland-based company, Grove, on this fun iPhone case as part of their artist series of products. Grove used my This & That pattern as a design to adorn their beautiful bamboo iPhone cases in 2012.

Album artwork created for U.K. hardcore band Sincerity and their 2014 release of The Authority. The image was inspired by the idea of listening to the voices inside your head, and the process of making a difficult life decision. The album title refers to the concept of these voices. 

I'd had a long-time itch to do a screen print of my work, and this poster was one of the first ideas that came to mind. A pictorial alphabet is not a new concept by any means, but the creating a very specific alphabet made up of my own characters was so much fun to do. Some of the letters proved to be very challenging to create, but that was part of the fun. The end result is a 6 color screen print measuring 18" x 24." The prints were pulled by master screen printer Rand Renfrow in Texas.

An original drawing of a happy skeleton family, created as an illustration in celebration for Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead).

Some of my original artwork was showcased as a snowboard design by Monument Boards, as well as my hand-drawn lettering of their logo that was used on the underside of the board.

Two color illustrations to accompany a piece of short fiction by Paul Kavanagh in the 8th issue of Annalemma Magazine. Annalemma is a literary arts journal, printed bi-annually and based in California.

A black and white t-shirt design for New York-based skateboard company, Corpse Corps Boards. The lettering on this one was inspired by their own logo and branding style of skeleton arms.

In 2013 I was approached by TBD Advertising in Bend, Oregon to create illustrations for a client project involving 21st Amendment Brewery. Most of my art direction came from designer, Benjamin Kinzer, who I worked closely with over the course of 2 months. The beer packaging contained two types of pumpkin flavored beer for a fall release. The yin and yang concept was already mapped out before I came on board, but it was my job to capture a likeness of the two brewers of the beer and make the fall color scheme work. There were a lot of specifics and requirements that needed to be met and adhered to, which I think was the most challenging part. Another illustrator was brought on board to add the typography after my illustrations were completed.

You can read a detailed blog post of the entire process HERE.

Ink with digital coloring 

A piece paying homage to the great tradition of sensational advertising employed by the sideshows of the early 1900's. 

Ink with digital coloring

Here we have four icons of horror cinema, including the monster from Frankenstein, the Creature from the Black Lagoon, Cesare from the Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, and Count Orlok from Nosferatu.

Some artwork I created for a bar in Florida that features the Roman mythology of Romulus and Remus as their logo.

I created this album artwork for Christian metal band, Haste the Day, and their 2010 release of "Attack of the Wolf King". The concept for the artwork was already pretty well formed by the time I came on board for this. If anything, I simplified the idea so it would read well on the small scale of a cd cover. I tried to keep the tone of the artwork kind of menacing and have a sense of danger. For the liner notes art, they wanted 2 animal portraits that would have a statuesque look about them. I drew all the art by hand and then added the color in photoshop. There were two releases of this album. One had a gatefold cd case, and the other was a book style cd case. The latter featured the original liner notes illustration of the wolf king as the cover.

An ongoing personal project depicting the 12 zodiac signs (almost halfway there). The original drawings each measure 6 1/2" square and are executed in India ink and watercolor on paper.

Album artwork for Chicago-based, hardcore band, Harm's Way and their 2011 release of Isolation. At the request of the band, the design for the cover was based on a Hell's mouth, frequently depicted in Renaissance and medieval art. In this version, humanity and pestilence is being expelled from the mouth rather than descending into it.

I created this album artwork for New York-based hardcore band, When Tigers Fight, and their 2012 release of Death Songs. The concept (obviously in reference to the band's name) was passed on from the band who had a pretty clear idea of what they wanted, and I was happy to fill in the details. They decided to leave the front of the album cover free of any type whatsoever, in order to showcase the artwork.

Album artwork for German band Wolf Down and their 2013 release of Stray From the Path. They wanted a wrap-around design for the vinyl album sleeve, depicting a decaying labyrinth populated with various beasts and creatures. The maze was a bit tricky to do, but I was happy with the dark, story book quality of the end product. 

Hand-painted board for a show curated by Future Shock in Portland, Oregon. The design was painted in acrylic and coated with a high-gloss marine varnish.

SOLD

A personal project just playing around with creating a wallpaper type composition, crammed with strange objects and slightly menacing flora and fauna in a stark, graphic style.

I was asked to create a tutorial for U.K. based, Computer Arts Projects Magazine back in 2012. They wanted me to show my process in creating a monster illustration, going from traditional medium to using the computer to digitally color and complete the work. The most challenging thing about this was finding a way to verbalize the process, step-by-step (something I don't normally have to do). After some trial and error, I managed to find a condensed, yet explanatory way of doing so for the readers.

Ink with digital coloring

An illustration of Edgar Allan Poe's famous 1845 poem The Raven. I decided to change things up a bit and play around with scale for this one, making the raven a huge and imposing creature, seemingly unaware of it's own size.  

"Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,

Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore—

While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,

As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.

"'Tis some visiter," I muttered, "tapping at my chamber door—

Only this and nothing more."