I recently took the e-commerce section of my site for purchasing the American Game decks down since I redesigned the deck to no longer have the city names of NFL teams. The cards arrived on Thursday, and I got positive reactions from my friends and co-workers at Adirondack. The image below is a scan of the cards with major changes from my original designs. I am currently deciding what kind of booklet to put with the cards and finalizing the packaging. A graphic designer’s work is never done, and once everything is nicely designed and organized – it is possible to start planning the next branding update. I have also added a copyright tag with my name on the Capricorn card since that is my zodiac sign.
I have always liked the example of the Pepsi logo, even though I do not like Pepsi or Coke. Pepsi uses a similar red/blue circle differently, as shown in the image below for each logo iteration. It is essential to make an existing logo recognizable so an old, loyal customer will still have a positive association. Thanks for everyone’s patience while I finalize the particulars of the new cards. If you want to buy a special edition deck from me, email me at mattszal@gmail.com. I will post another update when they are for sale on mattszal.com.
After a long week, some office humor can boost morale. My boss (Adirondack Tire DM/ Corporate Ops. Manager), Eric S., asked me to reach out to my old friends at Warren Tire and see who might want a job as a mechanic with our company. I worked at the Latham and the Schenectady stores, so I have quite a long list of friends at both locations. I even filled in at East Greenbush at the request of the District Manager of Warren Tire, who is also named Eric – Eric Filimon. I asked him to stop by and drop off his resume as a Friday prank to embarrass my friend at work. I thought this would be a good time to discuss why I left Warren Tire and how insulting the manager of the Schenectady store was to my ex-girlfriend, Stephanie. She visited me on my lunch break, and a customer saw me talking to her. He made an insulting remark about her, not realizing who she was, and I told him that was my girlfriend. I could not work for the company anymore after how insulted I felt even though the district manager wanted me to consider another store. Luckily, I was able to use the two months between Warren Tire and Adirondack Tire to grow Magick Mechanic and complete my deck of cards, which I redesigned without the text this month. Magick Mechanic shut down for the winter since it is too cold to operate in Upstate New York from December to March. The company has an offer to be bought by Adirondack Tire. I told Larry I did not want to sell my small business, yet he is a very hard person to refuse if he wants something a certain way. I always make sure to go the extra mile with vehicles for his friends (and he has a lot of important friends who are always visiting our corporate headquarters).
my toolbox with my new stickers and Hebrew calligraphy @ Adirondack Tire HQ
In honor of my presidential portrait series, I have decided to make the secret page of designs I created for President Biden – public!
I will not say if I liked him or Trump better, you will have to wait and see how I paint them at the end of the series. Also, check out my political designs on my portfolio here. I will post some process shots of my Washington portrait soon.
These are some animated .gifs that I created with Sequana and Ace Malagurio, my representative character in The Flying Dutchess.
I have also completed some new animated backdrops, which will also be in my updated portfolio. I have been working on several new logo ideas with mountains at work, inspiring my latest animated background creations. It has been stressful at work with our lead mechanic out with a hand injury, yet I have a newfound respect for him since I have been filling in for him with some of the advanced mechanic jobs. All the hardest jobs from other stores get sent to corporate. I enjoy the challenge, yet it can be very taxing. I have also ordered a new batch of redesigned decks with no text and changed several cards. I am not sure if it will still be called The American Game either, yet when the cards arrive I will blog about the new information.
Mount Strimba – UkraineEmerald Chasm – inspired by my new job at Adirondack Tire’s Corporate Headquarters
I was blessed to start a new job at the corporate headquarters of Adirondack Tire a few weeks ago. I am so happy to get to work on cars and do graphic design, combining two of my unique skill sets. I worked at Warren Tire for almost a year and never met the owner. I worked at Adirondack Tire for one day and met the owner plus his son.
I only have my son Roman visit during the summers, so seeing Sean and Larry together makes working for them a pleasure. It is so nice to see the owner preparing his son for his future role in a direct fashion. I gave everyone at corporate unique decks of the American Game for Christmas.
Roman and I (Summer 2024) at the MOMA in NYC
However, I have gazed at the cards on the wall for a few weeks now and have decided to make some minor changes. The Los Angeles card that might evoke a connection with the Los Angeles Chargers is changing completely. A few other cards will have minor edits, and I will update the master portfolio page. If you would like to exchange your deck for the updated version, please email me at mattszal@gmail.com, and I will gladly send you an additional deck for no extra charge. Thanks to everyone who has supported my work and family by purchasing a deck. God Bless you. I used the cards to do a reading for my cousin Ryan on Christmas Eve. We discussed the upcoming book that I am writing to accompany the deck.
My cousin Ryan (the famous architect) and I
This book shall be in the fashion of The Pictorial Keyto the Tarot by Waite.
This is one of the tentative new versions of the LA card #2
All sales of “The American Game” cards are on hold until the new redesign is finished and the new designs have arrived from the printers. We apologies for any inconvenience.
I have changed the cards several times, and I am on 5 different redesigns for the entire deck. The deck was officially released on Thanksgiving, which is when all pre-sale orders shipped. Thank you so much to everyone for supporting my artwork and designs; if you have any thoughts or comments on the designs, please email me at mattszal@gmail.com.
In light of Judge William P. “Bill” Brandt’s military service, I have removed the last press release about him in honor of Armistice Day. One of the officers I was close with and who I designed things for in the Department of the Army (with U. of S. Carolina back in 2017-18) emailed me that Judge Brandt served in the United States Air Force for several decades.
During his distinguished military career, including active and reserve service, he has served in numerous flying, staff and command positions all over the globe–including Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom.
https://www.judgebillbrandt.com/about
World War One is my favorite conflict to study in history, along with the Napoleonic Wars, the English Civil Wars, plus the civil war between Sulla and Marius in ancient Rome. We get Veterans Day from the original Armistice Day, which is the anniversary of the eleventh month and the eleventh day that the armistice was signed to end the First World War. I would also like to thank my uncle John Szal (Captain in the Marines) and my old roommate Wes Ellett, who went to TCU on the G.I. Bill after serving in Iraq, for their service today.
This is a Flying Dutchess character concept I made based on an English Admiral that uses the Tarrant County District Attorney as a reference – Phil Sorrells.
In other news, I am working on the 4th different version of my “American Game Deck” of cards, which will be available for sale on my website starting Thanksgiving. Each card has a different NFL team, a different zodiac sign, element sign or special major card, which all equal 52 playing cards like a traditional deck for playing poker or spades. The NFL teams only have the city name and team colors since their logos are copyrighted. I have selected +500-year-old emblems mostly from Claude Paradin’s Devises heroïques, first published in 1551. I have redesigned the emblems to coordinate a theme idea and color palette to represent each of the 32 teams. So you could shuffle the deck in strange ways to help you pick your predictions for some sports gambling at West Gate in Las Vegas, then play go-fish with your friends while you watch the games.
I want to elevate American culture to an almost metaphysical place and have this deck hold a space similar to the traditional Rider Waite Tarot Deck. These timeless emblems from centuries ago still have a familiarity yet an elusive quality that makes each one feel eternal. See the “Atlanta Card” for an example. It has the official CMYK red of the team with an emblem featuring a falcon-like bird (Atlanta Falcons). Some teams are doubles, such as New York and Los Angeles. Yet, with color and imagery, I attempted to make each design fairly easy to distinguish. The teams are the number cards and the four elements (32 teams + 4 elements = 36) – Earth, Wind, Fire & Water.
The royal cards are the 12 zodiac signs and four unique cards from special emblems, which I thought would increase the mystique of the deck as a whole composition. Some cards have emblems with related imagery, like Capricorn, which has an actual sea goat on which the sign is based. Other cards are more subtle references, such as Taurus, which features an emblem with a “Dexter Dei” (hand of God) with a sword and a trowel, which makes a shape similar to the horns of a bull.
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