I’m Aaron Nestor, and I like to get things done. Contact me today to find out how I can be a super asset for you!
Comedy Bang! Bang!: 2016 Tour Art // DTAFM
Once again, Comedy Bang! Bang! headed out on the road to bring the funny to many a city. I had the honor of putting art together for said tour, and, well, I’ll just let the images tell the story.
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Super Dungeon Brawlers: Logo // DTAFM
I don’t think this game ever did see the light of day, but I had one hell of a time working up these logo options. It was a great collaborative effort between myself and the SDB team. It’s a shame I’ll never get to see this on a title screen.
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Good Question // DTAFM
When you’re putting together a dozen or so podcast covers in about a month or two time, you start to really trust your gut instincts. Especially when you have a process like mine that mandates I at least think through 16 little ideas for each podcast. It’s good. And sometimes a podcast doesn’t really have a huge visual anchor you can use. So you inevitably play with type, but not so much that it makes it unreadable/illegible. So you play with shape, color, contrast — the classics. You muddle with a few more things and then wait for the final sign-off. Turn off the computer and call it a night. Check out the show here.
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A.V. Club Presents: I Know It Sounds Crazy // DTAFM
Fan theories?! Discussed?! Oh, do tell me more. This was another show that just grabbed hold of me and didn’t let go. Hosted by The Onion A.V. Club editors Sean O’Neal and Erik Adams, the two delve into the remarkably complex world of fan theory. And it is fascinating. They had an idea based on a picture they had taken, and with that I was once again scribbling away in tiny squares. After a few rounds of feedback we had our final cover. Listen to the show here.
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Atlas Obscura Day // DTAFM
This cover for AOD was, to me, pretty straightforward. It’s about finding things! Little wonders you may not have known existed. I wanted to keep the cover stark and bold. Really make it stand out. MAPS! Well, grids at least. We went with the large green one at the top. I like it! Check out the show here.
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AM SNOOZE // DTAFM
I had the privilege of contributing a piece to Joshua Rhodes’ art show the end of October, 2015. My Hambrother — Adventureface — and I decided it would be cool to create pieces that could sort of tie together and be displayed in tandem. Luckily, Adventureface is a smarty pants and once he started incorporating some of the more oozy and scary face elements, I knew I had some great bits to add to mine to unify the two. Make sure to check out Adventureface’s site as he constantly summons forth truly inspiring stuff regularly. You’d be doing yourself a disservice by not treating yourself to his beautiful creations.
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Psychic Pshow with Lauren Lapkus // DTAFM
I think at this point it’s safe to say that I am a huge Lauren Lapkus fan. Everything I see her in makes me smile. Even if she’s crying because dinosaurs destroyed a once pleasant park. But I digress. One of the initial launch shows for Howl was something a bit different from Lauren. She was going to go around Los Angeles and meet with different psychics to see what they said.
Lauren’s initial idea was to have her hunched over a crystal ball. I did some digging through the Earwolf photos to get some good reference shots compiled and after a bit of chopping, arrived at a rough layout and overall illustration. I sent off the draft and waited for feedback. Something about the illustration wasn’t resonating so we switched gears and tried to utilize one of the photos she took while on location. A bit of fine tuning with color and some image overlay and we were back on track.
Or at least I thought we were! We were down to the wire and there was a last minute decision to switch back to the illustrated version. I have to say, I was beyond thrilled that we went with the original illustration idea. To have them come back around to it is a nice little pat on the back.
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Hardcore Game of Thrones // DTAFM
Holy Moly, if this wasn’t the perfect convergence of things for me. Game of Thrones. Podcasts. Parody, but damn sincere! I immediately got sucked into the draft audio while working on this art. Alex Berg just wanted to go for a straight homage/pastiche/tip of the hat to the original Hardcore History logo, but “Westeros-ify” it. That was pretty easy. I still wanted to work out a few other ideas on paper. Any excuse to draw swords and the like is A-OK with me. Go give the show a listen if this sort of thing interests you. You can find it here.
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Words of the Years // DTAFM
Myq Kaplan and Zach Sherwin sift through the most popular words, one year at a time. With just that bit to go off of, and the audio itself, I set to work on sketches. After getting feedback from Gretta over at Howl, I moved forward with digital finals. A few little tweaks and we had our cover art! Head on over to Howl.fm and check it out.
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HOWL: Wild Horses // DTAFM
Lauren Lapkus is one of my favorite comedic personalities. Her improv group, Wild Horses, are sublime! And lucky us, they’ve got a new show over on Howl.fm.
As per usual, Lauren and her troupe had a pretty specific vision for their cover art. Four horses, running wild, being seen through binoculars. The original executions I presented were super colorful and tried to bring a feeling of “magic” to the art. After some back and forth with Lauren and crew, we simplified things and went for a stark black and white execution. While I miss the colors of the original, I think this high-contrast piece stands out nicely on a page of shows.
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