Grunt STYLES' Tales of Valor:
Escape from Mogadishu
In late 2020 I proposed a new collection of 'High-Concept' T-shirt releases, in which the artwork was inspired by comic book cover art T-shirts that have regained popularity. The designs included a printed QR code that, when scanned, would take customers to a webpage filled with extra information & content regarding the event depicted on the shirt graphic.
The video below was the first of those 'extras,' an Animatic interpretation of first-hand heroic accounts of War that often had not been highlighted by media or otherwise. With myself, & team-mates: Jeffrey Lawson, Lee Johnson, Johnny Villarreal, & Justin Broome, who all took on Storyboarding, Directing, Illustrating, animating, and editing the project.
Unfortunately, the release met lukewarm results, though numbers-wise should have been considered a success. A subsequent release deviated from the planned releases & met backlash, confusion, & negative PR from multiple sources. Thus, the collection met its unfortunate end.
Three more illustrations/designs were created & slated for release, with stories, interviews & plenty of content corresponding to each storied account that never saw the light of day. This proposed content delivery method was highly innovative for the apparel space. If marketed & approached appropriately, it would have been an enormous success.
Grunt Styles': Violent But True Bedtime Stories Book
Published in 2020, Grunt Style's 1st Sgt Tim Jensen brings his popular web series in which he reads retellings of fabled heroic acts of wartime violence & savagery.
Commissioned to provide the book cover treatment, Tim Jensen provided the illustrations within.
