Punch Drunk Moustache Round 2
Unleashed from the demands of their normal client work, 10 pro artists show what’s been lurking inside their imaginations
The premise of the first Punch Drunk Moustache volume was simple: if you gave a bunch of concept artists free rein, what would they come up with? The results were certainly interesting, and now Design Studio Press is back for more.
In this second volume, 10 artists – John-Paul Balmet, Molly Denmark, Andre Kirk, Dela Longfish, Jim Moore, Will Nichols, Carlos Sanchez, Amy Beth Christenson Smith, Jeff Sangalli and Chris Voy – present a whole new selection of concepts and stories. And as you’d expect from creatives who have worked on the likes of Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Batman, it’s all pretty mind-blowing stuff.
The book mainly lets the artwork speak for itself, with a refreshing range of creative directions taken. We’re particularly entranced by Amy Beth Christenson Smith’s opener. She brings a real dystopian intensity to her tale of a lone Inuit who may be the last human on Earth. Elsewhere, Molly Denmark’s surreal, soft-focus Chimney City develops its “the land of lost socks” concept in unexpectedly brilliant ways, while Dela Longfish’s Wilted Flowers sees real and mythological worlds collide in a stunningly original fashion.
If you’re feeling like you’re treading water creatively, this inspiringly offbeat volume will remind you just what artists can be capable of when the shackles are thrown off.