With 22 years in the industry, no one has inspired my generation to bridge the gap between design and illustration more than Paul Sahre. His second floor studio above a Dunkin' Donuts on 6th Avenue (see his brilliant business card in a previous post of mine), has been a safe house for interns, students, old books, foosball, and all his tireless efforts for over 10 years. I'm lucky enough to have worked with Paul, and for those familiar with him, you know that his work is some of the smartest and most mindful you will ever come across. You have a great idea? He probably already did it. And did it better.
But now, he not only did it, and did it better—but he did it BIGGER.
Which brings me to his recent collaboration with the American alternative rock group, They Might be Giants. What began as a commission to design the cover art for their new release "Join Us" immediately lead to all the band's collateral—a comprehensive identity including: the CD and LP design, digital art for iTunes, digital booklets, macro posters (72" x 50"), t-shirts, ads, over a dozen illustrations, and a downloadable PDF with instructions for building your own tabletop version of the monster truck hearse that's featured on the cover. Pretty rad, right?
And if that wasn't enough, finally, the project culminated with the construction and documentation of a life-sized (yes, life-sized!) version of the monster truck hearse—made entirely of paper and cardboard—for a music video for the song, "When Will You Die."
Rolling totally rogue, with no allocated budget or initial sign-off from the band, Paul printed the PDF at 3400% and began making the life-sized hearse. What he initially thought would take just a few days to make, took nearly 4 months, including 9 "life-size hearse-builders", and over 70 hours of printing time, courtesy of Adam Wahler at A to A studio Solutions. The hearse was built mainly in Adam's driveway in Stamford, CT, and it was ultimately recycled at TNT scrap in Brooklyn.
Make sure to download the PDF and build your own here!
Fun facts:
- 6,000 square feet of cardboard was used
- 20 pounds of flour (for the wheat paste) was used to adhere the printouts to cardboard
- The hearse was 13' x 22'
- After it was built, and before it was recycled, it filled a 30' x 10' x 10' storage space
- The hearse weighed 500 lbs.
- 8 people had to lift and turn the monster in order to steer it
- They were able to roll it for 100 feet (just like the Wright brothers) before the tires collapsed
- "Hot glue gun burns are a bitch!" — Paul
Video
Producers:
John Flansburgh
Paul Sahre
Directors:
Paul Sahre
Joe Hollier
Cameras:
Joe Hollier
Charlotte Hornsby
Dave Cooke
Editors:
Tony Zajkowskiw
Joe Hollier
Printing and Construction:
A to A Studio Solutions
Stamford, CT
Destruction and Recycling:
TNT Scrap Metal
Brooklyn, NY
Hearse and PDF Instructions
Art Director:
Paul Sahre
Designers:
Santiago 'Crespo' Carrasquilla
Elias Derboven
Alex Stikeleather
Erik Carter
Life-Size Hearse Design
Art Director:
Paul Sahre
Designers:
Elias Derboven
Erik Carter
Santiago 'Crespo' Carrasquilla
Alex Stikeleather
Life-Size Hearse-Builders:
Erik Carter
Elias Derboven
Santiago 'Crespo' Carrasquilla
Alex Stikeleather
Joe Hollier
Michael Devine-Rosser
Charlotte Hornsby
Sarah O'Brien
Oliver Lanzenberg
Dalequan Hickson
Kaitlyn Jeffers
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look at my hearse...my hearse is amazing
haha amazing!!! can you animate it??
thanks! i can try. there are automated driving dynamics plugins for this kind of stuff. not sure if i'll have the time to rig it all up, though.
Good article; very informative.
(And BTW, it's spelled "adhere".)
word. thanks, jim.
This project was in one word, satisfying. It's nice to make something this unusual and as always when asked if something can be done, and if we are interested, we never say no. If you bring the attitude and work ethic Paul and his team brought to this project, anything can be made.