Swell Sites to See

My Own Web Sites
Artist & Designer Sites
Just Plain Cool

3D Art Resources
Web Design Resources
Print On Demand Resources

Celtic Art & Retro-Futuristic Design
It sounds like an anchovy and jelly sandwich, doesn’t it? But it’s sooo much tastier. This was the first of my commercial web sites, where I try to tempt you with luscious swag like posters, archival art prints, shirts, coffee mugs, gewgaws & gimcracks, all decorated with art in the two weirdly, inexplicably compatible styles I dabble in most often.Celtic Art Books
Celtic Art Books is the home of my very own book of Celtic knotwork designs - Celtic Knotwork Borders in Repeating Sections - in which I use a pretty unique modular system to help you plot out your own knotwork borders in squares, rectangles and circles using the minimum number of border parts and, I think, minimal effort. Also - blank books with my full color celtic art covers.

Saga Shirts
This site is all Celtic art - but it’s spun a bit differently, with a dash of darkness and an underlying taste of humor. “The Tragical Tale of Saga Shirts” describes the curious circumstances that lie behind this online store, as it might have been written by the redheaded stepchild of H.P. Lovecraft and J. Peterman.

The Retropolis Transit Authority
- famous throughout the Future That Never Was for keeping its monorails running exactly on time - is happy to present its online shop full of stylish and colorful apparel that’s decorated with retro - futuristic designs - along with some retouched illustrations of vintage futurism.

The Non-Conformists’ Union, Local 404
“Organizing Against Conformity Since 1903!”
The Non-Conformists’ Union (which, of course, hasn’t ever really existed) has a rich and complex history that spans over a century. This site is run by Local 404, the only non-regional chapter of the organization, and it’s the home of all itinerant and international Non-Conformists.

Hot Wax Tees
I did a series of wall clock designs based on 78 record labels from decades past (well, I guess there aren’t too many recent 78 labels, when it comes down to it) and I had such a fine time with them that I spun that series out into a collection of T-shirt designs. Not to be stopped, I designed a bunch of swing dance T-shirts for the sort of folks who still love that music, as I do. Bring it!

The Retrovert
Home of my retouched vintage graphics, where I get to spruce up some of the very old things I like best.
You’ll see some great old art deco WPA poster designs, souvenir art from the 1939 New York Worlds’ Fair, vintage crate label art, and a fantastic series of magazine covers from the mid 1930s.

I’ve also had a bit of fun there with the “I Want Roosevelt Again” campaign - the art’s based on actual political campaign art for FDR, but I’m trying to elect him again, in spite of both term limits and mortality. Honest. I even issued press releases!

Woodworking Gifts
Woodworking Gifts is the home of the “Measure Twice. Cut Once.” T-shirt, and Woodworkers’ insignias for Wood Carvers, Cabinetmakers, and other woodcrafters - this shop offers creative, original shirts, aprons, coffee mugs, boxes & tiles that make sense to people who work with wood.

Celtic T-Shirts
Here’s a site where I get to offer you loads of t-shirts and hoodies, all decorated with Celtic art designs, but mostly not be me. I’ve prowled through shirts by more designers than I care to think about and hand-picked a few dozen of them whose work I think you’ll like as much as I do. See for yourself!

Time Machines
If I gave in to temptation I’d have a hundred clocks. I can’t say why; I don’t need them. There’s just something about the graphic simplicity of a clock face that appeals to me. So rather than buy them all myself, I’ve gathered together a variety of clocks that I think are neat, or which I expect you’ll like, and I’m hoping that you’ll buy them so that I can satisfy myself vicariously, through you.

Really Neat Stuff
This is sort of a proto super blog of shirts and gift designers that I like. It’s full of reviews of retro, weird, artistic, and unclassifiable sites. I give each one an in depth review and show you a bit of what’s on offer. ‘Cause, you know, it’s really neat.

Long Playing Computer Graphics
My personal web site, with a small gallery and a collection of web-ready celtic clip art for use on non-commercial projects.

Dean Motter The writer/designer/artist behind comics projects like Mister X, Termnal City, and Electropolis. Some retrospectives & news.		Michael Wm. Kaluta Longtime illustrator and comics artist Michael Kaluta - one of the highlights of my Celtic/Retro site’s history was the day he dropped by.
George Barr One of my favorite paperback cover artists from the ’70s.		Frank Buchwald Amazing mad scientist equipment as sculpture.
DLC Studio Diane Cooper is a portrait painter, a digital artist, and a swell dame.		Art of FoxVox Celtic knotwork & spiral art by Kristen N. Fox.
Andy Murdock’s “Lots of Robots” An independent animation project; no one can say for certain how long “Lots of Robots” will be, or exactly where it’s going, but it’s gotten awfully interesting on its way there. Andy is also a huge resource for techniques using 3D Studio Max.		Rotem Gear Jean Roth’s offerings of inventive designs on shirts, drinkware, and other tchotchkas, with special emphasis on Hebrew & Yiddish designs, ethnic foods, tree hugger gear, and grrly stuff.
Fbod Studios Lisa Clardy’s eclectic collection of design, from remixed retro goodness to her eponymous Fluffy Bunnies of Doom. They’re flufftastic!		Eric Daniels’ Goldfish Aquarium Screen Saver Eric’s an old friend and animator who’s produced this real time animated screensaver with lifelike goldfish in a variety of settings.
Daniel Mowry Prints, gifts & CD-ROMs with the amazing space art of Daniel Mowry.		Urban Retro Nicely distressed vintage graphics on apparel and housewares.
Vintage Me Beautiful collage work based on Victorian graphics and vintage photographs - fairies, buterflies, and other stuff that’s gorgeous - not cute.		Fairyland Studio It’s not what you think; a refreshing, Terry Gilliam-like reconstruction of vintage graphics in the service of Fairyland and Squid-Headed Babies.
Auto Life Retro styled, vintage car T-Shirts. I like the Cobra, but I’m more of a Morgan guy.		The Drinks Are On You - Cool Shit for Cool People You say “Offensive” like that’s a bad thing.
Ukulele Shirt World How much more targeted can you get?		Attis Garden Lovely illustrative paintings and jewelry by Brandi Epps.

Cool Rockets Jeff Brewer’s amazing 1950s style rockets - you’ve just got to see ‘em. Because they’re cool. And they’re rockets.		Toy Tent Antique & collectible toys, including rip-roaring rockets and faithful, if death-ray enabled, robots.
Design Clinic This studio of artists in the UK does some wonderful cast sculptural work, with clocks, coat racks and other merchandise in both Celtic Art and Retro styles - an unlikely one two punch I thought was unique to me!		Archive of the WPA Writers’ Project 1936-1940This collection at the Library of Congress contains oral histories collected during the Depression years. It’s searchable and fascinating.
Improv Everywhere “We Cause Scenes”. Is it performance art? Is it hoax mongering? Is it the comedic equivalent of terrorism? Whatever it is, I think I want to be these guys when I grow up.		The Future We Were Promised A great gallery/informational site that’s all about the future we though was going to happen. As opposed to, you know, the one that did Nice stuff!.
Schenck House at the Brooklyn Museum of Art Okay, so maybe you won’t think this is as cool as I do. My old (and I do mean old) family house is on display in a museum. In fact, they have two of them.		Transporatation Futuristics An extensive look at what magazines like Popular Mechanics once told us was the future of autombiles, helicopters, planes, and other nifty & streamlined vehicles meant to get us from here to there.
Film Noir Portraiture Where Dishy Dames and Private Dicks are shot! A wonderful portolio site for Jim Ferreira’s portrait studio in San Francisco - where he shoots black and white portraits in a retro film noir style.		Retro - Gram Send a convincing facsimile of an old telegram, using several vintage styles; you can have it delivered either electronically, or as an artfully printed, framed keepsake.
The Telephone EXchange Name ProjectAn online project that collects the old telephone number prefixes you may (or may not) remember, city by city. And if you like the idea, they could use your input!		Norman Saunders Saunders was an illustrator in the mid 20th century. He was the artist behind most (or all) of my favorite covers from Modern Mechanix & Inventions in the 1930s - as well as the “Mars Attacks!” card series.
Tales of Future Past Another fine compilation of teh art and ideas we once thought were just around the corner. Quite a collection of original articles here.		Retro Radar Brainchild of one of eth co-founders of the lamented ATOMIC magazine, this site’s devoted to teh retro, and, well, what should be on your radar.
Dynalifter Located just a short dirigible flight from me, these intrepid engineers have developed a hybrid rigid airship technology targeted at hauling large and heavy objects - whether equipment, or installations - by air, in zeppelin style.		Personal Blimp …and if moving turbines isn’t your gig, you might try your own personal airship. I used to want one, when I was a commuter in Southern California. Though I’d have preferred a rigid frame!

Max Plugins.DEA comprehensive database of both free and commercial plugins for Autodesk’s 3DS Max.		Scriptspot More Maxscripts than you can shake a stick at, if you were in the mood to shake a stick.
Maxforums.org Brains too pick, works in progress, galleries. Some really nice stuff here.		Automatron Andy Murdock’s brilliant character animation system. He’s smart.
3D Total A 3D graphics portal with tutorials, reviews, links, and eye candy.		3Drender.com Jeremy Birn’s “Digital Lighting and Rendering” is indispensable.
Prometal 3D Printing It’s a brave new world, that has such gizmos in it.		Frischluft.com Powerful, affordable depth of field plugin (and more).
Free Mocap data from Carnegie Mellon Motion capture. Performance capture. The new rotoscope.		Homemade 3D Scanner Okay, I haven’t made one so I can’t comment - but what an amazing idea. Can work with very large objects.
Free HDRI Imagery from Evermotion HDRI. The new luminescence.		Homemade 3D Printer While you’re at it…
Worley Laboratories For Lightwave users (which I’m not) but Steve Worley’s a friend from the old days, and he does great work.		NPower Software If I were I wealthy shiftless layabout, I’d snap up these 3DS Max plugins, which are so well suited to what I do.
Image*After Texture Database Loads of free texture images.		Defcon-X Textures More free texture maps.
Continuum 3D Textures, including 360 degree skies; some free, some not.		CG Textures More textures - some really nice retro gauges and panels.

Lunarpages They host all my sites and have done for years now. Great service and reasonable rates (which means, I like ‘em).		Google Trends Analyzing Google searches for any topic you care to type in; great tool for researching the keywords you want to target.
Matt Cutts’ Blog One of Google’s anti-spam engineers shows you a bit about the way Google looks at your web pages - some good things to kow in here.		Webmaster World Pretty much the biggest and best centralized information source for anyone building web sites.
ReCaptcha Wordpress Plugin I use it here because it fascinates me. Combines comment authentication with an effort to transcribe scanned pages from books, word by word.		Link Popularity Check One-stop check on your site’s inbound links, using all the major search engines. Some data comes and goes, but overall it’s pretty useful.

Cafepress The biggest print on demand service there is. Products include posters, greeting cards, and other things that aren’t shirts.		Printfection Just the best damn print on demand T-shirts in the universe.Free customizable shops for designers, and fantastic quality.
CPShop A system you can install on your own domain to customize the display of Cafepress content within your site. It’s inexpensive, too; I use this a lot on my sites.		TeePlates Stylish page templates for Printfection shop owners. Don’t miss the handy tips at the blog.By the PF forums’ unflappable CSS maestro, Gavin Smith.
Jean Roth’s CP Resources List As part of her college course in setting up a business at Cafepress, Jean’s put together this lovely & talented list of useful resources.		Gavin Smith’s Blog A collection of useful and helpful tweaks, gizmos and workarounds for PF shop owners. Highly recommended!