We just got our new Casualty pint glasses in and are making use of them during work. We love how they came out! You can grab yours here while they’re still available. One more shot after the jump.

As many of you read yesterday on our blog, we claimed that the clothing brand Johnny Cupcakes stole pieces of our illustrations for use on a new t-shirt in their current lineup. After many phone calls and discussions between Onetwentysix and Johnny Cupcakes, we’ve finally figured out what happened. Since Johnny Cupcakes the brand has become increasingly popular over the years, its founder (Johnny Cupcakes the man) has of course had to hire people and start doling out responsibilities to other individuals. Unfortunately there are times when something falls through the cracks and it isn’t picked up on until it’s too late. This is one of those scenarios.

While speaking with Johnny Earle, the founder of JC, he let us know that he had no idea that the pieces were stolen from any original artwork produced here at Onetwentysix. The artist who created this piece is a friend and freelance designer of Johnny’s, named Danny Jones, also known as “YASLY” or “You Are So Last Year.” Even though the artist claims to not have used Onetwentysix’s artwork as reference, Johnny has decided to take steps to resolve any doubts, instead of letting the situation be.

Johnny has been nothing short of incredible towards us and this situation though. He obviously understands how it feels to be ripped off (Billabong, Urban Outfitters, Pastry, etc) and he knows that this goes way beyond the issue of monetary gain. Johnny stated, “I pride my brand off homegrown creative originality. I strive to keep our designs fresh and unique. I always want JC fans to be looking forward to what comes next.  So you can imagine my surprise and dismay in the current situation.  This is really the last thing i expected to happen. Although the outsourced designer, Danny, stands by his design 110% the similarities between the two works do remain. As a result of this, I no longer feel comfortable selling the Freshly Inked t-shirt. Effective immediately, we will be pulling it from out shelves and online shop.”  Throughout this whole mess Johnny has been totally sincere and genuine. He’s a stand up individual and deserves credit for trying to iron this out as soon as possible.

After our long discussions, we decided that the best way to handle this situation would be to acknowledge it. We don’t want Johnny to lose any money on this as we know how hard it is to run a business and how production costs can get scary at times, so we agreed on a solution. The shirts are going to be pulled from stock and permanently removed. A portion of the remaining stock of the design in question will be donated to a handful of charities chosen by Johnny Cupcakes and Onetwentysix. Though the situation is disappointing, Johnny Cupcakes and Onetwentysix feel that only positives will come from this agreement.

We thank all of you that helped get our cause in the public eye and we thank Johnny Earle for working so hard to remedy the situation.

Remember a few years ago when Johnny Cupcakes got ripped off by Urban Outfitters? So do we. That’s why it was a surprise (and a disappointment) to see such a respectable brand fall to the dark side.

As designers, we sometimes argue where the line is drawn between inspiration and theft. After the jump, you’ll see a small example of just where that line is drawn. Last year in 2007, Onetwentysix’ own Jon Contino drew a series of lettering-based illustrations. (A link to his Flickr page where they reside.) This was nothing out of the ordinary as most people recognize him for doing just that. On June 26 of this year (2008), Johnny Cupcakes made a blog post announcing the sale of their new summer line which included a shirt that seemed oddly familiar to a number of Jon’s fans. Thanks for all the emails, everyone. We appreciate it very much!

Take a look and judge for yourself.

Ah, The Gate…more awesome nostaligia with hidden gems. It’s definitely near the top of the list of our favorite scary movies from the 80s, but we only recently looked back at it to see that it has some really awesome hand lettering and illustration as well. It’s so good that we feel inclined to start a death metal band and use this as the logo. More images and the awesome trailer after the jump.

Why the hell aren’t cartoons this awesome anymore?!?!

When hand-lettering is involved, everybody wins!

The past couple days has been spent working on some gift packaging for a Polish vodka company. They were looking for a few different directions and one involved flourishes…you know what that means. Time to get out the pencils and paper. I wish I could show more, but we have to keep this one under wraps for a little bit.

Just got back from a long weekend of rest in the Dominican Republic. I traveled through the Island a bit from our resort to the local villages. Here are a few pictures displaying the tremendous difference of how the people really live on the Island compared to what you see in the resort areas. Also a picture of the awesome hand lettering typical of what you see all over the small towns.

Just playing around with some lettering options and colors for the Brooklyn Circus.

Just a little sneak peak at a project we’ve been working on for the Rich Yung Society. What you see here is a bit of reverse-engineering of the current logo. It will make sense, I promise.