A reflection and introspection of the year 2020

A large-scale, exterior mural completed at Raven Theatre in Chicago. All hand painted, this is a contemporary expression packed with abstract color and lovely line-work hand drawings. Fun to see how people interact and take pics of it. If you have any send em my way!

See the mural painting process

Lettering / Illustration

3 interior murals for Shake Shack’s West Loop location in Chicago. Super fun to collaborate with such great people, on such a great brand, while eating such delicious burgers. Yummm!

Design / Mural

Dispensary 33 is the city of Chicago’s first medical cannabis dispensary. With the interior of the space having a very sophisticated, modern aesthetic a reference of vintage botanical specimen style illustration was used to show the growth process of a cannabis plant while still having a clean yet bold fee. A bright chartreuse pop color of the D33 brand and went crazy with some nice, black line-work.

Designed at MAKE & CO.

Credits: Linsey Rosen and Perimeter Architects 

Mural Design

Collaboration with the Chicago White Sox and painted live during the first annual Titan Walls mural fest by Muros. at @brewyards. Final 8ft x 8ft panel is installed at the Guaranteed Rate Field, check it out next time you’re at the ballpark.

The mural fest featured a giant lineup of some heavy hitters @jcrivera @antckone @afrokilla @sub_urban_warrior and helped raise funds for @hopefortheday.

Thanks for everyone that came out and battled the 90 degree heat. 🔥⚾️

Close-up photos by Torque

Illustration / Mural

30+ Roti locations — throughout the Chicagoland, New York, Virginia, and Washington D.C. areas — were adorned with the brand illustration mural work, in a variety of wall surfaces and materials. The final brand illustration showcases a plethora of rich vegetables, olive oil, wholesome grains, lean proteins and many other delectable ingredients from their delightful cuisine. Equally beautiful & delicious. 

Designed at MAKE & CO.

Vinyl installations by Graphic Alliance.

Mural / Illustration

In collaboration with my lovely wife & partner at MAKE & Co. , we hand-painted a 10ft floral illustration as the main feature for our MAKE LOVE Valentine party. Good day, fun times.

www.MAKEANDCO.com

Illustration / Mural

Mural for the fine fellas of Almost Gold, integrating a bunch of classic Chicago iconography; some more obscure and personal to the fellas than others. Fun times using the bright poppy golden yellow, that is used throughout the gorgeous office space, into this flowing doodle-esque cartoon style.

New Era x Prime 8 x Jesse Hora

A two part collaboration with New Era as they prepared to open their new office in the west loop of Chicago. A limited edition cap featuring illustrated imagery of Chicago icons and quirky insights, which was released at New Era's opening event. In addition, a 4-part wall mural featuring legendary elements of Chicago's rich history in basketball, football, hockey & baseball. 

Art / Installation

TYPEFORCE is the annual showcase of emerging typographic artists. For #Typeforce9 we did a live collaboration between MAKE & Michelle Bowers. We painted a large scale piece during the gallery opening. Fun times.

www.typeforce.com

Lettering / Illustration

Instagram launched its first geostickers, which let users add and arrange illustrations to their Stories posts related to their locations. Each location was designed by awesome local artists to capture the vibe of the city that they call home and I was happy to help out with Chicago! 

www.instagram.com/jessehora/

llustration

For the Adidas 'mi adidas' line of customizable footwear I created 3 intricate shoe graphics. With the help of some supplied reference photos the shoes were composed of many, many everyday items (and some not-so-everyday), to show individuality. For all 3 shoes illustrations, the client requested that each item was drawn separately, so there was a lot of flexibility with usage. Originally intended to just be used for apparel design, the art was also used as the box sleeves for the shoe packaging design. Unfortunately, these designs were only available in the Asia & European markets.

Art Direction: Colleen Malmberg

Designed at MAKE & CO.

Lettering / Design

Working for Mode Project is always fun, but when it involves a variety of lettering styles, letterpress and wishing clients a great 2013 - thats what I call a dream project! A 2-color, 4" x 6" card of motivational sentiments, wishing friends and potential clients a great new year. Printing by the talented folks at Rohner Letterpress.

Though the project began as a printed promo piece, everyone was too charmed by the illustrations and messages to leave it there. Mode couldn't resist bringing some of our favorite elements to life; still capturing the handmade, lo-fi, feel of the original.

Studio: Mode Project
CD: Stefan Draht & Brooks Ruyle
Producer: Tracy Heropkie
Illustrator: Jesse Hora of MAKE & CO.
Animator: John Long

www.ModeProject.com

Art / Installation

Gigantic 50 ft mural for the fine folks at Chicago Primal Gym. The wild and crazy guys that run this establishment let me go crazy with the paint, and it show. They have a lot of fun, and i had a TON of fun painting this challenging beauty. Good times.  

Illustration / Lettering

A private commission consisting of intricate line-work, hand-drawn with pen & ink on 24" x 24" pine wood panels. A diptych pairing an image and phrase, both ram skull with horns and phraseology (lyrics from The National 'Conversation 16' song) were concepted in conjunction with the lovely couple that commissioned the artwork.

For commission information, please inquire.

Illustration / Design

Working with an amazing AD, I created a series of scene illustrations and additional spot graphics for a 16-city Adidas Originals in-store holiday display. All of the environmental graphics — from 20' banners and multiple display boxes, down to gift cards snow globes were — were adorned with the artwork.

Art Direction: Colleen Malmberg

www.adidas.com

Design / Lettering

A large-scale, hand-painted mural for BKB Chicago, created in collaboration with Abby Wynne of MAKE & CO. Using overlapping words that can be read in either order and a contrast of clean, colorful shapes to an organic, hand-drawn line-work pattern: the viewer is confronted with a challenge and is forced to investigate to understand the message. Once the message is deciphered, the aim is to supply the viewer with a bit of motivation and inspiration. Ideally, upon arrival it would be read as 'Work Hard' to get an extra kick of motivation for the forth-coming workout session and once finished, it should be read it as 'Hard Work' to feel accomplished with the completed workout.

www.brooklynboulders.com

Design / Lettering

Originally conceived and executed as part of my senior thesis at GVSU, this poster has since been featured in multiple books, publications and exhibitions. The lettering style has spawned numerous client commissions and personal works.

16.5″ x 25″, 1-color Screen-Print on French Speckletone True White 100lb cover stock. Titled, numbered and signed. 

- $50 -

If you'd like a print, HIT THE STORE!

Illustration / Lettering

Two 24" x 24" pine wood panels, hand-drawn with pen & ink, that were  commissioned by the folks over at Gorilla as part of the inaugural year of Prime Eight Art League (2012). Both the gorilla portrait version and lettering versions took approximately 8 full hours of detailed line-work doodle drawing. 

The lettering version was later recreated as a vector graphic to be applied to a large-scale mural in the companies new offices. 

For commission inquires please feel to contact me!

www.prime8artleague.com 

Art / Illustration

Apparel artwork commissioned by Warner Music Group for Grimes ‘Art Angels’ album — that is equal parts awkward and enigmatic — and inspired by her beautifully eerie aesthetic.

Mural / Illustration

When full-service marketing communications agency Bader Rutter expanded to Chicago they wanted to adorn their office with some windy city style. We were enlisted to develop and illustrate a 30-foot city map, but not your run-of-the-mill tourist map. No, no, no. They requested a unique, playful and borderline ‘weird’ (yes, this was actually in the project brief) interpretation of the city. A map from the view of a true Chicagoan, highlighting some of the famous city icons but focusing on local legends and neighborhood gems.

Designed and Illustrated at MAKE & Co.

For commission inquires please feel to contact me!

Art / Illustration

For over a decade now I have been working with Warner Music Group creating apparel artwork for a variety of musicians, bands and amazing rappers. Some of the acts included Death Cab For Cutie, John Mayer, Ed Sheran, Grimes, Never Shout Never, Armor For Sleep, Robert Randolph, the legendary Murs. And, yes, even a young Mr. ‘*Brrrr’ Gucci Mane.

AD: Matthew Erny 

Lettering / Art

Lifelounge invited 12 of their favorite artists and designers from around the globe to collaborate on a typographic project. Each artist responded typographically to a design brief related to a designated month of the year. Artwork was available as signed, limited edition A1 Giclee prints and all came together as a limited edition, beautifully designed wall calendar.

It was an honor to be included along some of my lettering idols like Si Scott, ESPO and Hellovon. A big thanks to the uber talented Luke Lucas for the opportunity.

www.SomeTypeOfWonderful.com

Design / Lettering

Supplied with the theme of 'electroshock' and the request for the 'THISISNOTIMPORTANT' detailed doodle style lettering, this project has dream project written all over it. I hand drew this 6' long drawing at size, so that I could pack in as much detail as possible. The agency folks at Apparatus Inc. & Sims fell in love with the board design. Unfortunately, the artwork was leaked prematurely and the board did not make it into production. Such a darn shame.

www.simsnow.com

Illustration / Lettering

A variety of editorial illustrations and article title lettering commissioned by Chicago Magazine over a number of years. Editorial illustration is one of my favorite things (drop me a line anytime) to do and working with such solid publication was so much fun.

Art Direction: Jennifer Moore

Prints available at the Make S6 Store! 

Character Design / Illustration

Athlete Objects is simply Athletes drawn as objects, based on their name or nickname, my childhood memories and any other interesting internet tidbits. From famous to infamous, amazing or obscure, these little ills are part fact and part poking fun. I have been tinkering with this personal project for a long time.

In 2013, the fellas over at ESPN Playbook caught wind and commissioned 3 character illustrations of current NBA athletes 'King' James, 'The Durantula' and of course Chicago's very own Derrick 'Rose'. 

 Check out the on-going project at AthleteObjects.com.