Clint Eastwood Master Filmmaker at Work Intro

Cover and related spreads will be temporarily unavailable due to professional requests to keep the work concealed for another 30 days. Thank you for your understanding. This is silly, we are bringing back the layouts. Sweet dancing!

“It’s the painting of it all that interests me.

Why does an artist make a certain stroke? Just because it seemed like

the right thing to do at the time.”

Clint Eastwood, 2011

Clint Eastwood, Master Filmmaker at Work written by Michael Goldman, creatively managed and packaged by Lisa Fitzpatrick and designed by Mark Murphy. Published by Abrams of New York and slated for release this Fall.

Murphy Design has been working hard, collaborating with Lisa Fitzpatrick and Michael Goldman to deliver a compelling coffee table book that celebrates the history of one of the most iconic film legends in the history of film—Clint Eastwood. This is not your average off-the-shelf documentarian volume light on words and heavy on full paged glossies. Clint Eastwood, Master Filmmaker at Work is an important archive that documents a prolific director/actor/advocate and captures the filmmaking process featuring script evolution, casting, set lighting, special effects and the special men and women who make up “Team Eastwood” over five decades. (above, Sean Penn in Mystic River).

Lisa Fitzpatrick has dedicated herself to this project, Michael Goldman has leveraged his Hollywood prowess as intimate writer and Mark Murphy has crafted a visual script suitable for the consummate collector. The entire team has worked hard to select never-before-seen images, enlightened text featuring forward by Steven Spielberg, Preface by Morgan Freeman and Introduction by Michael Goldman.

Clint Eastwood, Master Filmmaker at Work presents a comprehensive book archive honoring a living legend who actively celebrates the art of storytelling. Stay tuned for the fall release of Clint Eastwood, Master Filmmaker. (above, Space Cowboys, from concept sketches to set). (above, images from the Gauntlet, Invictus).

What’s up Twenty—Twelve?

One week down and 51.177457 weeks of action packed design goodness to go featuring: Clint Eastwood, Cartoon Network, Guru Tattoo, Martin Wittfooth, Kevin Paulsen, gallery promotions for 101/Exhibit plus the Mindy Solomon Gallery and a full length fine art documentary film.

Anyone who knows me, recognizes my commitment to design and love for once-in-a-lifetime opportunities to collaborate with the fine arts community. The Scribble 08 blog is an active resource for artist interviews, exhibition reviews, new music and a great resource for Murphy Design portfolio pieces. (Guru Tattoo on location details).

As fate would have it, one of the first people I met when moving to California began with Clint Eastwood. Your can imagine my excitement when Lisa Fitzpatrick, project director and catalyst, called and invited me into the Malpaso Productions world of Clint Eastwood? Over 50,000 words will fill the pages of “Clint Eastwood, Master Filmmaker at Work” with an introduction by Steven Spielberg, preface by Morgan Freeman, authored by Michael Goldman, edited/created by Lisa Fitzpatrick of Swan Studio and Robert Hoffman of Technicolor and published by Abrams, New York. (Flags of Our Fathers Storyboards, Clint Eastwood, courtesy of Jack Taylor).

Guru Tattoo features eleven creative professionals that make a forever lasting impression with inspired draftsmanship and dynamic ink for your “bod.” Guru founder, Aaron Della Vedova, is mixing up the flavor for the shop’s first book, “Creative Urges” featuring edge-to-edge reproductions of some of Southern California’s finest tattoos. (Tim Mantoani photographing Aaron at Guru Tattoo).

Over the past ten years I have been operating a booth at the world-famous Comic-Con in San Diego. An honor, as the exhibit halls are filled with wall-to-wall inspiration and good pals. Fortuitously, I have made friends with the kind folks at Cartoon Network over the years and a creative collaborative project has emerged to celebrate their twentieth-anniversary celebration in book form. The Cartoon Network 20th Anniversary Book will be one part celebration of their commitment to deliver an entertaining array of entertainment, one part celebration of the men and women who bring hundreds of characters to life, one part artist interpretations of their characters, one part extravaganza to be announced prior to Comic-Con 2012.

2012 will feature active promotion of important contemporary artists through Murphy Book Publishing, documentary filmmaking, active reporting, art collecting and archiving. The long awaited film and longer filmmaking process continues with the delivery of a new feature length documentary film that features: James Jean, Souther Salazar, Martin Wittfooth, Matt Furie, Mark Todd, Esther Pearl Watson, Megan Whitmarsh, Kelsey Brookes, Victor Castillo and more.

New books are in the works for Martin Wittfooth and Kevin Paulsen (pictured above), two contemporaries living and practicing in New York. (Clint Eastwood sets for Mystic River and matte painting for Unforgiven courtesy of Jack Taylor).

And yes there is more. Collaborative projects and creative exchanges with gallery owners, support at art fairs and Art Basel in Miami in support of 101/exhibit and Mindy Solomon Gallery. New websites in the works for yourBuddhi—Yoga for life, Murphy Design (really? It’s been way too long), and goodChatter.com promoting all things good.

Thank you for taking a glimpse of a few of the projects happening this year. My sleeves are rolled up and I’m ready to deliver on an inspired year. If you are interested in more information or would like to collaborate, email me and “magic” will happen, or at least that’s what Christian Clayton has coined—“Magic Murphy.” The new year is turned on and looking forward. More soon. (yourBuddhi.com website design, empowering the non-bill payers of yoga. Beware of yourBuddhi.com of La Jolla, CA and Harmony Yoga of Redondo Beach, CA).

Clint Eastwood Photography Book Introduction

Ok, ok, the blog entries dwindled after Comic-Con 2011 for a moment, but I am back in the game with more inspired perspective. I am excited to announce a new collaborative photography project, “Clint Eastwood: Master Filmmaker at Work,” a coffee table photo book packaged by Lisa Fitzpatrick of Swan Studio and published by Abrams, New York.

This a dream design project and important archival piece of literature created for one of America’s most likeable legends. And by the way, he never stops working—busy in the studio completing “J. Edgar” with art collector/actor Leonardo DiCaprio and movie remake, “A Star is Born” featuring Beyoncé.

Ironically, Clint Eastwood is one of the first people I met face to face in front of the San Jose courthouse on North 1^st Street, days after arriving to Northern California in 1999. At that time, Clint Eastwood was making headlines for defending himself in a civil, nonsense case looking for quick earnings. Mr. Eastwood coolly shared his misgivings about the case with me and we hung out for a moment, as I found myself face-to-face with one of my all time favorite heroes.

We chatted for about 10 minutes, mostly I listened. I was completely in awe, wished him good fortune and kind thanks, “It means a lot to me to have bumped into to you this morning. I recently moved to California and this is one hell of a way to embark on this new chapter of my life. Amazing. Thank you for a lifetime of inspiration, your characters, your films…Your films mean a lot to me. I’ve grown up watching all of your movies and your work is so appreciated. You are a genuine inspiration. Much continued success to you Mr. Eastwood. It’s been an honor to meet you…Good luck today and I look forward to checking out your next big project!”

We shook hands and I handed him a Murphy Design business card. I had let him know that I recently set up shop right down the street and would love to help him out some day. (Shared space with Dan Hardin of Whipsaw for a year before moving to Southern Cali. Dan Hardin was a big industrial designer from FROG, and we worked on the AURA perfume package and design with American Eagle).

Ten years later, Lisa Fitzpatrick contacted me with this amazing opportunity to collaborate, design and help shape, what looks to be an amazing collection of never seen before images of one of America’s finest talents—Clint Eastwood.

(I must admit, I had a Naploean Dynamite moment and voted for PEDRO some time ago. He has made my dreams come true. Sweet!) More soon on Clint Eastwood: Master Filmmaker at Work featuring essays by Morgan Freeman, Steven Spielberg, written by Michael Goldman and edited by Lisa Fitzpatrick and additional support from Robert Hoffman (VP, Marketing of Technicolor).