Twelve Car Pileup
+ is the online portfolio of Twin Cities-based graphic designer Mike Davis, a member of Burlesque of North America.

Get at me
+ mike@twelvecarpileup.com  |  (612) 379-4151  |  1101 Stinson Blvd. #12, Minneapolis, MN. 55413.




Do It To It
+ After the success of the DO IT TO IT party we threw at SXSW as well as the 12" EP, we had to have a party in Minneapolis to show our hometown friends how much fun they missed down in Texas. Here's the screenprinted poster created for the party at First Avenue featuring some of our favorite DJs.

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YWFT
+ Minneapolis-based online graphic design bookstore and type foundry YouWorkForThem celebrated their six year anniversary with a collection of 6" screenprinted posters. I designed this one and I hope they like it.


Feelin' Kinda Patton
+ It was honor to redesign the cover artwork to one of my favorite standup comedy albums, Patton Oswalt's "Feelin' Kinda Patton" for Stand Up! Records. I could spend the rest of my life drawing the scene from Black Angus and feel totally fulfilled.
Mass Appeal
+ Cover illustration for the 51st and final issue of Mass Appeal, one of the most solid hip hop art and culture magazines the world ever saw. This issue included a 10-page feature on the art and history of Burlesque of North America. Big shout to my dude Justin Kay for hooking this one up!


Diplo & Catchdubs
+ My dude Nick Catchdubs asked me to design a poster for he and Diplo's New Years Eve 2008 party in San Francisco. It was NYE so I had to make it big and brassy, but it was Diplo and Catchdubs so it also had to be fun and kinda loose and throwbacky.

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DJ Day "Got to Get it Right"
+ 12" vinyl packaging for California's best kept secret, DJ Day. He wanted the artwork to express the idea of the struggle between hope and chaos. The record is available through the good people at Melting Pot Music.




Lyrics Born: Auto Reverse Tour
+ Lyrics Born and his wife stopped by Burlesque's booth at Bumbershoot in Seattle over Labor Day weekend. He really dug our posters and called to have me design his Fall 2007 tour poster. I hand-drew a stack of rap tour-related imagery, from planes and RVs to mounds of cassettes to a guy on the street selling hot dogs (or Bacon Dogs if you live in SF).

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Rockers to Rockers
+ This is a digipak design for a reggae compilation CD released by Melting Pot Music and Carhartt. I was thinking of going a more straight-ahead reggae route with the graphics, but Olski from MPM was feeling the pinball steelo, so here you have it. One step closer to me getting to fulfill my lifelong fantasy of hand-painting my own real life pinball machine.


Jewbilee
+ Every Christmas Eve in Minneapolis, the folks who don't celebrate Christmas Eve gather to listen to music, eat Chinese food, drink, and be merry. I was asked to design the poster and had been looking at a lot of mid-1960's Swiss design and somehow managed to make the connection between that and a Jewish party.
Kutiman
+ Melting Pot has done it again. They've signed Tel Aviv Israel's finest psychedelic Afro-funk musician Kutiman. Please check out his music if you're unfamiliar. You could even buy the LP or CD, which features this artwork!


Circle Research
+ Promotional art for Melting Pot-signed DJ duo Circle Research.
Chrome Children Tour Poster
+ screenprinted poster for Stones Throw Records' Fall 2006 US tour. Hand-drawn factory mayhem scene. Collaborative design with Wezz.


Alphabet Poster
+ Originally designed as a gift for my beautiful baby niece Hailey, I decided to change a few things on it and expand this into a screenprinted print. I love typography, kids need to learn the alphabet, it just kinda worked out.

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Thrill Me to the Marrow
+ inspired by Crosby Still & Nash, womens' magazines, and a trip to Japan, this four-color screenprinted poster was originally created for my March 2006 Kidrobot SF art show Cold Crush Gold Rush.



Burger Dunny
+ I guess Kidrobot liked my hand-painted Burger Dunny enough that they had me redo the art for a mass-produced 3" vinyl toy. This was part of Dunny Series 4, which also featured designs from renowned toy designers and artists Huck Gee, Shane Jessup, Sket One, Tara McPherson, and many others.
O.G. Burger Dunny
+ hand-painted 20" Dunny toy. Created for my March 2006 Kidrobot SF art show Cold Crush Gold Rush.



Opus Daily
+ Mix CD artwork designed for DJ Marc Hype and Jim Dunloop. Two turntables and a funky piano.
Certified Bananas
+ Providence's #1 party-rockin' DJ crew Certified Bananas came through to rock and not only was I lucky enough to get to spin at the show, I got to design the poster as well.


Digitata
+ poster designed for local trip-hoppish group Digitata's January 2007 performance at 7th Street Entry. The artwork was inspired by many childhood trips to the Smoky Mountains.

Sam Shelton Singing Live!
+ My brother's girlfriend Sam is a multi-talented lady. She sings, she acts, she can cook up a storm, and on and on and on. So when she asked me to design a flyer for her concert in LA in May 2007, I had to say yes.


This is My Guts
+ My collaboration with 6 year-old Cohen Morano. His dad Aye Jay sent me (and dozens of other arists) one of Cohen's watercolor doodles and I designed around it.

Bonnaroo 2007
+ Sgt. Pepper's Dogback-riding Hearts Club Band. We hope you will enjoy the show.

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KPSU t-shirt
+ t-shirt design for Portland State University's great college radio station. Tune in Tuesday nights for "Detonate" hosted by Deanne Rhymes!

So Much Pileup
+ a mish mosh of recent logos, illustrations, and other thangs all smashed together and screenprinted.

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Trevor Graves Playing Card
+ illustration for a motion graphics piece developed by Portland, OR's Nemo Design. The piece, airing on Fuel TV, focuses on Nemo's renowned snowboard photographer Trevor Graves.
Scion CD Sampler v. 15
+ package design for Scion's 15th mix CD, done up properly by Brooklyn NY's finest, Cosmo Baker and Ayres from The Rub.


Cold Crush Gold Rush poster
+ promotional poster for my March 2006 solo show at Kidrobot SF. Covered wagons sittin' on 24s.
Innervisions
+ graphic reengineering of a photo taken by Burlesque's Skye Rossi. The lovely lady in the photo is Minneapolis songstress Sarah White.


Nike / Illvill
+ mutated logos for NKE6.0's Illvill advertising campaign. These guys appeared in a small promotional booklet and were also adapated for stickers, magazine ads, and online graphics.
P.O.S is Ruining My Life
+ tour poster for Doomtree / Rhymesayers rapper P.O.S. Art direction from the client: "Make it funny violent... like a guy in a bunny suit with a chainsaw."

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Burlesque
+ t-shirt design for my crew Burlesque of North America. Those are my people.

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Burnin' Up
+ I started spinning at an '80s dance night at Dinkytowner here in Minneapolis and they asked me to design the poster. I like the idea of listing some of the artists played at a DJ night to help draw in a crowd, but I thought including memorable quotes from some '80s songs would be even more interesting. Here she is.


Mel Gibson and the Pants
+ screenprinted poster for local live hip hop group Mel Gibson and the Pants' CD release party. This was designed hot potato back and forth style with the inimitable Wes Winship.

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MM.. FOOD Drive
+ Screenprinted poster for MF DOOM's Fall 2004 tour / food drive in support of his "MM.. FOOD" LP on Rhymesayers. Wezz and I designed this one together.


International Thugs
+ designed for Complex Magazine's Travel Tips section to alert world travelers of the potential roughnecks lurking overseas.
Trendhumper
+ more illustration work for Complex. From their regular column "Trendhumper" which helps you decide which new looks should be either humped or dumped.


The Rub European Tour
+ The Rub crew (Cosmo, Ayres, Eleven) headed over to Europe to rock some parties and couldn't leave home without their passports... or at least their new mix CD.
The Mexican
+ 12" sleeve design for Marc Hype and Jim Dunloop's super funky cover of the classic cut "The Mexican," released on DJ Olski's Melting Pot Music label out of Germany.


The Fabulous Moolah
+ at once inspired by giant stacks of money and legendary professional wrestlers, this acrylic painting reminds us all of the flossier things in life.
Hollerlujah
+ we still hustle til' the sun come up. Crack a 40 when the sun go down. It's a cold winter.



Online Press
+ Ten Questions on OMG Posters! (May 12, 2008)
+ Five Whats on Christine Wong's Wonting (May 6, 2008)
+ Interview on Grain Edit (March 18, 2008)
+ Design feature on DJ Day's Like a Throttle (January 24, 2008)
+ Design feature on Adam Garcia's We Are Digging For Fire (September 2, 2007)
+ Friday Art Pick on l'etoile Magazine (July 19, 2007)

Friends and Famalam
+ Burlesque of North America
+ First Amendment Gallery and Print Studio
+ Aesthetic Apparatus
+ Upnorth
+ Soulstrut
+ YouWorkForThem
+ The Pressure
+ Delicious Design League
+ Turntable Lab
+ Steven Harrington
+ Lords of Apathy
+ Harsh Patel		 + Eaten Alive
+ Stones Throw Records
+ Gig Posters
+ Rhymesayers
+ anticon
+ Vanguard Squad
+ Doomtree
+ Catchdubs
+ Kidrobot
+ Zoo York
+ Robot Love
+ Grain Edit

+ All content © 2002 - 2008 Twelve Car Pileup / Burlesque of North America.