This post originally appeared on our old blog.
So, I’ve decided to pull back the curtain to give you a glimpse into our creative process. If you’re reading this, chances are you’ve checked out Snow Daze (If you haven’t, check it out here). Here is the layout page that started it all. This page is part of a silent four page intro where we see Nolo’s ritual before he goes out to work on a snow day. Leo’s script called for a somewhat messy teenager’s room that would give some visual clues into Nolo’s character and interests. The overall layout remained the same between the sketch and the final version (seen below), but there are some key differences in the posters on the wall and some of the reading material on the floor. Leo liked the layout, but some of the posters had to change in order to fit the time period in which our story takes place. We decided that Snow Daze would take place between the early and mid-nineties. As a result the Cannibal Ox and MF Doom posters on Nolo’s wall would be anachronistic. Cannibal Ox’s album, The Cold Vein debuted in 2001 and MF Doom’s debut (with his new moniker) came out in 1999. So I swapped out those posters for an illMatic (1994) poster.
The Michael Jordan poster stayed, because Mike is timeless for NBA fans, but Nolo’s reading material changed. I decided to throw in a copy of The Source with 2pac on the cover as another marker of the time period.
The style of the characters also changed slightly during this time. I had started with a more exaggerated cartoony style than I usually work in, but later decided on the current style of Snow Daze which strikes more of a balance between the cartoonish style and realism.
Some other important details in Nolo’s room are his cassettes and the book, The Art of War. Even though CD’s were bringing about the slow demise of the audio cassette during the 90’s, Nolo insists on cassettes as his media of choice. This parallels my own habits during the time. I held on to tapes until the bloody end. I can still vividly remember my excitement when record stores were trying to unload all of their tapes and you could find classic albums for 99 cents. Now my phone holds way more albums than I could ever carry in my bag back in the day, and the independent music store (R.I.P. Music Shack) is a thing of the past. Things done changed.
Nolo’s copy of Sun Tzu’s The Art of War is important too. It tells you something about his approach to life and to his business. While he’s a man of action, he also plays the long game and lines up all of his chess pieces.
That’s it for this first edition of Snow Daze: Behind the Scenes. There will be more to come. Keep reading, true believers!
Peace,
Marcus
