o magazine february cover

O Magazine, February 2012 | Photo: Ruven Alfanador, Set design: Sam Cook, Lettering: Dana Tanamachi

Happy New Year everyone! Just off the coattails of a mini-sabbatical, I'm honored to share my newest project with you: O Magazine's first hand-lettered cover! Departing from the traditional Valentine's Day-themed cover art for February issues, the folks at O called me up to collaborate on something a little different—and that we did!

A few months back, I showed up to the Chelsea studio where the cover shoot would be taking place. I arrived in the early evening and immediately got to work. The brief: Express Yourself! And so I did. Thanks to the team at O for basically letting me doodle whatever my heart desired. I was later asked to be present at the photoshoot in case any minor adjustments needed to be made—it was a lot of fun watching from the sidelines. Seeing Oprah stand in front of my work was something I never expected to see in my lifetime, that's for sure.

I have to give a shout-out to the O Editor at Large, Gayle King, for taking me under her wing and inviting me to participate in the shoot. If it were up to me, I'd be hiding behind a curtain somewhere in the back (I may or may not have been guilty of that). Gayle made it a point to introduce herself and offer many words of encouragement.

Oh, and she made sure this happened:

Photo courtesy of George Burns

Page 18 of the issue features a behind-the-scenes look at our collaboration

We had so much fun doing the cover, that I was called back in to create another large-scale piece for the feature story. There are also several other smaller pieces smattered throughout the subsequent article. I was also honored to be interviewed by O Magazine and featured on the issues' "Behind the Scenes" page (pg.18).

O Magazine, February 2012 | Feature Story Opener Spread

A terribly faded picture of me working in the studio (you get the idea!)

The issue is on newsstands now, so pick up a copy if you see it! Many thanks to Chris Pino and Eric Ryan Anderson for their skills. Happy February to all!

Dana Tanamachi + West Elm

Big news! Today, I'm finally able to announce my collaboration with the lovely folks at West Elm! It's been a long time coming, but I couldn't be more thrilled to share our little secret with you...

I was honored to work with West Elm to develop a set of Alphabet Paperweights—the perfect gift/stocking stuffer for for any typography lover. I had way too much fun drawing letters all over my wall for this project!

I'm also thrilled to show you a sneak peek of West Elm's 2011 Holiday Catalog—lettered by yours truly! Be sure to pick up a copy at your local West Elm later this month!

And, last but not least, you can see my handiwork at select stores nationwide—such as this one at The Galleria in my hometown of Houston, Texas:

Many thanks to my new friends at West Elm for letting me have fun and for supporting independent artists! Happy Holidays to all!

garden & gun

Here is the time-lapse video of a new piece I did for Garden & Gun Magazine's "50 Best Southern Foods" feature. Yeehaw!

Garden & Gun from Dana Tanamachi on Vimeo.

more rugby!

I'm so far behind on journal posts, but here are two more boards I did for Rugby Ralph Lauren back in September! Love those folks.

FNO @ Rugby

Fashion's Night Out at Rugby Ralph Lauren last week was a raging success! Probably one of my favorite nights in New York City thus far. Thanks to everyone for coming out to celebrate fashion and support independent art & music. It was incredibly humbling to see so many familiar faces— and great to meet new ones as well.

Above photos by Eric Ryan Anderson

Thanks to Rugby for styling me in their beautiful clothes/accessories for the evening!