An Interview with Brian Reddy! + much more
The illustrator behind everything 2J3BD.
The past couple of weeks, we’ve introduced you all to key members of 2J3BD who don’t get the shine from being on camera. First: Greg Mayo, the fourth Rosenthal brother, who does all of our music. Then: Johan, an expert in WWE lore and hair maintenance, who films the showcast.
And today I have the distinct pleasure of talking to Brian Reddy, our great friend of 30 years, who does all of 2J3BD’s art from the logo down to the t-shirt designs.
How does your creative process begin in general?
I’ve tried a lot of formats but for me, nothing beats quick, small sketches and jotting lists in a sketchbook. If I’m at my best, I try to tease out at least a few ideas or sketches on my own before I check out similar content for inspiration. Then I’ll begin to work digitally while curating images to inform my next steps. From there, I usually spam you with updates as I make progress.
How did you approach envisioning 2J3BD as a logo and a brand?
Using the process I just mentioned, I began sketching radio towers sending out waves for the first direction of the logo. 2J3BD was vertical on the tower and it wasn’t adding up to a clean, fun graphic that was both scalable and would convey the energy of the show. We joked about it looking “official” and somewhat militant, so I decided to incorporate stars. I then began playing with the name alone and realized that the numbers and letters inside a globe, which has been a popular graphic for a minute, looked good in a few different shapes. I must have sent you at least ten iterations. Eventually, the inflated version of the name with the stars above and below was strong enough along with the satellite dish placed in the globe. An Easter egg in the satellite dish is that the antenna is a microphone.
What aspects of Jadakiss, Sheek and Styles (and their individual segments) did you want to focus on when it came to creating their t-shirts?
I wanted them to be consistent quality and distinctly unique, just like the guys. They had to be funny but not goofy; somewhat serious but still self-aware. Jadakiss’ took the longest to refine because of his portrait. I tried to make him glaring and realistic. At a point, Jeff just told me to focus on making him look cool and he was right. Thanks, Jeff.
What small details in the shirts or the logo do you still get a kick out of?
The smoke from Karate Man’s blunt that convey’s the speed of his jumpkick; the L-O-X and paper towel bandana reference in Chef Kiss’ hat; the authoritative tilt of the pipe and judgmental facial expression in the bottom panel of Sheek’s graphic. I tried to make it look like a disappointed gorilla dad.
What does the longstanding collaboration with ItsTheReal mean to you and what does this most recent chapter mean?
Friends working together to make independent content for over 20 years? It’s the dream. Especially now. This most recent chapter is a continuation of what we’ve been lucky to cultivate over time; trust, creative energy, honest feedback and lots of laughs.
In your professional opinion, is Jadakiss, in fact, Italian?
You all saw and bought the hoodie. The people have spoken.
What’s a movie you’d want covered on 2J3BD if you were to sit on the couch with us?
Double Feature: Back To The Future 1 and 2. Cabin In The Woods, because it plays on tropes and genres. Superbad for the 20th anniversary. Any of the Alien or Predator movies. I HAVE MORE BUT I’ll STOP THERE.
Brian, as mentioned, is one of our best friends — and I’d suggest you follow him on Instagram but he’s not really active there…he’s just there to watch Simpsons clips and the CostCo guys. So, continue to look out for his artwork in all forms on 2J3BD. And now’s as good a time as any to remind you that we have t-shirts for sale, here:
If you bought merch from us, send us a pic of you wearing it! We love seeing our stuff out in the wild.
And now back to the show. This week we covered T2 and people are saying it’s one of our best ever — and the numbers are bearing that out. Frankly, I think we’re really clicking right now. T2, Weekend at Bernie’s, City of God, the Hulk Hogan doc and Major League are all really really good.
My favorite part was probably talking about Douglas, my idiot AI “assistant” that doesn’t do anything for me and who The LOX imagine is going to extort me. That being said, can’t wait to write the Douglas movie.
City of God’s on YouTube for free, Hulk is on Netflix and Major League is on Pluto.
That’s about it for this week! As always, you can also find us on YouTube, Spotify, Apple, Instagram, TikTok and right here, for our weekly newsletter. But before we go:
Kiss loves looking at what you guys want to see, so I’ve been giving him regular updates on all that’s been sent in. Here’s this week’s batch. I’m personally trying to get him to do Grease 2, though he said, “Everyone’s gonna kill me for that.” So, we’ll see.
Grease 2 is cool but if you're gonna do a musical do Bugsy Malone!!
Double boom for Brian Reddy!