McCool Co. Design

Get your playoff shirts before noon!

Graham Playoffs 23-24

I used to feel like I was “headed North with a Southern wind” until I met my beautiful bride . Now when the winds blow, we keep them at our back!

I could write a book on all of her deeming qualities, but my favorite thing about her is how FIERCELY she loves. She’s my best friend, the mother of our children, and my TRUE North.

Here’s to a Happy Birthday, and keeping the bugs out of my teeth! Love you big. -Pecos

Got the primer coat down on the ol’ Liberty Theater on the square in Graham, Texas. Rumor is that it’s getting a little revamp. 😉

Come take a photo!

94% done. I accidentally posted my stories to the wrong account yesterday. 😐

Forearm muscle failure from rattle cans IS A THING, but my trigger-finger is getting strong.

This is fun.

I’ve been on hiatus from socials for a bit. We’ve been focused on getting ready for our son, Baker to be born.

I was big-time productive with the mural today. A hard days work is even better when I get to come home and see my boy.

I’ve created art almost everyday of my life since I could pick up a pencil, but this guy is my greatest masterpiece (even though I had a little help on this one 😉). Life will never be the same!

I am blown away with my wife, and what she endured to bring our little man into this world.

Baker Rowe McCool
May 1, 2023
8lbs / 12oz / 21”

“TEXAS PECAN” is the next flavor in line of small batch roasted coffee that we had the pleasure of designing the packaging for. We adapted the art for “Texas Pecan,” and “Straight Bourbon” to work on a shorter, and stouter version of a 12oz coffee bag. Available online at shop.whiskeymyers.com

Progress…

It’s a beautiful day for some mural’n! I hope I got enough cans of spray paint.

The only things that get to run with a pack of wolves is the “World’s Greatest Bullrider” and other wolves….

if you and the wolves hear a howl in the distance tonight, it’s just me telling you that t-shirt looks good with that shiny new buckle.

The cover of the record “Aces & Eights” by is a great example of how I turn a stock photo into album art. Lucas wanted to include imagery from his lyrics “I’m all in with a Queen of Hearts” and “Playin’ a Deadman’s Hand” from the song “With My Luck.”

In the stock photo, the Eight of Clubs from the “Dead Man’s Hand” and the Queen of Hearts are missing and had to be photoshopped in from separate photos of cards. The gold border, title, some shading, color corrections, and a distress overlay were added to complete the job.

Go give it a listen!

I am super lucky to have this beautiful woman as my wife. I’m twice as lucky that she has been able to carry our son through a healthy pregnancy. I’m thrice as lucky for the life we are designing, and building together. you amaze me!

To our “Son with no Name:” Just because we’ve been calling you “Baby Huey” for now doesn’t mean we don’t have a good handle in the works. We can’t wait to show you the ropes and see what kind of fun we can stir up!

📸: amazing job!

This might be my favorite song has ever put out… we did the cover art for it too btw. Go give it a spin!

Excuse the poor photos, but at my parent’s house hangs the only remaining feed sack (pictured here) from “McCool Milling Feeds” aka “McCool Ag. Enterprises.”

My grandfather, Donnie R. McCool continued the family business (formerly known as “McCool Feed & Seed” in Nocona, Texas) upon moving to Graham, Texas with my grandmother Reba, my uncle Bobby Ray, and my old man, Larry Dale.

It was hard work from what I hear, but loads of good stories have been told about it. While I can remember the grain elevator before they took it down, they stopped doing business in the mid ‘80s shortly before my arrival. Today, you still have to drive over the old truck scales to get the their back lot and pasture.

I’m proud of my family’s heritage and I’ll have to say it makes for one heck of a good lookin’ feed sack!

Following up… the art from the sneak peek the other day was this for . This album art features photography from on the front, back, and center labels of the vinyl. I believe this is the first time I’ve illustrated something directly on a photo; I’m pumped with how it turned out!

P.S. I had to stick my tongue out a little to get this illustration style to work for me.

TOTALLY AWESOME! TOTALLY UNUSED! TOTALLY REJECTED! TOTALLY FOR SALE! Yes, this bodacious 80s babe was meticulously photo-composited by yours truly, only to be rejected as a gig-poster for a client. Actually, I was ghosted, but that’s (partly) what non-refundable down payments are for. If you’ve always dreamed of having an 80’s girl of your own (to be used for a poster, album art…etc), shoot an email to [email protected] and she could be yours!

Cover art we did a while back for . This color scheme is 🔥 I don’t care what anyone says.

Many moons ago, I made this poster for my brother ’s alt-country outfit by the name of “Brady McCool and the Young Guns.” They started gig-ing in high school when they weren’t even old enough to get in the venues they were playing. Every now and again they “get the band back together” for a reunion show for fun. Brady actually screen-printed a small run of these posters to sell at the show. Give my brother a follow and go see one of his acoustic shows… He won’t disappoint!

Behold! Here’s a slight refresh on the graphics we did for ’s 5th annual event, including the poster and guitar wrap. EK is one of our favorites!

I must have listened to this tasty jam by our East Texas buddy 37 times in a row (on repeat) while I worked on the cover art because it’s that good! Brian, and one of the best producer’s in the biz did a stellar job.

I had a blast drawing this one up, and finishing it out with ’s “DEBASER Low-Fi Comic Coloring Kit” in Photoshop.

“Retro-Western” is the look here for the gig poster we did for . Catch his show in Ranger, Texas!

I didn’t know it yet, but on February 28, 2016 (7 years ago today) I met my beautiful bride . She’s been pretty good so far so I guess I’ll keep her around!

Still stretching the legs with this style, but really pleased with this one for especially with the colors. Go see her make her debut with !

We were called upon to do the branding for and had a ball working on it! Words like “Rusty” give me the excuse to make something look old and distressed, and that makes me smile like a possum.

I’ve been leaning into this “new style” of art for a while now and experimenting with different things to see what can be done… I came up with this poster along the way for ’s show and it just might be one of my favorite pieces ever. I was bummed we couldn’t make it to the show, but here’s a couple of photos from folks that did.

Does anyone have any ideas on what I should call this new style?

“The magic you’re looking for is in the work you’re avoiding” -Unknown

I knew this post had to start with one of the poster board quotes on ’s page that spoke to me. This quote resonates with me in so many ways… Right now, it’s about knocking out my website. In the future, it’s putting some of my own art out into the world. A few years ago, it was about finding the unconscious parts of myself that my ego kept in its shadow; facing them and making changes. Psychology calls this “Shadow Work,” I call it life changing.

To tie this into the t-shirt and logo I designed in 2021 with Mike (the Converse Cowboy himself), it was important to him that the art had some depth and meaning that truly embodied the spirit of his platform.

For the shirt design, we did an illustration of Mike with a series of tracers leading to a coyote; the animal he felt was symbolic to his “Shadow” self. Behind this image, we did a circle that encompassed the slogan “The journey is the destination.” The design as a whole is meant to represent his constant awareness of his shadow, and to find joy with every step of his journey for growth, as joy IS the destination.

For the logo, I put two rattlesnakes opposite of each other to form the letters “CC” for Converse Cowboy. I had their mouths open and hissing at each other with a dot/pupil between them to form a “Third Eye” to symbolize inner vision on the path to enlightenment.

The profile pic is just a riff on the Converse sneakers that he wears everyday.

“Circle the Wagons!” Join us and at the on Sunday to raise money for the Jack County Disaster Relief Fund to help those affected by the recent tornado. I did the poster, but super proud of my wife for putting this whole event together!