Here are my best guesses for projects in 2025.

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Really big, round porcelain serving platter decorated with multiple views of paradise so that every guest, in every direction, sees some of the view right-side up. Should include all the familiar calamities and a few new vexations. I’ll use my platter to serve pizzas, cold cuts, fruits, and pastries. (But maybe not all at the same time.) Design is pretty far along. Currently wrestling with some production challenges because it so big and that makes firing in a kiln a challenge.

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Worst Fears is a book of 100 drawings based on common and uncommon phobias. Most of the drawings are done. I’d like to spend the bleak months of winter refining my depictions of wolves and werewolves, etc. and maybe get the collection printed before the snow melts.

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Pressure has been building for a Calamityware completer set. Might finally get to do a butter dish, gravy boat, and S&P shakers. On the other hand, something always seems to come up to delay this enterprise.

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Tumultuous dining. Tree of life seems to be an inviting design motif. Putting it on virtually unbreakable melamine would delight the people who want to serve meals to kids, clumsy adults, and rambunctious monkeys. We found an excellent workshop in Thailand who can make small plates, bowls, and tumblers. Minimum-order quantities can be daunting, so going to have to make this a Kickstarter project to ensure there are enough people to justify a production run.

(Decades ago, when I was a student, I had melamine plates. These will be better.)

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Peculiar patterns. My sketchbook is full of ideas for quirky patterns that ought to enliven some useful products. Surely in 2025 some of them will appear on books, bags, babushkas, or paraphernalia. One of my recent favorites is a pattern of ravenous piranhas frolicking in the waves. It never fails to make me smile, because the fish look so grouchy.

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Calendarpalooza 2026 is another possibility. Nice to have a wall calendar with big color images of lost and forgotten projects...and space to write appointments. At least one of the images ought to be a classic automobile driven by a herbivore.

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Limited-edition letterpress prints are always fun. Perhaps some drawing in the new year will justify a small batch of nonsense. One of the possibilities on the pile is aliens at the diner theme (Sketch above). Maybe if it had enough color it could be a jigsaw puzzle instead.

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I can’t draw when my hands are full. So please be patient if my progress seems slow.

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Don as a mad scientist. I still want to do that book with career advice about how to become a criminal mastermind or arch villain.

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That’s not all. I’m sure some other unanticipated projects will jump into the line-up. There has been talk of pillows, another wall calendar, notebooks, snow shoes, socks, and much more. Watch for email updates as the year advances. 

You might feel tempted to write and tell me which products you want me to work on. Go ahead. But don’t expect an individual reply and don’t expect me to actually shift my priorities just becauseyou want me to draw troglodytes, dogs playing poker, a pangolin wearing a tiara, or favorite recipes.

I draw every day. I’m exploring the zone where products are beautiful, utilitarian, and funny. I hope you’ll find something I’m doing worthy of your support. But I plan to keep up the effort, whether anyone is behind me or not.

Don—Pittsburgh, December 30, 2024

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