My Work in the Local Music Scene
All of the works on this page are a reflection of the work I’ve done throughout my years in the local Philadelphia music scene, both with Know Hope Records and on my own.
Contents
Sleepy limbs tour poster
This particular project came to me by way of a “cry for help” from one of the artists on the tour. Someone in one of the other bands came up with a tour poster, but it looked unprofessional and didn’t fit the vibe of the artists on the tour. Since the unofficial name of the tour was “Three Bands, One Van”, I took to a small sketchbook and drew out a van, travelling through the night with a moon in the background to cast shadows and silhouettes. I used a .01 Sakura Pigma Micron Fineliner Pen to draw everything, then scanned the drawing onto my computer and pulled it into Adobe Photoshop to add colors and the text for the tour. I feel this piece exhibits Intermediate knowledge of layout and visual hierarchy as well as intermediate skill in drawing. The only requirement (other than including the tour dates, locations and band names) was to include the two sponsors on the tour poster.
Promise of redemption merch poster
This poster was designed as an item to be sold on tour and through the artist’s website to promote their most recent album at the time, “Where You Ought To Be”. For this piece, I needed to use my knowledge of visual hierarchy and my knowledge of typography. The photos were provided by the artist, and all other creative input was left to me. After my first iteration of this poster, the only request was made by the artist to change out one of the photos along the bottom of the poster. After that change was made, the Photoshop file was sent off to be printed. During this point in my graphic design career, I hadn’t been introduced to InDesign so Photoshop was my main medium.
Assemble Band Logo
This project was a bit of a personal one for me since I was in the band the logo was for. We had just finished recording a new album and we were looking for a bit of a refresh in our logo. I started this project with a series of sketches to figure out the best way for the letters to be laid out that would make the logo feel playful but still fit the vibe of a punk band. This relied heavily on my knowledge of typography and hand lettering. After I landed on a design everyone was happy with, I brought it into Illustrator and traced the image to quickly create an editable vector version. I added a thick stroke to the outside of the letters and skull to complete the design. This logo has been on numerous posters and merch for the band, and it is still used to this day.
Assemble Press Kit
Another somewhat personal project for me, but this time was different since it wasn’t just for the band’s personal use. This project needed my knowledge of typography, visual hierarchy, and photo manipulation in order to achieve the desired result. Although Assemble rarely used photos of the band in any of their merch or marketing, I felt this time was different. People needed to see us for who we were. I grabbed some photos of each band member and cut out the subjects using Photoshop. I continued in Photoshop by creating a fun, dynamic background that pulled on similar styles used in the album artwork of the most recent album. I then arranged the band members to fit behind an alternate logo design. From there, it was a bit of simple manipulation of color channels to create a vintage 3-D glasses effect using the band’s preferred colors of green and magenta. While some of the text feels a bit blurry, the effect creates a sense of chaotic motion and leaves the important text easily legible.
Assemble “punktober” tour poster
This tour poster was needed in a time frame of roughly two days. I was asked by my bandmates to create a poster for our October tour in 2022. With no creative or design demands, I decided to get spooky with the design and pull in a zombie. This led to the tour being called “Punktober”. I used Photoshop for the majority of this design to easily manipulate the photo of the zombie into only black and white. The thought behind the zigzags was an idea of a monster bite, and rather than drawing individual teeth, I decided to line these zigzags in the band’s preferred colors of green and magenta. To create a cohesive design, these colors were used throughout the poster to highlight important information.
