This series of digital gig posters and track covers is an ongoing collaboration with the Brooklyn, NYC band Mother Feather. We did a photo shoot with the band back in January 2014 with photographer David Pexton, assisted by director Christine Renee Miller. From that shoot I had a suite of fantastic photos to work with as the backbone for my designs.
My one rule for this series was that most of the work had to be done by hand. This allowed me to experiment with new techniques that bounced back and forth from the digital to the analog.
Glasslands gig poster: All text here was drawn digitally. The photo is manipulated by hand, the main figure was collaged to add exaggerated perspective and create space for the typography illustration.
"Egyptology" single cover: After our photo shoot bandleader Ann Courtney immediately identified this as the perfect shot for their song "Egyptology." The pose echoes stylized hieroglyphics with its combination of frontal and profile views.
"Egyptology" premiered on Conan O'Brien's Team Coco along with my design and David's photography.
"Egyptology" single cover (alternate): Although the mirrored images and repetition of the other design were a success, there is always something to be said for the simple boldness of one strong photo. That is why we kept this design on the table and it has been used as an alternative cover in online articles, social media etc.
Bowery Ballroom gig poster: The band's Bowery Ballroom gig was around the same time as the release of "Egyptology" so we decided to align the poster and cover design.
The photo was perfect but felt too clean for the band's personality. I wanted to make the layout look like a magazine spread; a magazine found on the sidewalk after being kicked around for a few days. I printed out the image and roughed it up with sandpaper. Scanning the image back in with a low quality scanner helped give me the magazine print look I wanted. All text is and illustrations are hand-drawn.
"Living, Breathing" single cover (option 1): Ann describes this track as a "super bad-ass song" that conjures images of night driving, pole dancers and the color pink. All of these ideas lead me to thinking of moody, sordid, raw, provocative themes.
This design was created by slicing a leather thrift shop vest and then joining the strips together with stapled typography. The image was then colored digitally.
"Living, Breathing" single cover (option 2): This direction more literally illustrated the images discussed by Ann. The horizontal slicing act as cells (of sorts) that hint at some pulpy, camp, dangerous, sexy narrative. Once again I printed and rescanned the imagery to give it a cheap printed feel.
Brooklyn Bowl gig poster: By the end of every live show Mother Feather's front women, Ann and Lizzie are drenched with water, heavy black make-up streaming down their faces as they bring the show to a crashing climax. This inspired the design of the poster. The image was printed and distorted by a wash of water causing the ink to bleed. The typography is hand-brushed ink.
"Mirror" single cover: This is digitally drawn typography stenciled, hand cutout, spray painted on a mirror then photographed
Brooklyn Bowl gig poster: Another gig around the time of the "Egyptology" release. I went back to a screenshot from the music video I made with the band to create this poster.
Radio Bushwick gig poster
Fall Festivals 2014
