Satellite Mode: Tour Merch
Prompt: Design and fabricate inexpensive, trendy merchandise for a band to sell on tour.
Tools & Skills: graphic design, laser cutting, Adobe Illustrator, illustration, drawing, clothing design
At this point in their trajectory, the client had two themes loosely and organically developed tied to their branding: fruit, and ancient Greece. The first deliverable was the poster design, for which I was asked to incorporate the fruit theme. To add some freshness to this theme, I drew from the music’s mostly electronic vibes, and their space-y band name to introduce an outer space theme. And thus, the orange slices as phases of the moon was born.
A few months later, after releasing more songs, the band veered in a more “pop” direction musically, so I decided to increase the bright colors, and make direct use of the ancient Greece theme, which was inspired by their most popular song, “Aphrodite.” I made a line drawing of Aphrodite to be used in various ways, and laser cut old-school-motel-shaped keychains in bright colors with unique “stamps” on them, featuring quotes of their music. I wanted to keep using Aphrodite on the t-shirts, but in a less obvious and redundant way by blowing up the image of the Aphrodite in a digital stippling portrait for the long sleeve shirts, and making classic gym uniform tees featuring the original drawing.
What I learned
Graphic design!
What it’s like to spend a lot of quality time with Adobe
Applying one design/concept to different mediums and making use of trends