One of my most active hobbies is supporting and promoting West Michigan's thriving local music scene. I've made a lot of friends within this music community over the years, and as such I've had the opportunity to create a number of design projects to help support my friends' endeavors, including show fliers, tour graphics, promotional photos, album artwork, logo designs, and more.

FLEXADECIBEL: TOUR GRAPHICS

Flexadecibel is a seven-piece funk and soul group from my hometown of Muskegon, Michigan. I was commissioned to create some professional-quality tour graphics for their first out-of-state tour into Ohio in March of 2019. Since their logo has a graffiti look to it, I imposed it over a photo of a multi-colored brick wall, and used that as the basis for their Facebook event covers and individual show fliers:

BARBAROSSA BROTHERS: SHOW FLIERS

Barbarossa Brothers are a blues/folk/roots rock group from Bay City, Michigan, and they've been regularly commissioning me to design fliers to advertise their shows around the state. These designs all incorporate some classic printing press-style design elements, including thick borders and bold, press-style fonts:

SHORT HAIR DOMESTICS: ALBUM ART

Short Hair Domestics are a three-piece rock group from Muskegon, Michigan, and they commissioned me to create the artwork for their first studio record, Hooks, which was released in 2018. They provided a rough-sketch concept of fish hooks appearing in a pattern on the cover. I took this concept and adapted it into something of a "scrambled video" motif — like when old VHS tapes get wavy on old TV screens. The background texture was created by fading and blurring photos of the band performing into the background:

THE TOSSPINTS: ARTIST ONE-SHEET

The Tosspints are a three-piece rock group from Saginaw, Michigan. In 2014, they released their fourth studio record The Privateer, and worked with a promotional agent to release some press materials ahead of the release, including this artist one-sheet they commissioned me to design. The design incorporates their logo and promotional photo, along with content that includes the band's biographical background, press quotes, and career highlights. This design theme was also used to create a band-branded show flier:

ORBITAL MUSIC LESSONS: LOGO DESIGN

This logo was designed for a professional musician friend from Orlando for his new business of offering private music lessons. This simple icon design was inspired by Florida's rich history with the U.S. space program, with the five lines off the rocket ship representing the five lines of a music staff:

THE WAXIES: PROMO PHOTOS & LOGO DESIGN

The Waxies were a Celtic/folk rock group from Grand Rapids, MI that performed together from 2008 to 2017. In 2015, I was commissioned to take updated promotional photos of the band in advance of the release of their third studio record, Down with the Ship. Along with the updated promo photos, I also designed an updated logo for the band, taking inspiration from the nautical theme of their record and the ornate, hand-serifed lettering often found on old sailing vessels: