When musician met designer: our biggest hits of inventive collabs

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When searching for inventive inspiration, among the best locations to begin is taking a look at different artists. However don’t be restricted to at least one medium, or one style inside a medium. Nice design conjures up throughout genres and totally different expressions have extra affect on each other than you may assume.

We noticed this primary hand once we partnered with Isol-Assist Competition to launch Isol-Assist Homegrown: a 16-week program that supplied monetary and inventive help to up-and-coming musicians. Partnering these musicians with designers from our neighborhood, they created the sorts of designs destined to change into legendary posters and well-loved band tees.

Music and design go hand-in-hand

Like we talked about above, you may’t separate music and design. Music is design—auditory design. And since type usually spills out of 1 space of an individual’s life and into others, it’s no shock that so many type icons and iconic logos come straight out of the music business.

Musicians are sometimes the epitome of private branding, which was a giant a part of our inspiration to work with Isol-Assist Competition. This gave rising musicians from Australia and New Zealand the chance to work with designers from our platform to essentially dial of their private manufacturers and create distinctive designs that seize who they’re.

A stable private model is a key a part of being an influential musician. Assume David Bowie. Submit Malone. Cardi B. Whereas music is the motive force behind an artist’s persona, there are such a lot of extra parts that come collectively to create it.

That’s only one space the place music and visible design intersect. Take into consideration music movies and the way they inform tales, typically creating complete worlds, within the span of just some minutes.

Or check out all of the visible arts actions that had been impressed by music actions–and the music impressed by visible artwork.

On a extra micro degree, many designers discover music immediately influences the artwork they create. As a part of our Isol-Assist Homegrown marketing campaign, our designer indrah kh informed us the impression music has on them, “Music performs a giant position in my inventive course of—it got here to me first, earlier than graphic design. I was a busking musician in native cafes and to at the present time, I nonetheless have a ardour for music.”

painting of a man’s back as he stands on rocks overlooking the ocean
This portray, Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog, is a part of the Romanticism motion—a visible artwork and musical motion. Picture by way of Wikimedia Commons

Defining a musician’s aesthetic

Identical to every other form of model, a musician’s persona wants to attach with their audience. Meaning the persona has to speak what sort of music the artist creates, however be distinctive sufficient to face out from others of their style.

Take into consideration how totally different rap albums’ cowl artwork seems to be from punk albums’ cowl artwork. Whereas rap albums largely share particular motifs and different visible parts that hyperlink them as a cohesive style, punk albums share a special, but equally cohesive, visible vocabulary.

Heck, there’s even a “steel font”:

collection of metal band logos
After which there’s Get together Cannon. Picture by way of Artistic Bloq

What sorts of designs do musicians want?

Whereas most musicians know that they want a brand, album artwork and perhaps a web site design to create their visible model, there are literally so many extra potentialities that musicians can faucet into to market their music, similar to:

  • Social media web page designs
  • Merchandise. A number of the commonest sorts of musician merch are:
    • T-shirts
    • Hoodies
    • Hats (baseball caps and beanies)
    • Stickers
    • Patches
    • Tote luggage
  • Custom-made circumstances for his or her devices
  • Posters
  • Guide and journal cowl artwork
cartoon Beatles standing on a colorful base with a blue character
Picture by way of NPR

In relation to designing merchandise, what’s most necessary is that you simply create one thing that’s genuine to you.

Possibly that’s customized drinkware. Possibly it’s mousepads in your techy listeners. Possibly it’s rechargeable glow lights your followers can carry to concert events to wave through the gradual songs.

For one of many Isol-Assist Homegrown artists, Lakyn, the designs weren’t simply music merch—they had been a part of his new attire model, which in itself is an extension of his musician persona.

“I began a small clothes model/skate model made with all the identical ideas and philosophies that I base my music on, which is to undergo life comparatively stress-free and to really feel good every single day,” he informed us.

“Quickly after I began envisioning the longer term with my model DaytonaFM, issues began to choose up. I bought again into the studio after months with out recording and wrote a track about positively altering your perspective to see the world clearer.’”

Different artists sought designs for particular sorts of merchandise, like Appeal of Finches, who needed an illustrated poster design that might additionally work because the paintings for merchandise like band t-shirts and tote luggage.

Giving again to the inventive neighborhood

We talked about it briefly, however right here’s the entire story of Isol-Assist Homegrown:

The worldwide pandemic was arduous for all of us—even probably the most introverted of introverts. You keep in mind these first few weeks and months, locked down in your house, studying how you can navigate Zoom and discover new methods to remain linked with mates and family members. The pandemic-induced lockdowns decimated the dwell music scene with musicians watching their excursions, gigs and incomes vanishing earlier than their eyes.

“The final 18 months has been fairly turbulent for my music profession, with many challenges, hurdles and setbacks to work by means of. I put out my debut single initially of 2020, and had many plans to create momentum by means of the 12 months with extra releases and exhibits, a lot of which fell by means of,” stated Chris Lanzon, one other one of many Isol-Assist Homegrown artists.

Record with the “greatest hits” slogan
Isol-Assist Homegrown: the best hits. Illustration by Carolina Crespo

In a bid to help these artists and maintain the music taking part in Isol-Assist Competition was born—a web based music competition the place musicians throughout Australia carried out dwell from their very own houses. The reception to that first efficiency in March 2020 was so nice, that the competition continued virtually each week since, that includes each unbelievable rising and family names.

As a result of we’re all about supporting creators, we had been thrilled to companion with Isol-Assist to launch Isol-Assist Homegrown. 20 up-and-coming musicians from throughout Australia and New Zealand had been chosen for this program and joined forces with creatives from our international neighborhood.

For the musicians, it was a possibility to collaborate with designers who matched their vibes to create completely on-point artwork to symbolize them onstage and off. For the designers, it was a option to join with different creators and play a task in shaping their personas. For us, it was a glance into what unfolds when two inventive brains work collectively.

We watched the groups develop logos, cowl artwork, postcards, merchandise and extra. Check out every pairing’s distinctive story and the designs they created:

Take a look at 7 of our superb collabs

Lakyn

Pop/folks rock artist Lakyn was quarantining again at residence along with his mother and father and dealing as a landscaper when he linked with Isol-Assist Homegrown. It was throughout that lockdown, the place he abruptly discovered himself unable to make music after making his dwelling touring Australia and releasing music for the previous decade, that he turned to a brand new inventive enterprise: clothes design.

As his collaboration with Isol-Assist Homegrown, Lakyn labored with designer HotDogStudio to create a brand for DaytonaFM and designer Illia Kolesnyk to create merch for the road.

Within the undertaking’s inventive temporary, Lakyn described DaytonaFM as a model “impressed by vibrations.” He requested a design that appears hand-drawn or hand-painted and appears like a tourism commercial from the Nineteen Eighties. He even bought particular about the place he needed the tourism advert to be for—Egypt. Within the temporary, he prompt palm timber, camels and pyramids as doable design parts to make use of, with one necessary, non-negotiable instruction: the designs needed to give off optimistic vibes.

T-shirt design with swimming pool and pyramids
T-shirt design by Illia Kolesnyk

“I actually preferred this dreamy and juicy ambiance that this undertaking proposed to convey and I drew every thing on the primary day, after which I simply added particulars. There was additionally a whole lot of freedom and this impacts the method. Drawing this image is like listening to a dreamy pop track or psychedelic rock with mushy digital parts, each drawing and music create rhythms that I like for his or her variety,” Illia Kolesnyk informed us.




Drawing this image is like listening to a dreamy pop track or psychedelic rock with mushy digital parts, each drawing and music create rhythms that I like for his or her variety




Nailing down “optimistic vibes” as a visible could be a difficult process, as a result of what do “optimistic vibes” actually appear like? Of their work with Lakyn, each designers selected to speak these vibes with scorching neon colours that prompt heat.

Lakyn had pretty broad concepts for the design and gave the designers free reign to create no matter they thought would match these extensive parameters greatest, so long as they match the vibe he was after. “The aim is to create a realistic-looking Egyptian vacation situation, with a twist of fantasy. Therefore the pool concept. So long as it offers off optimistic vibes.”

metallic-looking logo in purple, silver and green against a black background with purple palm trees and green pyramids
Brand design by HotDogStudio

HotDogStudio mentioned their design course of as effectively, “The inspiration got here from combining the thought of ’80s design and Miami-style neon indicators. I really feel just like the chrome most important brand offers it a retro look and fits the temporary properly. Music performs a task in most of my inventive course of, particularly within the execution half, the place I’m making an attempt to get the precise vibe with what I do. As an example, on this undertaking, I listened to a whole lot of ’80s discos, lo-fi, and a few metropolis pop music.”

Bumpy

Bumpy, a soul/jazz/pop-inspired artist, discovered her profession dramatically shifted when quarantine necessities went into impact. “Originally of the pandemic I used to be easing into the shift of a full-time musician,” she informed us. “I used to be lucky sufficient to have booked sufficient upfront to dwell on my sole revenue. Following on from that, the constant rescheduling, cancellations and re-booking has enormously weighed on my productiveness and has resulted in a whole lot of monetary stress.”

However as a pushed inventive, she discovered a option to pivot and proceed constructing her profession from residence and on-line. “The final 18 months I’ve been constructing my own residence studio and adapting to on-line recording and creating content material. It has been such an acceptable time to discover expression by means of manufacturing and recording, contrasting my prior expertise which was predominately in dwell settings.”

Bumpy needed a visually busy, colourful illustration that might go on clothes, tote luggage and posters. Aesthetic-wise, she specified that she needed it to really feel female and fun-spirited, incorporating royal and doubtlessly nature-themed imagery. She additionally requested that the illustration characteristic her identify someplace within the design.

Check out what illustrator rifally delivered:

collage-style illustration with a woman’s face and the name “BUMPY”
Illustration by rifally

The design responds to Bumpy’s temporary with saturated colours and a rounded, balloon-like font for the textual content. The outstanding pink within the picture additionally marks it as female, one other sense Bumpy needed to convey.

“I discovered the essential concept of daydreaming, I made a sketch in my drawing e-book, after being certain of my idea, then utilized it to a digital course of. My design type is extra pop surreal,” rifally stated. We additionally requested rifally if they’ve any musical expertise of their very own and in that case, the way it conjures up their work.

“Hahaha I’ve sufficient musical expertise after I take a bathe! I can’t play any musical devices, however I like buzzing despite the fact that I overlook the lyrics,” they replied.

Genes

Genes is a pop artist who’s been on the scene for about 18 months now and prides herself on being self-funded and self-managed.

thick, swoopy bubble lettering logo with cherries and lips
Bubble letter design by way of Genes

Genes got here to Isol-Assist Homegrown with a transparent aesthetic imaginative and prescient: retro, quirky and enjoyable. She already had a brand and artwork for her single “Cherry Lips”, so when it got here time to collaborate with illustrator indrah kh, the undertaking already had a transparent course.

Genes needed a retro-styled thank-you postcard to ship out with merch shipments, giving them a extra private contact. She requested a mushy pastel palette in pink and blue, giving the design a mushy, dreamy really feel. The designer who labored with Genes, indrah kh, felt linked to Genes’ request instantly.

“This explicit undertaking instantly caught my curiosity in creating issues that impressed me as a designer. I get inspiration from the ambiance I felt within the ’60s-’70s period, which I at all times confer with. I didn’t expertise these occasions firsthand, however relating to music and artwork, it’s these occasions that may be stated to encourage me.”

postcard with distressed look, with pink and blue stripes and “Greetings from Genes”
Postcard design by indrah kh

Liyah Knight

Liyah Knight is a singer-songwriter who needed a pocket book cowl design to tie into her upcoming undertaking, “Travellers Information.” Her imaginative and prescient for the pocket book is for folks to carry it with them as they journey throughout Australia—and past—because it continues to open up following the pandemic and write all about their adventures. For the design, Knight needed a sketch-inspired, “diary doodling” aesthetic. She additionally needed it to really feel earthy and pure, excellent for trekking by means of the wilderness.

Liyah informed us that the lockdown had a major impression not simply on her work, however how she works, “The previous eighteen months have taught me two most important issues; endurance and productiveness. Having launched my two first two singles throughout Covid, we’ve needed to assume exterior the field so much relating to recording, advertising and marketing and every thing in between. Whereas difficult, I believe it’s impacted me most in a optimistic means as a result of it’s taught me how you can be adaptable and inventive.”

The designer who linked with Liyah Knight to carry her pocket book to life by means of design was kating egepe. He informed us he was intrigued by the immediate immediately:

“[It’s a] very cool temporary. I instantly imagined depicting Australia and New Zealand in a single image. It was just a little tough to mix them. Liyah Knight needed a murals like a sketch utilizing a pencil, and all of the writing was written on immediately, with out utilizing fonts.”

notebook cover with black text and illustration
Pocket book cowl design by kating egepe

Liyah wasn’t the one musician concerned on this design undertaking, kating egepe revealed this once we requested about their musical expertise, “I like music and I’ve a band.”

Ūla

Indie-pop singer Ūla needed an easy-to-recognize design that might go on merchandise and canopy artwork. She additionally needed one thing pink—one thing that completely match her bubblegum, Bratz doll-like private model.

Initially a busker who discovered success on social media, Ūla discovered herself unable to proceed rising her presence this fashion as soon as stay-at-home orders had been in place. For her, the pandemic pressured a profession pivot:

“One among my most important revenue sources and promotional factors I had was busking dwell streams on TikTok I did within the metropolis—clearly this needed to cease. Though it did trigger monetary points, probably the most detrimental factor is the expansion of my social media platforms bought put to a halt. I can’t create and publish the content material as a result of it entails singing exterior which is kind of actually unlawful. For any musician to achieve success they should maintain reaching new audiences and have platforms that proceed to develop in numbers.”

Ūla had a brand already and prompt that the designer use its font within the picture they created. She labored with hiden_work to rework her brand right into a character-focused design she may have printed on t-shirts.

fairy girl with sunglasses and a nosering on a pink background
Illustration by hiden_work

Discover how the design is enjoyable, playful, and just a little bit rebellious…a youngster’s ultimate avatar. A musician’s persona must mirror their listeners as a lot because it displays them. In different phrases, it must be one thing the listeners can determine with and construct an emotional connection to.

Designer hiden_work informed us a bit about how they created this picture: “ULA offers the principle reference as a foundation for the thought, however I did an exploration of the reference he gave. And I additionally did some research on ULA’s social media to get one thing that I may use as the idea for the idea.”




For me, music isn’t just background noise. It’s greater than that—it comes from the soul and units the temper.




In addition they gave us a have a look at their working relationship with music: “I at all times hearken to music whereas engaged on a undertaking as a result of music actually influences my work. For me, music isn’t just background noise. It’s greater than that—it comes from the soul and units the temper.”

Chris Lanzon

For Chris Lanzon—and let’s be actual, many people—the beginning of the pandemic meant an abrupt cease to all of the plans he had in place.

Chris Lanzon is a Sydney-based musician whose work focuses on self-exploration and self-expression. He not too long ago launched an EP titled “Far From Excellent” and needed a cool illustration he may put onto hoodies to advertise the EP. In his temporary, Lanzon requested a design that includes textual content, an illustration of him and some different stylized photographs. To get this design, he labored with two designers: Brierly and Anton Vertwen.

Right here’s what they created:

black hoodie with an off-white figure and white text
Hoodie design by Anton Vertwen and Brierly

The designs for Chris Lanzon’s hoodie felt hand-drawn and uncooked, giving it an underground indie really feel. After we requested concerning the design course of and designers’ inspiration for the undertaking, Anton Vertwen stated this: “I ended up with two visualizations, that each bought within the remaining lower.

“One among these was a crooked drawing of Chris on this sorta harmless, child-like pose, with angel wings on the again and satan horns on the pinnacle. A dualism of man, as Descartes may say, or “he’s like, dangerous, but in addition good” as I might say.”

Brierly touched on how the DIY vibe of the design performed with the screenprinting course of they used: “To maintain according to the imaginative and prescient he has for his model, the do-it-yourself vibe that screen-printing lends itself to simply felt like the precise option to go right here.”

“This resolution influenced the course in a extremely enjoyable means as we explored some totally different textures that might improve the design. Display-printing in some methods will be restrictive, so we needed to make use of this to our benefit and work creatively inside these limitations. We ended up making an attempt some classic half-tone types, and in that exploration, we discovered our design!”

Appeal of Finches

Appeal of Finches, a sister duo who describes their musical type as indie baroque folks, selected to do an illustrated poster as their design. Particularly, they needed a poster they might distribute in print in addition to digitally.

What’s extra, they got here ready with a transparent imaginative and prescient for a way they needed their poster to look: an illustrated model of the duvet artwork for his or her Great Oblivion album. They specified that artwork nouveau and artwork deco, together with Pre-Raphaelite work and something that feels elegant, clear and female had been their favourite types.

Illustrator hiden_work had a transparent course to take with their design and, with Appeal of Finches’ pointers, created this poster:

art nouveau-inspired poster featuring two women
Illustration by hiden_work

Describing their design, hiden_work stated, “I needed to maneuver away from spot shade illustrations with a restricted variety of colours. So after I bought the invite for the competition requesting an Artwork Nouveau poster, I needed to leap in.”

“Each idea and design of mine begins with a base sketch of the format and parts. On this case I took two reference photographs the consumer supplied and created a format. The consumer beloved the format and requested to proceed with the illustration. I like involving the purchasers within the course of of making the paintings, which means I maintain them posted each time I make any vital progress within the design.”

Nice design: the important thing to amping up your model

It’s no marvel that our Isol-Assist Homegrown marketing campaign has confirmed to be such a smash. Whenever you efficiently match music with graphic design, this duet is destined to be the headline act of any inventive collaboration. They work collectively in candy, symphonic concord to speak an artist’s private type and model to audiences, whether or not we’re speaking about heavy rock or melodic Okay-pop.

In any case, that is what nice design does—it understands and communicates your model in all its glory in the precise means, to the precise folks.

Want branded designs in your subsequent advertising and marketing marketing campaign?
Our versatile designers can kind it.



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