Chapters
Logo & EPK
Gig & Event Posters
Logo & EPK
With myself being born and raised in Kentucky, I’ve always been around bluegrass music. This is something that I really started to appreciate as I grew older and started exploring shows, festivals, and my local music scene. This is how I met Nectar Valley.I was excited when they asked me to help create a new logo and an EPK (electronic press kit) because at that point I had known the band personally for a while along with their influences. While visually, I wanted to keep the roots of the bluegrass genre in sight, Nectar Valley is a culmination of genres new and old and I wanted to express their younger, energized, and thrashier side that the band exudes.
The idea of the bee had been apart of the band since their beginning and tied into the "nectar" in the band name so I knew I wanted to focus on that as an icon. After playing around with typography, I decided to combine a distressed serif font with a flatter, stylized bee icon. I then added a flourish underneath and created a color palette that gave a warm, old, paper vibe with soft blue distressed pattern in the background. These different assets came together to create the perfect fusion of a vintage, experienced bluegrass band with a modern, bold twist.
Their Electronic Press Kit was next. I designed the background of the logo with the press kit in mind and knew it would be great for this as well. I used the same assets from the logo such as pattern, font, and color to tie the band together as an established brand. They needed a way to properly promote themselves and have all of their assets accessible by venues. I started by sketching and mocking up the layout of the kit in InDesign, then taking all of the assets and remaking it in the band's hosting platform on their website. I hid the page so you can only access it via url to ensure it is only accessed by those given the link.
Gig & Event Posters
I've been lucky enough to work with Nectar Valley even more and create an array of gig posters and event posters for them. This type of work is always some of my favorite due to the freedom of the individual job may have. I created their first event poster alongside the new logo so I saw it fitting to tie it into the brand like the EPK and use the same assets. For their later events poster, I played around patterns and colors more to create something fresh; a more psychedelic rock vibe which the band is known to dip into and have influences from. I spent quite a while creating the background pattern and almost wanted it to create an optical illusion of movement from it. Of course, it is mostly covered up, but it still works well on the poster.
The gig posters are where I really get to flex some creative freedom. Each poster is often its own stand alone design and I draw influences from various factors such as the location of the show, venue, bands performing, and if the night is themed. These posters have a simple purpose. To draw viewers in with an interesting design and efficiently give details about the show by balancing info with visuals. Based on the details of the job, some are in different dimensions and only used online, while others are printed out.
I found the theme of The Coterie poster through the band name Stampede String Band. I immediately knew I wanted to make a gritty western and carnival aesthetic. With the open mic night poster, I wanted create a grungier, worn down theme so I used various textures, jagged edges and darker colors to do so. You can probably guess where I got inspiration for The Fishtank poster. I created colorful and round illustrative graphics with aquarium gravel in mind. These gig poster are always a blast to do and they can be a great exercise in trying out new techniques or styles.
