Month: October 2023

Time management and keeping track of your time assignment as well as HIGHLIGHTS of my week below… need to sleep more…lol

I was assigned to the band GOTH BABE for my poster design assignment. I did not know anything about them at first, when I read the assignment, all joking aside, I thought it was a made-up or fictitious band name simply for the assignments sake, Come on now, it sounds like a name a bunch of teenaged girls decided to call their first high school goth punk or goth grunge band, since the 90s is back in style, just like it was when I was when I was in high school 25 years ago. I thought this must be fake; I did not think anyone would use this in a serious music project. So clearly, I do not know shit! That shit is REAL! This is a real band! WTF?! As an elder millennial born at the very beginning of a new generation, definably makes me “OUT OF STEP” with the youngsters born at the end of a generation and for sure causes a disconnect of the generations that follow. DAMN, this assignment is making me feel OLD! lol, I DIGRESS, anyways, back to the Solution write up…

Just Like Gregory John Smith, I too came up heavily involved with the local music scenes and playing music putting on gigs for my friends’ bands from around the world, playing crucial part in an intricate underground network of punk, post punk, goth, metal, neofolk, and electronic dark wave. I had the privilege of traveling for years, touring in an overpacked van, staying up too late, sleeping too little and partying too much to sleep two hours and wake up and drive 900 miles to get just enough gas money to make it to the next stop and do it all over again. Music has an important and special place in my heart. The joy of designing event posters is also a true passion of mine.

So on to the design for the 18”x24” concert poster.

As far as my concept, I went with the timeless look of oversized 80s and 90s concert posters of my youth, using vibrant “dayglo” colors. I chose this design to be eye- catching, it also tied itself into the band’s already very colorful and fun surfer beach vibe. I found a great photo of the trio, holding up Griff (lead singer and concept originator of GOTH BABE) ‘s dogs Sadie as a group kissing the dog and knew it would lend itself perfectly to the vision I had in my mind. Typeface is something that I love, and I chose to go with Helvetica Neue, Condensed Black for the band name, and kerned it to perfection, I stuck with that font on the lower informative section as well, staying cohesive and accessible. Background graphics are a large yellow sun in the distance behind the group, in the middle of the canvas with the aqua blue water below the sun. I also manipulated two simple trees on either side of the band’s actual logo, that I duplicated several times playing with scale and depth making them like clouds in the sky and adjusting the opacity and different colors keeps the vibe of the concept, and trees being part of the Brand, it was a crucial element to adding texture and tying in the bands identity.

The finished product is an oversized 18’x24” multi-color screen printed gig poster. The combination of striking colors, bold imagery, and fonts, makes for a hip and professional take on a classic media makes my poster an effective tool for spreading awareness of the event and translates well among the Gen Z and Millennial hipsters in the Seattle area looking to get out and party, This poster will also make for a good gift or memento to frame, as well as another item to add to the website and or merch table at the show!

By: Craig McKee

New Media – Blog Assignment #1 10-12-2023

https://www.gothbabemusic.com

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