punk rock

The Rough Customers

Lexington, KY

My friends in Lexington’s favorite (only) ska band The Rough Customers approached me for a new band shirt graphic design. They requested a parody of the famous Ale-8-One soft drink logo. Ale-8-One (“A Late One”) bottles their ginger based soda near here in Winchester, KY. Since it is a symbol of Kentucky culture, the band chose it to represent them at both local shows and tour dates. Also, the band had just added a new singer, so new merchandise would be a great way to celebrate the new era of the band.

Band shirt graphic design story

Many of my projects involve brainstorming ideas with clients. However, we did not need much back and forth discussion for this shirt design. The band simply requested a parody logo replacing the product name with their own. The design would go on a kelly green shirt, reminiscent of the brand’s bottles. I suggested replacing the stars in the original design with trumpets, in order to give it a subtle nod to the band’s genre. I began the design by tracing the outline of the soft drink’s signature red and white badge. The brand name actually uses a hand drawn mark, instead of a conventional font. As such, I studied the original. I wondered what other characters would look like if they were written in this style. Then, I began working in Adobe Illustrator. I started with the conventional sans serif font Myriad Pro, spelling out each letter. After that, I outlined them, and warped them using envelope filters, as well as the pen tool. I spent the bulk of my time getting the sizes and weights of each new character just right in order to mimic the original logo’s feel. Finally, I substituted the aforementioned trumpets in place of the original’s stars. The end result? The Rough Customers‘ fans loved donning the bright green, red, and white shirts while skanking at the band’s shows.

Contact me for your band shirt graphic design

Do you play ska, punk, metal, rock, or even easy listening? I’ve got you covered. I love designing shirts for bands and music artists. Contact me today to get started.

Sempervivi

Lexington, KY

I made this 2017 band website design for my own punk rock music project Sempervivi. Sometimes, I perform solo in Lexington and the surrounding region. Alternately, I perform with a full band.

In addition to releasing our second EP “Always Alive”, I had a lot of merchandise and other promotional material to design. I hastily assembled a new website redesign which was themed after the album art. However, I was never happy with how it looked or functioned. The layout did not flow very well on mobile devices and the blog focused home page seemed dated. Thus, I carved out some time to create a new site that retained the color scheme of the EP, but fostered a much more user friendly experience.

Band website design story

I have been a website designer for almost as long as I have been a musician who plays in bands. Naturally, my profession and my hobby have intersected many times over the years. I am always evolving, and always reaching out to learn better, more efficient methods. This applies to writing and performing songs, as well as designing clean, responsive web solutions. My two passions come together and dovetail in this website redesign project. The main improvements I needed to make included the overall aesthetics. The old site was, frankly, bland and boring. I needed to add some video and bring the overall look of the site up to current tastes. Fonts were to be changed from a conventional sans serif to a more trendy slab. Features wise, I wanted to downplay the blog. While still important, I only updated it every few months. As such, I needed to change the focus of the site from the blog entries to the overall story of the band, the music itself, and upcoming events.

WordPress band website design homepage

The home page header background’s video loop gives a strong first impression. I stitched together performance highlights from several venues into a 30-second clip using Apple iMovie. Since Sempervivi could appear as either a solo act or as a band, I featured footage of both formats. The video is overlaid by a muted shade of the green used for the “Always Alive” EP’s cover. In front of the video background, I embedded a compact Bandcamp player containing the newest EP. Below in large type, the site tagline concisely summarizes Sempervivi in two sentences. Last, the call to action “BOOK NOW” button punctuates the introduction. Visitors can hear my music and get a synopsis of what it’s about, then navigate to my booking form without ever having to scroll down. The most important content all lies squarely above the fold. The next section down reveals a list of upcoming shows on my calendar. A plugin pulls a feed of future performances from the Facebook page. By using this, I avoid having to enter event information twice, as I was before when using an events calendar plugin. If a particular date interests a fan, they can click and go directly to the Facebook event to RSVP. The section’s columns clearly display event dates, titles, venues, and cover images. The rest of the home page contains subsections displaying a longer “About” paragraph and an Instagram feed. Thumbnails and snippets from the most recent blog entry also serve to keep fans up to date.

Additional band website design features

The rest of the pages on the site contain all of the information newcomers and longtime fans alike need. Each individual page displays a different featured image in its header. These range from action shots on stage to candid photos to show band members’ personalities. In particular, I am very happy with how the Song Lyrics page developed. I created an anchored list which comprises of all of the songs in my arsenal. Each section contains the verses, bridges, and choruses for the songs. If a song was featured on an album, I added its individual Bandcamp player above the lyrics. This way, the site’s visitors can listen along to the song while they read the words. The Biography page provides the details on the band’s history, then features clips of glowing album reviews at the bottom. I update my blog every so often with news to keep everyone in the loop. The blog archive page shows a list of the most recent news entries. Each one displays the featured image above an excerpt, which fans can click in order to read the full entry. Next to the blog, in the sidebar, the booking call to action button reappears above the Upcoming Shows feed. Finally, I set up a Paypal store page on the site so that I could sell my merchandise directly. I factored in shipping from my account and created secure buttons so fans who can’t attend a show can still buy my shirts, CDs, stickers, and buttons.

Contact me today for your band website design

Overall, the site condenses down neatly to display on mobile phones and tablets. This responsive design ensures that none of the visitors will get frustrated trying to navigate through the content. The site can meet its goal of expanding my music’s brand. Does your indie band or record label need a fresh, functional new website design? You need a solution that is both easy for your fans to use and for you to update. Contact me today and let’s make it happen!