Since the end of March 2020 my work with Kickstand Productions, unfortunately, came to a complete halt as the COVID-19 pandemic swept through Chicago. All large gatherings of 10 people or more were made temporarily illegal so any indoor concerts that Kickstand typically would be booking were canceled. So rethinking the idea of what a concert can be was a challenge that I worked with the team to brainstorm ideas and branding identities. We came up with the idea of pitching drive-in concerts similar to 1950’s drive-in movies to comply with the CDC guidelines for the pandemic. I took inspiration from vintage neon signs in the color, shapes, and typography. I also used a photo collage style in the marketing materials to give a more DIY/punk aesthetic that can relate to the type of artists Kickstand is trying to book.
beatkitchen.com & subt.net
I worked on this project with the production manager to create something to send to incoming artists before they get to the venue with all the information they need as well as for the artist’s agent before they make contracts with Kickstand. The branding for this was really loose, and I was giving a lot of creative freedom with this project. I kept the colors similar to the logo of Kickstand which is traditionally red, black and white. With the limited resources I had for this project I relied on a lot of photography from previous shows and the Google Maps which also had a virtual tour of Beat Kitchen that I could screen grab and edit to really highlight the interior. The floor plan I constructed just based on memory and with some help from the production manager. The end product is solely for the purpose of digital and for the artist to be able to properly see all the information included on a phone while traveling in most cases.
During my time working as an in-house graphic designer for PharmaCann, I was tasked with creating brand material for the upcoming holiday 710. The holiday is to celebrate marijuana concentrates such as wax, butter, shatter, and oils in the same way 420 is to highlight smoking the plant itself. Traditionally, 710 is a play on the word “OIL” if it were upsidedown and a number. With this project, I really wanted to highlight the photos I took while visiting the lab where they make the concentrates. The brand guidelines for Matter are minimal with strict adherence to the typography and specific color that is used to identify the Matter line of products. The deliverables included two digital and one printable material letter size for the dispensaries to display. With the many different locations in different states of the dispensaries, there were versions made for Massachusettes, Illinois, New York, and Pennsylvania which all have variance in the laws per state.
In 2019, PharmaCann acquired permits to open a dispensary in Massachusetts and I worked with the in-house lawyers to create branded material for the new location. One of the main tasks I worked on was for the Pregnant Works Fairness Act that was to be printed and displayed in the dispensary. I was given a text document with the exact information the state required and formated the poster based on the Verilife brand guideline. It was pretty straightforward, and I got to be creative with my choice in typography and composition with the text.
