Jon Corbin of the Firecracker Jazz Band asked me to design a new poster for the band. I love designing a poster and the Firecrackers are my favorite local band, so it was a really fun project. I was initially going to go art deco, but that’s a hard milieu to swim and make it look classy and not cheesy, so I abandoned it pretty quickly.
Typography has always been my strength in design, so instead of being frustrated, I resorted to what I knew. The only typeface used is Rockwell, which looks great pulled, pushed enlarged, suggested, shown, etc. I don’t think I’ve used Rockwell previously, but it is certainly in my palette now. Only six words are used and three images, including the piano aflame image by Jason Krekel that they use as a logo.
Problem solving + creativity = design.
I love doing it.
Here’s some of my inspiration. Smashing Magazine: Breathtaking Typographic Posters
Me, my friend Par and his friend Lulu of Unifire all have our birthdays on the 11th and 12th of February. Par, promoter and CNG car expert (as well as smackin good DJ) decided he’d throw a party for all three of us at the Emerald Lounge, and he booked the Firecracker Jazz Band to play it. Par will DJ as well for part of the time, and he always gets people groovin’ so bring your soft soles or your high tops and prepare to wear a hole in the dance floor.
Come on out and help me celebrate what an awesome year 25 has been for me, and to rock and roll my 26th birthday! This should be an awesome time, I’m really excited.
- The Emerald Lounge on South Lexington [ Map ]
- Thursday, February 12, 2009
- Don’t park in the lot across the street.
- $5 at the door to cover the band (worth it — I promise)
- R.S.V.P. if you’re hip
Par asked me to design the poster, whch is all over town now. This took me about an hour and I’m pround of how it turned out, but I wish I could have put another two hours of work into it to really polish it up. This is probably my most public work to date, and I’m always trying to level up my craft.
I can’t believe I’ve only been living here a little over a year! This town has been good to me. Thanks, Asheville!
One more time. Ahhhhhh… Sunday.
I always try and keep Sundays free from too much economic activity or social obligation. It is a big help to my mental health to be able to sit at home and accomplish personal tasks, catch up on domestic work, practice music, or just relax with a book. And now that the semester has ended for me, I feel particularly light in spirit on this December Sunday.
I should start with yesterday. Yesterday morning I drove to Tryon, worked for my favorite clients and made good money before going to my grandparent’s to socialize and work on my grandfather’s new iMac. Awesome computer, really fun and easy to use and work on. Then I drove home, changed into a festive red and black get-up and went to MoDaddy’s to hear a band that I met last March. The Two Man Gentleman Band, from New York City played two killer sets while I drank whiskey and sang all the words I knew. I love their CDs, and the guys (Andy and Fuller) are great people and very talented musicians as well as snappy dressers (knickers!). I had promised them entertainment of the musical variety and afterwards we went to my friend Woody Pines’ house for a party populated almost entirely by musicians. Woody has an awesome old upright that has a great action for honky tonk and blues, and I sat down at it and kept it hot for nearly 3 straight hours. Sometimes I questions my musical ability, but not last night. I killed it for three straight hours, with only the brief of whiskey breaks. It felt awesome. Like most people, I have a lotof musical potential; it’s nice when it breaks through the clouds once in a while. And the clouds have been breaking more and more often lately.
The past two Sundays I have taken myself out to the Dripolator Coffeehouse, purchased the New York Times and ate a nice big brunch of huevos rancheros with my usual double Americano and Emergen-C. I try and look my best (not always easy after a busy Saturday night) and be sociable with the other Sunday brunchers, and I always leave feeling like a million bucks. It’s a really great way for me to begin the end of my week.
I’ve had lots of new beginnings and milestones these past couple months. Lost an old friend/lousy roommate. New roomate Henry (of the Firecracker Jazz Band and Squirrel Nut Zippers) is an incredible musician and wants to play music all the time at the house. There is so much I have to learn from him. On Thursday, I finished my penultimate semester in my soon-to-be decade-long pursuit of an Associates degree. Probably have 1 A (Music Theory I) and two Bs (Literature Based Research and Cultural Anthropology). Not bad, but probably not enough to bump me up to a 3.0 GPA, which I desperately need to keep my UNC-A hopes alive.
I’m also launching a new business and slowly getting out of the in-home computer biz. Not going to be a lot of long-term money in that, but I’m glad to pick up some random service as it’s usually easy-money. My new business will hopefully launch January 1. I’m really excited about it — I feel it’s the beginning of something really big for me.
Oh and somebody threw their shoes at President Bush today in Iraq.
I had the good fortune to be able to attend a rehearsal of my friend’s band the other day; the Firecracker Jazz Band. They are easily one of the best bands playing regularly in Asheville right now, and it was an incredible learning experience to be able to listen to such talented musicians work on their sound. Very fascinating. Then, as an extra treat, the trumpet player heard an oboe on the street below us and he yelled to them to come up and play. Turns out she was just half of an oboe/accordion duo that was traveling back to Vermont from Florida. And they were bad-ass, I might add. They played a couple of tunes for us in the old French Musette style before we parted ways, but the randomness of the meeting is what struck me. If there was any doubt before, I have decided Asheville is a good place to be.
