No History Tour
Instructor
Jason Kernevich
Elements
Illustration
Branding
The No History Tour was a self-designed project centered around the branding for an up-and-coming Indie band’s new album’s nation-wide tour. The project covered everything from the album to the social media promotion to the VIP passes.
When developing the tour I wanted to do something focused around the new wave of Indie pop that is starting to popularize over platforms like TikTok and Bandcamp. Although not a new genre, new artists are incorporating elements from surrounding subgenres like riot grrl, midwest emo, and folk punk to breathe life into a fresh generation of music.
The music scene is largely feminine, and draws attention from teenage and young adult crowds. It’s experimental, often focused on disenchantment and social politics with an exploration on the almost messy parts of female sexuality. Armed with playlists and band recommendations, I compiled a series of aesthetics, topics, and titles before settling with my band. The woman-led Indie band MESSIER FRESHMEN with their newest album, No History.
With the newness of this style, most album art had a novice quality of collage and shaky procreate line art I rather enjoyed. I was inspired also by the early days of Indie art which found a niche blend of grunge and psychedelic styles. The various album art created tried to reflect the bright color palettes and hand-made styles with a more polished finish. The sprouting, doll faced flowers also were a bit of a tie into the album title, the fresh blooms and baby faces representing the sprouting of a new story.
The warm spring colored pallet and iconographic design elements were taken from the album art in place of the usual brand logo. The goal was to have a warm and sunny garden that would make its way across the rest of the branding material.
The poster and social media elements, while still playing with the same illustrative style and overall theme concepts, also took on a bit of photo-collage elements. The highly-saturated and lively background was inspired by a more niche aesthetic-based art subculture known as “dreamcore”. The main components incorporate collaged photography and color practically pulled from a Lisa Frank illustration and covered in a layer of visual static to create something surrealist and “dream-like.” This is then combined with the cherub figures and type from the album itself. This visual theme creates a fairytale-like atmosphere that is carried through with the merchandise and even some tour necessities to emphasize the album’s message of new beginnings and a bright and hopeful future.