That time again, DJ Lani Love’s new wintery mix. Cover art by me as usual. This is my favorite one thus far, so put it in your eartubes.
Ms. DJ Lani Love has a new mix ready for your earholes and as always, I’m delighted to be bringing you the visuals. You can check out the lineart process post for this badboy here.
Working on an identity for DJ Lani Love, who also happens to be half of the fashion blog Sugar Rock Catwalk. For the upcoming NY Fashion Week, she needed something that could do double duty, as she will be DJing the Independent Fashion Bloggers event and there as a representative for the blog. Information overload on business cards is a tough thing to deal with. I tried to keep it clean with a lean font and simple graphics. As with nearly all projects, there ended up being a designer’s pick and a client’s pick. On the internet, you get to see both!
Hers:
& His:
& Some Alternative Hairs:
Again, a view into the way I work for better or worse. Process of the cover art for DJ Lani Love’s winter mixtape Snow To Stars. Projects for Lani always get me to work in a more sleek, hip fashion. Not much room for smiling pixelart or batmen, but I’d like to think I can do cool too. You be the judge (I’ve decided this is going to be pretty cool if I stick to it, but your confidence is highly appreciated).
Step 1 & 2.
Left: Extra rough sketch for the basic layout and concept. I went with the snow and stars. Right: Less awful rendering of Ms. Love. Coolness tip: head slightly raised, shoulders slightly back? Coolness. Who knows why.
Step 3 & 4.
Left: Serious cleanup of the face and hair with a rough shape for the space-blouse. Right: Her hair loaded the right side of the frame unexpectedly – so the sweet gloves and dropping the collar for a bit more asymmetrical balance.
Step 5.
Clean it all up. Next step will involve the tough decisions of shading, color, text, etc. That’s coming up, but for now, check out the previous one in the mixtape series.
Had a bit of time to do a little more work on the gig poster this evening.
Step 4. Refine Colors.
The biggest part of this step is making sure the colors are right. There is massive layering of color here, dark first, and the brighter the color you work with, the closer you are to having to be correct.
Step 5. Refine, Unrefine.
Have to step away from the training wheel pen lines sometime. In smoothing everything, I decided it was too smooth. You’ll see a good bit of brush texture here. This often happens when I’m painting in Photoshop. It’s easy to overdo it with so many darned options.
Step 6. Rough Layout.
Time for the stuff that makes it look like a poster. Text and dynamic lighting. Still plenty more to be done on this and endless little tweaks. Closing in on a final soon!
Always excited to do gig posters for Lani Love. This is the third I’ve done for her co-DJ set Dirty Diamonds. The name elicits some imagery I’m not all that comfortable with, namely sexiness and expensive rocks. But, that is why I am a designer, to pretend. This here is a process post. You get to see how I work! I am basically teaching you how to take over for me when I die. Here are the first few steps of this poster:
Step 1. Pen Outline.
Always have to have a sweet diamond in there, and usually a drink since their tagline is “No Cover – just curated cocktails,” so this time I made a cup out of the frieking diamond.
Step 2. Basic Color.
I have found that things turn out better later if I just slap color on in the beginning. If this were real paint, I’d be praised for loosening up. Something all my art teachers told me to do but I never did.
Step 3. Refine Main Color Area – Basic Background Color.
I got a nice glow going here I’ll keep up. That’s kind of a staple for the Dirty Diamonds work too, the glow.
That’s all for now, but I’ll be posting Steps 4 through whatever when they come. In the mean time, check out the last one I did, it’s pretty alright.
Gig poster design for DJ group Dirty Diamonds featuring DJ Lani Love and DJ K!O
Album art for DJ Lani Love’s summer mixtape Romance & Rooftops
