Sometimes life throws you an unexpected, but well deserved, mini vacation.
me
This week’s buzz is actually pretty uneventful. We had two shows scheduled this last weekend. One was at the old Mavericks Stadium in Adelanto, California. The other was at the Big Rock Inn. Neither show ended up happening as scheduled, at least not for us. This sort of thing happens, but very rarely do we have an entire weekend’s worth of shows cancel our services at the last minute.
Remember that I am in fact NOT one of our lovely engineers, and so I’m not entirely privy to all the details of these events when I am unable to actually physically attend them. In order to get details for you folks I have to pester the lovely Rhey and poor Matt until they give me something interesting to tell you. This week, unfortunately there was none of that to be had. The only things that happened were that Matt got to continue to work on mixing the new Troy Story Band EP, Procrastinator, and Rhey was able to publish the flyer for her Gallery Showcase event starting in November at Frogees Bar in Apple Valley.
The “department” that DID actually have a lot going on was actually mine…for once. Graphic design and photography services have been absolutely popping the last few weeks. On Saturday I traveled to the high desert to do a long awaited mini-shoot with Doug Strange. He has some solo projects in the works as well as playing lead guitar on both the upcoming Procrastinator EP, as well as the debut Album by the Loose Affiliates titled, A Night of Music. Doug is one of those people that is fun to work with because we’ve developed a rapport based on humor. We make jokes, talk in funny accents, and generally have a grand old time. I have not yet had a chance to edit any of the shots from this session, but I will certainly share some when I get to that phase. For now, delight in the glory of this old favorite from a previous shoot we did at Scoby Bear Productions “Da Barn” studio a few years ago.
I have also been busy working on several other projects at the same time. MaDu and the Loose Affiliates are due for some new merch, so I’ve been working on shirt designs for both of them that should be available some time in the coming months.
Loose Affiliates Womens shirts, and MaDu Tees coming soon!!!
Aside from those projects I also do most of the flyers for our shows and for clients who seek assistance with flyers for their events. I finished the flyer for Rhey’s upcoming event that I mentioned above, and am currently working on a new commission for a halloween show flyer.
One of the largest types of projects that I tend to work on for our clients is the design, development, and sourcing of merch. I cover everything from logo creation, product design, product ordering and payments, merchandising, promotional material design and printing, Linktree and QR setup, and even building clients accounts and inventory on apps like Square. It’s an incredibly involved process that can be absolutely daunting to folks who haven’t had the time to research yet another aspect of their new business. Right now, with the release of Procrastinator looming, I have been working very closely with Troy, of Troy Story Band, in the recent weeks on developing some fancy new stickers and T-shirts for the launch of his debut EP. During the mini-shoot with Doug, who also plays guitar in TSB, we actually came up with a slightly re-styled logo to use on the new merch. When I showed them what I had been working on for the new shirt design just a few words about what Troy was originally looking for inspired a few minor edits that Troy was ultimately happy with. There’s still a long way to go on that project, but it is progressing rather smoothly, for now…
I am excited to continue working on the merch and art projects in front of me, but I know all too well that making a living as an artist of any sort is often one of feast or famine. I am grateful to all of you, our clients and friends, that continue to work with us and support our little studio.
One of my favorite things about this business is the collaborative spirit that all of our artists and friends share. Let’s keep making magic folks!
-Pi
blackhat 