Can I ask you a question...?
- Taylor Swift ★
Can I ask you a question...? - Taylor Swift ★
WELCOME TO MY FAQs
IT FEELS CONCEITED TO HAVE A FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS SECTION, BUT TRUST ME WHEN I SAY I GET ASKED THE SAME QUESTIONS A LOT
as a tax for being so nosy about me, you must listen to arguably the greatest taylor swift song ever made:
…and for good reason, I promise that you’ll never find another like me
if you have more questions that aren’t answered here, please reach out to me on social media. i click-clack away on there all day and reserve my email for serious junk ☾⋆｡𖦹 °✩
WHERE CAN I BUY YOUR DESIGNS?
My designs end up all over the globe. from festivals, to pop-ups, to tour merch stands, to retail locations, to artist’s webstores. Most designs are exclusive runs to a specific vendor or location, and are not available online. If you want to hunt one down, check the artist’s webstore, then try resale marketplaces. am not always aware of where my work will be sold.
DO YOU ACCEPT BRANDING WORK FOR BUSINESSES?
In most cases, no. Business branding is not my preferred medium and I feel there are much stronger designers who specialize in it. In rare cases, I accept branding work if our creative visions align perfectly and my schedule allows for it.
WHAT KINDS OF PROJECTS DO YOU ACCEPT?
Merchandise is my top priority. This includes garment design, product development, poster design, and other items that a musical artist may sell.
Tour art, AKA Admats. This is the overarching art musicians & performers will use across their tour from ads, venue assets, graphic displays during shows, merchandise, social media graphics, and creative assets used in recorded performances.
Album design, including cover & packaging design. This can vary from digital art, to full LP development.
Creative direction projects for musicians & performers. This can include everything listed above, and then some.
I am open to publication design, campaign design, and other boundary-less design forms.
CAN I HIRE YOU FOR CREATIVE DIRECTION?
Yes, though this is carefully accepted based on creative fit. I prefer to work with musicians with an eclectic, unusual, or non-traditional creative look.
WHAT STYLES OF DESIGN DO YOU SPECIALIZE IN?
I have a wide range of aesthetic capabilities, but I specialize in two main ones: vintage revival & Avant-garde.
For vintage, I have worked with legendary artists to create new “old” art that are true-to-era, nostalgic designs for fans of all ages. I describe this style as “a cool t-shirt my dad bought 25 years ago at a concert, but my younger sister stole it from his closet”.
Avant-garde is hard to pin down in words; think bootleg meets modernity. I love abstract, post-ironic art that confuses people of my parent’s generation. I also thoroughly enjoy designing merch with a campy, humor twist, aka gas station-chic.
Other styles I enjoy creating include vintage cowboy, new england coastal collegiate, modern twist on art nouveau, and hyperpop distortion.
WILL YOU WORK FOR FREE?
Short answer, no.
Long answer, sometimes. I am at the point in my career where I am financially comfortable, and I can afford to donate my art & time to queer/trans or BIPOC artists/businesses/social justice movements who need creative help. These are still accepted based on creative fit and my availability, though I view them more as passion projects than just client projects. If you, or someone you know would benefit from having art donated, please contact me through my form.
WHAT ARE YOUR FAVORITE TAYLOR SWIFT ALBUMS AND SONGS?
Picking my favorite Taylor Swift blank is like having a favorite child, but like any real person I obviously have favorites. I have been a massive Taylor Swift fan since Fearless came out (2008), and I’ve since seen her 6 times between the Fearless (‘10 - San Jose, CA), Speak Now (‘11 - Sacramento, CA), Red (‘13 - Sacramento, CA), 1989 (‘15 - Los Angeles, CA) and Eras (‘23 - East Rutherford, NJ & Santa Clara, CA) Tours. I have “Head First, Fearless” tattooed on my chest, so you could say I’m a pretty hardcore fan.
CURRENT FAVORITE ALBUMS RANKED IN ORDER:
Ranking is based on frequency of rotation, point in my life when released, and album creative direction.
1989 (Taylor’s Version)
Red (Taylor’s Version)
The Tortured Poets Department
Midnights
Folklore
Fearless (Taylor’s Version)
Evermore
Speak Now (Taylor’s Version)
Reputation
Self Titled/Debut
Lover (sry xx)
CURRENT TOP 10 SONGS RANKED IN ORDER:
Ranking is based on frequency of rotation & point in my life when released.
Is It Over Now? (Taylor’s Version) (From The Vault) - 1989 TV
Out Of The Woods (Taylor’s Version) - 1989 TV
Chloe or Sam or Sophia or Marcus - The Tortured Poets Department
You’re On Your Own, Kid - Midnights
Holy Ground (Taylor’s Version) - Red TV
Gold Rush - Evermore
August - Folklore
Ivy - Evermore
Long Live (Taylor’s Version) - Speak Now TV
Clean (Taylor’s Version) - 1989 TV
WHAT ARE SOME LUKEWARM FACTS ABOUT YOU?
How kind of you to ask! I’m a weird little guy, but I think I’m pretty cool. And I think you’d find me pretty cool, too.
I did competitive marching band/winter guard/winter percussion throughout high school. I played first marimba, and I tossed flag, rifle, and sabre. My best memories of high school were in band, and I cannot stress the importance of funding music programs enough. They’re lifesaving.
I have ADHD (Attention-Deficit, Hyperactivity Disorder) and Bipolar 2, as well as dyslexia. Both my older and younger sister are also diagnosed with ADHD, my undiagnosed parents refuse to read the writing on the wall that they too definitely have it. We proudly take our medications every day, and I can confidently say 20 mg of Ritalin XR and 50 mg of Lamictal has saved my life.
I deeply enjoy to crochet Most times I am away from my computer, I am crocheting on my couch. My favorite thing to crochet is a vest.
I love gardening & and birding
I am a fan of the Portland Trail Blazers (tank season, baby!) (pls come back Dame)
I have Chronic Migraine so I ask for kindness and patience. Sometimes it feels like my head is exploding.
One of my many special interests is the Salton Sea, a lake formed by an intentionally collapsed canal redirecting water from the Colorado River to Los Angeles & Imperial Valley farms in 1905. For thousands of years, the river alternately flowed into the valley or diverted around it, creating either a salt lake called Lake Cahuilla or a dry desert basin, respectively. The Sea should have dried up over time like it has for a millenia, but it was continuously fed by agriculture runoff. Property developers tried to rebrand the accident as getaway gem for the stars, but it quickly became toxic. The Salton Sea is an endorheic rift lake, meaning it has no outlet and it sits on the San Andreas Fault Line. It sits 237 feet below sea level, and has become saltier than the Pacific Ocean. Its deepest point is only 51 feet. These compounding factors have created a breeding ground for disease and toxic algae. As the Sea dries, the salinity has become so high, it’s killed the majority of its fish, causing their bodies to wash ashore. The US Geological Survey describes the smell as "objectionable", "noxious", "unique", and "pervasive". The Sea is slowly shrinking, causing the beds to dry, leading to dust storms filled with arsenic. Both the State of California and private farming companies failed to address the flood when it initially happened. Now more than 100 years later, the State Water Board has marginal plans for restoration, but experts do not believe it is enough. It’s an environmental disaster that threatens not only the health of surrounding communities and ecosystems, but the health of all of Southern California — look more into it here.
bjb
How did you get here?
I was born in Lake Placid, NY (home of the 1932 & 1980 Winter Olympics, also the coldest place in the contiguous US) and grew up primarily in Newcastle, CA (a rural town about an hour east of Sacramento in the Sierra Nevada Foothills, home of incredible mandarins, wine, and 110F degree summers).
I started making bootleg t-shirts when I was in middle school. It was just me, a pirated copy of Photoshop CS4, iron-on transfer paper, and a dream. I grew up sewing my own clothes, and making costumes for every themed event at school. I took Halloween very seriously. Ask my mom, she will gladly rattle off the events I insisted on making outfits for as a child. I grew up in a very music-focused house, and with non-artist parents who encouraged my artistic draw. My Mom has been actively following Dave Matthews Band on tour since before I was born, and I learned at a young age what music means to people. As I became a teen during the super normal time of 2008, two artists had a vice grip on my miserable, developing brain: The Beatles (specifically Paul McCartney) (my line is always open for you, Sir Paul) & Taylor Swift (same for you, Ms. Swift). I would scour Beatles and Taylor forums for funny pictures I could make a collage with, pull a friend’s favorite lyric, then mash it together in my bootleg Photoshop until my HP laptop burned my thighs.
Here is me at the Hollywood Bowl in 2010 seeing Paul McCartney in one of said bootleg shirts
In high school, I took a graphic design class to fulfill a tech requirement as a sophomore, and I fell in love. My art teacher I had throughout high school (who also taught the graphic design class) heavily encouraged me to pursue design professionally, and so I did. I recently found a piece of feedback he left on a concept I thought about pitching for my AP Art portfolio: “This is Art 1 Kelly, not AP Art Kelly. You are capable of much more than this”. Scathing, but he was right. He also gave me the best piece of design advice I’ve ever received: “Make it look intentional”. Thank you Mr. Somers, I owe you.
Here is a wild type piece I made in my graphic design class in 2011… lol.
In October 2014, I began at FIDM (Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising) in Los Angeles, majoring in Fashion Design. Realizing I shouldn’t be a fashion major to design tour shirts, I changed my major to Graphic Design after my first quarter. FIDM has professors who work in their respective industry, which I think is a more effective way to teach a field like applied design. Your creative skills grow over time with repetition and practice, but teaching upcoming designers how to navigate this unusual industry is more crucial. I had a number of professors who specialized in album design & art direction. My harshest professor designed the art for Foo Fighter’s 2005 album “In Your Honor”, and has three Grammy’s for Best Recording Package. One of his classes was based entirely around designing an album rollout, from branding to packaging to advertisements. Every week, I’d confidently tape my work on his walls, eager to defend why I needed to use Avenir over Helvetica (my go to sans serif now is Akzidenz Grotesque because I have taste). He would simply come up, rip them all down, and tell me to try again. To say this man got under my skin is an understatement, but I knew deep down he knew I was capable of much more.
I graduated from FIDM at the tiny age of 20 in June 2016 with my Associate of Arts degree in Graphic Design. Despite having a job offer upon graduating, I bounced between branding agencies, to phone case design, to content creation for random brands. I wanted to be in music, I just didn’t know how to get there.
In early 2018, I was still living in Los Angeles, working a dead-end agency job with D-tier clients and making a hair above the LA minimum wage. Between the misery and stress of the job itself, management that mocked my developmental and learning disabilities, an hour long commute each way to Pasadena via two trains, plus a mile walk, and shockingly low pay, I was starting to look for a way out of design forever. My hair began to fall out, I developed wrinkles, and routinely began having anxiety attacks. I applied to design job after design job on the evenings, weekends, and spitefully on the clock, desperate for a change but nothing ever came through. Its worth noting my coworkers at this agency were true, salt-of-the-earth people. As painful as our jobs were, we bonded over the comical bullshittery of our work. The moment our bosses left for an offsite meeting, we would immediately stop working and gab. Even at our lowest, we made one another laugh til we cried. If my former employer reads this, I should have reported you to the State of California for continuously violating the few independent contractor laws and workplace harassment. All of us dropped like flies from this forsaken, somehow still in business agency. Thankfully, I was the first to go.
Always the interviewee, never the interviewer. Why are cover letters a thing? Why are we still doing design tests? Why does design pay such little money? A person can only handle so many rejection emails before you start to think, “maybe I’m the problem”.
Narrator, play “What Was I Made For?” by Billie Eilish or perhaps “Anti-Hero” by Taylor Swift.
Fall of 2018 slowly arrived. I miraculously got an interview with entertainment & touring conglomerate Live Nation (parent company of Ticketmaster), not knowing it was in merchandise. I was mindlessly mass applying for jobs, and it had been months since I submitted an application to Live Nation. For the first time, my dream of working in the music industry actually showed a glimmer of possibility. After four interviews, no design test, and four nonsense excuses I gave to my old boss who clearly hated me, I got one more call. When I picked up, I was on my lunch break, working through a HeadSpace meditation. Upon hearing the words “Live Nation would love to extend a formal offer for you to join the team”, I burst into tears. After my measly 30 minutes were up, a $4 Jimmy Johns vegetarian kids sandwich scarfed down, I walked into the office and quit that day.
If you’ve ever quit a job that truly broke you as a person (especially if you had another offer), you know this feeling. If I could bottle one feeling, it would be this. Freeing is an understatement. It was the most joyous, two trains, plus a mile walk, hour long commute home to my tiny, overpriced studio apartment in Downtown Los Angeles.
Working at Live Nation Merchandise (RIP) was my dream boot camp. I was working for artists I listened to my whole life, and was surrounded by a team of truly incredible, passionate, and talented people. I had managers who believed in me, supported me, and helped me succeed. I had coworkers who challenged me, cultivated my inner artist, and respected me. For the first time in my career, I was heard & supported. I credit a large portion of my success to the powerful design team, and especially the empowering women in management.
Like many, I lost my dream job to Covid-19. I had finally found my footing and identity as a budding designer in music. I picked up freelancing for anyone who could kick a couple bucks my way during a time NO ONE was hiring art people. My partner and I decided it was time to give up our lives in Los Angeles, and move somewhere new with lower living expenses. We chose the wonderful, cloudy, green PNW. Portland became a fast home for us, and we loved it back.
In 2020-21, through a strange twist of events, I designed the album cover for Foo Fighters 2021 release “Medicine At Midnight”. Full circle moment for me, truly. Thank you Dave Grohl, you paid for our move. Rest in peace, Taylor Hawkins.
As the music industry began to pick up again, so did the need for merchandise & tour art. I began receiving emails back, and I was onboarded as a freelancer to my dream labels. Bit by bit, people from my old team at Live Nation began popping up at the labels I now freelance for. Though I miss working closely with the people who helped make me, me, having the honor to continue working along side them and meeting so many new industry giants has only made my heart grow stronger.
If I’ve learned anything from being an extremely sensitive artist, I am a phoenix and I will always rise from the ashes stronger than before. Every deep valley brings a greater peak. As my Mom says, “you may roll down a hill for a long time, but you always land on your feet”. My resilience (stubbornness) makes me who I am. I love so many things in this beautiful world, but the crossroads of music & wearable art is where my soul lives. Merchandise design is so much more than a simple t-shirt, it is a tangible experience & visual identity fans get to hold. I am a superfan of so many musical artists, and a superfan of showing people how much I love said artists.
I am where I am due to a wealth of privilege, circumstance, and a small handful of people who believed in me. I seek to rebuild the merchandise industry with queer/trans/BIPOC designers, and environmentally responsible production. My goal is to make the design space equitable and accessible to those who want to learn, for free. We need diverse voices in design, especially in the music industry. As the tides turn away from labels, we are at a crucial tipping point of reclaiming the power once held by wealthy, old, white men with rampant sexual abuse and racism. I strongly believe in young people, and I actively use my platform to promote queer & BIPOC designers so they too can get the opportunity I had. There is enough for everyone to go around, we must abolish the scarcity mindset and uplift diverse voices in design. I was gifted my first opportunity because someone believed in me, when I did not believe in myself. It seems meaningless, but it meant the world to me. I ask fellow industry leaders to extend their golden hand and pull in people who actually deserve to be there. Together, we will transform this hellworld for the better.