Los Angeles Music Label Inspires Creative
Cake Moshing Becomes Enthuse
This project started out as an intent to substantiate my skill set as an illustrator in the field of design. Steve Aoki is an American, Los Angeles DJ that books consistent venues for performances around the world without yield.
A key notion to his performance includes the act of a massive prepared cake that he throws into the crowd targeting his favourite fanatic. The cupcake of this design is a notion to this feature of his show, and the emotional response is a depiction of how one of his fans reacts when being chosen to become 'shlopped' with the icing, cake, and topped ingredients of the baked item.
A key notion to his performance includes the act of a massive prepared cake that he throws into the crowd targeting his favourite fanatic. The cupcake of this design is a notion to this feature of his show, and the emotional response is a depiction of how one of his fans reacts when being chosen to become 'shlopped' with the icing, cake, and topped ingredients of the baked item.
Some key features of the design that I enjoyed creating include: the melted gooey icing; the analogous colour structure that proposes depth and dynamic perception of the icings weight and physical response to being thrown into the crowd; the single sided wink and opposite open eye that evokes a proponent to emotional health; and the anti-based triangle frame that implies being caked as a good thing in a 'bad' way.
The Aoki brand has turned the fate of a failure being pied as a counter to the upside triangle, into a sincerity from fans as an achievement, and that is why I decided to use an upside-down tri-angle.
I also love the analog stripes in the background of the frame that give it that 'radical' appeal from the 1980's, and the spotlight based gradient that can be found behind the word mark of the 'Dim Mak' label. It glows in a halo-esque light as if the entire act was pre-determined, and the portrayal is intently set for a snapshot capture of a very personal response to phenomena of its sensationalism.
Here are 4 examples of t-shirt screens that I worked on in Adobe Photoshop with. I chose simple colours that I thought would be the most applicable and I wanted to convey a unisex value.
This applied sweater turned out really well. In combination with the detailed graphic the very uncommon lavender-magneta has a visual impact that instantiates curiosity to an attractive nature, as if almost calling other patrons in society to wonder what the graphic is, or how the cotton feels.
I was also able to extract the word mark and connect the parameters as a means to carry and extend the value of this design. This colour set and frame of the wordmark can also be used as a set of stickers for Steve Aoki's label and clothing line fans. They could now place them on any favoured items like binders for school, lap top covers, skateboards, or any other object that they would like to endorse or have belief in support of the music label.
