Blog — Kyle Marks Design
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It's always a good time participating in the TBD Fest Poster Series. I'm always glad to be a part of a group that represents so much Sacramento design talent. This year I got to do a poster for Ratatat. I've been doing a ton of digital work lately so I stepped away from the computer for this one. I don't want to get too much into the boring details, but some of my process is below, plus the finished poster. Click the Soundcloud link to hear the song that inspired the concept. If you're interested in reading more, there is an interview page featuring yours truly here.
Finished gig poster for Empire of the Sun at TBD Fest in Sacramento this October. Description of concept from TBD page below.
"The concept behind this poster came out of researching ancient cultures that worshipped the Sun. During this process, I was really inspired by Egyptian hieroglyphics. I wanted to combine the aesthetic that is unique to Empire of the Sun’s work (lively rhythm and melodies, indie culture, exotic textures, and eclectic costumes) with ancient Egyptian art and culture. The result is an interesting pop-like modernization of forms and line-work that have existed for centuries. The poster is one that you can get “lost in” while trying to observe and decipher."
I finally had the chance of seeing Wes Anderson's latest piece of artistic brilliance and thoroughly enjoyed every minute! The cast was amazing, comical, eclectic, and diverse. The plot was engaging, and the direction of the shots were loaded with classic Anderson symmetry, color, and movement. I highly recommend for the film's entertainment value alone!
I recently discovered this really nice personal project by Richard Chavez. I love custom type combined with music, and these are so well executed that I would actually prefer some of these to the actual album art for these records. I think the Kanye one is perfect — so much energy and chaos to "visually describe" the album using type instead of obscene imagery. Take a look at all of them; they are great! Really makes me want to do something like this.
A lot of work and late nights went into this to get it where I wanted it, but in the end it was all worth it! The process was somewhat lengthy and strenuous, especially initial research for inspiration and image collection. However, other aspects that usually take me longer (such as the custom lettering) happened a lot faster and smoother than I expected. The type itself only went through minor revisions from the original sketch, as you can see below. The only other part of the process that was difficult was color choice. I didn't document the color selection process here, but this poster went through somewhere around 25 color revisions. The darker palette in the final version really seemed to reinforce what I was trying to do with the collage imagery without being too "girly" (I really felt the lettering was girly enough, so I veered away from pinks, reds, and purples). Highlights were applied last, which I think really pulled everything together, remixing the vintage hand drawn illustration with a digital element. Juxtaposition folks!
Final Poster design, illustration + custom lettering
Initial lettering sketch
I composed the collage in Illustrator with found vintage art and then re-drew the entire poster with a Tombow brush marker
Ice Cream! Cameras!
Kittens!
and Snakes! This was the last stretch of tracing the image
And I got to go to the actual show this time. It was crazy fun!
Publications ( 2 )
Video/motion ( 2 )
Photography ( 5 )
Branding ( 6 )
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Inspiration ( 11 )
Design Process ( 14 )
Hand Lettering ( 14 )
Posters ( 20 )
Screenprinting ( 20 )
Interval ( 25 )
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Kyle Marks RT @ katie_martin_fx : We are nearing #PeakHipster https://t.co/DLYhz3N0RU about 2 hours ago
Kyle Marks There are many fascinating things here: 1. The Greatest Show on Earth is by Kid Rock 2. It's in a baseball stadium… https://t.co/pCfk0iYekz about 4 hours ago