Setting the Stage
My cousin, Sadie Dahl, has been pursuing music for the last four or so years. In the last year, she has jumped into the world of producing and releasing her own music and pursuing some very cool opportunities. She’s auditioned for TV shows, sung at live events, and gotten over 5 million views on TikTok with a collective social media following of over 20k people.
With these new opportunities and professional development, the need for a solid brand identity and some epic deliverables was quite evident, which led me to seize the opportunity of collaborating with this fabulous musician and getting to count it for my senior project.
The First Verse
Before jumping into the creation process, I wanted to make sure I had a clear vision of what Sadie wanted to communicate through her name and music. I spent countless hours texting and calling her and her team (my aunt) discussing what they wanted this project to look like and how we could best fit it to her current creative needs.
Probably one of the biggest aspects of my preparation was research. I wanted to know what made a successful and memorable musician, especially a lesser-known one. I also went straight to the source and talked extensively with Sadie about musicians she admires and where she draws inspiration from — both in her music and her image.
I made lists of possible deliverables and handfuls of mood boards showcasing and comparing her vision with what she currently had and possible options for directions to take things. We discussed timelines, expectations, and made a detailed execution plan.
The Demo
Once we had a solid vision and a solid plan, it was time to start putting things into action! I took time to sketch, brainstorm, and create some initial designs to run past my “client”.
After more calls and further collaboration on designs, colors, editing style, and overall direction, we moved on to the really fun part — execution.
The Remix
Now I won’t lie, this stage of the project was a little daunting. I was pushing myself in a new direction as far as the styles of designs I’d tried before. Not only were these designs utilizing tools, design elements, and editing processes that I’d never tried, but they were being made for an industry and genre of design I was rather unversed in, at least in terms of being at the wheel.
However, I have had very few other projects where I have learned as much as I have while having as much fun as I did. Each deliverable I created required a new process that I got to discover and mess around with.
Because she does so many live shows, we figured it would be a good idea to create some gig posters to circulate:
We also discussed creating some simple stickers to rep and use to plaster her name around:
We decided to create 3 t-shirt designs to start printing and ended up with the following:
In addition to t-shirts, we thought it’d be fun to brainstorm some additional merch:
Lastly, because Sadie’s been releasing some original songs, and is working on an EP, I got to work designing two possible CD and vinyl record covers:
The Encore
This project was one of the most exciting and fun projects I’ve worked on in my academic career. A lot of times I beat myself up when trying new creative and technical processes because I’m often not immediately good at them — and who is? However, with this project, I felt like even when something didn’t turn out or various revisions were needed, I had fun throughout every step of the process.
I’m really satisfied with the outcome of this project. It not only checked the box of being something I’m passionate about and a collaboration with someone I love working with, but it also checked the box of being something I’m really proud of and will show off in my portfolio to further illustrate my growing skillset and creative adaptability.
Through this project, I’ve realized that I can push myself both technically and objectively. I can work on projects that are new, and sometimes unfamiliar, and successfully learn and utilize skills that are too. And I wouldn’t trade that knowledge and this experience for the world.