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WTDWYMR (2016) — Zenobia R.

Wall projection (Rihanna courtside, Cinema4D, gif)

Description: I created an animated wall projection and designed an accordion-fold exhibition catalog cum CD booklet containing instructions for exhibition attendees to follow during each song on the album. My primary aim was to create visual assets that were tactile and immersive, drawing on the components of Rihanna’s aesthetic (in particular, photos of her street style) that inspired and energized Zenobia R as well as the artist’s song-specific instructions. It was essential that the exhibition create an intimate space and that the artist’s personal experience with Anti was present throughout, so I used image scans of her own fur, earring, and the song titles which she wrote by hand.

What To Do When You Meet Rihanna (2016) was a performance-based installation by Zenobia R. based on an imagined interaction with the singer-songwriter at her personal listening party for the album Anti. The exhibition aimed to, “through Rihanna, instructional art and radical self-love […] build a heterotopia—i.e., a site of resistance within our society that offers the possibility for new knowledge and new ways of being in the world.”

Exhibition hosted at Gallery 404 c/o Amalia Lund & Austin Spence; photography (booklet) by Sky Yoo; styled by Khadija Tarver & Jameel Mohammed.

Wall projection (Rihanna courtside, Cinema4D, still, jpg)

CD Booklet (accordion-fold, exterior)

CD Booklet (accordion-fold, interior)

CD Booklet being burned by the artist, performance documentation by Morgan Pilgrim

Scan of artist’s garment as booklet study

Pattern study for projection, inspired by “Work” (2016) directed by Director X

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Catch: Fire / Wave — Sonik Sound (2017)

Sonik Sound, SS monogrammed blob, Cinema4D (2016)

Description: For Sonik Sound’s upcoming double album Catch: Fire / Catch: Wave, I created a visual brand vocabulary two- and three- dimensional brand assets in the form of images and video. The musical project is themed around the constant division and recombination of matter on Earth and throughout the universe, the producer’s use of sampling and sound collage. Drawing on this theme, I chose to manipulate a scientifically accurate vector image of Pangaea. The result was expressive shapes, some of which may be identified as you or my home continents (hint: the orientation is shifted ~90° from typical maps). I n designing the CATCH logotype that the “landmasses” jump and weave through, I was inspired by sci-fi typography and sports’ brand imagery.

See the promo video and cover art (and many previous explorations) below.

Early promo video featuring Zenobia R., artist. (2016, filmed on iPhone 5)

Cover art for Catch: Fire (2017)

Cover art for Catch: Wave (2017)

Cover art for the lead single from Catch: Wave — Fish Food... sampling:

“Lionsong” by Björk

“What Happened to that Boy” Baby ft. Clipse

“Cute girl tells a story” – YouTube user lucie82100

Rejected design of cover art for Catch: Fire (2016)

Rejected design of cover art for Catch: Wave (2016)

Rejected design of cover art for Catch: Wave (2015), featuring rejected designs for the CATCH logomark

Rejected design of cover art for Catch: Fire (2015)

Rejected design of cover art for Catch: Wave (2015)

Rejected design of cover art for Catch: Fire (2015)

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“Higher Learning” (2013) — Rico White

Description: Rico White’s “Higher Learning” video, co-directed by White and Jake Catt, I was enlisted to develop an expressive art direction for the video. I accomplished this with novel editing techniques that I used combining Final Cut 7 layering features with video modified with YouGlitch.

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PolyTool (2015) — for the everyday adventurer

Prototype Stack gif (laser-cut wood, bronze-infused stainless steel)

Description: PolyTool, of which I am a co-founder, is a compact multitool that enables you to overcome everyday challenges in style, whether it's daily life hacks or minor emergencies. Our team developed PolyTool to provide core functionality with a refined design you’d be proud to show off. We spent countless hours perfecting every dimension of the tool, so you’ll spend as much time flaunting it as you will using it. PolyTool’s convenient and ergonomic size ensures that it is always at hand, so you’ll be prepared wherever you go.

Designed one-piece multitool through iterative process of sketching, modeling & prototyping in two and three dimensions

Developed and implemented brand strategy through copywriting, video directing and editing, and designing graphic communications

Generated awareness for crowdfunding launch through social media, blogs and 3-D print online retail channels, getting the product featured on lead influencer site EverydayCarry.com as an EDC essential

PolyTool Classic*

PolyTool is a…

Phillips head screwdriver (#2); Flathead screwdriver (3/16")

Pry bar

Box opener

Standard hex wrench in 3 sizes (3/16", 1/4", 5/16")

Metric hex wrench in 3 sizes (5 mm, 6 mm, 8 mm)

Hex bit holder

Oxygen tank wrench

1 inch ruler

1 cm ruler

Keychain suspension clip

Bottle opener

Functionality call-out (2015)*

PolyTool fits perfectly on your keychain without adding bulk. The suspension clip feature holds your keys securely, and keeps them from bunching uncomfortably at the bottom of your pocket. With no cutting edges, the tool is also TSA compliant, so PolyTool can fly with you wherever you go!

PolyTool Ridge prototype (2015)*

For the I designed the wood-grain texture to align with PolyTool’s core brand concept of “the everyday adventure(r),” aiming to conjure topographical maps and rugged woodgrain with organic, hand-drawn curves.

PolyTool Ridge texture rendered in 2D

PolyTool Ridge & Classic (2015)*

PolyTool logo

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Description: Flyer for performance by Elyjah. Deliberately avoiding a clean, straightforward presentation of Halloween symbolism, the pumpkin and ghost motifs are messily abstracted and distorted throughout, reflecting the band’s brand. 

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Art in the Age of iPhone-ical Reproduction

Doing OK (2016, iPhone video as gif)

Description: In 2016, I sought to create artwork and many design digital objects using only my iPhone, under the idea of “Art in the Age of iPhone-ical Reproduction”. The medium offers a variety of tools — Glitché and Matter, introduced to me by Shakeil, are among my favorites — and the iPhone’s improvements in camera quality (see: Tangerine) make the device a useful tool for image production, still and moving alike. I enjoyed experimenting with distorting textures in particular.

Doing OK (2016, iPhone video)

Doing OK (2016, still)

iPhone-ical (2015, video)

Cropped sunset from My Neighbor Totoro (2016, iPhone background)

The Receipts I (2015, iPhone 5 background)

The Receipts II (2015, for iPhone 5 background image)

The Receipts III (2015, for iPhone 5 background image)

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Little Trees (2017) — Rico White

Description: Little Trees is a forthcoming album from rapper Rico White conceptualized around its’ material being recorded entirely in his 1990-something Toyota Corolla. The double entendre of scented trees, as represented by the iconic automotive air fresheners, is the central element of the project’s non-audio components. I designed the album’s cover art and developed concepts for merchandise and a new medium for releasing the music — on a foldable, cardboard USB card attached to a tree-shaped air freshener itself. The hoodie also features the tri-color trees at the same angles as they appear stacked on the album’s cover.

Packaging, distribution, and merchandise concepts (2016)

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MCR Logo (2016)

Description: In designing the MCR logo for Kendu G.’s music management and production company and facilities. Kendu, of Washington, D.C.’s Trinidad neighborhood, wanted a logo that embodied the timelessness of the impact he seeked to make through music and community organizing. I was inspired by the versatility of the iconic, geometric logotypes used by record labels in the 1960s and 70s. I drew too from remembering applications of record label logos like those of Cash Money, No Limit Records and G-Unit as broad as merchandise, large-scale signage, and diamond jewelry.

Process photos below.

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Description: The Love Café, as described in the “Proposal” page, was a participatory art project by Amalia Lund aimed to unite strangers through the intimacy of touch. I designed the project’s proposal and prospective menu. The iconic Robert Indiana LOVE image refers to the pop-up café’s location on Locust Walk at the University of Pennsylvania, where one of Indiana’s sculptures stands with the potential to inspire café-goers. The layout, choice of type, and overall style of the project’s proposal and menu seek to soothe and reflect the project’s goal of encouraging gentle touch.

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Description: Poster design for SPEC: Jazz & Grooves (adaptations for small-format flyer and backstage badge not shown). Avoiding the opportunity for the hackneyed use of a more straightforward visual pun, I loosely referenced the performers’ stage names in creating an inverted landscape, which also connotes a break from the everyday.

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Illustrations for Dr. Ed Royzman, Ph.D. (2015)

Jeffersonian vs. Leninist Political Change (1 of 2)

For Dr. Ed Royzman, Ph.D. of the University of Pennsylvania, I was tasked with creating illustrations that demonstrated his the conceptions he posited of Leninist versus Jeffersonian political change. The design demanded neutrality in most regards except that the figural gestures be those communicating political action, which I executed following basic principles of line and value. The illustrations appeared alongside text in the book Moral Inferences (edited by Jean-Francois Bonnefon, Bastien Trémolière) published by the Psychology Press.

Jeffersonian vs. Leninist Political Change (2 of 2)

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Glitch & Pixel Art (2012—13)

Juve the Great, pixelated color reassignment as animated gif

Description: A primary focus in my design practice 2012-13 was illustration and altering images through various methods of creating “glitched” images. I am interested in exploring Hito Steyerl’s notion of the poor image through “degrading” image (re-)production, while attributing the original image-makers as much as possible. I hope to pay tribute to the subjects in these images, rather than degrade them despite the “degrading” means of their likenesses’ production.

“Limit to One Love” (2012, video for Sonik Sound)

Sampled source audio and video via:

“One Love (prod. Q-Tip)” — Nas (1994, dir. Fab 5 Freddy)

“Limit to Your Love ” — James Blake (2010, dir. Martin de Thurah)

"Grindin (prod. the Neptunes)” — Clipse (2002, dir. Bucky Chrome)

Nardwuar vs. Sonic Youth (1991)

“One Love” — Nas (1994), animated gif 

A$AP Rocky in “Brand New Guy”, animated gif 

Graphic asset for Sonik Sound, pixelated color reassignment

 Big Boi with his dog, Halle Berry, pixelated color reassignment

Lil Wayne, pixelated color reassignment

“The Black God" — SpaceGhostPurrp (2012, video concept)

Jay-Z in car, direct text-edited jpg

Jay-Z in Marcy by Jonathan Mannion (2012), direct text-edited jpg

Jay-Z in “In My Lifetime”

Screen_Shot_1 (2012), pixelated color reassignment

Screen_Shot_2 (2012), pixelated color reassignment

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Sonik Sound: Design & Art Direction (Archived, 2013)

Sonik Sound Stack Logo (2013, modified Futura Extra Bold)

Sonik Sound Monogram Logo (2013, modified Futura Extra Bold)

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Cover Art (Misc.)

Awsum (2014) — Rico White

Colors (2013) — Rico White

The Last Sip (2013) — Rico White

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Wavy Jones — Max B (Alternate Cover)

Description: I thought to employ my preferred medium of the time, animated gif, to pay tribute to Max B and his mixtape — whose title borrows from the Pirate of the Carribean franchise’s Davy Jones — as well as a practice in digital collage.

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Unleashed — Bow Wow (2003) (Redesign, 2013)

Description: Given the 10th anniversary of an album I admittedly loved as a child, I was inspired to redesign Bow Wow’s Unleashed (2003). Adapting some of the original photography by Sacha Waldman, I wanted to reimagine the apocalyptic side of the Y2K aesthetic, which posits a digitized, dystopian future where reality itself has been hacked and/or glitched. This vision is reflected in Bow Wow’s military fatigues, distorted one RGB-layer at a time. At the same time, the resulting images pay homage the dystopian aesthetics of Metahaven’s The Sprawl.

Unleashed (2003) — Bow Wow (Cover Art Redesign, front)

Unleashed (2003) — Bow Wow (Cover Art Redesign, back)

Unleashed (2003) — Bow Wow (Cover Art Redesign, sketch)