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MUSENT AFFAIRS

MUSENT was a news site with a focus on news and entertainment, and a passion for celebrating the work being done by young people. 

In preparation for the site’s re-launch, I aided in generating ideas to drive engagement on the Instagram page and excitement for the launch. These posts included an infographic about music copyright, a post celebrating Independent Venue Week, and a series of posts celebrating women in the music industry.

Photographs:  Leigh Keily, AJ Odudu (Twitter)

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SPOTIFY MOMENTS

Music is personal and powerful. It can take you back to your childhood, remind you of a loved one, or be so amazing you need the world to hear it. 

Spotify Moments was a collaborative project between myself and designer Emma Black for the D&AD New Blood awards 2021. The brief was to create a feature for Spotify which introduced a social aspect to the app, connecting people through music to both their friends and their favourite artists.

Spotify Moments lets you create, share and archive the memories with music that matter most to you. Whether it’s a song that takes you #InTheMoment, or reminds you of that once-in-a-lifetime concert with @YourMate, or a podcast you’ve been laughing at for hours!

Here’s an example: Alex is in his favourite bar with his friend Sophie. They’ve just finished their deadlines and this is a treat they have been looking forward to for months. Drinks and good vibes are flowing. A song plays through the speakers that hits all the right notes and gets them onto the dance floor. This song is the soundtrack to their evening, and will always take them back to this night. This is Alex and Sophie #InTheMoment.

Soundtrack Your Life: Spotify Moments is your life in music. Each post you make, or are tagged in, appears on your profile under the Moments tab and in your personal Moments Playlist, creating the soundtrack of your life.

Spotify believes that listening is everything. Spotify Moments isn’t a social media platform. It’s for sharing the audio that means the most to you, finding inspiration, and engaging with other music lovers.

Any Moments you are tagged in will appear at the top of your Friend Activity where you can choose to add them to your own profile and Moments Playlist. Collaborate to create the ultimate soundtrack, whether it’s a collection of songs from your big night out, all the best parts of your friends’ wedding, or a growing playlist of you and your families’ favourite tracks.

By tapping the View Moments icon, see all the Moments of a particular song or podcast episode posted by other Spotify users. The built-in click to translate feature means it’s easier than ever to connect with others across the globe. Connect with the artists and content creators that you love and find out what songs inspire them through the Moments they post.

Let people know you’re #InTheMoment by showcasing your Moment on other social feeds.  Spotify generates a customisable graphic which can be shared easily to all other platforms or saved as an image. Choose from several colour themes to get the perfect look for your Moment.

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TALKIN' 'BOUT MY GENERATION

A designed version of my dissertation. With a heavy focus on live music venues, I considered how I could design the text in a way that is relevant to the concert experience in regards to the designed items you might find around a music venue such as posters and merchandise.

The dissertation is presented as a booklet which would sit alongside a cassette tape in a similar way to a fold-out lyric sheet which might be included with a cassette. The format of a cassette stood out as it can be something bought from an artist (and is somewhat making a comeback with the surge in 90s revival trends) but it can also be owned as a mixtape. The mixtape has connotations of both nostalgia and growing up, so printing my dissertation onto a cassette insert works as both an artefact of a music venue and a nod to the themes of personal identity discussed in my dissertation.

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VAULT

The last year has been a heavy blow to many already-struggling music venues and without financial support many independent venues are at risk of closure. VAULT aims to collect the memories that people have of these venues, provide something physical for people to remember them, and donate to at-risk venues. VAULT takes the form of a website complete with a shop selling prints and zines, and pop-up shops in venues during the day where people can create their own custom prints.

Art prints available from the VAULT online shop.

Flyers demonstrating how the pop-up letterpress workshops work. Fans can visit selected venues during the day and create their own custom prints commemorating their favourite memories made at music venues. Prints are then scanned, uploaded to the VAULT website (with the creator’s permission), and posted securely back to the maker.

Prints made with custom VAULT laser-cut letters.

The VAULT website acts as a main hub for the project. Prints created at venues are collected here and can be filtered by year, location, and artist. The website is also home to the online shop, where music lovers can buy prints, zines, and box sets of zines. All profits from the shop go directly to struggling venues.

Similar memories are brought together in VAULT zines - each one cataloguing prints that music fans have made relating to specific artists, bands, or shows.

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SKEE - COVER ARTWORK

London-based rapper Skee approached me with a request to design cover artwork for his debut single. The main inspiration for the cover was from the label of the of the song’s namesake - Wray & Newphew white rum. I wanted the cover to feel personal, as if the artist himself had scribbled on the bottle’s label, so I hand-wrote some of the elements on acetate and scanned them in before further distressing the artwork digitally.

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CORAL EYEWEAR

After a successful winter with the launch of their new ski goggles, it was time to ramp up Coral Eyewear’s graphics for the summer. Coral Eyewear is a sustainable eyewear brand who produce high-quality glasses and sunglasses made from 100% recycled materials.

The new products brought a fresh new era for the brand and I was keen to lean into the lifestyle and sustainability aspects of the brand to build a new identity which could keep up with other brands in the space. I wanted to make sure I wasn’t alienating existing customers by giving the brand a complete overhaul, so opted for a subtle yet powerful shift with a new font, a set of bright colours, and handwritten elements. With an increase in the amount of emails being sent and a vibrant new set of graphics, click-through rates on Coral Eyewear’s emails increased and during a recent crowdfunding campaign the company were able to hit significant milestones in their funding in little time.

In late 2022 Coral Eyewear released a pair of limited edition Williams Racing sunglasses for the Formula 1 Austin Grand Prix. To be sent out with the glasses, I designed an illustrated cleaning cloth inspired by Texas, alongside a post to announce the partnership

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BRITISH BASKETBALL LEAGUE – FINALS

The new year rolled around and thoughts had already turned to the heavily-anticipated cup final, the first of three explosive finals for the British BAsketball League. I created over 100 assets for use in the arena, as well as more assets for paid to drive sales particularly around Christmas, which resulted in a sold out crowd at the Utilita Arena in Birmingham.

The finals kept coming as it would only be two months until the once-again sold out Trophy finals in Glasgow, where the League requested a new court design. This was a great opportunity for me to dive head-first into something completely new to me, and it was incredibly rewarding to design and see in person in Glasgow as the setting for an incredible day of basketball. The last of the three finals, the Play-Off finals at a packed O2 arena brought an even bigger event and I was determined to ensure British Basketball looked its best. As well as another court, LED screens, and large-scale print graphics used in the VIP area, I produced yet more paid assets and hero graphics for social to accompany Know Our Name’s refresh into Now You Know to mark the end of the season.

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BRITISH BASKETBALL LEAGUE - ONGOING SOCIAL GRAPHICS September marked the start of the new season of British Basketball and a new era was upon them. The London Lions had announced both their debut in EuroCup and signings of ex-NBA talent such as Sam Dekker, and I was a part of the agency with the challenge of launching the season with a bang. After successfully pitching a concept, a handful of graphics for the pitch turned into 700+ assets across the season, including two court designs, and thousands of pixels of in-arena LED boards. The concept for Know Our Name centred around making local heroes of players and fuelling friendly rivalries as British Basketball aims to make its mark on the UK’s sporting landscape. Initially, I designed a set of hero graphics and social headers for each team, inspired by the bright colours and positive feel of the NBA and combined with a gritty British feel. Moving further into the season I created various templated assets for social and paid, as well as one-off hero graphics such as Player Of The Month and retirement graphics, which gave me an excellent place to experiment further with the visual identity, pushing Know Our Name to its limits.

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The last year has been a heavy blow to many already-struggling music venues and without financial support many independent venues are at risk of closure. VAULT aims to collect the memories that people have of these venues, provide something physical for people to remember them, and donate to at-risk venues. VAULT takes the form of a website complete with a shop selling prints and zines, and pop-up shops in venues during the day where people can create their own custom prints.

Art prints available from the VAULT online shop.

Flyers demonstrating how the pop-up letterpress workshops work. Fans can visit selected venues during the day and create their own custom prints commemorating their favourite memories made at music venues. Prints are then scanned, uploaded to the VAULT website (with the creator’s permission), and posted securely back to the maker.

Prints made with custom VAULT laser-cut letters.

The VAULT website acts as a main hub for the project. Prints created at venues are collected here and can be filtered by year, location, and artist. The website is also home to the online shop, where music lovers can buy prints, zines, and box sets of zines. All profits from the shop go directly to struggling venues.

Similar memories are brought together in VAULT zines - each one cataloguing prints that music fans have made relating to specific artists, bands, or shows.

[mads-bailey]

A designed version of my dissertation. With a heavy focus on live music venues, I considered how I could design the text in a way that is relevant to the concert experience in regards to the designed items you might find around a music venue such as posters and merchandise. The dissertation is presented as a booklet which would sit alongside a cassette tape in a similar way to a fold-out lyric sheet which might be included with a cassette. The format of a cassette stood out as it can be something bought from an artist (and is somewhat making a comeback with the surge in 90s revival trends) but it can also be owned as a mixtape. The mixtape has connotations of both nostalgia and growing up, so printing my dissertation onto a cassette insert works as both an artefact of a music venue and a nod to the themes of personal identity discussed in my dissertation.

[mads-bailey]

Music is personal and powerful. It can take you back to your childhood, remind you of a loved one, or be so amazing you need the world to hear it. 

Spotify Moments was a collaborative project between myself and designer Emma Black for the D&AD New Blood awards 2021. The brief was to create a feature for Spotify which introduced a social aspect to the app, connecting people through music to both their friends and their favourite artists.

Spotify Moments lets you create, share and archive the memories with music that matter most to you. Whether it’s a song that takes you #InTheMoment, or reminds you of that once-in-a-lifetime concert with @YourMate, or a podcast you’ve been laughing at for hours!

Here’s an example: Alex is in his favourite bar with his friend Sophie. They’ve just finished their deadlines and this is a treat they have been looking forward to for months. Drinks and good vibes are flowing. A song plays through the speakers that hits all the right notes and gets them onto the dance floor. This song is the soundtrack to their evening, and will always take them back to this night. This is Alex and Sophie #InTheMoment.

Soundtrack Your Life: Spotify Moments is your life in music. Each post you make, or are tagged in, appears on your profile under the Moments tab and in your personal Moments Playlist, creating the soundtrack of your life.

Spotify believes that listening is everything. Spotify Moments isn’t a social media platform. It’s for sharing the audio that means the most to you, finding inspiration, and engaging with other music lovers.

Any Moments you are tagged in will appear at the top of your Friend Activity where you can choose to add them to your own profile and Moments Playlist. Collaborate to create the ultimate soundtrack, whether it’s a collection of songs from your big night out, all the best parts of your friends’ wedding, or a growing playlist of you and your families’ favourite tracks.

By tapping the View Moments icon, see all the Moments of a particular song or podcast episode posted by other Spotify users. The built-in click to translate feature means it’s easier than ever to connect with others across the globe. Connect with the artists and content creators that you love and find out what songs inspire them through the Moments they post.

Let people know you’re #InTheMoment by showcasing your Moment on other social feeds.  Spotify generates a customisable graphic which can be shared easily to all other platforms or saved as an image. Choose from several colour themes to get the perfect look for your Moment.

Spotify Moments Figma prototype.

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A selection of work created for MUSENT’s Instagram page. MUSENT is a news site with a focus on news and entertainment, and a passion for celebrating the work being done by young people. 

In preparation for the site’s re-launch, we came up with ideas to generate engagement on the Instagram page and excitement for the launch. These posts included an infographic about music copyright, a post celebrating Independent Venue Week, and a series of posts celebrating women in the music industry.

Photographs:  Leigh Keily, AJ Odudu (Twitter), Lindsey Byrnes

Elements taken from posts teasing the site’s official re-launch.

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A selection of music-inspired poster designs. What initially began as a challenge to myself to create one poster a week for 10 weeks, quickly became an ongoing project, with each poster challenging me to experiment with new techniques and ideas in a short timeframe.

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A Fluorescent Sky is an upcoming film exploring the struggles an independently-owned grocery shop faces when a hypermarket opens in the town. The filmmakers called on independent artists and designers to create retro-inspired food packaging and scratchcards to fill the shelves of the film’s shop. The pieces were then featured in the ‘Saving The Highstreet’ exhibition in the shop’s space once filming had finished. Photos: Louis Turner; A Fluorescent Sky

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A set of Christmas cards inspired by German Christmas markets. Each of the cards in the four-piece set features a hand-painted design depicting a scene at a Christmas market. I was particularly inspired by the Cologne markets and was keen on capturing the cosy, festive feel of the markets, incorporating traditional parts of a German Christmas such as glühwein and spekulatius.

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A project using Instagram’s grid layout to reveal a festive-themed illustration day by day, over the course of advent. The illustration features an illustration of Cologne Cathedral, Germany, as a backdrop to a colourful Christmas market.

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Watercolour paintings exploring the built environment of Huddersfield.