Iconic Musician Posters

Objective

The goal for this project was to create posters for some of my favorite music artists that represent them in one simplistic icon that is easy recognizable by someone who listens to their music. Since I am a fan of each of these artists I just thought about what their specific icon could be and illustrated it. To enhance the posters I also decided to use colors that reflect the artists music.

Run-DMC

Run-DMC was can be considered one of the best rap groups in Hip Hop history. They were formed in the 1980’s in Queens, NY. They were known for wearing their black fedora hats. Another part of their iconic outfit was the pair of glasses that Darryl “DMC” McDaniels wore. I decided that Both of those elements, that hat and glasses, could be recognized as Run-DMC.

50 Cent

50 cent is a rapper from Queens, NY. He was originally an actual gangster before he got into the music business. An iconic part about 50 cent is the bulletproof vest that he used to wear to represent his gangsta rap style. I chose to illustrate this because even if you are not a 50 cent fan, you probably know about his background.

Tech n9ne

This was the first poster that I created, mainly because Tech n9ne is one of my favorite artists and is very unique to other rappers. Tech N9ne wears a face mask every time he goes on tour. I decided that this would be the perfect icon to represent his music. I created the mask in Adobe Illustrator and used the red background because it is the same color as his independent record label, Strange Music.

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The Defiant Ones (HBO) Poster

About this Piece

HBO came out with a four part documentary series called The Defiant Ones, which goes into the unlikely relationship of Dr. Dre (Hip Hop Producer) and Jimmy Iovine (Founder of Interscope Records) in the music industry.

Style

For this poster I wanted to take some inspiration from the original posters from HBO’s official promotion. The main take away from the documentary was that you can do amazing things as long as you ignore the negativity around you. This is where the  “You Will Never” with the strike through comes in.

Watch the trailer for The Deiant Ones

Album Artwork

Overview

I started creating album art when Ice Cube announced a contest to recreate the album cover of his classic album, Death Certificate. I figured the chances of me actually winning were slim but still wanted to participate for the fun of it and I really enjoyed the whole process. Most of the covers I create I do for a contest or I feel like the original cover art could be better.

Original Cover/Inspiration

Ice Cube’s Death Certificate was pretty controversial, having a lot of negative comments about the current state of America at the time. Listening to the album and seeing the original cover gave me most of the inspiration that I needed to start creating my own version.

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