CLIENT:

bayside

My working relationship with Bayside began in in 2022 after they purchased an existing concept design from me for their upcoming tour. My relationship with Bayside’s music, however, began almost two decades earlier as a teenager going to shows on Long Island, their hometown and mine.

Since 2022 we’ve done countless designs together in as many illustrative styles, all of which have been warmly received by their cult following fanbase. I have always maintained that the best merch designs come designers who are already fans, and I believe that Bayside fans are drawn to the merch I create because I’m one of them.

Our collaborative process and Bayside’s willingness to let me illustrate and explore as a designer has lead to some of my favorite merch designs of my career. Check out a selection of my favorites below.

interrobang pinup

This is one of the first designs I did for Bayside, but it remains my favorite. They were looking for a design celebrating their recent release “Interrobang” (2019) and were interested in exploring a traditional tattoo-inspired aesthetic.

The illustration features a classic pin up girl holding the famous Bayside bird (featured in all of their designs) in her arms. She’s covered in tattoos, each one paying an homage to a different track on the album.

What puts this merch piece over the edge is, in my opinion, the sleeve hits– In an era of sleeve hits everywhere, I really wanted to make sure they served the design if Bayside were going through the trouble (and the extra cost) to print them. The sleeve designs of this long sleeve shirt exactly match the tattoo sleeves on the pin up girl, with every track represented, so Bayside fans can match her and rep “Interrobang” in style.

not a bad little war

This is the design that began my relationship with Bayside after they stumbled upon it on my social media. At the time I was still building my portfolio, and was illustrating concepts for bands whose work I already loved– This design was done shortly after attending Bayside’s 21 Years of Bad Luck tour, which was one of my favorite shows I’ve ever been to.

The two Bayside birds circle around one another in flight, referencing a set of lyrics from my favorite Bayside album, “Killing Time” (2010). Bayside purchased this design from me as-is, and it showed up on their following tour alongside another merch design they hired me to made.

It’s a favorite illustration of mine, and a design I hold dear because it began the working relationship with one of my favorite bands.

PAPPY + HARRIET’S

When Bayside performed a special show at legendary venue Pappy + Harriets, they tapped me to design a western-themed poster to suit the occassion. My goal was to create a poster they could screenprint affordably, while packing in as many references to their self-titled album that was being played as possible. This show would be attended by the most diehard Bayside fans, and I wanted them to have a poster that catered to their attention to detail.

I settled on a layout inspired by vintage matchbooks, for their interesting compositions and the ability to create a lot of small visuals within one larger one. The matchbook itself is a reference to Bayside’s standout track “Devotion and Desire” from this album, and the poster as a whole includes plenty of references for fans to get excited about. I took inspiration from California desert pattern-making and the wildlife that live there in the creation of the coyote character in the center.

This design was printed for a limited-run silkscreen poster and t-shirt design.

NO MORE SUNNY DAYS

With the release of their latest album, “There Are Worse Things Than Being Alive” (2024), Bayside were looking for some new designs that celebrated the album’s lyrics.

I chose to interpret their song “The Devils”, which begins with the lyric “No more sunny days”. Wanting to branch out from our recent bird-centric designs, I chose to interpret the Greek myth of a giant wolf who ascends from hell to eat the sun. The line-heavy drawing is reminiscent of early woodblock prints to give it an older look than some of the more modern illustrations we’ve done together.

This design was a fan favorite on their 2024 tour sharing the album’s name. Bayside’s social media creator invited the tour’s merch artists to speak about their designs, which can be viewed here.

Halloween

For Halloween, we were looking to portray Bayside’s iconic bird character as more of a villain than a friend. It was a challenge to portray something so sweet-looking as anything but, but we settled on this menacing illustration mostly done in silhouette.

This design was printed on a long sleeve shirt, with the yellow moon and accompanying sleeve hits done in glow in the dark ink to drive home the illusion that the design was lit from behind.

snowglobe

When the holiday season rolled around Bayside were looking for a hoodie/sweater design that was equal parts cozy and vintage-inspired.

I found inspiration in the Rankin Bass claymation classic films, as well as the illustration style of the atomic age, around the time those films came out. The Bayside birds here are much cuter than they’ve appeared in other designs we’ve done, but they retain their recognizability. The final illustration is a combination of flat, “paper cutout” shapes and drybrush texture work for a hand-drawn feel.

This limited edition design was printed on a pullover sweatshirt.