Collaboration:

Super Yaki

I’ve been a fan of music merch company Super Yaki for some time– Their clever merch designs for cult classic films have garnered them their own cult following of movie lovers. I was delighted when they approached me for an official collaboration between our two sensibilities; Their love of movies, and my love of music merch.

Together we developed a merch line that asked the question: If you went to a music festival played by some of the greatest made-for-movie bands in history, what would their merch look like? We called it “A Reel Music Festival”.

While I tackled the merch designs, Super Yaki handled all of the marketing, production and shipment of the final products. My goal was for each merch piece to make sense within the context of the movie it came from, which lead to experimenting in a variety of design styles for a diverse by design, yet cohesive in concept, collection.

pink slip

from freaky friday (2003)

Since Pink Slip is a band of teen girls in high school, I didn't want this design to be too sophisticated. My goal was for it to feel like a collage the band made in art class, and had screenprinted or stamped it on shirts in the same garage they practiced in. Super Yaki put this one on a bunch of garments, including a red/black baseball tee, just like the one Lindsay Lohan wears as the main character in the movie.

CONNER4REAL and STYLE BOYZ

from popstar: never stop never stopping (2016)

The Lonely Island's mockumentary about the Conner4Real, the breakout star of boyband Style Boyz going solo, is packed full of clever, comedic music, and rife for merch ideas.

The Style Boyz design is done in the style of early Backstreet Boys merch, that millennial 2000s aesthetic, with some aging to the design. It references "Karate Guy", the boy band’s first single on a major label. Diehard Style Boyz fangirls have had this in their closet for 20 years.

But since this movie is a comedy, I knew I had room to do something a little stupider. I pitched the “GAY RIGHTS” design referencing Conner’s single, “Equal Rights”, that stirs up controversy in the film. I borrowed from that hiphop merch style that's having a resurgence, and put Conner (played by Andy Samberg) front and center.

THE CLASH AT DEMONHEAD

From Scott Pilgrim vs. The World (2010)

I knew the design for this film had to feature Envy Adams (played by Brie Larson) on it; In the movie there are posters and cardboard cut outs with her face everywhere, which Scott Pilgrim can’t seem to escape, so of course her merch would too.

This design is proof in my belief that that the choice of blank can sometimes turn a good design to a great design. Super Yaki offered this on a ringer tee, which is Scott Pilgrim's signature apparel– Throughout the movie he wears the exact same ringer tee in different colors and different logos. This shirt would be right at home in the film.

THE oneders

From that thing you do (1996)

The film takes place in 1964, before music merchandise had really been born. It’s been said that Elvis fanclubs were the first to make music merch in the 1950s, and the mass production of screenprinted items only really began around the mid 60s.

That meant, for period-accurate inspiration, I was specifically looking at show posters from the 50s-60s. These were often 2 color designs with floating heads of the featured musicians with big name call outs. There's a little nod to their fictional record label, Playtone Records, underneath the name of their hit single, "That Thing You Do"– Straight-forward and to the point, and hypothetically easy to produce for those first screenprinting machines.