Feature 001 - Kevin Abstract Tour Poster + Collateral
‘Heights, Spiders, And
the Dark’, for Blanket
Leading up to the release of Kevin Abstract’s 2023 Album ‘Blanket’, I was brought into the fold of the design team to assist with the last of the promotional material, and provide concepts for merchandising elements.
This work began with Back Cover concepts, working with provided with press photography assets to work off of, and with the details of the tracklist, and credit information, as well as general aesthetic guidelines. The concepts designed leaned into the various established worldbuilding elements introuduced throughout Kevin’s single releases and live performaces in the months prior, with a heavy focus on eerie imagery, and childlike wonder chaotically clashing together.
Following this, merch options were developed with the same foudnational elements, and pitched toward upcoming live shows at Camp Flog Gnaw (2023) and Kevin’s succeeding solo tour. Utilising the press photo’s initially provided, as well as taking inspiration from the graphic direction that was well received in the Back Cover designs, the merch options leaned into lyrical content from the album, it’s established characters (The fictional mascots ‘Big Hug, Rex, and Jimmy’), as well as traditional tour information.
Finally, I worked to create conceptual designs to advertise Kevin’s solo tour celebreating his album - a four stop outing across North America, titled the ‘Heights, Spiders, And The Dark Tour’. This poster was brought to life through a very iterative process, using the same photogrpahy initially provided, and working to cohesively display the imformative content, whilst still maintaining a graphic interest within the poster itself. Working under the initial WIP name, the ‘Come Home Blanket’ set of posters began in two directions, either leaning into the grit of the albums imagery, or contrasting it, with pops of colour to bring the visuals to life. These ideas were fine initially, but I felt the design needed a more identifying element. To do this, I created a graphic device for the dates, emulating carnival or arcade tickets, designed with small allusions to the characters of ‘Blanket’. This direction helped to define a sense of cohesion in the following designs, where the imagery and the type setting came together to slowly become what would be the final approved design.
Once my layout concept was finalised with the imagery and Type Design for the tour name confirmed, the file sent off to Lead Designer Henock Sileshi for final tweaks, adding the circular device, and slightly altering the Tour Date information.
Following this work, the last of my involvement with the Blanket rollout, was to pitch design concepts for posters advertising each of the four stops of the tour. The initial direction for these was to contrast the darkness of the poster, with brighter imagery, and more colourful highlights. Along with this, graphic updates were made to the text, emboldening and distorting the look, to create something of a more friendly and approachable poster look. Imagery was taken to reflect a pop-culture and media style visual, referencing the artists inspiration for the album’s sound. These were well liked, but perhaps to vague for official promotion, and so the pivot was made to work with headshots, and distort them to provide a strong sense of graphic. The final styles designed, took candid photos and a completely new direction, however ultimately, the posters did not come to fruition.
Jack Churchley is a Sydney-based Graphic Designer working in and around Music, with 5 years of experience designing for an array of artists, from International acts like Kevin Abstract and Nate Dae, to local rising talent, all across digital and and physical processes, to create uniqe artwork.
(EM) intermission.designstudio@gmail.com
(IG) @Jack.Churchley / @Intermission.DesignStudio