Art Design Music

In this season finale we go through feedback from listeners, announce our contest winners and have three fun conversations with Bruce Springsteen's graphic designer Michelle Holme, podcaster Vish Khanna, and drummer/producer Loel Campbell.

Aaron Draplin is a rock star and enigma in the design world – talent flows from every pour and yet zero pretention. He’s a free flowing fountain of ideas, stories and inspiration… and like the rest of us, he’s also an avid record collector. This one is a biggie, packed full of wild moments from the design highway of Draplin’s brain. He delves into projects he’s worked on, but also digs into his own record collection and even grabs the guitar to strum a few chords of a Canadian classic. Pour up a drink but don’t go for a sip when Draplin is speaking as you never know what he’ll come out with next and you don’t want to spit hot coffee over your brand new Macbook when he drops some hilarious insanity and design bombshells into your ear holes.

British illustrator Drew Millward is one of the best poster artists on the planet, which is why he gets to work with many of the biggest bands in the world. His work is extremely colorful, whimsical, fun and dark all at the same time. More comfortable home with his family than out working the circuit, this conversation was an exciting (and rare) opportunity to sit and chat with one of the most influential and distinct visual-voices creating art for the music industry today. He talks about his start in art, process, working with Phish and they’re very engaged fans, designing skateboards, beer labels, and more. Drew is hilarious and full of insight and useable advice, if making incredibly eye-catching posters is something you aspire to do more of, then this episode is for you.

Like the Bruce Wayne of punk rock, Hayden Menzies lives a double life – he’s a visual artist by day, painting canvases, designing record covers, merch and tour posters for bands; while by night trading paint brushes for drum sticks touring the world in his popular punk band METZ (SubPop Records). His experience as a professional musician has given him insight into making art for music that has proven to be invaluable. We talk about designing records, screen printing posters, directing music videos, growing up in military families, and so much more.

Paula Scher is quite likely the most important graphic designer living and working today. Celebrated at every level of the industry, she has turned her creative vision towards many industries and found ways to see them differently — including designing album covers. She has designed 100s, maybe 1000s of albums, many of which have gone on to sell tens of millions of copies. If you have a record collection its quite likely that you collect her work. 

Growing up in Jersey, a young Michelle Holme probably never expected that one day she would be the go-to designer for her state’s music god, Bruce Springsteen. Michelle’s unique approach to design for music has taken her to incredible places with many of North (and South) America’s biggest musical acts. We learned so much from her stories about how to approach visual art when it comes to packaging music, and take it further. We had a great time picking Michelle’s brain and hope you enjoy this episode as much as we did making it.

Gerard Huerta’s hand has touched brands and bands we interact with every day. He has been called on to design logos, many of which he made by hand with nothing but sheets of translucent vellum, a ruler, paint and pencils, and a keen love for music. A master at the art of drawing and designing letter forms, we start this conversation with the stories behind ACDC’s logo, probably the most iconic band logo ever designed, and one Gerard still received daily accolades for creating. Then the conversation moves through other work for bands, movie posters, a travelling art exhibit featuring his work, how the Swiss Army Watch did more than just keep Gerard’s career on schedule, and even his logo design work for a little cable start up we all know and love…. HBO.

LL Cool J, NWA, LA street gangs, Fashion, underground women’s fight clubs, and so much more. Photographer Janette Beckman’s life journey will inspire you. She has spent decades documenting the stories of many of the world’s most iconic bands, creating incredible stories at every turn. We know you’re going to hang on every word from Janette, a guest we expect we’ll have back on the show one day as I’m sure this conversation just scratched the surface on this super talented artist's journey.

Jay Ryan is your favourite band’s favourite poster artist. We discuss his early days of band poster design, screen printing, gigposters.com, Flatstock, Mondo, handmade lettering, working for his favourite bands, and a ton more. When it comes to music poster design there is no one more knowledgable or experienced than Jay Ryan – he’s also incredibly funny and we had an amazing time talking shop.

Calgary native Chad Vangaalan is best known as a genre-bending musician and songwriter with albums released globally on Subpop Records (Flemish Eye in Canada). What many don’t know is he is also an award winning music video director and animator and character designer. We talk about making videos, character design, dream clients, sci-fi, working with Jim Henson Studios, starting a band with his kids, and so much more. This was an extremely entertaining conversation full of F-bombs and hilarity, you’re in for a good time.

Cey Adams is a legendary New York graphic designer and visual artist. His client list includes JayZ, Run DMC, Beastie Boys, LL Cool J, Notorious B.I.G, Mary J Blige, Public Enemy and so many more. Our first podcast episode is starting with a bang, Cey Adams is an incredible artist with incredible stories – we take a deep dive into his origins, graphic design, hip hop music, grafitti, fine-art, and more.

Welcome to Art Design Music, a podcast showcasing incredible visual artists that create work for the music industry. Album cover designers, music video directors, photographers, illustrators, set designers, print makers and more -- this podcast is a fun and revealing look behind the scenes of the world's most iconic albums, videos, and bands through the eyes of the visual artists that create the look of all our favourite music. 

Welcome to Art Design Music, a podcast showcasing incredible visual artists that create work for the music industry. Album cover designers, music video directors, photographers, illustrators, set designers, print makers and more -- this podcast is a fun and revealing look behind the scenes of the world's most iconic albums, videos, and bands through the eyes of the visual artists that create the look of all our favourite music.