Folly Theatre Jazz Series

For the Human Design class I have been working on a poster and promotional for the Folly Theatre Jazz Series. The artists I have chosen from the 2015-2016 schedule is the Christian McBride Trio. McBride himself is one of the most prominent bass players of his generation and will be joined by pianist Christian Sands and drummer Ulysses Owens Jr.

The first step is to do research on the artist and come up with a mood board. The mood board ties in with the research I've done about the artist. Some of the image I chose are illustrated album artwork for Christian McBride, some are posters from the past and some reflect the trio's influences and roots.

To begin the sketching portion, I started by listening to the music and sketching according to the Matrix that Kelly Ludwig suggest we using. The columns are evocative words that I chose for my artist, while the rows are different modes (or figures of speech).

Most of my sketches fell on the pun row with multiples for the same evocative word.
From here I refined what I thought were the better and more original ideas .

The first sketch is a visual representation of "playing in the pocket" a term many jazz players use to refer to being in a groove. The second explores a technical approach to the bass through drawing as McBride is a very technical bass player. The third is a play on words on the smoothness of jazz being compare to peanut butter. The final sketch instead illustrates a time clock to show emphasis on the work ethic of all three musicians.