Cantalouper at Mojo's 9/2/11

I was contacted by Levi from Cantalouper to do another poster for them, this time a headline show at Mojo's on September 2nd. As usual, the band gave me free reign and it was nice to do a poster that showcased the band as headliner. While brainstorming, one of the first ideas to come to mind was an old cassette tape. I've always liked cassette tapes. Probably because that was mainly the medium of music that I grew up with. We always had records in the house, but when my siblings started purchasing music, it was mainly on cassette. I remember talking with the guys about how some bands today are releasing new music on casstette and reverting back to the warm, lo-fi sounds of analog. And while I've never heard Cantalouper in analog form, something about their music tells me it would work perfectly in that guise.

 I added textures to both the black "plastic" of the cassette as well as the "paper" label. I think these helped in adding a bit of interest and depth to the illustration while still keeping it stylized. I added the Cantalouper head logo in place of the reels and was also glad to finally get to incorporate the font I designed as well. I kept going back, adding little details here and there like the pieces on the sides of the cassette and the strands of tape that always seem to show in the counter window. Here is the final result!

Cantalouper Font

This is the project that had kept me busy all Spring. I apologize for just getting it posted now, but as soon as it was finished, I had to rush it off to the web designer who is currently hard at work on the Cantakouper website. This is a project that I am extremely proud of. I built the font entirely in Illustrator CS4 and learned tons along the way. Designing a font is an involved process. Not only do you have to come up with a cohesive design throughout the alphabet, you also have to take into consideration the relationships between each letter. I took typography in school where we learned by definition tracking, kerning, ligature, etc. but never really worked with them on a practical level. Well, at least in the aspect of designing a font. For example, adding the curved tail to the "a" as it leads into the "l" so it will create a flow to the font almost like a cursive as opposed to leaving the curved tail off the "a" that is before the "n". The "n" has such a strong vertical stem that the curved tail wouldn't fit with it, so the blunt, non curved tail was the best option.
Technicalities aside, I plan on completing the alphabet in this style for Cantalouper so they can use it beyond their logo. But for now the basic design is in place so the construction shouldn't be too difficult, just time consuming. But I had a blast working with the band and learned a ton about Illustrator!