There’s no debating that the Phish organization were marketing geniuses when it came to building and nurturing their community and creating a brand that hundreds of thousand of kids identified with. How many bands do you know that can put together a festival in upstate Maine that can draw enough people to be the largest city in the state for the weekend, complete with their own radio station?
Distinctive artwork has always been a key component for Phish’s branding efforts, starting with the cover art of their first record, Junta. Jim Pollock, a college friend of the band, has been the driving force behind the band’s artwork since the mid 80s – creating album covers, t-shirt designs, stickers, and perhaps most importantly, the bands limited edition, signed and numbered tour posters.
Jim’s most recent work for Phish was his limited run of posters for the bands first dates in four years, at Hampton, Virginia. Take a look at the video below detailing Jim’s time-intensive process for creating his linoleum cut prints. Phish’s connection with Jim is a wonderful example of creative musicians aligning themselves with a creative artist to provide their fans with a more rich and engaging experience.
Phish artist Jim Pollock’s Hampton 2009 concert poster from Jason Kaczorowski on Vimeo.
sick man. love the video. Seems like most bands do something like this but with mutliple artists not a single artist like phish. wonder if that helps with the cult following.
Burt,
I do think there’s something to be said about consistency with branding. Non-music related: look at the uproar over the change in the Tropicana container.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/23/business/media/23adcol.html?_r=1
Mike
Reminds me of Nine Inch Nails’ relationship with their art director, Rob Sheridan, since around 1999-2000. He has done artwork and design for most of their releases since that time, helped design the visuals at their concerts, and built an extensive online network for the band and fans. Very impressive, and definitely improves the brand.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rob_sheridan
http://www.rob-sheridan.com/
http://www.nin.com
Great comparison, Mike.
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Mike,
I love this post, and this video ! I think it’s amazing thing when a band/musician can connect with an artist for creating all of that band/musician’s art work. I definitely think it helps people to indentify the band as well, by recognizing the type of art work associated to their music and brand. Excellent post.
Thanks so much for sharing this Michael!!!
It’s an excellent example of what can happen when creative people from different arts collaborate. It’s something we’re doing our best to encourage with our group ‘THE VIBE’.
‘THE VIBE’ is a place where artists, writers, filmmakers, actors, dancers, photographers… can come together to form new friendships, new collaborations and fuel inspiration.
For more info – please feel free to join our facebook group at:
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/event.php?eid=55282899410&ref=mf
Cheers!
Jules