Rocking the Revenue: Success of Band Merchandise

The metal drawing session began with hours of listening to their music and finding the right illustration tone. Below you’ll find the story of the project creation, from early sketches to the finished product. ROCK ON!


A dream project: creating imagery for a rock band! We broke ground in 2019, with a German band known as NUMP.

We met with Christian, the lead singer, and started by discovering and sketching how the music was related to the illustration and fan base. The imagery centers around life and how everything comes to an end. 
The solid composition of skulls (because it's METAL!), the hourglass and the moth were a hit. We enjoyed creating the series of sketches, ideas, and typography.

When we started to ideate and develop Nump's illustration, we wanted it to be both versatile and how it could apply to other items outside of apparel: posters, stickers, etc. We created subtle elements within the illustration that could lead to patterns.

After building the illustration, the next was to create a font for the band name, which was a fun challenge due to the other typeface not relating to the curves of the moth. This typeface we chose is a nice contrast against the illustration and complimented the design.

Next, we applied the designs of t-shirts, posters, socks, etc. Important to note: the design elements were used on large applications to small patterning pieces.

We're a huge fan of the front badge pocket on t-shirts with a large impact graphic on the back. This adds value to the design as well rounded appearance, by not cheapening it by only applying it as a front-facing graphic.

The work we created for this brand was a fun and educational experience. We created a versatile and responsive illustration that we’re proud of. Band merch is a fun way to experiment, stretch our skills, and test possible composition design concepts we can use on other projects.