I recently commissioned a neat skull graphic for a an album cover. Skull graphics are pretty classic in the hard rock community, and this was going to be a hard rock album. Unfortunately, using such an iconic image can have its problems. Because skull crossbones graphics are everywhere, it can be difficult to find something that is fresh and exciting. Album covers make a big difference in people's decisions on whether or not to buy your music. You don't want your artwork to look just like everyone else's.
Fortunately, I have a friend who is a tattoo artist. He seems to know skull graphics better than anyone else. In addition, he has a background in graphic design that makes him even more useful for this project. I had him design the skull graphic for me. I figure that he would be able to come up with something more original than I could do on my own.
Rather than just coming up with one simple skull graphic, he came up with several designs. Some of them were pretty traditional. For example, one of them had a flaming skull and cross bones on the cover. It was so over-the-top that it was almost humorous. In this humor, I saw potential. I figured that, if the skull graphic could express the idea of heavy metal or hard rock while also being funny, it could get us more fans.
Still, I liked his other skull graphic designs even better. One of my favorites had a sort of generation X. appeal to it. It had a skeleton slouching in a hoodie and jeans. I thought it was pretty cool because most designs involving the undead are much tougher. This down to earth, mellow, bored looking death was something novel something you don't see everyday. This was the image that we chose.
We started printing that skull graphic on everything. We were taking a tour to promote the album, and we wanted our T-shirts to look like our other merchandise. We added a few quirky logos as well, and by the time we were done I was pretty impressed with our merchandise. They seemed to work too. We sold more T-shirts on the tour than ever before, and by the last show people were lining up by the dozens to buy or merch. It did not make us a fortune, But it did more than pay for the cost of the trip.
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