How I Learned to Stop Fixing and Start Shipping

This design fought me the entire way, but also cleared the way for my Spring micro-collection. Want to see it?

The biggest problem with big ideas is that they seem so grand prior to execution, but as soon as you find yourself deep at sea with those ideas, you sometimes find they don’t hold water.

I had this idea for a micro-series of shirt designs all revolving around classic record shops that just by looking at them would stir emotions in the people who saw them. Honest Jon’s, Hyde Park, Bleecker Bob’s, Amoeba Records in Berkeley, and Hollywood Tower Records; if you ever had the luck of stepping foot in any of them, you know how they look, smell, and sound. Each shop evokes a vibe that would be hard to mistake, but could I capture that in an image without infringing upon any intellectual property?

Short answer: No.

Tower Records on Sunset Strip, Hollywood, CA - Closed in 2006

Tower Records was my most favorite record shop, and though I rarely got to visit the one in Hollywood, I can still feel what it’s like to walk in the door, smell the mustiness of the ceiling tiles tinted by smog and mildew, and the squeak of my shoes on the linoleum tiled floor. The walls were covered with handcrafted, 3-dimensional, foam versions of popular albums that stood floor to ceiling, and of course, there were rows upon rows of albums and CDs that presented an orgy of choice.

The music was often of popular music from the day, but occasionally you’d hear classics, or something from a local band you didn’t know about until you saw the Now Playing station at the register.

Before I sunk myself into any of the music, I would hit the magazine stand with it’s unmatched collection of mag, comics, and zines that dwarfed even the big-box bookstores. It was a magazine designers heaven, and it’s possibly I miss that more than the music itself.

I chose to start my illustrated tributes with Tower Records, copying the linear angles of the building, adding a bit of extreme perspective to add depth, but the more I worked on it, the less I felt like people would get the reference. This idea wasn’t working.

This was a rough attempt, and though not finished and plenty of details to be added to potentially resemble the original shop, I just knew it wasn’t going to work. Maybe someone more talented than me could make it happen, but I decided to go a different direction, and though completely different, I’m happy with the result, which also leaves the door open for more opportunity

This is what’s next…

• The inspiration behind the shift in the design

• The illustration process and why it took longer than expected

• How I’m using the design in my latest micro-collection, and a sneak peek at what’s coming.

• How I plan to carry this concept over to new work