thisisalyssalee

I love two things in life: music and design. Combining the two just made sense, but I had the little issue for a bit of not having any clients. Of course, when Jacques and Dan mentioned web work, I got all sorts of excited and motivated and worked to make them websites that both supported their sound and looked majorly sexy.

The Projection.

The Projection are a local pop-punk band from Manteno, IL and great friends. They’re awesome musicians and work their asses off to support the music scene in the suburbs. I designed a website and WordPress blog for them. It includes ReverbNation widgets for shows and scheduling, a Twitter widget because everyone needs/loves social media, and an mp3 player in the header to easily listen to the Projection (does not play automatically, by the way).

The handwritten font as headers really supports the punk aesthetic. This was my first experiment with using @font-face.

I liked the site, but really felt it was lacking some extra bit of interest. While experimenting with some ideas, I added the wood background, and my problems were solved! That little extra bit of detail and texture holds the site together better.

Daniel Bevan Swanberg.

Never would I have thought that the kid I made vegetarian sandwiches for at Subway would become one heck of a great friend and work with me to create one heck of a great website! Dan is a music composition major at Columbia College in Chicago and wanted a portfolio site. I was really excited to make a site with a more ‘classical’ composition feel to it. It features photographs that are sized to fit the browser window, something brand new I tried out. I really like how it looks!

I designed the site with a photo on the intro page, and the inside pages had a plain black background. Once again, I wasn’t incredibly impressed, but added a photograph as the background to the inside pages, and that was it! My “ta da” moment. I think the lesson I’ve learned from both of these sites is that I very much enjoy texture on websites. Besides coding Dan a WordPress, this site is up-and-running!

Visit these websites to support my good friends and great, talented musicians!

The Projection | Daniel Bevan Swanberg

Peace and positive energy,

-Alyssa

The idea came to me in a car. Kid Cudi was playing, and it was a gorgeous fall day. Something about his Man On the Moon album was just hitting me the right way. Then, the song Highs ‘N’ Lows came on, which is preceded by the whisper “midwest action”. The phrase just struck me, and though I didn’t have any plans yet, I knew something awesome was going to come from it.

Fast forward quite a few months, and I’ve started my project, screened some shirts, hosted a few shows, and attended a few others. MWA is still a baby, but it’s been going so well. I designed most Midwest Action visuals myself and thought I would share the project as a whole.

LOGO. The first hurdle I had to tackle was making a logo. I feel like New York is glamorous, California is edgy and surf-y, but the Midwest is more subtle and classic, and I feel like the badge shape really reflects that. Adding texture to it is calls to the aesthetic of the region as well; it makes the logo rugged. I really think there is something beautiful in the ‘infiniteness’ of the sky and farmland.

Read the rest of this entry »

I want to start this off by saying: Craig Owens certainly knows how to put on a show.

This acoustic show was one concert out of about three or four that I ticket binged on just recently. When I bought my ticket, I didn’t have a concert buddy to accompany me, but I was just that dedicated. I got there as the first band was playing and hung around in the back for a while. I actually hung around the back for three opening performances. As the fourth band began, I wiggled my way into the second row. And then, I waited.

Yes, all the other bands that played were good and really very talented, but when I purchased tickets for a Craig Owens acoustic show, I wasn’t necessarily looking forward to waiting four-and-a-half hours and sitting through five acoustic sets from bands I wasn’t familiar with. But my persistence was underestimated. Everyone’s was.

Read the rest of this entry »

Hey all! I realized I haven’t posted a blog lately keeping you all updated with what I’m designing. There is a lot in the works right now, both in my mind and at my kitchen table/desk, but I thought I’d share my most recent poster project.

Jacques e-mailed about creating a poster/flyer for the Manteno Oktoberfest bands that would be performing. As I am so recently obsessed with letterpress and western-style fonts, I tried to emulate that style with the few posters I designed. Have a look: Read the rest of this entry »

I am in love with the Midwest. There just isn’t one, single thing that I don’t like about it, unless its temperatures stop my car from working. Unfortunately, though, I haven’t visited too much of it. I suppose that when I say “I love the Midwest”, I really mean “I love Chicago and its surrounding suburbs, and Indiana where the beach is”. This was an issue.

When Josh offered for me to join him at 319 Fest in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, I enthusiastically jumped on the opportunity.

Iowa! Did you hear me? Iowa!

Besides the fact that I would be crossing a state line, the 319 Fest looked amazing! It included an artist’s tent and a pretty impressive roster of musicians. If I were to join a dating site, “discovering new local and independent bands” would have to be posted under my interests, right alongside “cats”.

The ride there was filled with some good conversation, good music, and a good stop at the BIGGEST TRUCK STOP IN AMERICA. Did you know it has a library, movie theater, a dentist… and probably more, but then I got distracted by the Caribou Coffee.

Two hours after, we arrived. Read the rest of this entry »