Melanie, McKenzie, and Madelyn Merchant are the oldest of 7 musical siblings from Gilbert, Arizona entertaining audiences from Arizona to New York. By 2006, Melanie had become a featured singer-songwriter and opened with an original song for a benefit event honoring the legendary Wynonna Judd. In the Summer of 2007, they formed their country-bluegrass band Melanie and Firefly to perform during Writer’s Night at the world-famous Bluebird Cafe in Nashville, Tennessee. They went on to share the stage with The Gin Blossoms, Ryan Shupe & The Rubberband, and Benton Paul later that year.
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In expanding Firefly‘s reach and fanbase, I created social media accounts for Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Reverbnation and Flickr (this was also when MySpace was still desirable so I did that too). No matter where you went on the web, Firefly once had a distinctive visual brand that matched their message. Every web address or profile name is easily remembered as “iheartfirefly.”
Over time, each website has changed its functionality, appearance, and user audience. Additionally, Firefly was given responsibility to manage their own accounts so none of the pages look as they once did when everything was streamlined in the visual brand I created for them.
Whether use at 120×120 pixels or reduced to 16×16 pixels, the idea was that you could still identify them by their logo and faces anywhere on the web. Here is the profile picture most often used by Firefly on each account:
This is a free-standing banner I created for Firefly. It’s important to have your name visible where your audience can see it. Many times they will not know who you are if you they did not come to see you specifically. Make sure to add your web address too so they can find out more about you and future shows.
McKenzie Merchant of Firefly playing near her band stage banner:
Banner Design:
Many times the first impression a person gets is what they see of an artist before they even hear them sing. So, I invest greatly in helping artists convey the message of their brand visually.
This is one of my favorite hand-crafted projects I’ve created to promote a musical act. I came up with this “pop up” press kit when thinking about Firefly‘s song “Fairytale.” I wanted to present their pictures, music, and story in storybook fashion to potential investors and producers and quickly impress them. (I’m glad to say it worked!)
Each kit is made of 3 sheets of heavyweight 18×13 inch paper and a CD. When folded flat the kit measures 13 inches wide by 9 inches tall and is about 1/4 inch thick. All cuts were made by exacto knife and pieces folded assembled with glue then the kit was shrink wrapped by hand.
Front Cover:
Inside with cut/score lines for internal stands (See how these are made and operate, click here):
Inside assembled with hands and flourish components:
Inside from an angle to see pop up elements:
Inside Above:
Inside Side View:
Inner Layer of the Back:
Back:
Back with windows open to reveal faces of Melanie, McKenzie, and Madelyn behind the main instrument they play:
What kinds of things do you do to develop a visual part of a message? Is it graphic design, fashion, choreography, Sign Language, etc.? I’d like to know what you are doing. Thanks! – JR
Once I created the print version of this invitation, the email version was a snap. I used the images in a downward sequence, adding a bit of html code and sent out emails to the 50 or so potential investors who were invited to Firefly‘s private showcase.
