This was done for my Advertising Design class in 2009. The assignment was to take a song and design a concert poster inspired by it with just text and shape.

The song I picked was "Toy Piano Melody" by the Banana Splits, a rickety-tink ragtime pastiche featuring tack piano and an oddly appropriate recorder playing the melody.

I didn't want to go the obvious route and just do an old-timey poster. No, that was not enough for a pop culture geek such as me! My intent was to capture the '60s version of the early jazz era.

To do this I looked at vintage photographs of Disneyland's Main Street (where I got most of the colors and architectural details) as well as the cover of The New Vaudeville Band's Winchester Cathedral. I also took the long-winded text and multiple fonts from Victorian posters, specifically the one that inspired "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!".

A bit much for sweaty men in silly costumes pretending to play bubblegum music, but that's how I do things.