I was hired by an agency in Southern California to creative direct a brand build for an emerging young musician named Antonio Buell. The agency, Oniracom, made its bones branding and promoting the musician Jack Johnson early in his career and into the now. They have a solid track record within the music industry and Antonio approached them to help him build his emerging brand. Oniracom contacted me to help drive the effort as CD on the project. I worked closely with the client and the agency stakeholders to develop directions and execute on the path Antonio would eventually choose. I drove client meetings, generated multiple resources such as building client-side decks, created design and tonal assets, directed photo shoots, and designed the final brand book.
Antonio from Scratch
The client and the agency gave buy-in to the direction and after some tweaks, and a last-minute pivot with the client, the ident was grown from a pencil sketch provided by Antonio. It has. a slightly retro 80’s feel and also playfully incorporates the universal ‘record’ and ‘play’ symbols. The final mark captures Antonio’s aesthetic and the tone of his brand.
The final brand book captures the spirit and energy of the artist and their work. Photography was key to building a successful brand for Antonio. While in a normal world, I’d want the imagery to have an artist like Antonio to show him interacting with groups (friends around a bonfire at the beach, or in a loving room with a guitar), to have him presented in his element as an entertainer and storyteller—around people. We were shooting during the height of COVID and that presented a myriad of challenges. Adapting to this environment would mean images that lean into his soulfulness and would be more intimate and personal—energetic scenes with audiences and friends would have to wait until after the pandemic waned. *Now that we are exiting COVID, that shoot seems like a different time and place with very different constraints on creativity. I worked with Santa Barbara-based photographer Stephen Lewis for several days. We captured capturing Antonio in several environments (rolling coastal hills, the beach, and on stage at a local historic theater) really drove home his versatility as a musician and creator and gave me a ton of compelling imagery to work with.
The final deliverable was the style guide. It is clear, concise and easily accessible. The a and guidelines are well defined and adapt well to any channel or circumstance.
