Westerpop is a free annual music festival in Delft, the Netherlands. In 2010, 2012, 2013 and 2014 I designed the illustrations on the crew t-shirts of the volunteers of the festival. I also previously designed a logo for an anniversary of the festival.

Few restrictions
The assignment had only one limitations. The Westerpop logo had to be shown as close as possible to the main image, so right next to the illustration.

Westerpop rocks!
And second, the illustration had to radiate a rock concert feeling. Westerpop started out as a small rock festival. Rock is therefore still important, although the line-ups of each festival increasingly include other styles of music. To cope with the growth of the festival, recently a second stage has been added.

Enthusiastic

Jumping guitarist as a Visual Metaphor
I based the illustration on a photo of a jumping guitarist. The photo is a good reference to the Westerpop logo. And radiates pleasure, enthusiasm and passion for the music.

Light box
The photo was then traced onto a light box with a simple fineliner. By letting the lines come loose from the guitarist, creating a kind of mummy effect, the ecstasy and passion for music is well reflected in the illustration.

Art direction: hand-drawn authenticity

Natural, authentic look
Although this could have been done on a computer and with creative software like Photoshop and Illustrator, I wanted to see the natural look of a handmade illustration in the lines. That worked. The imperfections are perfect.

Scan
For further processing of the illustration, for use in printed matter, it is useful that a 'clean' digital file is available. The hand-drawn illustration was therefore scanned again, slightly edited, cleaned and color added.

Typography in Adobe Illustrator

Music and Artist Support
Adobe Illustrator was used for the typography and the other graphic elements of the design. For example, the letters were placed behind the guitarist as much as possible, to indicate that the festival supports and facilitates music artists. The festival logo and the year also had to be included.

Now biennial
Westerpop is still held in Delft, the Netherlands, is now biennial and covers many more genres of music than just rock.

Interested in having an illustration made?

I'm happy to help! Let me know what kind of illustration you need.

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