The branding aims to increase awareness of a new chapter in the artist’s musical journey, increase ticket sales for her new tour, and increase exposure to her new album. It brings a fresh perspective to a music scene increasingly reliant on technology by channeling the rich soul and ingenuity of culture from centuries past.

The following is the contents of the Brand Playbook, showcasing the brand, which was developed over four months.

You are sitting in a dimly lit room, surrounded by others, craving the same enlightenment from the musicians, extending their wisdom to the crowd. The performers elicit and educate on the deeply rooted connections of the music they perform. Beautiful melodies escape the stage, reaching deeply inside, resonating within you. Lost and found simultaneously, you acknowledge what is happening before you; you are experiencing visceral art performed in front of you. You are experiencing an exploration of culture and wisdom, improvisation of learned melodies, chords, and rhythm. The musicians make the deeply rooted connections ever-present as words, music, and imagery excite neurons in your mind as profoundly embedded genes within you are once again coming to life, pulsating with clarity.

Hip-hop is not just about music; art and fashion have evolved as a unit. One necessary attribute of this brand was the inclusion or appearance of street or subway art. The use of this medium in the branding speaks directly to the culture that Mandy is sharing with her audience. Although it went through equal growing pains like its counterpart, rap music, it is now more accepted and revered. Artists now use street art to highlight or pay homage to people or events of significant cultural or sociopolitical meaning. It is a powerful way to shed light on injustice and hopefully plant seeds for a brighter future.

Recreating the street art look for the branding required several vital components. When developing the branding for Mandy Madison, it was essential to utilize brick texture as that was more representative of street art or the powerful murals that have increased in scale and quantity in recent years. Initially, the branding started with brick and concrete, but ultimately, the concrete was cold, stark, and distracting, whereas the brick provided warmth, grit or texture, and a needed pattern.

Continuing this nostalgic trip, another critical piece of imagery in the look and feel of the brand is the organic, free-flowing art representing an ancient art technique, Paper Marbling. The main image used throughout was created digitally using MidJourney, a generative AI program, with a prompt calling out the art process and specifying the colors. Although it is representative of the revival that design and art are experiencing, where old-world printing techniques are on the rise alongside new art and design technologies, it may only partially be as meteoric. The “portraits of Mandy” were created through MidJourney as well. Again, it is essential to remember that Mandy herself is fictional, as is artwork created by an algorithm. The importance of the imagery is the way they work together harmoniously to create something, albeit digital, that has the presence of a physical mural.

The brand's visual success relies on its color palette and typography choices. The initial typography choices were revised after several months, as they needed to fit better with the brand's nostalgic elegance and power. The revised typography choices complemented the overall branding better. Ultimately, the decision was made to utilize fonts from the Tipofili foundry, which specializes in fonts influenced by hand-lettered posters from the early twentieth century. One of the most excellent features of the header font is how well it works when manipulated to flow, allowing further cohesion with the rest of the imagery.

The primary color purple works well, not only because of its link to creativity but also wealth. Wealth refers to a wealth of knowledge, the knowledge or, more precisely, wisdom that Mandy and her band are sharing with their audience. The other primary color is blue, specifically dark blue, which also speaks to spirituality, but more importantly, it speaks to intelligence and trustworthiness. This is important as the need for this tour is rooted in understanding and enrichment. The target audience trusts Mandy Madison to guide them on a musical and visual journey that transforms their understanding of the music she is creating.

The three secondary colors are significant for multiple reasons beyond just complementing and creating contrast with richer colors in the palette. Black is associated with sophistication and power. These are both attributes that can also be associated with understanding as the more the consumer begins to understand a subject, such as music, and more specifically, specific genres of that art form, such as Jazz and Hip-hop, they begin to acquire a level of power or sophistication in their understanding. The goldish or peach orange used speaks to creativity, energy, and boldness, which this tour offers. The muted approach to the color also speaks to the earth itself and nature, where repetition, pattern, and rhythm thrive on both an audible and visual scale that humans continue to discover. It also leans slightly into a metallic or gold shade of orange, which speaks to prosperity and wealth, hinting at wisdom.

The tagline (seen above) came about when looking at the music from an all-encompassing view. African American communities used music to cope with the traumas of enslavement, communicating about life, death, spirituality, and emotions. Beyond simply understanding the music from a historical or cultural perspective, making the connections as to the origins is the importance of what understanding does for humanity. Music speaks to most humans profoundly, whether as a form of communication in place of written or simply verbal, versus listening out of enjoyment or as a spiritual community. Hip-hop is even now becoming a viable option in the medical community to treat common woes of human beings, such as depression and anxiety. Hence, the tagline “Evolving Mind and Enriching Soul” speaks directly to the power of music and hip-hop as a genre of music for spiritual and social change.

There needed to be more cohesion due to too many stylistic differences across the original Look & Feel Board. The imagery, including texture and pattern, went through the most iterations. It is visible that the texture section was overrun with conflicting images, some of which would barely qualify as textures versus images; the same thing can be said of the pattern section. Ultimately, these choices would be narrowed even further as the brand continued progressing, and they would help form a visual system to convey the brand message.

A drastic difference can be seen between the original and final vision boards (seen above,) created four months apart. Revisions were being made due to significant changes in the brand identity throughout that time. From a top-level perspective, the document was simplified and made far more cohesive as it aged.

The essential pieces of media to create were SWAG elements that could either be complimentary for audience members at a show or sold in music retailers or lifestyle specialty retail stores.

The T-shirt design was prompted by designs that can be purchased for “jam bands” or psychedelic rock shirts for many decades in the US. Generally, these T-shirts utilize tye-dye as part of the design, which has a way of wrapping around or encompassing the shirt in color. This approach worked well for this design by utilizing the organic shapes of the brand and creating intrigue on both the front and back of the design.

Initially, the vinyl record would include a vinyl action figure or doll in the packaging. As the sketch below shows, there would be pop-up elements so that the record jacket would work as a diorama representing a music venue where the consumer could place their doll. Ultimately, the realization was that this was going too far; as with most collectors, the idea is to keep things intact, especially collectible toys, which instantly lose value when removed from packaging. With that in mind, the decision was made to make these two separate pieces of SWAG.

The psychographics of the target audience were the driving force behind many of the design decisions. It largely overtook the logo design after weeks of sketching and revising. The logo came from aha moments and the collective research from the coursework, from thinking back to the need, but most importantly, thinking of the brand persona. This tour is intended for melomaniacs, audiophiles who voraciously collect vinyl music and indulge in live shows, the history and culture they come steeped in, and a further understanding of where that music came from and where it is headed.

Mandy hopes to reach the audience of enthusiasts and purveyors of vintage goods. Customers are part of the “re-commerce” movement, a trend that increased through COVID-19, where younger shoppers with wealth continue to grow revenue in the secondhand market. In some cases, they are willing to pay more for the value or exclusivity of the items. Another view of the trend in secondhand or used markets increasing is meaningful commerce. Meaningful commerce can be achieved by supporting small businesses, researching product manufacturing to ensure it aligns with their values, or buying and selling secondhand items. Younger generations are starting to embrace vintage items, but funny enough, one section of commerce where this has been clear for some time is the sale of used records or vinyl. Going back to 2018, the number of record stores was increasing, and in 2022, vinyl record sales reached a 35-year high, pushing the production and sale of records even further.

While conceptualizing the logo, exploring and playing with the font and the individual placement of letters led to something more profound and exploratory, like jazz album covers through the ’60s and ’70s, allowing the words to flow. Digging back into that nostalgia of a different time allowed a new concept to emerge, more indicative of the music. It speaks to the music that significantly defined the artist and the music the target audience seeks a better understanding of. Jazz, Soul, and funk eventually evolved into one of the most popular forms of music today, Rap. However, more importantly, it showcases the culture that created that music: Hip-Hop. Through the exploration done, two letters indicated a form that had yet to be seen through any previous explorations: a needle. That needle, specifically a needle that allows music to be transmitted from a piece of vinyl through a speaker and then to the human ear, is vital for the development of Hip-Hop, and it speaks directly to the target audience of this brand. The rest of the design quite literally formed around it!