PPP: SELF INITIATED PROJECT = COMMISSION $$$

After completing the Circus Leeds brief it made me realise that those types of commissions were not really the kind I was hoping to get in the future due to the outcomes nature not really being my style. I wanted to get some work relating to music, record labels and specifically hard-core punk labels as this particular genre of music was a personal favourite of mine. To get the attention of some bands and labels within this genre I decided to curate the first Leeds Hardcore Punk playlist given the fact I had background knowledge and friends within these bands I felt like this would be a fun and easy task. I approached several local record labels and bands that I knew and some that I didn't asking for help to curate the playlist.

After carefully putting the playlist together of Leeds hardcore punk bands over a month, I designed an appealing cover image for the playlist using a photo I had taken of one of the bands featured a while back and a few symbols relating to the genre as well as my own logo. This gave it a slightly more official appearance. I then posted in on instagram, tagging all the bands/labels featured and all the people who helped make it. It got shared a bunch of time by these other accounts and my follower count increased loads with people within that community.

A week later, I was contacted by a new client from Boston who was a drummer in a hardcore punk band over in America. He stated that he found me through the Leeds Hardcore playlist (somehow). He was starting a new electronic dance label with undertones of punk and wanted me to create the cover art for his new complication. 

After a lot of back and fourth between the client and giving him several options to choose from we ended up on this design which he was incredibly happy with. I invoiced him and he said he'd pass my name onto several other bands and labels in Boston. He also later came to me for more work, asking me to create some merchandise for his new label. The decision to create the Leeds Hardcore playlist was a very good one.