Naked Eye Image: Poster for Don Hill's Show

Growing up I was never really into music. Come to think of it, I can't even remember if we had a radio. (Seriously.) The only music I heard was the stuff on TV commercials and oldies over the radio while sitting in the back of my grandmother's Cadillac. Blue, by Third Eye Blind, was the first album I ever owned and I still remember exactly what the cover art looked like. I was 14 when I got it, so it pretty much became the soundtrack to my adventures through puberty.

The first album I ever owned.

Musically, a couple of things have changed in my life since I got my first album. Now I'm teaching myself to play the guitar (slow and steady) and making posters for the NYC band, Naked Eye Image. Okay, so maybe the latter isn't technically music, but it's definitely my favorite part about my involvement in the musical world.

Naked Eye Image plays heady tunes that sound like a cross between Radiohead and Coldplay. They could probably give you a much better estimate of who they sound like so I'm just going to stop at that. You can check out their music and contact the band through their myspace.

Getting a chance to visually explore NEI's musical concepts was a treat. Usually I'm trying to figure out how best to visually represent a business or an individual's ideas, but with NEI I'm one artist attempting to convey the ideas of other artists. I'm not going to lie; making this poster was difficult. I kept thinking about all the nuances, emotions, and ideas behind the music and wondering how the hell to put a face to it. (Never mind the fact that I still had to try and figure out what the "message" is.) The band invited me to their studio for a few hours to hang out in order to help me get a feel for who they are, and we had a great time listening to music and looking at scores of album covers that they like.

In the end I think I put something together that begins to introduce their deep emotional innards to the world. Hopefully I'll get a chance to do it again.

NEI poster. Look closely at the pieces of paper.

Check 'em out: http://www.myspace.com/nakedeyeimage. I hope to see you at the show!

Until next time.