musical
typography
illustrative posters
the CHALLENGE
How do you make a modern poster feel like it was pulled from another century? For AIGA Jacksonville’s Always Summer Poster Show in 2012, I set out to create a piece inspired by Frank Turner’s “If Ever I Stray,” a song I was deeply enamored with.
The lyrics’ repeated references to the English Channel pushed me toward a cartographic visual language, and I became fixated on the hand-rendered typography of the Sanborn Map Company. Its denseness and precision was always still unmistakably human. The challenge was translating that intricate, analog style using modern tools without sanding off the imperfections that gave the originals their soul.
the Result
The project became a balancing act between homage and reinterpretation. My mission was twofold: to pay reverence to a musician and song I had come to adore, and to honor a historical typographic style while filtering it through contemporary production methods. By embracing modern workflows while intentionally preserving a sense of age, texture, and restraint, the final poster aimed to feel both rooted in the past and alive in the present—allowing the visual language of old-world mapmaking to carry the emotional weight of a modern song.
The completed series was submitted to the American Advertising Federation of Jacksonville’s 2010 ADDY Awards, where it received Best in Show in the student category.
I eventually presented one of these posters to Frank Turner himself, after a show in Jacksonville, Florida. He thanked me and expressed his love of the work, which I still lean on as one of my favorite design outcomes yet.
Additional Notes
Client:
Personal Project
Accolades and Submissions:
Submitted, Always Summer Poster Show 2011
(AIGA Jacksonville)
Winner, Best in Show, Student Category
(AAF Jacksonville Addys 2012)
Inspiring Music:
”If Ever I Stray” by Frank Turner
”Wagon Wheel” by Old Crow Medicine Show
”Atlantic City” by Bruce Springsteen
Special Thanks:
John Hutcheson
