From The Pedalboard

From the Pedalboard was my BFA thesis show within the We Designed This exhibition. I wanted this project to explore the significance and creation of personal style within the central Illinois DIY scene. How does a local band scene help people further develop themselves as creators? I was inspired by the energy, sense of community, handwritten setlists, wall artwork, and grungy environment that is a house show. Through these forms of inspiration, I developed a series of physical and digital elements to express the raw, collaborative nature of the scene that I’ve grown alongside.

Posters

The poster series highlights three bands – Dayshift, Kangaroo Court, and Heaving. — each representing a different corner of the central Illinois scene. I drew inspiration from local show posters I’ve collected over the years, as well as from UNMATCHED., a poster I previously created about the Bloomington-Normal music scene. The posters feature multiple different custom typefaces that were hand-drawn, cut, and scanned to give them a distinctly DIY, collage-style appeal. The non-traditional shape of each piece was designed after the photos were placed, allowing for the image composition to guide the layout – giving the posters a raw, dynamic structure. They are displayed on my main wall in the show to emphasize which bands the project highlights.

Zine

The zine is centered around Dayshift, focusing on the nature of local music, design, and DIY culture. I drew inspiration from the zines that I’ve collected at shows and echoed visual elements from the posters to help keep everything cohesive.

The content came from a post-interview conversation with the band, where they shared their musical backgrounds, how they became a part of the band, biggest influences, and favorite venues–insight not included in the interview video. Fifty hand-numbered copies were printed, each designed so that the back folds out to the single cover artwork for Perchance–without needing to cut the page. These were placed on the table next to the video, along with individually wrapped earplugs for visitors to take and wear to future house shows.

The band broke up midway through the project, shortly after I interviewed them for the video. While the Perchance cover was never officially released, I did assist them with the photoshoot for their debut single Hideaway, which can be seen and heard here

Interviews

The interview features all three bands–like the posters–and offers insight into into how each group formed, developed their sound, and how they view the different music scenes across central illinois. Through interviews, live shows, and location-based footage, the goal was to create visual directness that captures the voices, textures, and energy of the scene. Live footage of Heaving. was provided by TJ Syndram, Becca Neblock, and Stumbling Block, a video collective I’ve worked with since 2023. The Poster titles were individually animated to reflect each band’s style. During the show, the video played beside the zines, while scattered setlists and a disco light helped evoke the energy and environment of the local scene.

CLICK HERE!

Pedalboard Title

The title was the final aspect to be created. I came up with the name on my way to one of these local shows, reflecting on my style of photography–often low-angle– and the fact that all of the bands rely heavily on guitar pedals to produce their unique sound. I searched through my photo archive and came across two reference images: the top left by Korgan Robb (of The Courts and Friko, Chicago-based bands) and the bottom left by Joey Unger (of Loose 9000, a popular band in the Bloomington-Normal DIY scene). The pedals were simplified into letters, painted, and assembled. To provide an extra level of detail, and with the help of Joey Unger, they were even wired correctly, just like a real pedalboard would be.