FRED

I truly enjoyed the opportunity to brand pop act FRED from the ground up. Working with lead songwriter Gabriel Molinaro, we created a persona that functioned as an anti-hero. FRED’s brand narrative boldly backtracks, allowing for the stylized elevation of vulnerable moments like bursting into tears or preparing for a kinky encounter. Branding, stills and a website were created, as well as visuals for digital & print PR.

Roles

Creative Direction

Branding Design

Visual Design

Skills

Copywriting

Web & Visual Design

Photo Styling & Retouching

Tools

AdobeCC

Squarespace

Building FRED

Working intuitively, story & brandmark ideas were presented in tandem. These initial ideas of “boldly backtracking” helped cement photo concepts for the treatment of stills.

Brandmark

FRED’s wordmark is set in an oblique Helvetica Neue. Moving forward and backward at the same time, the FRED mark alludes to bold moves and their inevitable erasure. The palette is a play on CMYK, the building blocks of color printing.

Treatment & Photoshoot

Working remotely from NYC with a team in Seattle, a treatment was created to prepare FRED’s photographer (Christian Sorenson Hansen) wardrobe stylist (Cybele Olsen) and makeup artist (Rick Toth).

Final Stills