Sometime this past August, I was approached by the MTV World Design Studio in Buenos Aires to create a “gig-poster style” print ad for their 2011 European Music Awards, which will feature a live performance by the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Now, as a late 80’s skate rat, I grew up on the Red Hot Chili Peppers, picking up the Uplift Mofo Party Plan on cassette after watching them live via VHS at the Vision Skate Escape, and even though I haven’t really followed the group over the past few years, I was still stoked to work on something for the band.
MTV provided a specific reference photo for the illustration, as well as the EMA logo, a style guide and three specific colors that needed to be used (the pink, purple and dark purple that you see in the poster, which, as you might imagine, proved a little difficult to work with.) After a few rounds of back and forth, what you see to your left is what we came up with.
Internally the folks at MTV Design dug it, but higher-ups in the company decided to go a totally different direction, preferring to use a photo of the soon-to-be-announced host instead. A bummer for sure but what can you do.
So, instead of leaving this to languish in some digital graveyard, I decided to post it here for your enjoyment. Like Kurtis Blow said, these are the breaks.
