Grammy Nominated Graphic Design in Austin Texas | Backstage Design Studio

Friday, April 6th, 2012

2012 AIGA Texas Show Kicks Off In Austin This Week

Attention fellow Texans! The Good Luck & True Love record packaging design has been selected for The 2012 AIGA Texas Show’s Traveling Exhibit, which opens this weekend, here in Austin, at the Gallery Black Lagoon! This too-cool-for-school show will be trucking across the great Lone Star State this summer, making stops in San Antonio, Houston and DFW, before making the long trek to The Big Apple. Yes…THE Big Apple.

If you get the opportunity, between now and August, please plan a visit to one of these fabulous venues to check out the exhibit.

AUSTIN

Gallery Black Lagoon | 4301 A Guadalupe St. Austin, TX 78751
Opening Reception and Awards Ceremony: April 6th 6pm-10pm
Exhibit runs April 7-8, 14-15

SAN ANTONIO

Agora (formerly Transit) | 1907 S. St. Mary’s Street San Antonio, TX 78210
Exhibit runs May 4-28, weekends only

HOUSTON

Heights Theater | 339 West 19 Street Houston, TX. 77008
Exhibit date June 7

DALLAS / FORT WORTH

Tractorbeam | 325 Cesar Chavez Dallas, Texas 75201
Exhibit runs July 7-15

NEW YORK CITY

AIGA National Design Center | 164 Fifth Avenue New York, NY 10010
Exhibit runs August 3-25

Tags: AIGA, Album Art, Art Director, Austin, Award, CD Art, CD Cover, CD Design, Competition, Dallas, Design, Designers, Ft Worth, Gallery Black Lagoon, Good Luck & True Love, Good Luck And True Love, Graphic Design, Graphic Designer, Houston, Reckless Kelly, Record Packaging Design, San Antonio, Sarah Dodds, Shauna Dodds, Texas, Texas Show, The Big Apple, The Texas SHow, Traveling Exhibit, TX
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Tuesday, April 3rd, 2012

“Good Luck & True Love” Takes Home LSM Award for Best Album Artwork – Thank You for Voting!!

The Annual Lone Star Music Awards were held this past Sunday at the Texas Music Theater in San Marcus, and Reckless Kelly took home four of the coveted Armadillos: Song of The Year ( for “Good Luck & True Love”), Best Americana/Roots Rock Album, Best Album Art, and Cody nabbed Best Musician. Congratulations, guys. You deserve all of it, and then some. We’re just thrilled that you’ve allowed us to tag along for a while!

Thank you! ¡Gracias! Merci! Domo Arigato! Danke shone! There aren’t enough translations of the two simple words, “thank” and “you,” to show the gratitude that we feel this week. THANK YOU to everyone who took time out of their day to vote for the Lone Star Music Awards, and a double thank you, thank you, to all of you that voted for “Good Luck & True Love” for Best Album Art! We are over the moon. It’s such a blessing to be able to do what you love for a living, with the people you love, for the people that inspire you. And, it’s because of all of you that we even have that opportunity.

Congratulations, not only to those who took home a trophy this year, but to everyone who was nominated. You’re a truly talented group of people, and you make The Lone Star State proud just by doing what you were all born to do. Thank you for taking pride in what you do, for making music for us to jam out to, and for giving us stuff to do on weekends (and M-F, 9-5, hint hint). You rock.

I know we’ve been blowing up our Facebook pages with our ‘oodling’ over them, but we’re going to take a few seconds to do it some more: This has to be the coolest trophy of all time. Each is a one-of-a-kind chainsaw carving by Doug Moreland. We’ve always wanted a DM original, and to now have one that’s a Lone Star Music Award, to boot . . . How cool is that? If you haven’t seen the video that they put together of Moreland making these guys, click here to check it out.

A massive thank you to Lone Star Music, The Texas Music Theater, and everyone else involved in putting on this spectacular event! You’ve made us all (everyone in this crazy scene), look and feel like rockstars. What a fantastic night! Whoever put together all the rad graphics and video clips for the presentation deserves a hearty pat on the back, and a raise. Too cool, guys. Too cool.

Tags: 2012, Armadillo, Best Album Artwork, CD Art, CD Cover, CD Design, CD packaging, Chainsaw Carving, Cody Braun, Design, Doug Moreland, Good Luck & True Love, Graphic Design, Graphic Designer, Lone Star Music, Lone Star Music Award Nominee, Lone Star Music Award Winner, LoneStarMusic.com, Reckless Kelly, Recording Package, San Marcos, Sarah Dodds, Shauna Dodds, Texas Music Theater
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Saturday, March 31st, 2012

The 10th & Final Tom Webb Benefit in Luling, TX

This Sunday, April 1st, marks the 1oth and final Tom Webb Benefit in Luling, Texas.

We’ve always felt a bit cheated that we never had the honor of meeting Tom Webb, IV, as he left long before we made our way to Austin. Though we never shook hands, nodded at an introduction or toasted to each other’s good fortune at a show, he feels like an old friend. His presence is one that is felt in the spirit of those who did know him, and who gather each spring to celebrate the memory of this bright and talented young man.

For 10 years, now, the Webb family has worked diligently to honor Tom with the annual “Tom Webb Benefit: A Celebration of Life & Music,” raising funds to help local students pursue their dreams. With the success of the 9 events held, to date, they’ve been able to award an amazing 87 scholarships, totaling $174,000 – a true testament to the verve of the Webb family and Luling Community.

For the past 6, we’ve had the privilege of collaborating with Tom’s sister, Tori, on the artwork for the celebration, resulting in 5 beautiful poster designs you see below, and the final poster design, above. We’ve always taken a great deal of pride in being a part of such an extraordinary event, and are terribly sad to bid it adieu.

We only hope that the Webb Family is proud of what they’ve been able to accomplish for the youth of Luling, TX, and of the investment they’ve made in the future of their community. We’re certain that Tom is, as are we.

Make plans to head down (or up, mind you) to the Watermelon Thump Pavillion in the heart of Downtown Luling, Texas this Sunday for one last dance, and to help raise money to keep the scholarship fund filled for years to come!

Click Here to visit the official Celebration website for more information. And, we’ll see ya there!

Tags: Austin, Celebration, Cory Morrow, Event Poster, Graphic Design, Graphic Designer, Luling, Poster Art, Poster Design, Sarah Dodds, Shauna Dodds, Texas, Tom Webb, TX
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Wednesday, February 22nd, 2012

Lone Star Music Awards – VOTE NOW!!

We’re rather proud to tattle that we have two pieces in the running for the 2012 Lone Star Music Award for Best Album Art: Reckless Kelly‘s “Good Luck & True Love,” and Ethan Messick’s “The Only Easy Day Was Yesterday.” Sarah and I are positively tickled pink to be considered for this award….especially for two designs!

We’re up against some pretty stiff competition, though. Also in the running are these admirable works (L to R): Mike McClure Band – “50 Billion,” Damn Quails – “Down The Hatch,” Hayes Carll – “KMAG YOYO,” Jason Boland & The Stragglers – “Rancho Alto,” and Whiskey Myers – “Firewater”

Though the Reckless album has gotten a lot of exposure on our site (especially recently), we don’t have as much up about about Ethan’s CD…Not intentionally, of course – we just never got around to posting about the projects that directly preceded our site going up this past year (or much of anything else that happened before November 30th). But, we’re going to remedy this, NOW! See below, or click here to read the post about our buddy, Ethan’s, record packaging design.

Now, I know that we’ve been asking a lot of all of you lately, but if you could do us one last favor (well, ‘last’ for the foreseeable future): Get thee to LoneStarMusic.com, login, sign up, check out all the contestants’ work, listen to the music, buy a CD (or 5), do what you gotta do and CAST YOUR VOTE!!! Voting closes on the 29th, so don’t dilly-dally!

Tags: Art Direction, Austin, Award, Best Album Art, CD Cover, Cover Art, Good Luck & True Love, Good Luck And True Love, Graphic Design, Lone Star Music Award Nominee, Mike Ethan Messick, Reckless Kelly, Record Packaging, Sarah Dodds, Shauna Dodds, Texas, The Only Easy Day Was Yesterday, TX
Posted in Accollades, Album Art | No Comments »

Wednesday, February 22nd, 2012

Mike Ethan Messick’s “The Only Easy Day Was Yesterday”

Not only is Mike Ethan Messick one of our favorite people, in general, but he’s also an amazing musician, songwriter, singer, husband to the beautiful Codey Allen Messick, future father of the year (just 14 weeks to go) and all around great guy. Have we mentioned that we love this guy?

Any of you who somehow don’t know Ethan (crawl out from under your rock), may be familiar with his work. In addition to this fabulous record, “The Only Easy Day Was Yesterday,” his amazing songs are played by countless others on countless stages across the state every week, and his musings are found on the pages of almost every reputable publication covering the Texas music scene.

As such, we were over the moon to have been asked to work with him to create artwork to accompany his recent record.

The project began with the handing over of one of his most treasured possessions: a mosaic art piece by Tobi Ellis (commissioned by Gabe Wooton). Finding a way to incorporate this original artwork into the packaging design in a manner that, not only flows throughout the piece, but also does the original artist justice and include all the necessary information was a daunting task. But, we held true to Ethan’s original vision, and worked to blend the beauty of the mosaic with the functionality of a digipak. We hope that we achieved that in a way that made sense to all of you who’ve picked up your copy….and to those who haven’t: What are you waiting for?!?!?

Pick up your copy today at LoneStarMusic.com!