Miles Davis Design Series

The final poster

Kind of Blue informative poster — Miles Davis in blue on an orange field

Role: Designer & Illustrator
Timeline: Spring 2024
Channels: Illustrator · Photoshop · InDesign · Print

The challenge

Tell the story of Miles Davis in print, twice over: a single informative poster distilling the greatest jazz album of all time, and a five-panel series covering his life from early days to his final performance, each piece standing alone yet unmistakably part of one body of work.

The approach

For the poster, I illustrated Davis, a trumpet, and the New York skyline, worked through black-and-white and monochrome compositions, then flipped Davis to blue against an orange field, using complementary colors that make him the undeniable focal point. For the panel series, I scrapped a complex first draft and rebuilt around restraint: one pastel field per era, a black-and-white cutout of Davis, one saturated color block, and a chunky retro headline.

The five-panel series

The process book

Process book — Introduction and Research Summary

Process book — Project 1: Informative Poster

Process book — Stylizations of Davis, trumpet, and skyline

Process book — Black and White and Colored Compositions

Process book — Five-panel series exploration