Yesterday, I just took possession of my very own HoneyBell Ukelele. These sweet little numbers are hand-crafted by Douglas Montgomery at the Guitar Factory in Orlando. Douglas and his partner Billy Fells have been building beautiful electric and acoustic guitars for years. Their Orange Blossom acoustic guitars have a meticulousness and classic styling reserved for only high-end musical instruments. It's that same attention to detail and high craftsmanship that makes the HoneyBell ukulele such a beautiful and desired object.
When they approached me about designing labels for the inside of the ukes I jumped at it! I knew they'd be lovely instruments and I had a few ideas about creating a distinctive personality for the line.
Conceptually, I immediately abandoned the all-too-easy connection to Hawaii and palm trees (even though there would have been some terrific imagery to work with). These are, after all, Florida Ukuleles, mostly made with indigenous Florida woods. My first design attempts on the project utilized 50s Florida motel signage styles in an effort to evoke the nostalgic feeling of a road trip vacation to the Sunshine State. Even though there were a couple of designs that were okay, I wasn't satisfied that they told the real story about HoneyBell Ukes.
The things that impressed me most about these instruments are the design and craftsmanship. Telling that story seemed important but, after all, these are UKULELES. They are fun to play and to listen to. A funeral dirge would sound fun on a ukulele. How could I say all at once: this is a masterfully crafted musical instrument but, boy, I'd sure like to play Space Oddity on it?
Victorian small space ads. That's how. I could use lofty eloquent language like they used in the old turn-of-the-century (turn of the last century) to make outrageous claims about the instruments and juxtapose that with ironic and nonsensical engravings swiped from Victorian clip art. I created a mythical history for the brand with a mythical founder and factory. The labels had too much copy and the art was too small to be seen easily without a magnifying glass – especially through the tiny soundhole. Sure these are objets d'art, but don't take them too seriously.
This best part of this for me was that Doug and Billy (other Billy) liked it. They believed in a pretty kooky design idea.
Pictured: Ukulele labels, Douglas Montgomery – instrument builder unparalleled, my uke.
No comments:
Post a Comment