Swaggering side project — Enrique Barrios

I like to keep creative outside of work and nothing epitomizes this more than my hobby of writing and recording music. As an extension of this, I put my communications skills to use by taking the reigns in developing my band’s brand identity and style guide - complete with fonts, hierarchies, and official colors - and I used these elements to create a marketing plan and a variety of multimedia products for our online and social media presence, which I also oversee. Below are a few examples of these products.

We selected Vicious Venom as our main font since it has a retro 70’s Americana feel that is bold and brash, much like our music. The band colors are equal parts eye-catching and unconventional, evoking the different elements that our music incorporates into it - not just sultry hard rock but also elements of surf.

I produced this music video using b-roll that I shot during the EP recording process while in studio. I then used b-roll transparencies, icons, transitions, and video effects to help communicate the themes within the song and give a greater sense of what the band is about. I took what might otherwise be a pro-forma video and elevated to a quality story-telling element in and of itself.

Since the band is just starting out, I took the liberty of creating posts to introduce the two band members using Instagram’s reels feature. I took two photos that I captured in studio and animated them to the peaks of the song’s audio wave. To put the finishing touches on these videos, I inserted a grainy video filter that gave the final product a feel that is very much in keeping with the “vibe” and brand of the band. Once again, I took something that could have been a proforma product - a static image - and turned it into something more than what it was that ties back into the broader narrative and tone we are working to establish.

As part of the marketing plan for the band’s debut EP, I kicked off our online presence with this video I created that lets our audience know when to expect us to publish this music. I took the chorus from the song and cut it such that if it loops on social media, there is no noticeable change in the song. I made sure to use our official fonts, hierarchies, and colors to help the video reflect the band’s style.