December '24

Design, music, and film highlights of 2024.

Hi everyone and happy holidays/almost new year! It’s time for the longest email of the year, highlighting my favorite design projects, albums, and movies from 2024. It’s hard to believe an entire year has gone by already, it’s been particularly stressful this year working both full time for a label while also balancing freelance work, and my deranged need to see as many movies as possible.

I mentioned this last year, but the end of the year email in particular features a lot of work I’ve already mentioned in previous newsletters, so if you’ve been reading along all year, this might sound familiar. I’d love to hear about your favorite projects you’ve worked on this year, milestones you’re proud of, and your favorite albums/movies.

If we worked together this year in any capacity, thank you for your continued trust, I truly love every project I’ve been a part of this year. I’ve had the opportunity to work on several album campaigns, the usual NDA work that will never come out of the vault, multiple printed posters that got sold at merch booths, and of course checking a dream client off my wishlist (THE Jerry Harrison???!).

DESIGN

Thank you to Folk Yeah!, The Fillmore, Ashley Graham, Bravado, UMG, Sextile, Thank You, I’m Sorry, Fire Talk Records, Pixel Grip, Wilco, Nation Of Language, Rise Above Printing, The Dip, Darius & Nicole at Brilliant Corners, Luna, New Commute, Noise Pop, and so many more!

A goal for 2025 is to acquire more of my work if it gets printed — I don’t often sell because of shipping complications etc., but having a physical copy for my own portfolio is always nice. It’s a great reminder that the work we do sometimes becomes a physical, tangible object. There aren’t any prints for sale currently in my store besides my poster for The War On Drugs, but hopefully next year I can explore more selling options!

While I do love designing posters and that remains my favorite thing to create, working for a label has given me the opportunity to really jump into vinyl packaging and all the bits and bobs required to get better at preparing artwork for print. This year was all about working on art direction, design, and layout work for a few artists releasing their music on multiple physical media formats. The responsibility of creating an overall visual look for these albums then translated to marketing material used throughout the album’s campaign — ranging from wheatpastes you see on the street, advertising banners on websites, and merch you buy to support the artist. Here are a few projects from this year:

Anastasia Coope ✰ Darning Woman ✰ Jagjaguwar ✰ LP, CD, Admat
Art Direction & Design: Anastasia Coope, Julia Fletcher, Miles Johnson

Video by Anna Powell Denton

Current Joys ✰ East My Love ✰ Secretly Canadian ✰ LP, CD, Cassette
Art Direction & Design: Julia Fletcher, Nick Scott / Illustrations: Llewellyn Mejia

Baby Rose, BADBADNOTGOOD ✰ Slow Burn ✰ Secretly Canadian ✰ LP
Art Direction & Design: Julia Fletcher / Photography: Sylvain Chausesée

Unknown Mortal Orchestra ✰ Sketchbook ✰ Jagjaguwar ✰ Cassette Box Set
Art Direction & Design: Julia Fletcher, Miles Johnson
Cassette box set with reversible J-Cards

I talked about this on IG, but by far the most important thing I got to do this year was pick up bass again to go on tour with my best friend in Thank You, I’m Sorry. I can’t even really begin to describe how important this experience was to me, and to think I almost said no is a really scary thing to think about. We got to drive across the country, play a festival, a live session on the radio in Toronto, and two hometown shows in DC and NYC surrounded by friends and family, playing on stages I’ve seen my favorite bands play on.

With less than a month to learn an entire setlist, I was also having to come to terms with having to perform in front of crowds of people for the first time. Making the impulsive decision to say yes came from knowing I’d think back on this opportunity and have to live with the regret of saying no. Living with that “what if” was more frightening to me than playing for other people and even embarrassing myself on stage. It was a risk I had to be willing to take, and I’m so glad I did! Playing music with people I grew to love and appreciate brought me so much joy and made me realize performing for other people is empowering and really cool.

Photos by @delamey513

MOVIES

I was reading over last year’s EOY newsletter (mostly for guidance on writing this one, but also to reflect) and I mentioned something about seeing 180-ish movies last year, and it’s exactly the same this year…. So I guess that number is significant to me. Anyway, I tried to see a lot of new releases this year, here they are ranked:

1. The Substance / 2. Nosferatu / 3. The First Omen / 4. Perfect Days / 5. Anora / 6. MadS / 7. Problemista / 8. A Real Pain / 9. Lisa Frankenstein / 10. I Saw The TV Glow / 11. Smile 2 / 12. Alien: Romulus / 13. Love Lies Bleeding / 14. Challengers / 15. The Beast / 16. Red Rooms / 17. Strange Darling / 18. Beetlejuice Beetlejuice / 19. Daddy’s Head / 20. Civil War / 21. Kinds of Kindness / 22. Longlegs / 23. Dune: Part Two / 24. Furiosa / 25. Drive Away Dolls / 26. Maxxxine / 27. Trap / 28. Cuckoo

Favorite first watches:
Something Wild, Frances Ha, Inferno, Deep Red, Party Girl, The Vanishing, Phantom of the Paradise, Manhunter, Der Fan, Run Lola Run, Fish Tank, Blow Out, eXistenZ, Midnight Cowboy, The Substance, Vamp, Pulse, An American Werewolf In London, From Beyond, Re-Animator, Tetsuo: The Iron Man, Frankenhooker, Hellbound: Hellraiser 2, The First Omen, Cecil B. Demented, Nosferatu the Vampyre, MadS

I am recalling highlights and favorite releases this year but I watched some really good movies this month that I definitely still want to talk about so here they are:

Nosferatu The Vampyre ☆☆☆☆☆
In preparation for the Robert Egger’s retelling of Nosferatu, I finally watched this version from 1979 with Isabelle Adjani from Possession. It’s not a popular opinion but I really enjoyed this version, particularly thought the 19th century gothic set design had a beautiful painterly quality to it, and the right amount of German Expressionism was integrated that made every shot look like a masterpiece. I did see the new Nosferatu, and the story is incredibly identical to Herzog’s retelling so it prepared me, the story was fresh in my head. Both have their own separate redeeming qualities — Egger’s more brooding and dark with a haunting atmosphere, whereas Herzog’s felt more lush in color and a bit romantic. One thing I did miss with Egger’s version was the extremely unnerving score of the 1979 version, at times it really made me wonder if Ari Aster pulled inspiration from Herzog’s version for the Hereditary score. I’ve yet to see the original Nosferatu from the 20s, but that’s next on my list!

Cecil B. Demented ☆☆☆☆☆
Instant favorite, need to dive into everything John Waters has made after seeing this because I found it extremely funny. The plot itself sounds like Liquid Sky’s sister (as far as a cold read goes), an independent film director and his cult kidnap an A-list actor and force her to star in their radical underground film… this movie is almost as quotable as Heathers. John Water’s is not taking this seriously at all and poking fun at Hollywood through satirical black comedy. As someone from the Baltimore area, watching this I was constantly pointing at the screen saying I KNOW THAT PLACE!! which is crazy to me, thinking in 2000 while I was living just a couple miles away John Waters was filming this in my city….

Hairspray ☆☆☆☆
Speaking of John Waters I did finally watch the original Hairspray since it was on Criterion Channel… I did enjoy it, I found it funny that Debbie Harry is in this with a giant hairdo. Ultimately I was missing the songs from the 2007 movie, which is a crazy thing to say coming from someone who doesn’t particularly like musicals. But I did like the 2007 version when it came out and I do think the music from the Broadway version is great. I don’t think parts of this movie aged well, but I did find the satirical elements John Waters is known for bringing to his films very well done here. I can’t believe they ended up changing Tracy’s dress in the 2007 version to checkerboard instead of keeping the insanely cool roach dress.

MadS ☆☆☆☆☆
Anytime I tried to search for a gif for this movie it would only show me Mads Mikkelsen… MadS is in my opinion one of the most underrated movies to come out this year. It is a brutally gory, one shot film with a unique twist on the zombie viral outbreak subgenre. After you get past the sick title sequence soundtracked by the 80s German post-punk band Abwarts, the film comes out the gate swinging and does not stop for the entire movie. It’s tense, at times very freaky, and anxiety inducing. After doing some research, I found an interview of the director talking about how the film is five long, one shot takes all stitched together, spanning from day to night. While it’s filmed as one long shot, it does break off to follow different characters throughout the story when you least expect it.

MUSIC

Top Albums:
Hex Dealer — Lip Critic
Your Day Will Come — Chanel Beads
Box For Buddy, Box For Star — This Is Lorelei
The Collective — Kim Gordon
The Gloss — Cola
This Could Be Texas — English Teacher
East My Love — Current Joys
Challengers — Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross (Boys Noize Mix)
BRAT — Charli XCX
Unexpected — Vicious Pink

Top Songs:
R&B — English Teacher
Talk Talk — Charli XCX
Bon Bon — Fcukers
Mirage — GEL
BYE BYE — Kim Gordon
Run It — clipping.
Dancing In The Club — This Is Lorelei
She’s Leaving You — MJ Lenderman
Tiny Bikini — Amyl and the Sniffers
6’ Pole — Safe Mind
Starburster — Fontaines DC
Y.A.A.M. — Marie Davidson

Live Shows:
Pulp @ Kings Theater
Desire @ Knockdown Center
Martin Rev @ TV EYE
Lip Critic @ TV EYE
ESG @ Elsewhere
Peter Hook & The Light @ Brooklyn Steel
AIR @ Beacon Theatre
Fontaines DC @ Warsaw
Chanel Beads @ TV EYE
Kim Gordon @ Knockdown Center

Here is my playlist for December of this year!

Also I got my first baby synth for Christmas, look at this invention… the cables connect to objects that you can then use as keys to play music. I already learned My Heart Will Go On.

Thank you for all your support, more shapes and colors next year. See you in 2025!