Discussing Fan Merch with Jaimee Makes

July 19, 2024

Meet Jaimee Makes: an elementary school art teacher-turned-full-time freelance illustrator who spends her days "collaborating with bands, brands, and everyone in between."

The New England-based graphic designer has a knack for hand-illustrated typography and visual storytelling, working on merchandise designs with artists such as Noah Kahan, Jonah Kagen, and, hopefully someday, her dream artist of Rainbow Kitten Surprise.

Softside had the pleasure of chatting with Jaimee to learn more about her creative process, design partnerships, and overall thoughts on band merch as a whole.

How did you get into art? What was the first official design you did?

Art has been a part of who I am since I was old enough to finger paint.

My first “official” merch design was actually designing our field day t-shirts in high school. I had just started learning how to vectorize designs for print and it had me really sold on going to college for graphic design. It was my first time seeing my artwork being worn by hundreds of people and I was hooked.

While in college, I did a few t-shirt designs for local bands (The Relevant Elephants being the first), and after graduation I went into teaching elementary school art.

I left teaching and now create art full time, and I would say my journey into merch really took off when I worked with Noah Kahan on a sweatshirt for his Stick Season tour.

Tell us about your creative process: favorite medium? Digital or physical? Where do you get your inspiration for each design?

I love making all sorts of art and experimenting with different mediums (stained glass is my most recent exploration!)

In my professional practice, I would say digital illustration is my favorite to work with. I work heavily using Procreate and then Adobe Illustrator for vectorization, but I would say that I use those tools more closely to how you would use a sketchbook and pencils.

I start with a rough digital pencil sketch and then refine from there with brushes similar to the pens and permanent markers I grew up using before taking it into Adobe for vectorizing.

When it comes to inspiration, I am a visual storyteller. When I work with musicians, I will sit down and listen to their music for a few hours before pencil even touches paper. The ethos behind making merch for musicians for me is that I know what the fans will want, because I am a fan.

If I don’t know your music before you approach me to work with you, I will become a fan before I start drawing. I really try to connect with the music before starting any design work because it definitely yields the most authentic work. I also love hiding easter eggs in drawings when I can so it helps to be super familiar with the music.

What was it like designing merchandise for Jonah Kagen? Walk me through the process.

Ahh, Jonah Kagen. I LOVE working with Jonah and his team. Jonah’s manager reached out to me last year about updating his merch. He had a few pieces but his sound and direction was pivoting a little and they wanted some merch that would reflect that.

What really drew me into working with this team was that it was entirely home grown. His big sister (and manager) was working with me on creative direction, his mom was hand producing each piece of merch with screen print transfers, and his dad was going to be running the merch table. It was a whole family operation.

When it came to actual merch design, Jonah and his team knew that I really loved incorporating hand-drawn lyrics into my merch pieces, so they gave me a few songs to work with. I started out by listening to the songs on repeat (including some unreleased songs, which I think has got to be one of my favorite perks of the job) and jotting down any lyrics that really stood out to me. From there, I got to drawing!

Since that first run of merch, I ended up working with his family to create branding for their in-house print shop, Porch Bear Prints, Jonah’s backdrop for his shows, and then eventually the poster/merch for his tour.

Favorite merch piece you’ve designed and why?

This is SUCH a tough question! I have so many favorites for so many different reasons. I think it is honestly a tie between my "Save My Soul" illustration I created for Jonah Kagen and the In the "Cold illustration" I did for Vincent Lima.

The “Save My Soul” illustration for Jonah was just so fun to draw and I loved being able to visually create an asset for his line “the devil loves to shake an idle hand.” Also, that bull skull in that graphic made its way into the tour materials and his merch seller for tour even had it tattooed on her leg! So that is pretty much just the coolest thing ever.

My “In the Cold'' illustration for Vincent Lima is a favorite just because I genuinely love working with Vincent. The pieces I have made with him have been truly collaborative and we have had so many calls where he has really given me so much insight into the storyline he is creating with these songs.

He creates music in a way that no musician I have listened to ever has. All of his songs recently have been following the journey of Orpheus and Eurydice and they explore so many complex emotions as they relate to grief, love, and our sense of self.

Being able to create illustrations that help tell that story visually has been such a fulfilling and truly collaborative process. We have created a visual language in this process and I think his merch really stands out.

Do you think it's important for fans to have a voice in artist merchandise designs? Do you feel more connected with a musician when you buy their merch?

Absolutely!! The first piece of merch that I made for Noah Kahan, I made as a fan – and it caught his attention because other fans saw my video on social media of me drawing it and tagged him a bazillion times saying that they wanted to buy the merch.

I truly believe that that connection was one of the reasons that sweatshirt sold so well for him. A fan will draw from a sense of connection to the music versus “let me slap the artist’s logo and a generic graphic on a t-shirt and call it a day because it is the name that sells the merch."

I love buying merch at shows because it supports the musician and (hopefully) the artist who designed it. I have a tough time spending $35 on a t-shirt that looks like there was no thought behind it.

What are your thoughts on current merch designs and improvements that teams could be making?

I think that the teams that are doing merch really well are the ones who treat merch as wearable art versus just another revenue stream and are taking the time to find artists to work with that are going to create something really cool and meaningful.

Visual artists play a huge role in music (album art, posters, photography, visualizers etc.) and I think merch is one of those things that too often gets lost in the conversation.

Hiring a visual artist to work with on creating your merch is an up front investment that I think a lot of teams, especially up-and-coming or indie artists, overlook or can’t justify – but in my experience, that investment will almost always pay off tenfold.

Any advice for music lovers who want to get into graphic design? What resources have been crucial to your success?

If you love music and you feel a connection to it, you are already ahead of the game. You have already tapped into that creative well with that connection, and if you feel drawn to creating art work, DO IT.

We are living in a really great time to learn something new and there is a whole plethora of artists and designers out there who have taken the time to create digital classes and resources to share with the world. I recently started a project that would require me to make my own typeface – so I found a few graphic designers who specialize in custom typography, and one of them happened to be launching a course on how to do just that!

As for my own success – I have a strong foundation in graphic design from college, but as my art career progressed, I found myself identifying as an illustrator rather than a graphic designer. When it comes to illustration – I am entirely self taught. The biggest resource that has been crucial to my success is not really a resource at all, it is practice. It is also not being afraid to shoot your shot – ignoring that little voice in your head saying that you are an imposter.

Life is way too short not to follow your dreams, man.

Are there any other graphic designers whose work you've been loving? Also, what music artists do you think are doing merch really well right now?

Oh gosh, there are so many artists that I love.

Boring Friends, based out of Toronto, is a really fun graphic designer/illustrator and I love his authenticity.

Andy Bird and Dylan Fant are both illustrators creating some epic posters in the music world right now.

Grace Hartrick is an animator/designer who is mega talented.

Brainflower Designs is creating some really gorgeous illustrations.

Maddie Fischer has such a fun and unique style. The list is honestly endless.

Music artists doing merch really well — Mt. Joy, they have a huge selection of graphics (they actually purchased one from me a while back!). I also love their variation – there is something for everyone!

The Hip Abduction also is doing merch really well. They do a lot of collaboration with freelance artists and the quality of their merch is top notch. I am always drawn to the musicians who have really unique and highly illustrated stuff. Bonus points if they shout out the artists who created it for them!

What are your dream artists to work for and do you have any upcoming projects you're excited about?

I would love to work with Rainbow Kitten Surprise - their music is always playing in my studio. I also would really like to work with All Time Low - I have been a fan of their music since 2005 and have probably seen them in concert more than any other artist I will ever see live in my life.

I have a few really exciting things that I am working on right now – most of which I can not talk about just yet. In my personal work though, I started drawing a full tarot deck which I am SO stoked on. It will be my largest body of work to date when it is done and I am really vibing with the process.

You can check out more of Jaimee's work at her website here.

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