Growing up in Jersey, a young Michelle Holme probably never expected that one day she would be the go-to designer for her state’s music God, Bruce Springsteen. But that is how life goes, sometimes you get what you never knew you wanted. Michelle’s unique approach to design for music has taken her to incredible places with many of North (and South) America’s biggest musical acts. We learned so much from her stories about how to approach visual art when it comes to packaging music, and take it further. We had a great time picking Michelle’s brain and hope you enjoy this episode as much as we did making it.

To listen, select your favourite podcast platform from the links on the right.

Follow along with the SHOW NOTES below to see images of the projects and people discussed in this episode.

SHOW NOTES:

1:35
Send in your questions for Michelle or Jud, plus show ideas, favourite album covers you want to tell us about, etc – to artdesignmusicpodcast@gmail.com. We’re going to read emails on Episode 11.

3:05 – Power Up, ACDC’s new album

3:25 – Josh Cheuse is a famous graphic designer and photographer (Photo by James Minchin III). Josh’s other clients have included The Clash, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Black Crowes, and MGMT to name a few (there are hundreds).

4:20 –

7:10 – Shot In the Dark music video

7:20 – CG artist and director, Ben Ib created the CG cover image for PWR UP based on art direction by Josh Chuese and Michelle Holme.

Ben Ib has also created work for Kylie Minogue, Paul McCartney, and Tame Impala among others.

Animation below was created by Ben Ib using the album art.

8:55 –

9:15 –

11:05 – Mediafast did a great job figuring out how to bring Josh and Michelle’s concept to life for the Deluxe Edition CD. Mediafast also manufactured Tool’s Fear Inoculum

11:35 –

16:10 – Michelle’s first album design was for Sony was Bruce Springsteen’s The Rising. She started working at Sony and stayed there until breaking out on her own as a freelancer.

18:15 –

20:30 – examples of handmade type on Michelle’s design projects (work for Brandie Carlile; Court Yard Hounds; Bleachers; and Jay-Z)

21:40 –

21:50 – Michelle’s friend Dave Bett (creative director at Columbia Records) hand wrote Bruce Springsteen’s name for Letter to You, a beautiful album that Michelle designed.

23:15 – Michelle’s client list boasts some incredible clients – here’s a few:

24:50 – Slayer’s Christ Illusion

25:40 – Hell Yeah

27:00 –

Michelle worked on the rebrand for Jay-Z’s 40/40 Club.

Some of the work Michelle created for Jay-Z’s ‘made in America’ tour.

WHERE I’M FROM – A 22 min documentary featuring JAY Z behind the scenes creating his Barclays Center opening concerts (opening the new state of the art arena and home of the Brooklyn Nets). Michelle did a bunch of design work for these shows and then attended opening night:

29:05 – Michelle took the family to check out Danny Clinch’s photography exhibit at Transparent Clinch Gallery. Little do her kids realize they are growing up with such a talented Mommy. I bet they’ll grow up to be talented and creative artists as well.

29:40 – The Grammy Museum Experience in Newark, NJ.

29:55 – Michelle Holme has been nominated for two Grammy Awards. In 2005 for You Ain’t Talkin’ To Me by Charlie Poole And The Roots Of Country Music; and again in in 2011 for The Promise: The Darkness On The Edge Of Town Story Bruce Springsteen box set. She won the award in 2011 for the Springsteen box set with Dave Bett, creative director of Columbia Records.

30:25 – My Name is Prince, a photography book by Randee St. Nicholas, designed by Michelle Holme. Randee is a very famous photographer and music video director whose clients include Britney Spears, Celine Dion, Whitney Houston, Carrie Underwood, Barbra Streisand, and P Diddy among others.
Buy the book – MY NAME IS PRINCE

34:20

35:15 – Bruce Springsteen’s Letter To You

ACDC’s Power Up and Springsteen’s Letter To You were new releases at the same time, which must have been so insane to see them dominating sales charts and retail displays together.

36:30 – The spiral bound book was part of Michelle and Dave’s Grammy Winning Darkness At the Edge of Town box set.

37:00 – Meghan Foley is a grammy award winning (Weird Al Yankovic’s Squeeze Box – box set) graphic designer and art director. She helped Michelle Holme pull together the Letter to You work during a particularly busy time for Michelle.

38:35

39:15 – back cover layout including handmade type by Michelle

40:07 – nugs.net is an online app offering more than 15 thousand live concerts to subscribers. Groups like Pearl Jam (489 full concerts currently available at mugs.net), Metallica (666 concerts), and of course, Bruce Springsteen who currently has 178 live concerts available on the app.

Michelle designs a new cover for every one of Springsteen’s concerts as they’re released on nugs.net

44:50 – Loel Campbell plays all the beats on our little podcast. Check him out on instagram @loelcampbell and his band is @wintersleepband

45:46 – Links to Michelle’s collaborators we spoke about:
– Ben Ib
– Josh Cheese
– Randee St Nicholas

46:00 – Learn more about Michelle Holme

– Michelle’s Instagram
– Michelle’s website

46:20 – WIN ONE OF THESE ACDC Deluxe Edition Power Up releases!
Send in a question for Michelle or Jud to artdesignmusicpodcast@gmail.com, or a comment on the episode, a show suggestion, or story about a favourite album or tour poster, and we’ll enter your name in the draw to win the ACDC album. Follow our social media @artdesignmusicpodcast on Instagram and Facebook for another entry.

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