Loungecore band Irwin Vega’s bassist, Joco, is a close friend of mine, and when he asked me if I could give one of his bass guitars a paint treatment like I did the TV in my apartment, I didn’t hesitate.

You can see Joco jamming out at a recent show with the aforemented guitar.

Now, he’s asked me to paint another, only with the challenge that I make it represent him. I chatted with JP about the project, and he said that it sounded like I would be basically branding a person. I figured I’d approach it like I approach any logo design: find a commonality among traits, goals, or characteristics of the subject, be it a person, product, or a company.

When I started brainstorming, though, I hit a certain issue that kept bugging me. When I tried to call to mind ways to represent what makes Joco who he is, I found that this wasn’t going to be as easy as I thought. In fact, this wasn’t gonna be like a logo design at all! Logos are targeted, specifically-crafted graphics that, when they work, cue tacit but easily identifiable connections in the viewer.

When I branded myself as a graphic designer on my portfolio, I kept that professional identity in mind while creating my logo. However, this won’t work with Joco’s project simply because I must represent all of who he is, not just one facet.

Having accepted that there’s going to be no formula, no schema that I can tap into to guide my design, I feel a bit free in that. I can use whatever representations I wish to weave a complete picture of my friend.

This is going to be an exciting project!