Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Darren Melchiorre. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Alright, Darren thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?
I’ve been an album cover designer for about 16 years, and the most meaningful project I’ve worked on is most definitely designing the album cover for Melissa Etheridge’s ONE WAY OUT album. I had been a fan of Melissa’s for years and have always been attracted to her music. It’s so raw, so personal and so emotional. Each song pulls you in and really makes you feel. Ever since I heard the “Your Little Secret” album, I was determined one day to design one of her album covers. When the pandemic hit, Melissa started to do these concerts from home on Facebook, which I would watch every day. It was so nice during that stressful time to have such an outlet where I could connect with her fans and we can all take a step back and a much need breather and enjoy the music together. Eventually, those concerts turned into her streaming platform, ETHERIDGE TV. One segment of Etheridge TV focused on Melissa calling a fan. Well, as luck would have it, she would see me conversing with her fans in the chat and decided to call me one week. I can’t even begin to tell you how nervous I was, but she could not have been more delightful to speak to. During our chat, I told her I was a graphic designer for Broadway shows (Melissa is a huge Broadway fan!), and as Etheridge TV progressed on, I began to design simple logos for her segments on Etheridge TV. And that was the beginning of our working relationship. Melissa and her management team could not have been more appreciative and supportive of my design work. In April of 2021, I received an email from her manager, asking if I had time to work on another project for Melissa. Of course, I said “SURE!” right away. Little did I know what was about to happen next. The project turned into me designing her next album cover, which was to be called “One Way Out”, a collection of songs she had previously recorded, but never released for various reasons. I was beyond excited and absolutely terrified at the same time. This was my dream becoming a reality! But, there was a little catch. I got this project on a Thursday and the design was due the following Tuesday because they needed the graphics for a birthday concert she was planning. So, I had four days to pitch and design album cover concepts to Melissa and her team. And, since we were in the middle of the pandemic and everyone was working from home, there was no time or resources for a photoshoot or any of the normal methods or time I would include when creating an album cover. Normally, I would sit down with the artist and we would discuss the music and their vision. But there was no time for that. I got some direction from Melissa’s management and off I went! Now, on top of this, I was producing an all-female virtual music festival that weekend. So the design process went something like this: I would get up on Friday, design for a few hours, maybe eat something, then design for a few more hours, then head to the festival set and rehearse, come home and design some more and go to bed around 2am. Next day, get up and do the same thing over again. That was my life for four days. And to top that all off, I managed to get 104 fever that Sunday…but this was my dream so I had to keep going. The “One Way Out” songs quickly took me to a feeling of being in an old dive bar. With Melissa’s harmonica playing and her guitar strumming, I felt like I was immediately transported to her past when she played in the bars before she was discovered. And since these were songs she had written years ago, the concept fit perfectly. But because of the pandemic, I have no way of doing a photoshoot at an actual bar, so I had to get creative. So I looked around my surroundings for things I could turn into a bar. The wood you see on the album cover was wood paneling of a storage shed found it the basement of my apartment complex. The wooden bar counter you see on the inside of the packaging is actually my coffee table with some bar items on it. Everything else (the ONE WAY OUT sign, the neon sign, and the old Melissa poster) I created from scratch. I wasn’t going to let a pandemic stop me from giving Melissa the best designs possible. I wound up pitching three album cover concepts, and she then chose to combine two of the ideas and that became the final album. It truly was one the smoothest collaborations I’ve ever had. I am so grateful to Melissa Etheridge for giving me a chance. She could have chosen any designer to create her album cover, but she knew this was my dream and decided to take a chance on me, just like so many did for her. I will forever be grateful to her and her management for making my dream come true. I still get excited when I see my work in a record store or online. I am now part of her music legacy and I could not have asked for a better, more generous and supportive artist to collaborate with. Her support and love meant the world to me! She made my dream come true.
Darren , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
My career towards becoming an art director/designer for the music industry has taken many twists and turns. I knew when I was a kid that I loved to create worlds. One of my favorite things to do as a kid was to build with Legos. I would build houses and small towns out of Legos and create stories of what was happening to that town and with the people who lived there. As I grew up, I thought to myself, “oh maybe I’ll become an architect because I loved to design houses this way”. As I continued with high school, I fell in love with theater, especially with the sets each show had. So I thought to myself, why not combine my love of architecture and theater and become a set designer for the stage. I got into Muhlenberg College with a focus on set design as my major. But through the course of my college career, I discovered that set design wasn’t my passion. So I went to NYC anyway and started working for Broadway marketing companies and different theaters. It was with these companies that I fell in love with the marketing aspect of each show and the design that came with that. It brought me back to what I really loved: creating worlds. For the first time, I saw how graphic design with a marketing concept can really help create the world of the show and I thought to myself that I could really do that. I went back to school and finally got my MFA in Design from the School of Visual Arts in New York City. Even though I was in the theater industry, music was never far behind. I always held my dream of being an album cover close, ever since I saw the album cover for Madonna’s “Erotica” album. Up to that point, I had never seen a cover like that one! It was so mysterious, so intriguing and it told so many stories. Once I left the School of Visual Arts, I knew that was the time to follow my dream and become a designer for the music industry. But, I had absolutely no clue where to start. When I was doing my thesis project for SVA, I needed a designer to write a statement for my thesis, which was about, of course, album covers. One of my absolute favorite designers was Chris Bilheimer, the designer responsible for all of R.E.M.’s album covers and who created the album art for one of my all-time favorite albums, Green Day’s “American Idiot”. After a long search, I finally tracked him down and contacted him. He was more than happy to write something for my project and, through time, he became a mentor to me. I didn’t know the first thing about being an album cover designer and I’ll never forget the advice he gave to me. He told me “to follow as many bands as I could, get to know their music, and become genuine friends with them. A design collaboration is based on trust and the bands have to trust you. Keep that going and your career will start.” That advice was the best career advice I’d ever received, and Chris was right. With any design collaboration, the artist has to trust you with their vision and with their art. That’s a sacred thing and I do not take it for granted. It is such an honor to have an artist’s trust. Because what I do is create the world of the music for them through visuals. Most of the time, the first thing people see before they’ve even heard a song is the music art. The art has to set the tone of the world the listener is about to walk into and it is such an important part of the success of an album. That world then extends from the album cover into merchandise, social media, music videos and even to an artist’s touring stage show. It’s so exciting to play a role in creating the world of the music. I love every part of that. For me, I design from emotion. I listen to the songs so deeply and I let the story emerge from that. From there, the artist and I talk about the inspiration for the songs and their backstories. Once I have all of this, I then go create the album cover. The album cover has to tell a story. It has to invite the viewer into the world of the music. If an artist just wants a headshot on their album cover, I usually decline the job. Because to me, the album cover has to do so much more than what a headshot can do. An album cover has to say so much without the artist ever singing a note. It sets the world of the music. I am a bold, daring designer and my covers tell stories. I wouldn’t have it any other way!
What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?
My ultimate goal with being an album cover designer is to win the Grammy Award for “Best Album Packaging”. Yes, they actually do give a Grammy Award each year for the best album packaging. This, to me, is my ultimate goal. I certainly do not need a Grammy Award on my shelf to feel successful or accomplished. But, I do feel that having a Grammy Award for this category is so important. Music and the visual will ALWAYS be connected. That is a given. But with digital music becoming the mainstream, and fewer and fewer artists releasing physical albums, my business is becoming less and less substantial. The bulk of my work is usually just an album cover for a digital release. Creating a physical printed package for an album is becoming few and far between. But it still exists and with the return of an interest in vinyl, my dream of designing a Grammy-winning package is still alive. Overall, the Grammy recognition for this category is important to me because it defines an album cover’s vital importance in music history. When I think about classic album covers like Madonna’s “Like A Virgin”, the Beatles “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band”, Pink Floyd’s “The Dark Side of the Moon”, Nirvana’s “Nevermind”, and Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in the U.S.A.”, this art and what each did for the music is just as important in music history as the music itself. Some of this art was responsible for defining an era just as much as the music was, and I am determined to keep the album cover and packaging alive and thriving.
Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?
I think the most effective strategy for growing my clientele has been talking and connecting with people. And I am NOT talking about connecting on social media, though that helps get you in the door. Every artist I have worked with I have developed a personal relationship with based on trust, honesty, laughs and good times, and that started with reaching out to an artist or collaborator and having a conversation, whether on Zoom or a coffee date, or something like that. The pandemic made this much harder to do but I still found ways of connecting with people, which is how I got to know Melissa Etheridge. The music industry is all about relationships. It’s all about trust and who you know. I love networking. I love going to conferences, all because I love to talk to people. I love to know them and see what makes their passion, their art and their music thrive. When you develop that dialogue and ultimately that trust with an artist, then the real magic begins, so much they they keep inviting you back into their world. I never expect an artist to just hire me on the spot. I want them to get to know me as much as I want to know them. Sometimes we do that and it’s not a good fit. Sometimes we chat and it becomes one of the best collaborations ever. But you must talk to people! You have to care about their visions on a deeper level than them being just another client. I never refer to my clientele as “clients”. They are my friends and family and it is my honor to take care of them.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.roticdesign.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/roticdesign/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/darren.melchiorre
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/darrenmelchiorre/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/roticdesign
- Other: https://roticdesign.wixsite.com/roticdesign
Image Credits
Photos of Darren Melchiorre by Austin Ruffer