The Hollywood Bowl is probably one of my favorite places in Los Angeles. Music, nature and creativity swirl outdoors under the stars. Who doesn’t love that? So you can imagine how excited I was when the Hollywood Bowl approached me to design for them. 2023 Jazz Festival Merchandise!!! This was a dream collaboration. I was so inspired that I immediately started sketching with a black Sharpie. I’m not shy about using color, but I wanted to start by conceptualizing the design in black and white to see what I was drawn to graphically. I wanted to include elements that represent the music, the artists, the crowd, and what LA represents to give the design a sense of place. Here are some of my initial sketches:
I ended up taking these (below) and adding other elements and lots of fun, bright colors to make the design stand out. My design is inspired by the free-form, improvisational nature of jazz music and the natural elements that symbolize Los Angeles and the Hollywood Bowl (palm trees, sun, shells, stars, etc.). I wanted the art to represent not only the music and musicians, but the community as well. The dots spilling out of the Hollywood Bowl shells represent the audience. The call and response between the audience and musicians explodes in a magical display. The hand-drawn lettering, geometric shapes, and swirls are reminiscent of the Art Deco style that was popular during the rise of jazz. And the funky, fun, good vibes that ooze from the art – well, that’s the “Justina Spice” I can’t help but sprinkle in everything I do! I hope it makes you want to dance!
The Hollywood Bowl team (thanks Janice Bartczak and Melissa Achten!!), like the Jungalow team, is small but mighty. It was a lot of fun working with such an agile team and incrementally improving the design. Janice and Melissa even came to our Jungalow Pop Up launch party (more on that in the next blog post!) and invited us to their jazz festival a few days later. We’re so grateful to have been able to further expand our creative community.
It was such an amazing experience seeing so many beautiful people walking around wearing the merch. It felt like art and creativity connects us all. The Hollywood Bowl team also had the great idea to add bucket hats to the merch lineup. How cute are they?!?! PS They sold out in 4 hours!!! 
It was so surreal to see my design in person on such an iconic LA landmark, I still feel like I’m floating on clouds because of the experience!!!
I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the Hollywood Bowl for this opportunity and inviting me and my family to this year’s Jazz Festival. Check out the entire collection: here.
Source: Justina Blakeney – blog.justinablakeney.com
