D. Norsen Design

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Waltham, MA
D. Norsen Design

Art Director & Designer. Inspiration & personal work. Clients: Jerry Garcia Estate, Light in the Attic, Aquarium Drunkard ... etc.

11/07/2025

New work for and - ‘It Is Not Enough To Survive - The Young Patriots Story’ book. This is a really incredible piece of 1960/70s history that I had not a clue about until Jesse approached me about designing the cover. Formed in the late 1960s the YPO was a Chicago based radical group made up of young white migrants from Appalachia and the South who helped found Black Panther Fred Hampton’s Rainbow Coalition. The YPO grew from a local street gang into a powerful political and social force in Chicago’s Uptown neighborhood, where they fought against police brutality, racism, economic exploitation, and displacement through community organizing of survival programs and working class organizations. Jesse goes incredibly deep to share their roots from the South to their eventual arrival in the Midwest and beyond. It was an incredible honor to be trusted to design the cover of this book with iconic and riveting photography from the archives. Many thanks to for having me along as well. I have been a fan of her design for a long while and when she appeared on the joint email between myself and Jesse I was like ‘oh damn!’ The book is now available for preorder with release next spring!

11/05/2025

New work for - The 5th Catalog which collects, highlights and outlines EVERY SINGLE RELEASE by this iconic label. Inspired by 1970s art catalogs this was a monster to design. Months of prep, lots of trial and error before we could even really get into the thick of it. I think at times all of us who were involved wondered if it was possible. But it’s real and it’s beautiful. Many thanks to , Gwen and so many others that helped get it over the line! Available now at Numero’s European Popups, their Chicago store and shortly in your mail box if you have ordered from the label recently. Eat your hearts out Pottery Barn - there is a new paper tome in town!

10/31/2025

New work for and aka Baba Yaga, an early 00s Boston based folk group who if you were lucky to see them like I was you know how special and unique they were. They had their own incredible songs but would also sprinkle in covers by Anne Briggs, Richard and Linda Thompson and Donovon too. In 2009 they recorded an album with Wayne Rogers and his iconic label but the album artwork was lost and the group soon disbanded leaving the already pressed records lost to Wayne’s closet until 2024 when at one day Wayne asked me if I was interested in taking a stab at creating something new. And voila - here we are! I had an immense amount of fun working on this with Amanda and Carla creating one of my favorite album covers of the year. You can order the record now from or visit Stereo Jacks if you are in Boston! Related if you missed the news Wayne is now the owner and can be found behind the counter too. If you missed the Twisted Village store as much as me then you gotta visit the best record store in Boston!

10/30/2025

Field trip post - Saw for the first time in 24 years tonight. Last time was just down the road in a rundown dog racing track when they opened for Radiohead on the Amnesiac tour. As a record store employee in the late 90s, early 00s I remember ‘The 3 EPs’ album came gratis on your first day so you could soak in the High Fidelity-isms of customers and the day-in-day-out routine of superior culture status. Some folks had Oasis and Blur while I loved The Beta Band, Supergrass,and Gomez. They all had what I thought was missing from those others - a certain bit of psychedelia, a little more ‘out there’. Tonight was like falling down a rabbit hole of nostalgia that exceeded and warped my brain beyond expectations at how incredible they sounded. I finally got to hear ‘Needles In My Eye’ which was my comfort song in the early days of the COVID lockdown. It was the balm and it was again tonight. I can’t wait to see them again and again and again.

10/22/2025

Field trip post - Took my 15yo daughter to see last night. I think this is my 4th or 5th time seeing them (festivals are hazy) and they were as beautiful as ever. If not a bit more shambolic in all the best possible ways. It reminded me at times of seeing Devendra Banhart circa 2005/6 when there was so much energy and excitement on stage in playing new songs or songs they just wrote and learned. I don’t think there is an argument to be made that isn’t one of the greatest modern song writers. She has such a unique twist on writing that even last night I felt myself hanging on lyrics that I hadn’t caught before. My only regret is I thought curfew at the venue was 11 and they played until 11:05 so we figured no encore and left with a crowd of other people. But we found out this morning they came out and did Change, Vampire Empire and Spud Infinity. A las you can’t witness them all.

10/20/2025

New restoration work for - Mark Lindsay (of Paul Revere and the Raiders) epic 1980s Sh**un Assassin soundtrack. This had been previously reissued a decade ago but I went in and cleaned it up some more. Bringing back the type and color back to its cleanest, brightest state. Now available for preorder!

10/17/2025

New poster work for in Buffalo last night! This art has been kicking around a little bit - something I was poking at here and there this year but couldn’t find the right balance for it. It finally started showing its face (pun intended) when I was working on the Sonic Sleepover poster at the same, so in some ways it’s the yang to Sleepover’s yin albeit different color palettes. The ampersand drove me bananas. Finding the right one that didn’t take away too much from the main type but had some nice eye catching flourish was a day long excursion of type books and exploration. It’s weird the elements we obsess on but that’s the breaks people. Couldn’t tell you what I ate for lunch that week but got a pile of books to file back. This one is dedicated to the many hours and days in my youth I spent driving from Rochester to Buffalo and beyond daydreaming out the car window. Many thanks to and for having me along. Signed artist prints are available NOW - drop me a DM and I can sort you out! &sons

10/16/2025

New work for - Stare Kits “Live In NYC 1979” which collects one live show and a rehearsal by short lived punk group. Angela’s memoir ‘I Feel Famous’ () was one of my favorite reads this year. Just utterly captivating and mindblowing to get an intimate first hand account of the early NYC and London (and Hampshire College) punk scenes from a fan’s perspective. With that it’s an honor to do the layout on the accompanying album and a zine that includes ephemera and Byron Coley’s ecstatic essay on knowing Angela during this time. Highly recommended and available for preorder now! #1979

10/15/2025

New admat/poster work for and - The “Hell Froze Over” Shows. The east coast weather is super unpredictable that time of the year so we might all be sitting around outside making homemade snow-cones or drinking lemonade at the bar. That said we brought back the wook wanderer from the last Real Estate poster and paired him with a diabolical scene of mischief. Just trying to make The Eagles proud here people. Prints are a possibility for this one so tell your local dispensary to ask somebody.

10/14/2025

New work for and Hüsker Dü — The final two single eps for “1985: The Miracle Year” and final shirt too! The shirt takes a deconstructed version of the “Flip Your Wig” cover artwork that the band sold in the fall of 1985 and pairs it with the European dates. I guess its revisionist history to name a tour that happened 40 years ago but when doing the design it felt like the dates need a little support especially on a continent where their judges wore big goofy powdered wigs. In a deep google dive I found the old Irish saying of “Wig On The Green” which means “a fight, brawl, or contentious situation” aka “powdered wigs being pulled off during a fight”. Perfection. The boxset comes out in less than a month! Both color variations are sold out but black vinyl and cd versions are still available!

10/08/2025

New work for – 1969’s “Nancy” LP + Flexi/cd. This marks the 11th entry in the Nancy reissue series (10 is forthcoming!) and it’s an album that finds Nancy at the true pinnacle of career but has found her at a crossroads as Lee Hazlewood took off unannounced to Sweden leaving her in the highly capable and just as talented hands of Billy Strange. Expertly curated as always by the package includes a deep interview discussing Nancy’s feelings about Lee’s disappearance and the labels (her father’s none the less!) disinterest in promoting the record and her properly. It’s truly a unique and wonderful record. As with past Nancy reissues the entire original package got a full facelift especially making the cover less muted and truer to its original color. The booklet also has a wealth of unseen photography and the timeline continues too! The album is available in “My Mother’s Blue Eyes” blue vinyl and available for preorder now via Light in the Attic!

10/03/2025

New work for and – “Live in Copenhagen” 2lp out this Black Friday. This marks my 4th package for one of my all time favorite groups. You may remember I did a package for Stockholm ‘68 two years ago and during the initial round of ideas I had used this photo but much less cropped and an entirely different set of typeface choices but it was scrapped in favor of using pics from the show. Flash forward and this photo finds it way back into the mix and its from Copenhagen so it was fair game again! So I blew up the photo going for a really tight crop on Jim as the triple exposure unfolds from the front cover to the back. It’s a simple ex*****on but beautifully captures of the energy of the Lizard King mid performance. Hypnotic, unpredictable and utterly oozing s*x appeal. The gatefold catches the crash as the band surrounds Jim writhing and convulsing on the ground in a state of mad bliss. I was really excited when the band’s management approved the type too – it’s easy to use the iconic logo and call it a day but it’s even harder to find a typeface that doesn’t take away from the energy of the visuals. With many thanks to Rory, MaryHollis, Sam, Sheryl, Amelia and Alison at Rhino for all their help on this project!

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Waltham, MA
02451

Telephone

(857) 540-6564

Website

http://www.dnorsen.com/

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