D. Norsen Design, Waltham, MA (2025)

09/17/2025

New poster work for and - I always say I am a fan first, artist second. So when John dropped me a message inquiring about a poster for his Sonic Sleepover festival I admittedly got anxious (but very excited). I first heard in 1997 when the record store I frequented had a used copy of ‘Being There’ and the owner said I might enjoy it as it the new ‘American Beauty/Workingman’s Dead’. Instant fan. So yeah my palms got a little sweaty (not as sweaty as the time I found myself standing outside their practice room at Solid Sound with listening to them work out some songs) as I wrote back YES! John wanted to tap into the iconic scenes of New England in the fall which is the best season here by far. Leaves changing on our beautiful mountains and outdoor activities being the big inspiration. We worked through a handful of ideas and I am really stoked where this landed. It feels like a poster you may see in a cabin in the dead of winter that makes you smile remembering fun times and the seasons that don’t make you want to lose your mind. We are working on screen prints of this to have the show!

09/15/2025

New work for - ‘live at epsilon spires’. This is another one I did last year so my brain is a little foggy but I remember wanting to use shapes to block out the images of the pipe organ and venue in an interesting way. Looking at it now it kind of feels like a 60s classical records designer trying to riff on the Boredoms 90s aesthetic. I really really like the color palette on this one!

09/15/2025

New work for - Mark Cunningham/Jorgen Teller ‘NEXT’. I did this one sometime last year and I remember it being an exercise in trying to do something minimal yet striking as the band provided me with these abstract images. The main typeface for NEXT I have had laying around for years. Having used it on a poster or two but I had been wanting to revisit it. Stacking it while flanking with the artist’s name was the way it showed itself. Available now via FT or your local record store!

09/10/2025

New restoration work - The Monks ‘Black Monk Time’ now available on . This project actually started with another label sometimes things change yet it doesn’t change the fact this is the first time the design is corrected back to its original layout which includes a variety of little idiosyncratic design nuances especially in the way the text is laid out. The colors have also been matched to the original while the photos have been slightly cleaned up too. And the labels returned to their original design too. This is the nicest this album has looked since the day of its original release in 1966. This album is by far one of my favorite releases of all-time. Perfectly demented and something that could have only been recorded in Germany by five American GIs during the height of the Vietnam War and the Beatles taking the world by storm. If you are not familiar with it then do yourself a favor!

09/06/2025

New work for - Grass ‘s/t’. A super group of the aughts freak folk scene including . Unfortunately so short lived that this recording and the one off tour became a legend amongst those who knew. Would you believe their first practice was on 6/6/06? Personally I moved to Boston just as this whole scene was exploding having arrived just days after Devendra, Joanna and Vetiver came through on the Family Jams tour (documented by Kevin and later in a dvd/book I worked on via ) and all the new friends I met couldn’t stop talking about it. I later started working for a promoter who was booking all these bands - many nights taking tickets/money at doors, wobbling down Cambridge streets with a ton of Indian food for the bands, lugging amps and other stuff up and downstairs, early poster design etc etc etc and I wouldn’t trade a moment for it as all those evenings of transformative bliss sitting crossed legged on cold floors sits rent free in my brain for two decades now. It felt like my/our scene for the first time in my young life. Fast forward to present time many of these musicians are my friends and clients. As Jerry once monologued famously in ‘Festival Express’ - it’s ouroboros within a scene of these sorts. Also the logo design is by Nemo of Times Lag records! It’s a pleasure to be a small part of this project and it is available for preorder now via SP!

09/05/2025

New production/layout work – “Perseverance Flow”. After a series of greatly expanded versions of the group this release finds them returning to the core four: Josh, Lisa, Mikel and Jason. Number of members don’t equate to sound or the depth of the pieces however as this set is as deeply meditative and moving as all their releases have been. Josh is quoted as saying “Perseverance Flow is skipping rope in slo-mo. A dance of co-operation to rally guts & humors & keep marching through pouring tears”. And I couldn’t agree more – it’s an album of hope during an insanely troubling time that we are all experiencing. As with all NIS releases the core of the album design is Lisa’s absolutely beautiful artwork – it’s an immense honor to be trusted with ever so slightly augmenting them to fit the confines of a square cover. As with all past Eremite releases I have worked on the type is produced from vintage typewriters Michael owns – they are then scanned, tweaked, and freaked by myself to be print ready in the modern era. It’s a meticulous process that is greatly rewarding as it is one of the few projects I have a year where the process is slower and less rushed. The album is now available for pre–order via Eremites Bandcamp.

09/04/2025

New layout work for ‘Daylight Daylight’ forthcoming on this fall! This marks the return of singer songwriter Steve four years after his last great Matador album ‘Other You’. This time he returns to working with .elkington making an utterly beautiful and hypnotic record. Layout follows in design theme and aesthetic of prior Steve albums utilizing his handwriting and photographs from his journeys. As I mentioned with the announcement of his recent album Steve is one of my longest running clients turned friends. It’s always a pleasure to help him with new albums! LP/CD now available for pre-order!

09/03/2025

New work for – 50th anniversary deluxe reissue of “The Last Record” 2lp/4cd + bonus cd. This marks the 7th (6 Little Feat, 1 Lowell solo album) restoration I have done of Neon Park’s iconic album artwork and like the others this one was an absolute joy to get deep into the nitty gritty of cleaning it up. Again I started with a scan of an original pressing of the LP while overlaying a very high quality photo taken of the painting. This helps do two things – one, It punches the color significantly, especially since a lot of it got saturated during the printing in 1975. Two, it helps sharpen the illustration making it the most clear and pristine since the day Neon finished painting it. I won’t lie this time the type through me for a loop. The title and typeface is a nod to the 1971 film “The Last Picture Show” and I spent a lot of time trying to match it but I was unable to find the exact typeface including pulling many typeface books from that era with no luck. I opted to use the hi-rez album cover scan and extract it while going in and cleaning it up for clarity. In the booklet and elsewhere the modern font TT Polls is being used while being slightly augmented. It’s damn near close but not exact but as the saying goes – “it’s close enough for rock ‘n’ roll”. Again the package has been expanded with a plethora of photography from the era including an incredible shot with Robert Plant and many candid and/or studio shots of the band along another great essay by Dennis McNally. Now that’s the package – let’s talk about what dug up for the audio. We’ve got a second disc of hotcakes, outtakes, rarities coupled with two discs of prime F–E–A–T on 10/31/1975 in Boston. This show has been often bootlegged but never the full show sounding as killer as it does here! AND if you buy the cd set from Rhino you got a 5th disc (!!!) of 5/31/1976 in London. 5 discs, 5 hours of primo F–E–A–T. As always I am super proud to work on this series of reissues and many thanks to the Rhino team ( .sam_ etc) for all their hard work to make these sets shine!

08/30/2025

I often get asked by younger artists about how I got established in this industry. It wasn’t a short road to be honest - I freelanced for over a decade before I found myself without a job and a burning desire to flip the bird to the corporate world that didn’t deem me creative enough for them anymore. This recent missive was to a young student who is wondering how to get started and rereading it this morning I think it’s a good enough response to share publicly. But with a couple additions… 1. Surround yourself with people and peers who want to see you succeed as much as you want them to do too. Good influences are endless in inspiration. 2. Always be curious. Following one path is pointless. But don’t stop following that other path unless it is truly going no where. 3. Don’t be an a*shole unless you need to be. This goes a long way and you will meet resistance on things you create that you feel strong about. Explain it clearly and hope that you can meet somewhere in the middle if you both don’t agree. 4. I have never ‘advertised’ myself. It works for some people but my work is my next work. This feed is my so called marketing - for better or worse. I know nothing but working hard and working a lot. This works for me but again find what works for you and work at it. 5. Know your worth. Can’t stress it enough. Know when a project is good road to be pro bono but also don’t get exploited. 6. My friend Bill Nace shared this Grant Hart quote with me this week and it’s a new mantra for me. I hope this helpful for folks out there. It’s by no means definitive and it evolves everyday for me.

08/29/2025

New poster/admat work for my friends in - Peter and Rob have an amazing new album with on . I can’t recommend it enough and now they are taking it on tour! This artwork is all cobbled together from 1940/50s art school mags that were given to me a few years ago. They sat in our basement until recently as frankly the box was so damn heavy and my knee so weak that I just couldn’t deal with them until now. But man what a treasure trove of illustrations and typefaces that I will be hacking up and manipulating for years to come.

08/29/2025

Here’s another one from the earlier this year archives - 25th anniversary poster for . Unfortunately hit the cutting from floor as it didn’t make the printing press or grid as planned. Intention was to visualize the ecstatic nature of the performances in the room including a nod to the big vintage light fixture that hangs above. I think it’s quite striking albeit maybe a bit messy but that’s the story of improvised music right? May this not be the last time I get to write John Zorn’s name on a poster though. If anyone in the Tzadik camp is watching - let’s party?

08/29/2025

I have been head down all summer working in a fury of designs. There is so much coming down the pipe that it’s often hard to go back to remember to share stuff. That said these poster and shirt designs can be found on their current tour. Nicolas Reyes is a lifer in the industry and it’s an honor to put a visual spin on his musical world. Thanks for bringing me in!

D. Norsen Design

09/17/2025

09/15/2025

09/15/2025

09/10/2025

09/06/2025

09/05/2025

09/04/2025

09/03/2025

08/30/2025

08/29/2025

08/29/2025

08/29/2025

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