Adobe Illustrator
Spring 2021
Visual Communication 
Illustration
Research-Based
Cohesive Icon Set

THE FILLMORE: THREE ICONS

These icons are an homage to early San Francisco Jazz artists and the hardships black artists have faced. In my research, I learned that when jazz was first mentioned in the San Francisco Chronicle, the word jazz was placed in quotations whenever speaking about the music, often describing it as “obscene, indecent, and demoralizing”. We know jazz now as such an integral piece of San Francisco’s history and culture. However, it’s often forgotten how hostile and unaccepting the past has been to jazz and its artists. 

My goal for this piece was to create something that incorporated many different elements of jazz music and more specifically showed the beauty of the art and the artists. I wanted to create something that was representative of the time and included some of the adversities that black musicians faced. I included small quotation marks in places like the ears and the necklace on the left icon to indicate this history. The illustrations are designed to work at a variety of scales and in many different forms, such as buttons, stickers, brochures, or signage. 

I drew inspiration from old photos of performances in the Fillmore and the intense emotions in the expressions artists made during their performances as well as how emotional jazz music is to listen to. The way the instruments continue into the frame is to illustrate this sense of a flow state and form a sanctuary made by music.