JDUB had spent its nearly nine years as a non-profit Jewish entertainment organization cultivating some of the coolest new music and curating some great events and projects in NYC. So I was excited to help them transition their branding from that of a record company to a larger media organization. Sadly we’ll never know how the work I did would have helped them on their path, since it was announced on July 13th that the board of directors had called for the company to be closed within a week due to financial concerns.
The logo I created, which was inspired by the RSS symbol, as well as the Jewish icon of the menorah and the Hewbrew letters Shin/Sin, was already in limited use and appeared on the packaging of their most recent music releases. It was hand drawn to give a homemade aesthetic to this small and funky organization.
Continuing the handmade theme, the letterhead/business cards I designed featured a version of the logo that was actually cut out of paper and photographed. Ironically the only time the letterhead was when it was printed in house and used was to announce the company’s closing.
For the new website splash page they wanted a way to explain the relationships of the multiple organizations that were under the JDUB umbrella. We decided to use the idea of a family tree, hand drawn on a wall, with photographs and other ephemera representing the various components.
As a bit of fun, we made the light switch on the wall actually functional so that it caused the lights on the site to go out when it was switched off, adding an additional message emphasizing their need for financial support (sadly implemented too late to stop their demise).
Hopefully the staff and the various bands they represented will all find their footing quickly and move on to bigger and better things. RIP JDUB.