A fantastic and quirky guitar maker, tucked into an unassuming Sacramento Valley town — who’da thunk it? Well, I’ve seen his shop and played those gorgeous guitars … and it’s all true. Joe Dragony is a hidden treasure.

We’d worked on a logo together many years before, but you know the story — to connect with the world of potential customers, to come out from hiding, Joe needed a website.

Not just any website, but something that reflected his personality, his ascetic no-B.S. aesthetic — and a site he could make changes to whenever he needed.

For the design aspect of the project, I just did that thing that I do. For the technical development of the website, I suggested that building a WordPress site for him would be ideal, and what the heck — I threw in a blog, too. Take a peek and you’ll see why!

He loved it. I love it.

Please visit Joe and commission one of these guitars for yourself!

Or a ukulele. He won’t mind.

I was pleased as punch when an old friend, after years of mulling, finally decided to throw open the doors to his own guitar repair establishment: Chicago Fret Works.

Guitar repair is a tricky business, bringing into play the same questions of competency and trust that you find in the waiting room of a hospital. Musicians treat their instruments like family members, and need to feel that the folks about to perform surgery care for them too — and know exactly what they’re doing.

Though the budget for was small, we were able to put together a logo, signs, business papers and easy-edit WordPress website that perfectly fit this scenario. Steve and his partner Dan are both musicians and artisans, so their brand was constructed to evoke reassuringly been-there-forever master craftsmanship — and a sense of authentic connection with this century’s working musicians.

They’re right down the street from Chicago’s Old Town School of Folk Music, so if you and your stringed instrument of choice are in the neighborhood, drop in and say hello.

This CD package and illustration of an irritated rhino was created for a sprawling and powerful 12-piece band from Oakland, California. Picking up where the revolutionary Nigerian musician Fela Kuti left off, Albino! is all about “Heavy Heavy Afro-Beat”.

The producer came to Calyx Design with a general concept, a visual meant to evoke both the thumping power and political consciousness of the band: “I want a lonely rhino on an African plain”. This image, together with the music, inspired the visual style of the whole piece. Through use of textural tricks and emulation of batik or off-register screen-printing, it evokes the hand-made. Both roughly textured and densely detailed, it simultaneously evinces an aura of rawness and sophistication.

CD package for a Hammond-organ fueled funk-jazz instrumental groove band. Yes!

The cover depicts quantum electron flow, inspired by the group’s juiced up name. The digital artwork was donated by its creator, physicist Dr. Eric Heller.