Years in the drawers.

Years in the drawers is a personal portfolio collecting a selection of artworks, illustrations and material i created for various artists and bands during the last years. I focus my work on creating well balanced and structured logotypes and/or artworks for posters, flyers, records, starting from your idea or theme, or conceiving them basing on my own perceptions. Get in touch if you want to work with me: [email protected]

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FATHER MURPHY //// Let them all fail with you 7″ artwork

7″ released by Zen Hex - 2014 Artwork, Layout - Iacopo Gradassi Laser etching - Handylab 7″ housed in a Heavy jacket, black print on 300gsm raw grey cardboard; handmade laser etching on B-side. First output for my own underground micro-label. I took care of every detail about packaging and artwork and, useless to say, I’m very proud of the final result. Since this record is some kind of spin-off from Father Murphy’s double 10″ album, I decided to keep on the same path, recalling the lettering on the front cover (with slight changes) and keeping the overall mood: the thick texture of the picture is recalling the x-rays on the album cover, and the undefinite subject is making everything unclear and blurry: I’ve been told it resembles “an inside view of a lung”, “a monkey skull”, “some kind of fleshy thing”: well, it’s a macro picture of a spider web, but it’s great to see it’s so confusing so.. mission accomplished. The B-side features a fantastic handmade laser etching featuring a crown of branches, which somehow recalls the catholic guilt and the naturalistic inspiration of the band. 

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PAOLO BENVEGNU’ //// T-SHIRT

T-shirt used as official merchandise - summer 2015 Artwork, concept - Iacopo Gradassi Silkscreen - Serimal

Two colors silkscreen on standard cotton Gildan t-shirts.

I’ve been asked to realize a piece for Paolo Benvegnù’s merchandise. Though it has been a honor and pleasure for me, it has also been a real challenge, as the aim was to create something colorful which could fit well in the deep concept behind Paolo’s music. I took inspiration from the huge buildings featured in his latest album’s art, from the heavy asiatic imagery in his latest videoclip and from one of the songs’ title, Feed the Destruction: the Kanji i used is called “Chai”, it’s usually painted on buildings about to be demolished and can literally be translated with “demolish”. 

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FAST ANIMALS AND SLOW KIDS //// MORE MERCH

T-shirts used as official merchandise - summer 2015 Artwork, concept - Iacopo Gradassi Silkscreen - Serimal

Single color silkscreen on standard cotton Gildan t-shirts.

Two more pieces done for FASK summer shows. As usual, I decided to take inspiration from their songs to realize these merch items. I chose light colors to better get along with summer. The first one is a revisitation of the beautiful Joy Division “Unknown Pleasures” art, re-shaped to resemble sea waves or mountain lines: both elements goes along with the band latest album Alaska, but it’s mainly inspired by the song title “Il mare davanti”. A classic, revamped.

The second one features a toy-alike version of the Trojan Horse, and it’s clearly based on the song “Troia”. Notice the band name placed as the horse’s mane, both simple and effective.  

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FAST ANIMALS AND SLOW KIDS //// T-SHIRTS

T-shirts used as official merchandise - 2014 - 2015 Artwork, concept - Iacopo Gradassi Silkscreen - Serimal

Single color and two colors silkscreen on standard cotton Gildan t-shirts.

Two more t-shirts for Fast Animals And Slow Kids, right on time for their winter tour in support of their new album.

The first one is inspired by Coperta, one of the songs from Alaska. a classic big-squared wool  blanked covers the entire front of the shirt, while the band name has been realized like it was knitted on it. Easy and nice. The second one features one of the recurring themes of their songs: teeth. Teeth are a recurring imagine in many lyrics, whether they be grinding, breaking or falling. The color scheme, the font and the overall look feel like a tribute to many nineties bands like The Get Up Kids.

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FAST ANIMALS AND SLOW KIDS //// ALASKA

LP and CD released by Woodworm - 2014 Artwork, Layout - Iacopo Gradassi Pictures - Alessio Albi Classic 12” housed in a Heavy jacket CMYK printed on 300gsm glossy paper; Heavy 300gsm inner sleeve pantone printed. The window pictured in the front cover is from the Macchione Studio, the country house the band lived and recorded the album through one entire month. That's the only element on the front cover, everything else is solemn, pitch black, as the band wanted this to represent the darker elements in the album. The back cover is specular to the front, but the window's space is occupied by the album titles. Minimalism is the key-word for this cover art. The inner sleeve plays on a similar territory, but we chose a brighter yet cold color to create some contrast. Last but not least, the white vinyl with black and white labels recalls the color scheme of the cover and fits perfectly with the rest of the elements.

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SIN/COS //// PARALLELOGRAMS

Logo study for the band - 2013/2014 LP released by Anemic Dracula - 2014 CD released by Anemic Dracula, Sangue Disken, Collettivo HMCF - 2014 Artwork, Layout - Iacopo Gradassi Classic 12” housed in a one color (pantone) 300gsm printed jacket with ultragloss finish and one color (pantone) printed inner sleeve on heavy 300gsm rough paper. CD housed in a digifile cover with analog specs: same paper, same pantone colors. The cd version includes a small 24x24 poster with all the lyrics.

Working for people you like and/or you feel akin to you is always much easier. When Maolo asked me to take care of the whole art concept for his new project Sin/Cos, I couldn't really say no. At first listen, it immediately sounded like a challenge: I never did any art for any electronic act before.  I started with the logo, brainstorming the name of the band, the concept behind the songs, and obviously, looking around puzzled. I ended up crafting a heart-shaped figure composed by the letters S and C, chained together, with the cold, bold lines to empathize the use of mechanical and digital instruments. For the album cover, I wanted something colorful yet ethereal, with remainders from the past: the strong use of the vocoder and synths has been a strong push towards a late '70/first '80 look, with a modern touch to actualize the whole look. I choose to focus on the lettering only, and concatenating the letters and lines the way i wanted them to look. The result is almost unreadable but, at the same time, clean and delicate. I used a strong and darker color for the inner sleeve to create contrast with the ultra bright, glossy cover, to help the readability of the text and the lyrics. On the CD version, the inner sleeve has been replaced with a classic 24x24 poster, with the same specs. I took inspiration by old 16 bit videogames, Com Truise, Röyksopp, Burial and many more to find the right mood.

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FAST ANIMALS AND SLOW KIDS /// T-SHIRTS

  T-shirts used as official merchandise - 2013/2014 Artwork, concept - Iacopo Gradassi Silkscreen - Serimal

Single color silkscreen on standard cotton Gildan t-shirts.

These are the other two artworks I did for my friends in FASK, and I'm super happy about how these tees turned out.

The first one sees a simple, yet luxurious huge band logo dominating the whole t-shirt chest, again accompanied by one of the most famous lines from their lyrics: "United and strong for ourselves, until the end". I chose bright colors for the shirts and a classic white or black logo to make it easier to wear (and print too). The second one is a tribute to all those classic punkrock bands from the 1995/2000 era, including the whole Fat Wreck Chords, and many indie/emo bands like Texas Is The Reason, Mineral or Braid; I used a similar style and font, also the colors I chose are matching with that style. If you were a punkrocker in those years, this tee will probably make you smile.

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FAST ANIMALS AND SLOW KIDS //// T-SHIRT

T-shirts used as official merchandise - 2013/2014 Artwork, concept - Iacopo Gradassi Silkscreen - Serimal

Two colors silkscreen on standard cotton Gildan t-shirts.

This is one of the new merchandise items for the new Fast Animals And Slow Kids tour, again inspired by one of their anthemic lyrics, focusing on the "great storm which will wear us out". Both the boat and the sea waves are hand made on paper, then portrayed and re-drawn: the boat is a classic paper boat, while the sea has been made out of paper scraps.

I chose dark colors for this item to underline the moody lyric and balance the cartoon-ish drawing. I feel like this is a perfect autumnal punk-rock tee which perfectly fits their style. 

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FINE BEFORE YOU CAME //// POSTER

Poster done for the show @ Karemaski - 2013

Artwork, concept - Iacopo Gradassi

CMYK print on standard poster paper.

Dealing with a Fine Before You Came poster has been harder than i expected. Jacopo has a well defined, strong personal style, and so do I (we also share the same name - ndr), so the challenge was trying to create something that could easily refer to the band, without being a cliché or a carbon copy of Jacopo's work. I took inspiration from all their previous poster, to find recurring elements (Milano, teardrops) and take advantage of them. Also the font has been chosen following my own taste, yet trying to make it fit to the overall context.

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DISQUIETED BY + ZEUS //// POSTER

Poster done for the show @ Karemaski - 2013

Artwork, concept - Iacopo Gradassi Picture: unknown

CMYK print on light paper.

Disquieted By is one of my favourite bands around: good friends, positive energy, good music... a perfect mix between punk and rock & roll. Zeus! are one of the heaviest bands around: two guys, a bass and a drumkit, a mathematical equation applied to jazz and grindcore. Both bands have a common element: beards. Most of these people have a beard. I just looked up for the perfect picture that could sum beards and the fun spirit behind the bands. Everything else just came out instantaneously.

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WOODWORM //// T-SHIRTS

T-shirts used as official soccer uniforms for the Independent Labels Soccer Championship “Tutto Molto Bello” - 2012 & 2013 editions Artwork, concept - Iacopo Gradassi Silkscreen - Serimal Single color silkscreen on standard cotton Gildan t-shirts.

The concept behind these t-shirts is a mash up of well known musical acts with well known soccer-related celebrities. As the whole Woodworm team is fan of Juventus FC, i decided to work just on people related to this soccer team; I wanted to create connections between controversial musical acts like Charles Manson and GG Allin, respectively merged with Luciano Moggi and Gigi Buffon. Key words for these t-shirts were: soccer, music, fun, jokes.

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DAMO SUZUKI'S NETWORK //// SHOW POSTER

Poster done for the show @ Karemaski - 2013

Artwork, concept - Iacopo Gradassi

Black print on heavy paper.

Damo Suzuki is one of the greatest musicians ever. Still around since the seventies, he and CAN are responsible for all the modern contaminations and experimental rock music. This project is based on free energy and improvisation music, so nothing is written and nothing is expectable: i decided to give weight to the project name and the line up only, leaving a big, blank, black space to be filled with the experience of the live set.

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FAST ANIMALS AND SLOW KIDS //// T-SHIRTS

T-shirts used as official merchandise - 2013 Artwork, concept - Iacopo Gradassi Silkscreen - Serimal

Two colors and single color silkscreens on standard cotton Gildan t-shirts.

The first one is inspired by the band song "Maria Antonietta"; since the whole song concept is extremely violent and delusional, the subject of this tee is a metaphorical revision of the song lyrics: a clown hand holding a capsized glass from which blood - streamers and confetti - pours out... subtle and delicate in comparison. 

The second one is a portrayal of the band's motto, along with the omnipresent "thumbs up": totally band-related. Notice the hand, which is life-sized.

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BACHI DA PIETRA //// QUINTALE

LP and CD released by Woodworm and La Tempesta - 2013 Artwork, Layout - Iacopo Gradassi Pictures - Gabriele Spadini Classic 12” housed in a CMYK printed jacket with inner sleeve. Heavy 300gsm rough paper. The fifth album by Bachi da Pietra is heavily influenced by heavy metal, so the entire concept has been developed following the same canons.

The title font has been selected to remind all those classic metal album we all loved about 10 years ago, yet maintaining a readability factor despite the strong, gothic look.

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CRAXI //// DENTRO I BATTIMENTI DELLE RONDINI

CD released by Tannen Records and Santeria - 2012

Artwork, layout - Iacopo Gradassi

Two panels digipack on glossy paper. Black and Red pantone print with extra UV spot on the red squares.

First and only record by the italian no-wave band Craxi. This album has been released posthumous after the band disappeared. I've been asked to create something absolutely unbind to Craxi (an italian politician) and it had to be cold, mechanic: the entire concept is based on a simple, geometric alignment, which is in heavy contrast with the noisy, distorted and disturbing music.

The color set, the fonts and the elements positions in the front cover is a homage to a classic Einaudi book series from the eighties; other fundamental sources of inspiration are the german krautrock pioneers Kraftwerk and the italian proto-punk bands from the Great Complotto.

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RIVIERA //// SELF TITLED

7" EP released by Sons of Vesta, 'Cause Care - 2012

Artwork - Iacopo Gradassi Pictures - Riviera

Classic "jukebox" sleeve with lyrics poster. Black print on recycled 280gsm rough grey cardboard.

The main concept of the album is the italian eastern seaside, called Riviera - the same name the band uses - so we decided to use an old picture taken by one of the musicians grandparents. We wanted this to look old, that's why we decided to use this kind of picture and paper. The childish font adds some cuteness, while the lyrics sheet has been done to keep it as clear and simple as possible.

The disposition of the text recalls the same 7" style Sons of Vesta used before, creating continuity in the serie of EPs.

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SONS OF VESTA //// T-SHIRT

T-shirts used as official merchandise - 2012

Artwork, concept - Iacopo Gradassi Silkscreen - Serimal

Single color silkscreen on standard cotton Gildan t-shirts.

First official label t-shirt with the logo held in a static, squared structure with a "funny-not funny" statement at the bottom. The pure black print on the pale, yellow-ish cotton is absolutely good looking.