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Lead guitar does not like my tee shirt design.

njones89

njones89

Mar 27, 2015
743
644
Sioux Falls
#1
I need a place to vent this so I can carry on with work... but I am curious how another bassist might handle this...

I took up the role of arteest with my band, and I designed a logo. The band recently agreed to invest in some tee shirts because we have a decent gig coming up - opening for a big act. So I de-facto ended up with the responsibility of designing the tee. I put in several hours of work on this thing. Multiple times while designing both the logo and the tee design, I asked everybody's input. All I got was a "yeah, cool" or a "that looks really awesome". Of course, I didn't get any input from the lead guitar.

Today our drummer started getting quotes. The shop showed us a mockup of black ink on white shirts (the way I originally designed it) and black ink (with white outlines) on a black shirt. It is obvious to me from a design standpoint which design to go with. But since black iz da best coller fer metal, the lead guitar said the black on white design "blows" and he hopes it will sell. I got pretty mad, because he waited until the very last minute to give this input, and at last practice, he said it "yeah, it is good." It's not like I can go back and edit the design without putting in a few more hours of work. So I sent a pretty nasty reply, also mentioning that I am having a bad day and I don't need this right now. He said "lol poor you". So I left the group conversation.

I feel like that guy doesn't respect me, he seemingly ignores me a lot (this seems to be proof of that), and he is already difficult to work with because he is opinionated and outspoken on many topics. I sent a couple messages to the singer/bandleader, and he called me, but I don't feel like talking, and I have work to finish anyway. I am considering quitting because I feel like my contributions are not really valued or appreciated. It may just be that I am having a bad day, or this might be the last straw for me. What do you take of this situation?

Edit:



View attachment 2781377
 
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#3
My general rule for lead guitar players is this: The better they are, the bigger the @$$hole they are. This is my personal observation as a hack bass player for 40+ years. There are exceptions to every rule. Thank god the lead in my current band is not only the best I've ever played with, he's also an exception to the rule and a genuine great guy. You have to choose. Is the band worth putting up with this guy or not? I've had to make that decision several times in the past.
 
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#4
That can truly only be answered by you. If you put your hard work into the t shirts and they don't like them, simply don't offer your services any longer. Looking at the big picture, if you truly think and are having issues with the guitarist and you feel its irreparable, then by all means no one is keeping you in the band.

If you are just a little butt hurt because they didn't understand or appreciate all the har work that went into creating the t shirts, and having a bad day, you might be overly sensitive to the vibe of the band right now. If it was me and they were all dissing the t shirts, just drop the idea and don't get them printed. Walk away, vent, get a good night rest. Look at it through s different set of eyes tomorrow. Sounds like you have a little ego involved with the design (not a bad thing) and when they didn't go nuts over the design, or even criticized it you got angry. Unless you showed them the final product, some people have a hard time visualizing what the finished design would have looked like. You can't fault them for that.

Good luck with your decision.
 
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#5
1) We can't know how hacked you should be unless we see the design. If it "blows" I gotta side with the jerky guitar player. :cool:

2) Even if he is correct, he/they should have spoken up sooner.

3) I'm just picking on you to lighten the mood.

4) I have been in leadership roles in my life. I have also worked for both awful and amazing leaders, and all points in between. Just because "art" is involved that doesn't mean a band is any different from any other business. This is the band leader's job to deal with.

You don't need to be fighting with other employees. You need to answer the BL's phone call and place this whole deal in his lap. Express your grievances and go on with your day. Don't make ultimatums. Don't piss and moan like a four year old. Don't throw a tantrum. You are grown. Act like it..... even if the guitar player doesn't.

At the end of your (calmly communicated) list of grievances, you simply say "I need some sort of resolution to this and, man, I really appreciate your help with it."

Now, you WILL get an answer one way or the other. If he sides with the guitar player, your suspicions were correct. Time to move on. If he does nothing, that is the SAME as siding with the guitar player. If he tells the guitar player to quit busting everybody's chops and it works, you have made progress.

Good luck.
 
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#6
It could be that my ego was bruised by his comments, but he was also being a total dick as well. I snapped, and reflecting on what was said, I feel that I am not being respected or appreciated by that guy. There are no issues with the other band members. I doubt they would fire the guy, but they definitely get irritated by him.

I attached the design for those who are interested in criticizing my work. I don't think it is that great, but I did spend a lot of time on it.

Untitled.png
 
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#14
Two things come to mind. Maybe they will help, maybe not.

I think there is more going on than the guitarist's comments on your design. For sure something has been building for a while. You're not at the point of quitting over a T-shirt design. When most companies fire an employee, they start documenting reasons long before they fire him. This is something you can do for yourself, sort of. Start documenting each time you are disrespected buy any member of the band. Just jot down notes on you smart phone, time/date/what was said, etc. See how long it takes to get to five bullet points. If it was quick, then maybe you should consider quitting. If it was a long time, then maybe you're too sensitive with this one event.

The other thing is with your design. It only takes a few minutes in photoshop to change the black color to white for printing on black T-shirts; without the white border. Is that something you would consider. It literally takes just a minute or two to switch the color.

Venting is always goooood..... hope you feel better.
 
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#16
From a band dynamics standpoint, yeah, it would have been nice if LG had made his opinions known earlier in the process. At this point, it's too late for him to start criticizing the basic design. However, if he's simply expressing a preference for printing it on the black T-shirt over the white, well, isn't that what you asked? You might not agree but if you ask which color scheme your band members prefer, and he doesn't choose the same way you did, well, that's bound to happen sometimes.

As for the design itself, my completely uneducated opinion is that it's good but there's not enough going on to hold my attention (or to make me want to buy that on a T-shirt). It looks like a logo, which is fine; but you might want more on the shirt than just the logo. Think album cover - you have the band name/logo, but not standing alone - generally it's incorporated into a larger design. If it were me, I think I'd find an art student who wanted to make a few bucks designing a T-shirt, give him/her what you've produced so far, provide a recording of your music so s/he can get a sense of the band's aesthetic, and see what s/he can come up with. Ask for three rough sketches to start with, have the band vote on which one to go with, and then have the student produce a final design that will look good in b/w. You're not obligated to use it, but you might end up with something really cool that you never would have thought of.
 
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#18
charlie monroe said:
I think it looks better as is than it would reversed colors.
Click to expand...

That may be, but the other option was black design with a thin white outline around it. It looked like garbage. He would rather have that than the white shirt. I agree I would have liked to have known this in advance, because it's not like I can simply swap the colors as another member suggested. The way I edited with layer masks and how it affects the alpha, and some of the hand detailed erasure work I did will only work well with certain backgrounds. I could fix it to work on black, but it would take time, and I am already gonna be up all night to get my actual work done.
 
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#19
njones89 said:
I'd be down for that, but I have already been criticized for wearing a yellow shirt onstage. Then I tried a dark gray button up, and that wasn't good enough. He's one of those guys. I don't think anything other than black would suffice.
Click to expand...
Lots of my band shirts are gray. Lots of bands selling gray, tan, green shirts now.
 
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#20
I think it's cool. I could see it on a charcoal grey or smoke grey with the forge itself in red or black.

I paint as well as play bass. My advice is to never be offended by anyone's opinion of your art. He may of thought the design was awesome and got jealous for whatever reason. He is a guitar player after all. I bet he got in his car and punched the steering wheel while calling your design sh*+.
 
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