My Morning Jacket | 4 Nights at The Fillmore

Visualizing the Ascension

For My Morning Jacket’s special four-night residency at the legendary Fillmore in San Francisco, the goal was to create a singular, defining admat that captured the gravity of a “no repeats” run at one of the world’s most iconic musical landmarks. Unlike a standard gig poster, an admat serves as the primary visual hook for the entire event promotion, requiring a composition that remains impactful across multiple digital and print formats while anchoring the residency’s brand identity.

The Concept: The Spiral Staircase

The focal point of this illustration is a red-hooded figure perched atop a monumental spiral staircase that transcends the earthly plane. While the structure is often misinterpreted as a stack of books, it is intended as a literal representation of ascension—a staircase stretching toward the heavens to meet a celestial alignment.

This imagery was designed to mirror the transformative, “cosmic” experience of an MMJ live set, where the boundaries between the stage and the celestial often blur. The use of deep teals, lavender moons, and 1970s pulp paperback-inspired typography creates a visual narrative that feels both vintage and futuristic, much like the band’s sonic evolution.

A Study in Synchronicity

The professional backstory of this project is a testament to the power of a strong portfolio and a bit of cosmic timing. I had originally reached out to the My Morning Jacket camp via cold email to express interest in a collaboration. Every single one of those emails resulted in a bounce-back; I assumed the connection was a dead end and moved on.

Remarkably, the MMJ team reached out to me directly just a few weeks later. They hadn’t seen my attempted outreach—they had discovered my work independently and felt my surrealist aesthetic was the perfect match for the Fillmore residency. They sought me out to define the visual identity of these shows, a professional milestone that underscores the importance of letting the work speak for itself. When the aesthetic alignment is there, the work finds its way to the right people.