CARLOS DURAN-PICHARDO

Hi! I am a designer with experience in identity, branding, advertisement, and motion design. I am currently exploring Junior/Entry level roles as an in house or agency designer.

I have four years of experience working as a freelance designer and a year of working as an agency designer.

My problem solving skills, attention to detail, and unique style of design has impacted the teams at Beats by Dre, Translation/United Masters, Instaboost Media, H.E.A.L., Books thru Bars, and the Millbrae Equity Plan Organization.

I'm constantly searching for growth and challenges, but even more eager to connect with you and share stories with each other.



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04 MODEST MOUSE
APPAREL DESIGN / CREATIVE DIRECTION / PHOTO EDITING


OCT:   010/2024
CONCEPTUALAfter spending some time listening to Modest Mouse, watching their music videos, and familiarizing myself with their abstracts thoughts and impactful stories, I became a bigger fan than I already was. So I decided to design merchandise that elevates their ideals all while looking fashionable.

Problem
With great pain, the band is a victim to eyesore merchandising and apparel, and they have been for many years. Much of the bands clothing, now, include mushrooms, psychadelic references, and themes that don’t have anything to do with their music or general identity.

Process
I pulled moments from the bands highlights and decided represent them into 2 shirts, 1 tote bag, and 1 floaty ring. I sketched ideas and brought them into Illustrator and Photoshop.

Solution
I feel successful in having created much cleaner, relevant, and stylish apparel, so much so, that I await to hear back from Modest Mouse’s merchandise design agency/supplier to become a part of the band’s swag designer.






This shirt is based off the Ocean Breathes Salty song and music video. 

On the front of the shirt, is a moment in their music video where the protagonist finishes burying a deceased bird alongside other animals he had come across in the past. To support the moment, is the band’s name and title of the song, as a complete display of the anthem that it is.

On the back we see a silhoutte of said deceased bird to highlight the song’s dark undertone. Paired with this is the song’s catchies + most powerful lines, “...you wasted life why wouldn’t you waste death?” This is sung towards the end of the song and acts as the final nail in the coffin (no pun intended) of the track. 

On the front of the shirt is the band’s name formed with slightly scattered keycaps. The idea came from their most popular song Float On, from a moment when they sing about getting fired from work. I always imagined they were talking about getting fired from some office job and encouraging me to move on as life does, too.

On the back of the shirt there are those pesky vintage ads that used to infect old computers from downloading a game or accidentally clicking on an advertisement. We see duplicates of the same virus but in these virus screens, there are some of the band’s previous album covers disguised as special offers + exclusive promotions.
On the tote we see the city where the band originated alongside the year in which they formed. We also see what acts as an emblem of traditional collegiate designs and that is an illustration of an egg being fertilized. This homages some of the band’s very intimate moments in songs and is eye catching as it is ear pulling listening to songs such as All Night Diner + Trucker's Atlas .
I am a huge fan of novelties and fun merchandise and was surprised to discover that no one has attempted to design a floaty ring to homage the band’s most popular song Float On.

I grabbed these symbols to partner alongside the song title on the top part of the ring. The idea for this was made out of cleverness that the idea of “floating on” is much like floating on a lazy river or swimming pool.

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