ejnord.com | Dopetracks Beat Battle promotional

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This is a quick 2-day job I did for Dopetracks. I didn’t have time to explore alternate layouts and treatments, but I think it turned out alright. One of the lessons from this project is the power of strong subject matter. It’s easy for designers to get caught up in technique. And technique is still an essential component of design. But for me, good design is all about content. In particular, I think being able to convey someone’s character or express a culture is what it’s all about.

The photographs in this composition would be out of place on a typical hip hop site. But this is Dopetracks. And I felt the spirit of these photographs capture a “me against the world” spirit. Even though this isn’t a literal representation of hip hop culture, these guys exemplify the grit and determination of great battlers. For this project, I felt conveying the SPIRIT of a battler was more important than showing literal examples of a beat battle (e.g., people hunched over equipment).