Guitar Center: Annual Reports
Role: Art Director • Designer
Services: Annual Reports
Guitar Center is the largest chain of musical instrument retailers in the world with 294 locations throughout the United States.
Annual Reports
In Concert!
We follow an indie band touring the country making it big! The messaging incorporates Guitar Center’s people working in concert for success. The design incorporated a concert ticket adhered to a band tour book filled with lifestyle images, tickets, posters, handwritten quotes, and a music CD. The showstopper was a pullout poster showcasing a closeup guitar solo on the front while tour locations (store locations) are presented on the back. I designed the financial charts using a variety of custom illustrations of band instruments. I collaborated with two unique illustrators in San Francisco to generate all handcrafted posters. The one idea proposed that GC couldn’t move forward with was the microsite developed for shareholders only to pick out concert swag items. This annual report won several national awards.
Truly Instrumental
For the first year, we focused on a local garage band playing to hometown fans in a local garage that ended in a local marching band passing by. The cover was made up of a large lenticular sheet. I repeated the lenticular effect as large center spread to reveal GC’s annual revenue. The financial highlight charts were produced as custom t-shirt designs for fans (GC happy employees). I assembled a “garage band” made up of GC’s marketing team who had never played together before. They had just 30 minutes to practice a few songs before showtime. The location was a rented home on a university campus. College students were rallied to act as concert fans. It’s amazing what bottomless chips and soda can do.
