Noisemaker received my gifts! I had to wait in a long line early in the morning for almost an hour at their merchandise booth to hand over the gifts to their staff selling their merch. I spent the last few days not knowing if they were successfully delivered. Alas, Noisemaker’s vocalist, AG, posted an Instagram Story with some really kind words. He is the first one of all my idols I’ve given gifts to to say that he was inspired by my work. It was very heart warming and made all the hard work and effort worth it! Every last drop of sweat, tear, even blood— all the minutes, hours, weeks, months worthwhile to inspire someone who truly inspires me. It means the world to me.
My heart feels full.
Photo by: AG
I wanted to make something really special for Noisemaker. I’m a huge fan and they are easily top 3 of my favorite bands including coldrain and Survive Said the Prophet. I have made multiple gifts for coldrain and Survive Said the Prophet and have yet to make anything for Noisemaker. The reason being that the brothers, vocalist AG and guitarist Hide also known for Dots Collective in Japan, are artists with creative minds. It’s not quite easy to please another artist unless you have something to offer that they don’t usually create themselves.
When I watched their recently released music video for Major-Minor, there was a scene with a spinning conjoined dancer. I was taken aback because it was so bizarre yet elegant. I felt so inspired by both the song and that scene and felt the need to create something as a dedication. I thought a pop up card would have been great. As I created the pop up card, I realized this was nowhere near enough. I have to go all out, go big or go home! This is a gift for my idols that happen to be artists— so this will have to be very, very special and very, very unique. So fuck it! A whole pop up card series and a suitcase tailored for the cards.
The pop up card series feature 3 different pop up cards and 1 explosion box consisting of 5 smaller pop up cards. The suitcase features a latch with 2 strap d-ring closure, 2 embossed logo and band name, and will house all contents when closed and can be used as a display when opened. This project has tested many of my limits and my well being. I’ve started over on almost every piece of this project, some even starting over 3 times. Had to be at least perfect and nothing less. I spent 7 weeks of working on it every single day no matter how tired I was after working a full shift at work, sometimes until 2 AM even though I had to get up by 6:30 the next morning. It mattered none, I’m a very determined and passionate person. I’m quite proud of this project and my only hope is that they will be happy with it because so much heart went into it and I’ve left a piece of my soul in it.