I designed a tour t-shirt for Rancid. (Brag content.)

[benjamin801]

One of my old friends from the late 90s/early 00s Utah band scene made it pretty big with The Used, then parted ways with them and has been the drummer for Rancid for just over a decade now. Generally speaking, when he and I talk I'm careful to keep a certain level of separation between my professional life, my friendship with him, and my fandom of his band (Rancid was a favorite of both of ours, and it's beyond rad that he actually ended up in the band).

However, they're on tour right now, they had an idea, and their usual artist was on vacation. When my friend put out the feelers for a graphic designer to do a quick job for them, I happily put myself forth. The job: a t-shirt specifically for the Salt Lake City tour stop, paying tribute to Branden's Utah roots, his status as a huge booster of Real Salt Lake, and RSL's very punk rock hooligan cheering section. They wanted it to combine their current visual branding (leather-jacketed skeleton) with the classic Circle Jerks skankin' dude logo. Oh, and in order to be able to get the shirts printed in time...could they have the design in about 60 hours, during the workweek?

All in all, I think I did a good job. I was helped by the end goal being a t-shirt rather than a poster; I got away with some dirty tricks that would not have translated as well to ultra high-res printing on gloss paper, to say the least. Apparently I'm not the only one who thought I did a decent job - my Utah friends are all salty because the entire run sold out in an hour.

Here's the raw design:


And here it is, having arrived in time for production:











Now pardon me while I go back to designing promotional pamphlets for Botox.

[Ry Manchu]

csb

cool shirt too, good job.

[JerEvil]

Dude that is awesome! I am a huge Rancid fan! Cool ass shirt and CSB for real!

[ajaxlepinski]

They are going to sell a ton of those!!! Looks really cool!!!

[Marc G]

very cool man!

[itchyfingers]

Man I wore out Rancid and Op Ivy CDs my first year at college. Your art is always top notch and usually hilarious. I can see why those shirts went fast!

Very csb!!!

[Tortuga]

Seriously impressive work, Ben - def CSB points, too

[JerEvil]

Man I have to say, Rancid's drumming is the model by which I program stuff for my punk band. Listen to Sidekick, Gave It Away, Maxwell Murder or even the new stuff like Intimate Closeup... they always have killer drums.

[RyanDistortion]

So, you're buddies with the drummer from the used and now is in rancid? That dude is straight edge, right?

[Telephant]

Badass!!!

[benjamin801]

So, you're buddies with the drummer from the used and now is in rancid? That dude is straight edge, right?

He's drug-free so far as I know, including nicotine and alcohol. He's never, ever self-identified as SE in the time I've known him (i.e. since age 19). Like...not even remotely.

[benjamin801]

Man I have to say, Rancid's drumming is the model by which I program stuff for my punk band. Listen to Sidekick, Gave It Away, Maxwell Murder or even the new stuff like Intimate Closeup... they always have killer drums.

Their drumming has always been great. Brett Reed was, for my money, the ultimate meat and potatoes drummer for modern punk. Nothing fancy, but just solid af and perfect parts for the songs. Obviously I have some bias here, but...I think Branden is better, especially on the stuff beyond the "meat and potatoes" stage. If you listen to a Rancid ska song off the last three albums (i.e since he's been there), his groove is just fucking DEEP:

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8ldNlcmkoo[/video]

[Ostinato Rubato]

dope

[benjamin801]

Man I wore out Rancid and Op Ivy CDs my first year at college. Your art is always top notch and usually hilarious. I can see why those shirts went fast!

Very csb!!!

Thanks, man! Yeah, I was a huge Op Ivy fan, and I remember being stoked when I heard Tim (well, "Lint" at the time) and Matt were starting a new band. Then I heard Rancid's first EP and was like, "Well, I guess the ska phase is over!" Of course, they picked it back up, but yeah, in the mid 90s they were basically all my friends' and my favorite band, just as Bad Religion and Social D were kind of losing us.

It's still bananas to me that he's been playing with them for a decade. I try not to girl out too hard over it, but I was grinning hard when he said stuff like "Lars is here and he wants to know where the gray threads on the scarf went."

[benjamin801]

(Thanks to everyone who's replied, BTW. I really appreciate it!)

[greatmutah]

Not gonna lie, dude. That's a killer shirt.

[VTM]

Nice work!

[III]

Love Rancid... wish they had come through Atlanta or Nashville on this tour. The shirt is rad... what a cool thing to be a part of.

[benjamin801]

Love Rancid... wish they had come through Atlanta or Nashville on this tour. The shirt is rad... what a cool thing to be a part of.

I live in Houston and feel the same way. I actually made fun of him, saying "apparently old punks never die; they just get smart enough not to tour the South in August."

[fretless]

Super cool T , I'd wear that !

[RyanDistortion]

So, you're buddies with the drummer from the used and now is in rancid? That dude is straight edge, right?

He's drug-free so far as I know, including nicotine and alcohol. He's never, ever self-identified as SE in the time I've known him (i.e. since age 19). Like...not even remotely.

I just remember the used tour buses being shown on MTV and they had the drummer's bus and then "the party bus".

[III]

Love Rancid... wish they had come through Atlanta or Nashville on this tour. The shirt is rad... what a cool thing to be a part of.

I live in Houston and feel the same way. I actually made fun of him, saying "apparently old punks never die; they just get smart enough not to tour the South in August."

Haha... smart indeed... glad you gave him a hard time.

[benjamin801]

So, you're buddies with the drummer from the used and now is in rancid? That dude is straight edge, right?

He's drug-free so far as I know, including nicotine and alcohol. He's never, ever self-identified as SE in the time I've known him (i.e. since age 19). Like...not even remotely.

I just remember the used tour buses being shown on MTV and they had the drummer's bus and then "the party bus".

Yeah, and frankly the reason he left The Used at the time was that he was sick of the drink/drug/groupie (he was with the same girl forever) scene the rest of them were into. They're all friends again, thank god, so it's water under the bridge, but at the time it was pretty raw. Lots of bad feelings.

As for Branden himself, he was never sXe, just straight, and still is AFAIK. (It's not like it comes up in casual conversation, y'know? "Hey man...havent seen you in a while...do you smoke crack now?")

I can say this, since he has talked openly about it in interviews: Branden's dad killed himself when Branden was 11. Whatever problems the man had with depression, suicidal ideation, and just plain hard times were made much worse by chemicals. I'm guessing that's the reason Branden has chosen not to go there himself, though he isn't militant in the way I think of the straight edge people from my youth.

[RyanDistortion]

Straight edge was the wrong term. Just sober.

[benjamin801]

Straight edge was the wrong term. Just sober.

Gotcha! I grew up in the Washington DC area, so there's probably a more vivid connotation to the term for me than for many.