Shaktimaan Tour / Seedhe Maut / Azadi Records

The beginning.

In the month of June, 2019 - Seedhe Maut and Sez got in touch with me expressing interest towards getting an artwork for their nation wide tour with Azadi Records. Their brief was "bro kuch lit chahiye skrrrrr" (bro, we need something lit). Their shared plenty of media with me, ranging from popular anime to video games - which made what they wanted, very very clear:

Power | Dark | FUTURISTIC

After this project began, all three of the boys explained to me what they wanted, Sez wanted to dawn a rocket launcher, Calm wanted to wield dual katanas and Encore wanted to hold two guns. Client projects such as these that let my imagination run free, often are birthed from visions that I see when I blink my eyes. After consuming the very enthusiastic influx of input from Seedhe Maut and Sez, I had my first vision.

A sky with Sez's eyes and the Seedhe Maut boys in action put against the backdrop of a Delhi cityscape in the night while an old muscle car drifts in the foreground. A visual representation of a takeover. Which is precisely what these guys want to do with their art - take over.

The final output is significantly different from what I started off with - crediting the iterations to include Sez's bust having an organic visual hierarchy.

Development.

Typography.

Fonts used: Akira.

The Akira was a type that resonated with the vibe of the poster. After deciding upon the font, the sizing and the placement, there were textures plastered across the type to add a feeling of grit and noise.

Characters.

Calm

1/2 of Seedhe Maut - as mentioned earlier - wanted to wield dual Katanas, but due to the scale of the same and lack of connection with others' on the poster (in terms of weapon choice) - we decided to go with futuristic laser knives, a tactical jacket that might have a back story of being worn by a Japanese rioter, the typical whiteout anime glasses and the cyborg arm, while the other dawns a beady bracelet.

Sez

The original vision Sez had was as a human "warmachine" of sorts, dawning a bazooka and rocking a strong pose. My suggestion was to minimise Sez to a head or a bust - to have the visual hierarchy flow seamlessly and put the "warmachine" aesthetic on his face. A stern look in his eyes, a deep scar and half his head being mecha - was "warmachine" enough for all of us.

Encore

2/2 of Seedhe Maut gave me the most to play with, from a tactical jacket worn differently than his counterpart to the gun design, everything was created from scratch. The button like lights on his jacket, the Vegeta inspired eyepiece. All of Encore's design is a massive throwback to early 2000s, late 90s anime.

Initial visual development.

The following are some visuals from the early stages of this project.

The above took very obvious references from Sam Spratt's artwork for Logic. The two images below were developed to give these guys a taste of what it would look like to drape them in semi realistic props such as eyepieces, mecha parts, jewellery.