Bob dylan’s New York

keep a good head, and always carry a lightbulb

What a thrill to get the call from the lovely folks at Herb Lester Associates—the premier purveyors of beautifully illustrated culture & travel guides. They were retracing the steps of Bob Dylan’s career in the 1960s with a brand-new guide, and wanted us to lead the charge.

Bringing my BSDS compatriot Erik Weikert in to tag-team the project, I’m pleased as punch with the final results. And, hey— pick up your own copy at Herb Lester!

Designer Midnight Umbrella + Erik Weikert
Project Form Poster, Postcards + Packaging
Client Herb Lester Associates
Dimensions 400 x 690mm, 100 x 138mm
Process Offset Lithography
Year 2019
A black and white vintage-style event and restaurant guide with red overlays for Bob Dylan's New York revisited exhibition, with details about performances, eateries, and a Bob Dylan concert at Carnegie Hall, including various folk music events and a map of Greenwich Village, designed in a collage layout.

EPHEMERA APLENTY.

A cornucopia of historical ARTIFACTS

One of the most exciting facets of this project was being able to use authentic 1960s era ephemera as a jumping-off point. Trawling through old advertisements from issues of The Village Voice was a blast, and the search revealed a splendid array of expressive typography to riff on. Joining the assortment of quirky type to be inspired by was a litany of lo-fi hand lettering—a representation of the by-necessity and by-design DIY aesthetic the scene represented.

Cover of a publication titled 'Bob Dylan's New York Revisited 1961-69,' presented as a full-color 'Informative Map Guide,' published by Herb Lester Associates in 2019.
Map of Greenwich Village showing streets and numbered locations with color-coded markers in red, yellow, and blue.

mapping dylan’s Journey.

Here. there. everywhere. And greenwich village.


The format of the unfolded guide, coming in at 400 × 690mm, provided space to profile most of the isle of Manhattan.

The map’s cartouche features a melange of typographic styles—from ill-proportioned (but spirited) grotesks—to scruffy hand-lettering, workhorse gothic designs. Again, this was meant to reinforce the DIY ethos of the ’60s folk scene. It’s scrappy. It’s function via any necessary form. Also, between you and me, I’m up for any excuse to use Braggadocio in a project. The remainder of the map (street names and neighborhoods) relied on the tried-and-true sturdiness of Futura and Trade Gothic Next.

The map also features a densely populated inset of Greenwich Village, where the musician spent time during his career’s formative years.

MAKING MESSAGES.

Aside from the chock-full map, Bob Dylan's New York Revisited 1961-69 also features two accompanying postcards, with the messages Get Lost and Get Found. In order to make ’em feel connected to the source material, I ended up extracting and recreating the hand-drawn letterforms from the cue-card laden video for Dylan’s Subterranean Homesick Blues.

A black and white illustration of a handwritten sign with the words 'GET LOST' on a white piece of paper, set against a dark background.
Black and white illustration of a sign that says 'GET FOUND' in bold, hand-drawn letters.
Close-up of a subway map showing the Washington Square Park station and nearby stops with numbered circles in red, yellow, and blue.
Profile silhouette of a child's head in white against a dark background, with a gold grid overlay and three colored dots (red, blue, yellow) in the eye area.
Text on a dark textured background that reads 'Map Legend' with 'Map' in yellow cursive font and 'Legend' in white bold capital letters.
A blue background with white polka dots and the words "I SLEf MANHATTAN" in black text.
Infographic titled 'Bob Dylan's New York Revisited 1961-69' with a yellow timeline of years from 1961 to 1969, and a map of Manhattan with a black ink splatter, with black text block, and a red section with black text.
A colorful infographic with a yellow background, featuring text that reads: "Through the Years: a timeline," with decorative black flowers at the bottom left.