When I decided to develop the visual identity for Diles Que No Me Maten’s Richmond concert, I wanted to avoid the predictable language of rock posters. Instead of photographing the musicians themselves, I imagined a fictional community of people who could exist inside the band’s music.
Each poster introduces a different character. Some appear awkward, others confident, mysterious, rebellious, or quietly eccentric. Together they feel like pages from an imaginary high school yearbook where every outsider became the protagonist.
The visual direction draws from editorial portrait photography, vintage yearbook aesthetics, experimental fashion, and absurd humor. Bold hairstyles, expressive faces, colorful clothing, handmade typography, and carefully controlled studio lighting create a world that feels both familiar and slightly surreal.
The band takes inspiration from improvisation, post punk, krautrock, jazz, psychedelia, and Mexican literature. Rather than illustrating those influences literally, I translated their unpredictable energy into a diverse collection of portraits. Every character carries a distinct personality while remaining part of the same visual universe. The result feels playful, slightly uncomfortable, expressive, and memorable, much like the band’s live performances. Although every portrait looks photographic, each image began as an AI directed concept. I developed dozens of prompt variations to explore casting, styling, expression, wardrobe, and personality before selecting the strongest compositions.
This project combines Generative AI with traditional graphic design. I used Midjourney to generate the initial portrait concepts and explore different personalities. I used Figma Weave to experiment with layouts, typography, and visual directions. Finally, I completed every poster in Adobe Photoshop, where I refined the images, balanced color, integrated typography, adjusted composition, and prepared the final production artwork.
The AI tools accelerated exploration, but the creative direction remained entirely human. Every portrait, expression, crop, color decision, and typographic choice served the overall identity of the series.
One of the prompts explored during development was:
Hyperrealistic comedy style yearbook photo of a fictional eccentric Guatemalan Indigenous dye blonde plus size woman with an exaggerated facial expression, absurd hairstyle, strikingly inappropriate outfit, studio lighting, high school yearbook aesthetic, ultra detailed realistic skin texture, subtly comical, rock alternativo y experimental vibe.
That prompt became a creative starting point rather than a finished solution. Each selected image evolved through iteration, editing, curation, and graphic design.
The final collection transforms a concert announcement into an editorial portrait series. Rather than promoting a single performance, the posters introduce an imagined cast of characters that reflects the chaotic, poetic, and experimental spirit of Diles Que No Me Maten while giving the Richmond show a distinctive visual identity.