Ricky West & Dreadlabs
From attic jam sessions to breathtaking show impressions
Where it all started
Throughout the years, I’ve been involved in the development of Dubstep & Bass artist and longtime friend Ricky West. What started out as a friendly rivalry among music producers in 2015, blossomed into a collaboration of visual art and heavy music.
Over the years, as I’ve started shifting from music production towards visual art, Ricky West started growing and gaining more attention within the bass music scene. The dutch artist always got a lot of inspiration from superhero comics and old-school video games.
Cover artworks
One of the first covers I designed for Ricky. We share a fascination for Pokemon cards, a big role in our childhood, which is also the main inspiration for this cover artwork.
Dubstep and disco are two genres that seem so in contrast, that they couldn’t possible be connected. Right? Well, Ricky proved you wrong. This track does incredibly well during his live shows.
Inspired by gems in video games, this is a more elegant artwork compared to the raw, authentic sound you’re used to. Same goes for my design style. A nice change-up and a good challenge.
It’s a funny thing to hear from a label that you’re going to design a cover artwork for your friend, as you’ve done already in the past. This one is made in collaboration with Fé Hennequin. She did the typography as I designed the rest of the cover.
Show visuals
As Ricky West is growing as an artist, he’s getting more and more bookings. For those bookings, I’ve created a set of looping show visuals. Accompanied by the heavy dubstep blasting through the speakers, I wanted to show these heavy visuals with a personal touch related to Ricky West. His beloved Peugeot 106 GTI and his pixellised “Villain” logo, for example.