anna /// higgie /// draws: YO! MAFIA project

For the past month or so I have working on a rebranding project for Melbourne based DJ YO! MAFIA. In her own words, MAFIA is...:

"...a renowned sneaker freak and hip hop junkie, M.A.F.I.A. has been killing them on the wheels of steel for over 15 years. Having grown up at the fruition of Hip Hop in the late ‘70s/early ‘80s, M.A.F.I.A. became FLUORO BREAKER after falling in love with Boogaloo Shrimp in Breakin’. After winning every B-Girl competition she entered, M.A.F.I.A. hung up her knee spin for the turntables after amassing a huge collection of original pressing 12 inch wax from every musical genre known to man. Relying on her acute party savvy ears, M.A.F.I.A. quickly began mashing up sounds from her beloved Hip Hop, mixing in RNB, electro, commercial bangers, cock rock and everything in between. Her signature genre smashing sets have seen her tour and DJ support a wide range of A-List artists – Stevie Wonder, Missy Elliott, Big Freedia, Ca$h Money, Die Antwoord, Clipse, De La Soul, Kurtis Blow, T-Pain, Ice Cube, Lady Gaga, Lupe Fiasco, DJ Craze, Dead Prez, MYA, Salt’n’Pepa, Pharell Williams, Dirty South Joe, J.Period, Rahzel, Arabian Prince, Spinderella, Ghostface Killah, Dizzee Rascal, Snoop Dogg, Vanilla Ice, Spank Rock, Kid Cudi, A-Trak, CSS, Coolio, Girl Talk, Chromeo, Felix Da Housecat, South Rakkas Crew, N.E.R.D, Grandmaster Flash, Tittsworth, DJ Spinbad, Russell Peters, Schwayze, Color Me Badd, Soul For Real, Jon B and Aloe Blacc to name but a few! The go-to DJ for travelling international artists, M.A.F.I.A. also had the honour of being BIG FREEDIA’S (Queen Of Bounce – New Orleans) DJ at both her Melbourne shows in the latter part of 2012 – exposing M.A.F.I.A. to massive sold out audiences and a new demographic of bounce/electronica fans."

For her rebrand I created a portrait, which we have nicknamed the MAFIA SPAGHETTI MEDUSA, and I designed a font for her YO! MAFIA brand, with a variety of medallion / logos for her to use in different contexts.

I also designed a cover for a series of mixtapes MAFIA has created to play instore in the COMMES DES POCKET store in Melbourne that opened this year - the first and only COMMES DES GARCONS store in Australia.

Scroll down to see the medallions, a colour variation on the portrait, the COMME DES GARCONS MIXTAPE design, rough sketches, and some screenshots of the work in context on MAFIA's website and phone...