Music

Blackweb / Music

Creative direction for heavy music.

Websites, identities, release artwork and merch for bands that care about how the work feels, not just how it looks.

Start a projectSee the work
The Bloodlines home page: the band in black and white behind the name in huge blackletter.
The home page, bloodlinestexas.com.

Bloodlines

Website / Creative direction / Development
Metalcore, Facedown Records

A website that became part of the release.

Most band sites sit beside a release. This one carried it. For the day before “So Much To Lose” came out, every page, the press kit included, turned into a countdown. The song title decrypted one letter at a time, the artwork stayed out of reach, and at midnight the site opened on its own with the premiere in the featured slot and the new album announced beneath it.

Around that, the site does the band’s everyday work: a page and lyrics for every song, with scripture notes set beside the words, tour dates that roll off as they pass, a video library and an electronic press kit. Release dates gate the track titles and artwork, so nothing leaks early.

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The release-night countdown: the Bloodlines logo over a row of red letters and runes, with a clock reading 02:29:55 at enormous scale.
Release night. For one day, every page on the site was a clock.
The countdown on a phone: the logo, a line of red letters and runes, and the clock.
The same clock on a phone, where most fans were.
A lyric page for “Holiness Cries”, set in a large serif with small red footnote numbers after some lines.
Lyrics set as text, with their scripture notes.

Mara, No Free World, 2026

The No Free World vinyl: the gold Mara logo on the white jacket, the open gatefold with the red logo, and a gold and black record.
The finished package: jacket, gatefold and record. Mockup built from scratch.

Mara

Identity / Record artwork / Vinyl packaging
Hardcore, ten-year anniversary pressing

Artwork and packaging for a record’s ten-year pressing.

I hand drew a replication of Mason Starkey’s original artwork, reworked the band’s logo into a heavier metal mark with a liquid gold finish, and set the whole package: the jacket, the inside panels and two lyric sheets carrying all four sides.

Everything went to the pressing as print-ready files.

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The front cover: the spiked Mara logo in liquid gold over pale, spattered artwork, with “No Free World” in spaced red capitals beneath.
Front cover.
The right inside panel: the reworked Mara logo in red above the record’s credits, set small in red on marbled white paper.
Inside panel, credits in red.
A lyric sheet: three columns of lyrics in gold serif type over a black, speckled ground with grey halftone marks, from “A Place for Dark Souls” to “Confinement”.
Lyric sheet, sides A and B.

Capabilities

  1. 01

    Websites

    Custom band websites, release experiences, EPKs, tour pages, merch integration and interactive campaigns.

    See it in Bloodlines
  2. 02

    Identity

    Logos, typography, visual systems and creative direction built around the character of the band.

    See it in Mara
  3. 03

    Records & Releases

    Album and single artwork, vinyl packaging, lyric layouts, digital campaign assets and physical production files.

    See it in Mara
  4. 04

    Merch

    Shirt graphics, posters, limited-run pieces and supporting campaign artwork.

  5. 05

    Photography & Film

    Band photography, press images and video for releases and announcements.

The music comes first.

I don’t have a house style for bands.

The visual direction starts with the record: its atmosphere, its references, the artwork, the live show and the world the band has already started building around it.

A hardcore record shouldn’t look like a doom record, because they don’t feel the same. My job is to find what is distinct about yours and push it further.

Send me the record. The demos. The tour photos. The films you’ve been referencing. The shirt someone found on eBay. The strange image that’s been sitting in the group chat for six months.

That’s usually where the interesting stuff starts.

I’m Isaiah Short, a designer, developer and musician. Blackweb is my independent studio.

One visual language, wherever the band shows up.

Instead of handing each piece to someone different, I develop the visual system across all of it, so the record, the site and the shirt come from the same idea.

I design and I write the code. The release page can do what the artwork suggests, and the artwork is made knowing where it will live.

  • The Bloodlines home page on a phone: the singer mid-scream under a stage light, the name in blackletter beneath.

    WebsiteBloodlines

  • The reworked Mara logo in red, spiked and dripping, on marbled white paper.

    LogoMara

  • The Bloodlines tour page: LIVE in huge capitals over a photo from behind the drum kit, facing a festival crowd.

    Tour datesBloodlines

  • The back cover of No Free World: the tracklist for sides A to D in spaced red capitals over a pale live photo.

    Back coverMara

  • The Bloodlines electronic press kit: the name in blackletter over a crowd shot, with a press kit download and a booking link.

    Press kitBloodlines

How I work

  1. Listen

    I start with the music and a conversation. What you’re making, where it’s going and what already feels like you.

  2. Develop

    I explore the visual direction and start building. We work through what belongs, what doesn’t and what needs to be pushed further.

  3. Finish

    I deliver the finished work in the formats you actually need, whether that’s a live site, print-ready merch, vinyl packaging or a full identity system.

Send me the record.

If you’re working on a release, rebuilding the band’s identity or just know the current version doesn’t represent you anymore, send me what you’re working on.

Not sure what it should cost? Tell me what you’re comfortable spending and I’ll tell you what makes sense within it.

Or write to hello@blackweb.studio.

A record, a new logo, a site, a tour run. Whatever it is.

A rough range is fine, and so is “not sure yet”.

Links to artwork, photos, references or a shared folder.

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