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Mockup: three Drum-Off "It's Alive!" posters wheatpasted on a weathered Los Angeles wall at dusk
Creative Direction · Key Art · Illustration

Guitar Center Drum-Off

The brief

For 28 years, Guitar Center's Drum-Off was where unknown drummers got discovered. Then it went quiet for a decade. For its return, Guitar Center asked me to help bring it back to life. I took that literally.

Challenge
Bring a beloved competition back from the dead, and make the comeback feel like an event worth entering and worth showing up for.
Role
Campaign concept and creative direction, key art, identity, illustration, social series, and the visual system Guitar Center's team carried across the entire Drum-Off campaign.
Focus
One idea carried everywhere: a mad scientist's lab where a kick drum gets jolted back to life.
Outcome
More than 2,600 drummers entered. Six made it to the finale, in front of a sold-out Fonda Theatre.
It's alive!
Close-up: the It's Alive! kick drum head
Close-up: The Fonda, Los Angeles, as a brain in a jar
The finished Drum-Off 2026 poster: a purple and acid-green lab where a kick drum is jolted back to life
Close-up: Hosted by Bill Burr, billed on a lab monitor
Close-up: an eyeball on the lab machinery
Close-up: August 20th, 2026, around a hand throwing horns
Three directions

Three ways to raise the dead.

Every direction I pitched answered the same brief: bring it back to life. Guitar Center chose the lab.

Concept sketch: "Rise Up" with roses and crossed drumsticks
Rise Up
Concept sketch: "It's Alive!" lab with judges in jars
It's Alive!
Concept sketch: California landmarks and legendary judges
The Legends
The Fonda Theatre, Hollywood. Built in 1926.
The Fonda Theatre, Hollywood. Built in 1926.
The mark

A logo shaped like the room.

The lockup's silhouette comes from The Fonda's 1926 architecture: the ornate proscenium and the arched niches that flank the stage. The mark carries the room where the search ends, and the venue's checkered floor runs straight into the poster. Sponsor and year versions cover every use.

Drum-Off 2026 primary lockup with DW and Zildjian, black on acid green
Drum-Off 2026 reverse lockup, white on deep purple
Pencil to print

From sketch to It's Alive!

The lab started as a line sketch. In the final, the cymbals double as Tesla coils throwing lightning across the sky, and the kick drum is the patient: strapped to the machine and jolted awake.

Final
Sketch
SketchFinal
Made for the street
Mockup: three Drum-Off posters wheatpasted in a row on a weathered city wall
Mockup: a torn corner of a wheatpasted Drum-Off poster
Mockup: close-up of the It's Alive! kick drum on a wheatpasted poster
Mockup: a single Drum-Off poster wheatpasted on a wall
Mockup: a wheatpasted Drum-Off poster seen at an angle

Meet your judges.

A social series introducing the host, co-host, and judges, each one preserved in the lab. The portraits took on a life of their own, with several of the judges sharing their illustrations across their own social channels.

Meet Your Judges card: Meet your judges
Meet Your Judges card: Bill Burr, host
Meet Your Judges card: Stephen Perkins, co-host
Meet Your Judges card: Dave Elitch
Meet Your Judges card: Josh Freese
Meet Your Judges card: Brad Wilk
Meet Your Judges card: Pocket Queen
Meet Your Judges card: Alex González
Meet Your Judges card: Eric Moore II
Meet Your Judges card: Adrian Young
Meet Your Judges card: Daniel Jensen
Meet Your Judges card: El Estepario Siberiano
Meet Your Judges card: Jared Falk
Meet Your Judges card: Jay Weinberg
Meet Your Judges card: Thomas Lang
Meet Your Judges card: Tré Cool

The system, in their hands.

Built to keep growing.

What began as a single campaign concept quickly became something much bigger. Across four months and multiple stages of the competition, the lab expanded into a flexible visual world Guitar Center could keep building from.

And they ran with it.

I handed over the mark, the art, and the pieces to build with. Guitar Center's in-house team turned the poster into stage sets for the regionals, then carried it onto drumheads, stage screens, the step-and-repeat, and beyond. Photos: Guitar Center.

The Hollywood regional stage: lab machinery set pieces and lightning around a HOLLYWOOD Drum-Off sign, with a drummer playing to a crowd
Hollywood regional stage
The New York regional stage: a NEW YORK Drum-Off sign over a purple lab set with a checkered floor
New York regional stage
A drummer on the Hollywood stage surrounded by lab-equipment set pieces under a HOLLYWOOD Drum-Off sign
The lab, built
A drummer on stage behind a kick drum head printed with the Drum-Off logo
Kick drum heads
A performer with a raised fist in front of a giant Drum-Off logo on the stage screen
Stage screens
Guitar Center finals graphic built from the lab art: Bill Burr and Stephen Perkins in lab coats, "It's Alive!", and a SOLD OUT sticker over the ticket line
Finals night: sold out
John Stamos on the red carpet in front of a Drum-Off, DW, and Zildjian step-and-repeat
The step-and-repeat
Oversized Drum-Off drumheads being signed at a table
Signed drumheads
Two people posing on a regional Drum-Off stage set built from the lab art, under a Guitar Center Drum-Off sign
On the regional set

The lab, in motion.

Guitar Center's team animated the system for the finalist reveals, filmed every round on the set, and built the lab into The Fonda's lobby. Video: Guitar Center; lobby video: Drumeo.

The finalist reveal
The lab, in The Fonda's lobby
A regional round
The comeback

Back from the deadby the numbers.

2,600+
drummers entered
24
district finals
6
finalists at The Fonda
800K+
views of the full finale
August 20, 2026 · The Fonda Theatre

Six finalists. One champion. Drum-Off lives.

Photos: Guitar Center.

  • Christopher "CJ" Darden playing drums
    Christopher "CJ" DardenLillington, NC
  • Jonathan Fortson playing drums
    ChampionJonathan FortsonHamilton, AL
  • Jake Ward playing drums
    Jake WardProvo, UT
  • Caleb Robinson playing drums
    Caleb RobinsonLansing, MI
  • Michael-Andrew Cornish playing drums
    Michael-Andrew CornishStockton, CA
  • Mitch Gorman playing drums
    Mitch GormanAntioch, IL

It lived.

August 20, at a sold-out Fonda Theatre. Photos and video: Guitar Center.

The Fonda Theatre marquee: GUITAR CENTER DRUM OFF IS BACK!
The marquee
Kenny Aronoff behind a kit on The Fonda stage, under a giant Drum-Off 2026 backdrop
The stage
The champion's moment

A packed Fonda, fully alive.

Photos: Guitar Center.

  • A packed Fonda Theatre facing a stage lit under the Drum-Off logo
  • Bill Burr hosting on stage, microphone in hand
  • A drummer mid-hit behind a Drum-Off kick drum head
  • The stage under a WINNER! screen with performers celebrating
  • A drummer playing a kit with a Drum-Off kick drum head
  • A drummer playing under blue stage light
  • Fans outside The Fonda Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard
  • Performers celebrating on stage under green lights
  • Confetti falling over the crowd and the WINNER! screen
The response from customers, artists, our stores, and our own leadership was incredible.
Jon Moreaux, Sr. Manager, Brand Creative at Guitar Center, playing an acoustic guitar
Jon Moreaux
Sr. Manager, Brand CreativeGuitar Center
The recap

Feel the energy.

Drum-Off 2026 finals recap, from Guitar Center.

Cheery Cherry, Groovy Grapefruit, and Sublime cans on a blue background
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