For a band that played its first gig at one of Ken Kesey’s infamous acid tests in the Bay Area in 1965 and disbanded in 1995 following the death of Jerry Garcia, getting involved with licensing and marketing can seem like kind of dealing with evil. But the Grateful Dead brand is stronger than ever, thanks to thoughtful licensing deals for on-brand products and selective lending of the band's vast catalog to films and television.

The change came about last September when Mark Pinkus, SVP of Grateful Dead Properties at Warner Music Group's Rhino Entertainment, was put in charge of merchandising and licensing Grateful Dead products, according to the Los Angeles Times. "The band wants to turn on that 18- to 25-year-old audience," Pinkus told the Times.

As a result, the “band's music has appeared in at least four movies since April, and over the last several months, the number of licensees has increased 20%, including new deals with Burton snowboards, Dregs Skateboards and Wines That Rock,” the Times notes.Continue reading...

A new company called Wines That Rock has introduced a wine series inspired by classic rock album art. Although Wines That Rock's founders, Ron Roy and Howard Jackowitz, have no experience in wine, they are banking that their attractive labels will garner shoppers’ attention.

The first three to launch are Forty Licks Merlot, Woodstock Chardonnay, and The Dark Side of the Moon Cabernet Sauvignon. While the labels vary from the original album jackets, all three are unmistakably imprinted with each album’s signature look.

If the current branding landscape is any indication, Roy and Jackowitz, are not the only ones to be taking cues from classic rock album art. As many design blogs have noted (citing Coley Porter Bell’s logo for the Museum of London) one of 2009’s big logo trends was the psychedelic pop background. Other brands that demonstrated this trend in 2009 include, Sunkist, which got a new retro update this year.Continue reading...