Sage Ballard de la Bastida

hi there! i'm sage, a graphic designer and transdisciplinary artist based in Portland, OR.

Through my work, I integrate my love of bold colors, punk rock aesthetics, and illustration. I've designed websites for working artists, marketing collateral for museums and small businesses, and posters and merch for musicians. Previous work experience includes arts education, developing STEAM curriculum, curatorial research and development, exhibition design, and project management for arts exhibitions and events programming. When I'm not working design projects, I'm working on my debut LP under the indie-rock moniker, Waterboy.

Web Design

MOTHA: The Museum of Transgender Hirstory & Art
September 2023—Present

Of the many projects I've completed with MOTHA, this project was the largest to date. As the museum prepared for its first ever book publication to launch in the Winter of 2024, I was commissioned by Chris E. Vargas, the Founder and Executive Director, to complete a full re-design on the website. Below are samples of my work, featuring the home page with an original illustration, a book launch banner, and the official Trans Hirstory in 99 Objects book page. Additionally, I contributed to the book, Trans Hirstory in 99 Objects, as a historian with a written chronology of the museum and their work since their conception. Created via Squarespace, Adobe Illustrator, and Adobe Photoshop.

For a more in-depth view, please visit MOTHA's Website.

Home Page: The MOTHA home page with an original illustration of the 'museum.'

Home Page: Original design of banner showcasing the newly published MOTHA Trans Hirstory in 99 Objects book and a view of the website footer.

Book Page: A sample of the official web page of the Trans Hirstory in 99 Objects book.

Book Page: Below the book info and option to order is a video feature where viewers can flip through the entire book.

Book Page: Official gallery of book images where viewers can have a more detailed view of the book's pages.

Band Merch and Show Posters

Never Sometimes Always (band)
May 2024

Brief: Design a unique design that is flexible to use on t-shirts and show poster. The imagery and font should reflect the emo pop-punk aesthetic of the music. Inspired by early 2000s pop-punk/rock bands like Avril Lavigne and Paramore, and design aesthetics of Transfigure Print Co.

Process: Starting on paper, I sketched out my design using pencil and white charcoal, went in with layers of acrylic paint markers, and brought the final drawing into Photoshop to enhance details (like the eyes and teeth) and edit overall color balance, saturation, and contrast. After the initial illustrative work was completed, I vectorized the image, and added effects to make the image pop on black/dark backgrounds, and worked on the devil horns. Once the vectorized devil-cat illustration was complete, I created the show flier for instagram marketing and created a separate design that could be printed on a t-shirt. This design was created using multi-media drawing mediums on paper, Adobe Photoshop, and Adobe Illustrator.

NSA Black T-shirt Design, May 2024. Created via Adobe Illustrator.

NSA Show Poster Design, May 2024. Created on Adobe Illustrator.

NSA devil cat design, May 2024. Created on black paper using acrylic paint marker, white charcoal, and Adobe Illustrator saturation and detail boost.

Daddy (band)

April—June 2024

Brief: Create 2 designs using band name; one for a white t-shirt and/or tank top, and one for a black t-shirt and/or long sleeve. Inspired by Harley Davison merch of the 1990s through the 2000s.

Process: Client sent over images of inspiration and I used some of the essential elements that they wanted to incorporate into the design: an eagle's arm span made of flames, the Harley Davidson shield, and the overall campy aesthetic of it all. First, I created the shield and chose two gothic fonts that held the rugged tough-guy aesthetic of motorbike culture as well as the grittiness of rock n' roll culture. Following, I designed the wings, created color gradients, and added the half-point effect to pay homage to diy printmaking and it's role in music/band aesthetics. Next step involved cleaning up the flaming feathers so they were *just right* and added glowing feathering blur around the entire design. Finally, I created a hazy and radiating color effect to look like a record spinning on a turntable. This design was created using Adobe Illustrator.

Daddy Harley Davidson style design for white tank/t-shirt, June 2024. Bisexual color way reflects the band's identity as a queer/bisexual-led band, and their mission to create space for queer musicians and music lovers in the San Diego, indie-rock scene.

Daddy Harley Davidson style design for black t-shirt, April 2024. Fire color way represents the iconic aesthetics of Harley Davidson merch designs from the 1990s through the 2000s.

June Gloom: Brooklyn Music Fest

Brief: Create a poster design for an indie music festival. Imagery, fonts, and color can be in the style of artist's choice. Poster will be used for Instagram and other social media platforms.

Process: Developed the piano rough cut-out design and created the color palette. After choosing a dripped-out gothic font to showcase the band names, I picked out a contrasting, easy-to-read sans serif font for the event details. The brunt of the work was spent on creating shapes and forms, developing textures, and coloring the all the various elements of the design. This design was created via Adobe Illustrator.

June Gloom is not a real music festival. This project was a self-motivated project to further develop fluency in Adobe Illustrator.

Poster design idea for faux music festival, June 2024.

Marketing Design

Zoraya de la Bastida Realty
June 2020—March 2023

During the Pandemic, I started working with Zoraya on a number of graphic design projects: a full modernized re-brand, logo facelift, email signatures, newsletter copy and design, print and digital ads, and the most recent project, the front and back cover of marketing collateral. The images below represent projects I delivered from the years 2022 through 2023.