Kii Arens
Kii Arens acquired his trade on the road.
Born in St. Paul, Minnesota, he grew up in the 70s and 80s when design was becoming more accessible to a rock-n-roll youth. Now a renowned pop-art designer, Arens’ fascination for music and its design accompaniments stems from his childhood, inspired by the colours on TV and new trends in music. Album covers, band logos and font styling; the pearls of creative marketing, all figure predominantly in his work; his big break arriving courtesy of the rock re-run, Woodstock ´94, during a stint in their New York office. Arens’ revamping of the original 60s design saw him reassigned as the new graphic designer, a position he used to single-handedly restyle the event. One phone call later and Arens was working as a rock-n-roll tour shirt designer, first for merchandising company Niceman and then at Twin-Tone Records for artists such as: Sheryl Crow, R.E.M., Soundgarden, Van Halen, Marilyn Manson and many more.
Kii has now designed over 50 CD cases and his latest SPIN-ART piece entitled 'La-La Land' became the album cover for the latest Cheap Tricks release, an award-winning lunch-box design and the inspiration for his designer toy debut.
