UK ALTERNATIVE CULTURE BRAND KERRANG! REVEALS VISUAL ARTIST DANIELLA BATSHEVA AS ITS FIRST-EVER FEMALE LEAD ILLUSTRATOR
Daniella Batsheva Designed the Cover Artwork for Kerrang!’s June 2022 Special Issue
LOS ANGELES, CA – JUNE 8, 2022 – Visual artist Daniella Batsheva has been named UK alternative culture brand Kerrang!’s first-ever female Lead Illustrator. The cover art she created for the June 2022 special issue promoting the UK leg of The Hella Mega Tour featuring superstars Green Day, Fall Out Boy and Weezer marks a very rare occasion in Kerrang!’s 40+ year history that showcases an illustration on its cover. Daniella’s collaboration with Kerrang! began in December 2021 and has proven to be a vital part of the brand’s new direction of representing the generation that is now defining a more inclusive alternative landscape. Visually alluring, humorous and thought-provoking all at once, Daniella’s aesthetic boasts beautiful detail-heavy, intricate line work mixed with vibrant colors, and her artwork focus for Kerrang! embraces a wide range of timely issues including mental health, sex, drugs, female empowerment and more.
“Kerrang! is such a loved and established brand that has always championed creativity and authenticity and has provided an important platform for the coolest artists and most relevant topics. Kerrang! is legendary!,” Daniella declares. “As we witness the alternative sector shift into a much more diverse global collection of talents, naturally Kerrang! is evolving along with it, and I am thrilled and honored to contribute illustrations that mirror that growth.”
Kerrang! Brand Manager Esme Surfleet says, “The future of the alternative is bright and colourful, and we want our creative team to reflect that. Daniella’s artwork has been a refreshing addition to our visual arsenal and we’re excited to be showcasing community members from a vast range of cultural backgrounds. Daniella’s unique approach and artistic style has helped us engage a wider audience in ongoing discussions about our more meaningful content, which has been extremely beneficial for the community we are building.”
Daniella’s Kerrang! cover art includes easter eggs inspired the Hella Mega Tour artwork and the bands’ iconic album artworks throughout the years. She designed a joyful, colorful, chaotic scene showing a tarantula wearing a unicorn skull that’s tearing down a city, along with robots, lasers and sasquatch.
Her wildly popular first illustration for Kerrang! spotlights “The 50 Best Albums of 2021” in a kinetic wallpaper-type rendering of musicians – that ensured Daniella’s continued successful collaboration with the brand. Next came three illustrations for “Fictional Drugs” that portray electric, elaborate eye-candy chaos, then the humorous weed-laced scenario of “Sex and CBD” followed by discussing seasonal depression in “Is Blue Monday a Myth?” and the horror-themed sleuthing of “Tracking Down the Scariest Crap Movie in the World.” Meanwhile “Lockdown Loneliness” examines the heavy impact caused by the pandemic, “10 BDSM Commandments” explores kinky sex advice and “Burnout” deals with the very real difficulty of working through exhaustion.
Daniella shares, “I want the characters I draw for Kerrang! to be human. I want to show mixed-race couples and men struggling with mental health issues. I want to show people enjoying themselves and giggling at their silly sexual adventures. I want to show that there’s room for everyone, no matter your color or background. I want to offer a safe space and create pieces that would’ve made the young Kerrang! reader that I was, feel like she has a place in the alternative. I think it boils down to representation, so that’s my goal. I want people to know they are seen.”
About Kerrang!:
For over 40 years Kerrang! has been at the forefront of alternative music, first with the biggest-selling weekly rock magazine, and now with a global platform that reaches 45 million people a month. Kerrang! is making a conscious effort to expand into reporting on lifestyles and trends and highlight growing inclusivity in the alternative community. Music, art, fashion, mental health, current events and everything in between, Kerrang! will forever fly the flag for those who embrace the alternative.