Wax Era is the design practice and personal website of Matt Flowers. Now based in Chicago, I've been working with agencies, music industry folks, museums, and nonprofits across the country for over twenty years.
The name comes from the "junk wax era" of baseball trading cards from the 80s and 90s. Topps, Fleer, Donruss, and others were flooding the market. People buying them thinking they were going to make them rich. I still have a bunch. Worthless, technically, but there are some that mean a lot to me. That idea stuck with me. We get to choose what we care about. Meaning is something that you create with your time and attention. You chase your obsessions and see where they take you. That's the whole point for me: make work I love and hope it finds its people.
My career never followed a straight line. I started at a sign shop in 2003, learning how to be efficient and work under the scrutiny of production and business concerns while still trying to produce quality work. You learn what matters fast and how to refine a rough idea into a finished product. Later, I pursued my interest in indie rock music into a steady career of associated design work. If you happened to live in Champaign, Illinois during the 2000s and 2010s, you may have seen my work with Pygmalion. I also did a lot of work for the website smilepolitey.com. The Canopy Club, Mike 'N' Molly's, The Accord, Cowboy Monkey. I worked with a couple of record labels, too. Around 2010, I also worked for a time at the beautiful Majestic Theatre on Woodward Ave in Detroit. Conan bowled there once with Jack White.
These days, I work with more traditional marketing agencies like Gecko in Missoula, Montana and Campaignium in Springfield, Missouri. I had the opportunity to design a few art catalogs for Metal Museum in Memphis. In 2024, I helped refresh the look of Pygmalion just in time to celebrate its own twenty year anniversary. I also recently made work for a summer concert series called The Illiac, a full symphony performing outdoors in the park. Currently, I'm with Kelley & Co., a consultant that works with nonprofit organizations based in and around Portland, Oregon.
If you would like to get in touch, please do.
matt@waxera.com