At top is the original Midi Bass as it was first released. Note particularly the “Midi Bass” logo as it here appears. Though my client liked this logo very much (with its “cat-scratch quotes” and “a line running through it for no good reason”), it seems that dealers absolutely detested it. We quickly replaced it with a blockier, more conventional logo. You can see that version elsewhere in these pages. As I understand it, only about 50 Midi Basses were actually made and sold with this early logo. Attentive wags may notice this hand-drawn typestyle of my own design elsewhere in these pages as well.

Above left, the original ad for the Midi Bass. This half-page vertical “Real Bass in a Box” ad in color surely commanded any page on which it appeared. Like 360 Systems’ pioneering digital keyboard, this device played real (not synthesized) sounds stored on computer chips. Hence the headline. The Midi Bass is perhaps best known for that distinctive bass sound heard as musical intros and outros on the television show “Seinfeld.”

Shown above right are product logo/panel designs from the front panels of two “rack-mounted” products–the Midi Patcher and the professional version of the Midi Bass. No one hated these, so far as I know!

What: Product panel  layouts, logo design / ad concept, copy assistance, design, art
For: Midi Bass, Professional Midi Bass, Midi Patcher products /
“Real Bass in a Box” half-page color magazine ad (1985)
Client: 360 Systems
When: mid 1980s