Good Clean Fun: Design Secrets of The White Panda

Mash-up duo The White Panda recently approached Creative Allies to give our artists and designers a chance to design the album cover for their new release, Bambooyah!

Since 2009, the DJ duo of Dan Griffith (DJ Griffi) and Tom Evans (DJ Procrast) have been prolific in their craft, putting all their content up on their website for download and releasing a steady stream of new tunes through their “Mashup Mondays.” Their original brand of dance party music has proven popular, and they quickly developed a reputation for outrageously fun live shows. Bambooyah! is set for release this March, and we had the chance to interview one half of the pair, Dan Griffith, in the midst of the group’s Pandamonium Tour.

Creative Allies: How did The White Panda come about?  How did the two of you connect?

Dan Griffith of The White Panda: Well, Tom [Evans] and I have actually been really good friends for a long time, going to the same elementary, middle and high schools. Growing up, we even went to the same piano studio, so we became friends over music. I went to school at USC in LA and Tom attended Northwestern in Chicago, and both of us got into high-energy dance music and started experimenting with music software. We both realized that we were posting our mixes and mash-ups on things like our tumblr pages, and got back in touch around early 2009. We came up with the name The White Panda and started releasing music under that moniker, and we hit a hot streak on internet and music blogs, then it just continued from there.

CA: What’s the significance of the band name, The White Panda?

DG: None really, we just settled on a cool name from the 150 or so other ones we were thinking about.  Although there is a kind of rumor going around that since Tom is Caucasian and I’m part Japanese that The White Panda refers to that. But besides that there wasn’t really any special meaning behind it, we just thought it was catchy and it was cool.

CA: You guys also have a very distinct logo, with the outline of a panda wearing headphones. Whose idea was that?

DG: It was actually my sister! She went to school in LA for graphic design and we talked early on about making a cool, sleek logo that incorporated the panda. She came up with what you see now right off the bat. We really liked it and have used it ever since.

CA: When it comes to your music, how do you select which tracks to mash-up? How are they paired?

DG: We both like all sorts of different music, and we’re influenced by everything from classic rock, 60s and 70s to drum ‘n bass and current music. We don’t limit ourselves to anything, so we’re constantly searching for ideas and always listening. I might be in a cafe in NYC and hear some cool 80s New Wave song and think, “Hey, this could be cool to incorporate,” but generally we look for music that has a nostalgic recognizability or is just catchy and dancey and makes you want to move.

CA: For your new album cover, are there any specific artists or styles that you enjoy? Anything in particular that you’re looking for?

DG: We don’t really have a specific idea in mind. We don’t want to limit anyone’s creativity or ideas. I think the main thing is that we’re known as two kind of crazy guys that dress up in panda masks that like to party and have a good time. That’s been our focus throughout our tour, but we don’t want anything super crazy like us boozing on the cover. We want something fun and crazy but still clean. We perform in our clean, white custom suits, our logo’s very clean, but we’d like a clean image that’s fun loving and also party-oriented.

CA: Any last thoughts for our artists and designers while they’re working on this?

DG: We don’t want them to be limited or directed in a certain way that’ll change their artistic direction, but just think about the brand and who we are as we described above. We’re both silly, so something clean and fun would be great.

Design an album cover for Bambooyah!, win $500 and a White Panda prize pack.