Tim Vega (born Timothy Martin Vega; September 14, 1965 – April 29, 2002) was an American

graphic designer A graphic designer is a professional within the graphic design and graphic arts industry who assembles together images, typography, or motion graphics to create a piece of design. A graphic designer creates the graphics primarily for published, ...

best known for his work with several musical acts, especially

jam band A jam band is a musical group whose concerts (and live albums) are characterized by lengthy improvisational "jams." These include extended musical improvisation over rhythmic grooves and chord patterns, and long sets of music which often cr ...

s. Among his patrons were

Blues Traveler Blues Traveler (formerly known as "The Establishment" or "The Black Cat Jam" or "The Establishment Blues Band") is an American rock band that formed in Princeton, New Jersey in 1987. They are known for extensive use of segues in live performance ...

Gov't Mule Gov't Mule (pronounced "Government Mule") is an American Southern rock jam band, formed in 1994 as a side project of the Allman Brothers Band by guitarist Warren Haynes and bassist Allen Woody. Fans often refer to Gov't Mule simply as ''Mule''. ...

, and

Spin Doctors Spin Doctors are an American alternative rock band from New York City, best known for their early 1990s hits "Two Princes" and "Little Miss Can't Be Wrong", which peaked on the Billboard Hot 100, ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart at No. 7 and N ...

Background

Vega was a

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

native, son of novelist

Edgardo Vega Yunqué Edgardo Vega Yunqué (May 20, 1936August 26, 2008) was a Puerto Rican novelist and short story writer, who also used the Americanized pen name Ed Vega. Early years Edgardo Vega Yunqué was born in Ponce, to Alberto Vega, a Baptist ministe ...

. He is

Suzanne Vega Suzanne Nadine Vega ( Peck; born July 11, 1959) is an American singer-songwriter best known for her folk-inspired music. Vega's music career spans almost 40 years. She came to prominence in the mid-1980s, releasing four singles that entered the ...

's younger half-brother. He started out in the

graffiti art Graffiti (plural; singular ''graffiti'' or ''graffito'', the latter rarely used except in archeology) is art that is written, painted or drawn on a wall or other surface, usually without permission and within public view. Graffiti ranges from s ...

scene. Before long, his art appeared on official

T-shirts A T-shirt (also spelled tee shirt), or tee, is a style of fabric shirt named after the T shape of its body and sleeves. Traditionally, it has short sleeves and a round neckline, known as a ''crew neck'', which lacks a collar. T-shirts are generall ...

for Blues Traveler, and even created the

cover art Cover art is a type of artwork presented as an illustration or photograph on the outside of a published product such as a book (often on a dust jacket), magazine, newspaper ( tabloid), comic book, video game (box art), music album (album art), ...

for the band's self-titled debut album. He would later design posters for H.O.R.D.E, the music festival founded by the aforementioned act. In addition to his work with Blues Traveler, Vega is credited with creating the original

logo A logo (abbreviation of logotype; ) is a graphic mark, emblem, or symbol used to aid and promote public identification and recognition. It may be of an abstract or figurative design or include the text of the name it represents as in a wordma ...

for Gov't Mule, and several items for Spin Doctors. He designed the Warhol-esque tour T-shirt for his sister's album 99.9F°. During the tour supporting the album ''99.9F°'', he worked for his sister selling merchandise, including t-shirts with the images he created. He was the in-house painter for Larry Bloch's Wetlands Preserve nightclub in New York City. He painted everything from the Volkswagen bus in the lobby to the bathrooms (which were painted several times). His work can be seen in the film Wetlands Preserved: The Story of an Activist Rock Club. In 2001, Vega worked as a production assistant for ''"On Stage! At the Twin Towers"'', a music festival held at the

World Trade Center World Trade Centers are sites recognized by the World Trade Centers Association. World Trade Center may refer to: Buildings * List of World Trade Centers * World Trade Center (2001–present), a building complex that includes five skyscrapers, a ...

in New York City. He avoided being one of the victims of the

September 11, 2001 attacks The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial ...

, because he called in sick for work that day.

Death

Vega died on April 29, 2002. He worked at the

, and though not present during the

September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercia ...

, his alcoholism in the months that followed proved fatal. Later that year, a fortnight-long tribute was held (beginning December 6, 2002) and featured performances from Blues Traveler

John Popper John Popper (born March 29, 1967) is an American musician and songwriter, known as the co-founder, lead vocalist, and frontman of the rock band Blues Traveler. Early life John Popper was born in Chardon, Ohio. His father was a Hungarian immig ...

Warren Haynes Warren Haynes (born April 6, 1960) is an American musician, singer and songwriter. He is best known for his work as longtime guitarist with the Allman Brothers Band and as founding member of the jam band Gov't Mule. Early in his career he was a ...

Joan Osborne Joan Elizabeth Osborne (born July 8, 1962) is an American singer, songwriter, and interpreter of music, having recorded and performed in various popular American musical genres including rock, pop, soul, R&B, blues, and country. She is best kn ...

, among many others. Suzanne Vega's ''

Beauty & Crime ''Beauty & Crime'' is the seventh studio album by singer-songwriter Suzanne Vega. It is her first album of new material since 2001's '' Songs in Red and Gray'' and her first for Blue Note Records. It was released on July 17, 2007. ''Beauty & Cr ...

'' was released in 2007, dedicated to the memory of Tim Vega.Press release referring to NYT article

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Vega, Tim 1965 births 2002 deaths American people of Puerto Rican descent American graphic designers American graffiti artists 20th-century American painters 20th-century American male artists American male painters