Chloe MooreChloe Moore sat down with multidisciplinary artist Tuned Studios to discuss graphics, design, Y2K aesthetics, musical influences, and more.
Marcus, the creative force behind Tuned Studios, has been shaping the visual language of Ireland’s dance music scene for nearly a decade. Formerly known as SONIA his DJ and producer moniker, Marcus’s roots in design trace back to his early teens, photoshopping body kits onto cars, crafting Bebo skins, and designing forum signatures.
What began as a side hobby quickly evolved into a full-blown career. After juggling design commissions alongside a stable day job, he made the leap into full-time freelance work, betting on his creative instincts and a growing demand for his bold, genre-reflective poster art. Today, his work is a familiar sight across Ireland’s electronic music landscape.
I had the chance to interview Marcus about his visual contributions to Ireland’s dance music scene.
Can you describe your typical design process when approaching a new project?
It’s different every time, to be honest. For a start, it depends on whether I have free rein or not. Most of the time, I already have the idea in my head and can bang out the design within a day or two—if I’ve got full freedom, that is. If I’m having an off day, I might end up browsing archive.org or are.na for a few hours to spark something. Books are great for that, too. I’m in a couple of design Discords as well—CARI is a great resource and has a really solid community.
Who or what are your major influences in the design world?
They’re everyone’s favourites, so it’s not the most unique answer, but I’ve always really liked The Designers Republic. I don’t get a lot of briefs where I can fully lean into that style, but I remember being obsessed with the Gatecrasher CD artworks when I was younger, and later found out they also did the artwork for the Wipeout games.
When I got more serious about design more seriously, especially within the scene here, I used to take a lot of notes from 6th Realm’s work. That was the first time I noticed event posters could be more than just names and a venue slapped on a background.
Is there a particular poster you’ve designed that you’re especially proud of? What made that one stand out for you?
I got asked this a while ago, and it was really hard to answer. Off the top of my head, I really liked the last time Translucent in Galway had Clouds over. Also, any random pick from the ones I’ve done for The Ooze in the U.S. is up there. Whenever the Obskür lads hit me up for a tour poster, it’s always a blast—especially their first Australian tour. I usually get a lot of freedom on those, and that’s when I do my best work.
Where do you pull visual inspiration from—other designers, past subcultures, music itself?
There’s no single source, really. I do posters for all kinds of events—house nights with commercial DJs, free parties, local techno nights, even Muay Thai fight nights in Scotland—so there’s never a one-size-fits-all approach.
When I can, I pull a lot from older racing game menus and UIs. I love the vectorheart and “Y2K” aesthetics, although that term’s kind of lost its meaning now—people call anything vaguely 2000s “Y2K.” If you check out CARI’s posts on that and on vectorheart, you’ll get a good sense of the styles I’m into.
Old games tie into that too—especially Japanese PlayStation covers. They’re often totally different from the versions we got in Europe or the U.S. If I can track down the designer, I’ll usually dig into their other work and save it in a folder.
Are there any dream events or artists you’d love to design a poster for?
I’m pretty happy with who I work with now. Over the years, especially through Here & Now, I’ve done posters for some huge names—Green Velvet, Dimitri From Paris, Sven Väth. A dream one actually got ticked off recently: EMC in Cork had Soichi Terada over, which was unreal. I’m a massive hard house fan too, so it’d be amazing to do something for Rachael Auburn or Anne Savage one day.
Do you approach posters as purely promotional tools, or do you see them as standalone pieces of art with their own life?
It depends on the gig. If it’s a bigger, commercial house night with a strict brief, an agent, and two or three people involved in optimizing it to sell tickets, then it doesn’t feel like art—it’s more of a job.
I’m still happy to take those on and they usually go smoothly, but it’s totally different when, say, an underground artist hits me up for EP artwork, or someone running a free party gives me full creative control. That’s when it really starts to feel like art.
What tools or software do you primarily use in your poster design process?
The usual suspects—Photoshop, Illustrator, and Blender. I’ve been messing around in Photoshop for close to 20 years and still find new tricks every week. I’m learning Blender now, which has a learning curve—I originally used 3ds Max back in a game design course.
Honestly, the software doesn’t matter that much. You could do 90% of what I do on older versions or entirely different programs. The end result will be the same—it’s just the process that changes. I was using a 10-year-old Adobe suite until recently, and even now, I don’t think the new versions are that much better. They’ve just gotten bloated.
Your event posters often feature unique visual elements. Can you share how you collaborate with artists to capture their essence in your designs?
It’s kind of like music—you have to be involved in the community. A lot of bigger design pages have Discords where we bounce ideas off each other and share WIPs for feedback. They’ve been super helpful for the business side too. For years I was undercharging and letting people push boundaries on revisions and timelines.
Cody Vondell’s server is great—lots of beginners, helpful advice, and he gives away tons of free assets. Dreadlabs’ server is also solid if you’re more experienced and want to level up. I actually started my own server recently for Irish designers—if anyone wants a link, they can DM my page for an invite.
As a designer working in a highly visual and creative field, how do you feel about the rise of AI-generated design tools? Do you see them as a threat to artists like yourself, or more as a new tool to integrate into your workflow?
I don’t see it as a threat, to be honest. The people who are just going to generate a really obvious AI image and slap text over it were never going to hire a designer anyway. I’m not totally anti-AI—if someone’s using it for small elements and then manipulating it properly, I don’t see an issue.
AI can only mimic what it’s trained on—and a lot of the best, most niche stuff is so rare it’s not going to learn from it. People still appreciate the thought and care a human puts into design. AI isn’t going anywhere, but it’ll always stand out—and not in a good way. Most people can spot it, and they’re not big fans.
