Square One Album Design 2011

Client:Nikolas Metaxas

Title:Digipak and CD-screen design
(digibook coming soon!)

Description: Nikolas Metaxas is a force having accumulated more than 1,000,000 views on Youtube combined and maintaining a following of over 21,000 and counting. We are excited to add him to our roster of talented clients! No really it’s true the Eurovision song “Firefly” by Nikolas was released by Sony Greece and was in the top ten on iTunes Greece for 2 weeks, topping the #2 spot. (Yeah awesome we know.

Vincent Leungs’ photographs were the launch point for the design as was the title Square One. I am especially pleased with the “Square” inspired typesetting on the back plate and disk.

I love experimenting with type and using type in a way that both represents the artist and/or their theme. The original type designer of “Agency”,  Morris Fuller Benton was a ture innovator. He changed the physical manner of type design and production by refining a process for creating scalable drawings for each letter. What better representation of starting at Square one?! And the well known designer David Berlow did an amazing job building a system from Morris Bentons’Original work.

Digipak and CD screen design for Ryan Schmidt "Black Sheep Run"

Client:Ryan Schmidt

Title:Black Sheep Run, Digipak and disc design

Description: Digipak and cd-screen Design for Ryan Schmidt.

Ryan Schmidt is well aware and is often inspired by analogue, image and sound alike. To that end his first request was to manipulate a single digital image. It needed light leaks, dust, and faded colors. My goal was to evoke that feeling of picking up a vintage photo at a swap meet. To me these images are always oddly poignant. Why were they lost or left behind? The lost image concept was applied to all of the photos on the package. The rust texture that fills the background reinforces the illusion that these images have been here a while. Are you opening up an old metal box from an attic, maybe a rusted out locker? In the stack are scraps of paper and notes. Note also the hand-drawn titles on the cover. The dominant typeface outside of the hand-drawn type is a departure for me. It’s called “Blur” designed by Neville Brody in 1991 a full 19 years ago! Why use this 90′s vintage face for a new artist? One it evokes exactly what the name implies, out of focus and a bit disorientating. As we make out the letters we hope to find focus, maybe a story in these lost objects. Second this typeface was designed in the era of grunge and radar magazine, anyone that’s a generation X’er will appreciate the homage to what was our own version of anti-establishment anthems. Ryan is of a new generation and in this album he tips his hat to his roots in more ways than one.

Luna eco-wallet and cd-screen

Danny Rasmussen is an up and coming singer/songwriter living in the Faroes Islands. After discussing Danny’s concept for his EP I decided to call the painter Paul Lajeunesse to illustrate the cover. Known for his painting’s of the Icelandic landscape, I felt confidant his aesthetic was the perfect choice. The final cover painting is stark yet appropriately melancholy. I designed the textures for the inside panels and executed the typography. The cd-screen was based on a lunar photo altered with painterly textures to echo the inside panels and tone of the project. The logo with the eclipse/moon phase reference is partly composed of Danny’s own handwriting. The moon phases reference the passing of time and change. Both occur in the process of writing and recording music, or pursuing any personal creative project with patience come to think of it.

Client:Angela Easterling
Project Name:Black Top Road
Description: 8 panel digipak, CD-screen, and digital download card design.

With great pride I bring to you Angela Easterling’s Sophmore Album Black Top Road. Truly a labor of love for all parties involved. Featuring the stellar photography of Coke Whitworth. I built all of the panels from scans of vintage paper, family photos and handwritten text for the lyrics by the artist. Angela’s family has been battling against the government to keep their family farm for the last several years. Rich with history and memories dating back to 1877 their family lost part of that battle as the road featured in these photos was paved through it in early 2009. So the first battle may have been lost but no war is made of one battle. Onwards Angela and family keep fighting the good fight.

Client:Jennifer Gibbons (aka FunkyJenn)
Project Name:Summer Soulstice
Description:Illustrated and designed to promote a private engagement to celebrate several notable and upcoming Americana Artists in the Los angeles area.

Client:Angela Easterling
Project Name:Earning her Wings
Description: 4 panel digipak, CD-screen, and digital download card design.

Angela Easterling a rising star in No Depression Country Music came to me to both photograph and design her debut release. It was great fun to have full creative control of all of the assets and design. Angela is as lovely in real life as she looks here.

Airports CD jacket and CD screen

Client:The Paula Kelley Orchestra
Project Name:Airports
Description: CD jacket and CD-screen

This is the first of two singles to be released by The PKO before the full length release. Paula (lead singer/orchestrator) and her husband Aaron (lead guitar/vocals) have spent a lot of time apart because more