University, Summer 2009
Photo Design III
Prof. Tony Walsh
Theoretical album artwork designed for three separate artists/groups.
This studio focused on combining type and photography to create CD or record album artwork that accurately reflects the personality, tone, and aesthetic of the artist or group.
The first LP album covers were created for indie rock band Death Cab for Cutie, featuring subdued colors, high-contrast imagery, and clean sans-serif type to emulate the album's broad range of subject matter and relatively simple melodic structure.
The second CD album was designed for indie rock band The Shins. Its artwork was primarily derived from the album title and often metaphorical, cryptic lyrics. The imagery features miniature bird models with their shadows sharply cast on the surface behind them, an "inverted' and otherwise impossible occurrence in the real world. The dark, surreal colors reflect the darker undertones and topics of the album.
The third CD album features psychedelic rock band MGMT. Due to the album's heavy layering and echoing of vocals and effects, all of the imagery is layered as well. The simple, primary color palette represents both the vocalists' occasionally bright, falsetto singing as well as their age - the band was formed during the artists' freshman year of college and broke into the mainstream music scene not long after. Additional posters were created as part of this CD's packaging.
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