Sun and Shade is Mike Kosec's first album release. Creating this jazz album had been a life goal for Mike for many years and I was honored to have been commissioned to help achieve that goal. The music and personality of this album is truly sentimental and indicative of all we experience in life, the good, the bad, and the beautiful.
Thank you Mike for allowing me the opportunity to work on such a wholesome and personal project for you.
Thank you Mike for allowing me the opportunity to work on such a wholesome and personal project for you.
Front Cover of Sun and Shade
I was given a selection of photographs to use within the design of the album. This was the best choice as it is eye grabbing, symbolic of the title, Sun and Shade, as well as the music itself, and there was great open-space for the typography.
Inside Cover and CD of Sun and Shade
The CD design was asked to be representative of Colombia Record's simple design on The Beetles older vinyls. In order to keep the design coherent, I decided to use the warm colors inside the album sleeve. I also loved this idea also because it symbolized the light inside the darkness (Sun and Shade). Opening the dark colored cover to reveal the vivid warmth of the inside is an uplifting experience worth the sentiment of the album.
In addition, we decided to put a picture of Mike inside next to his notes (a lovely poem dedicated to his loved ones) to show how personal this project was. It's a little window into the heart behind this album.
Detail of the Inside Cover
As many jazz albums have it, this record was made with the help of many musicians and friends. In order to include as many credits as there were, a sans-serif font was best. This kept the design very clean by eliminating any unnecessary ornamentation.
Back Cover and Song Titles of Sun and Shade
Finally on the back we have the song titles. This allows for easy accessibility to the song titles while listening. (No need to open up or fold over the album). Along with a few of these songs came a few heartwarming personal photos, each one with personal stories. Unfortunately with the small amount of space we had to select only a few.
I decided to keep the sentimental photograph for "The Rest of My Life" (for obvious reasons) as well as the photo of the late Rick Sirota who helped write "Winter on The Boardwalk".
