Our frequent collaborators, The National, casually hit us up with some exciting updates about their new album, I Am Easy To Find.
First, they said it was almost finished. Cool.
Second, they were sending us an advanced copy to listen to. Nice. We’re friends with benefits, now.
Third, they were working with the incredibly rad director, designer, producer, and Oscar nominee Mike Mills — and wanted us to design a ton of stuff for them including packaging, animations, swag, and the website. Holy. Sh*t.
Mike had been working with the band for the past year to create a beautiful 40-minute film that accompanied the album and produced on the album — so he had an intimate vision for the design system that should span across all the pieces.
We worked closely with him to develop a clean typographic system that eloquently constructed and deconstructed itself across a multitude of formats. Black and white photography and video intersected with colorful paint strokes, both layered beneath kinetic type. Together it formed a sophisticated design system that’s both utilitarian and iconic.
