ep and album art
The very satisfying limited run gold foil sticker we had printed.
Will Finn & Rosie Calvert – Beneath This Place
I had so much fun with this commission! This is the debut album from Newcastle-based duo Will Finn and Rosie Calvert, and they drew on so many gorgeous visual reference points when briefing the art. The album is deeply rooted in the idea of home, our connections to the natural world, and the joy and depth of feeling this can inspire.
The fantastical nature of the art is a bit of a departure in tone for a folk album, but matches their eclectic and modern sound well. I very much enjoyed bringing it all to life across the cover, designs for bags and badges, social media imagery, an animation, and posters and flyers for live gigs.
Album available at Haystack Records
Ellin really went the extra mile with our album artwork, the additional effort she put in creating promotional images and merchandise really impressed us, and it all felt so cohesive with the tone, the ethos, and the feeling of the album in general.
— Rosie Calvert, Musician
Exterior and interior illustrations for a 6-tray CD digipak (click for detail)
The full exterior design with text placement and gold foil sticker (click for detail)
The Teacups – In Which…
I was delighted to get to work on an album cover for acapella folk quartet The Teacups. This was their third studio album, featuring reworkings of traditional songs as well as pieces written by the band members in folk styles but along modern themes.
The brief was reached in a collaborative way, discussing the songs and themes alongside the band’s own nostalgic points of reference for visual styles. What emerged was almost an almanac of the folk tradition – a Mrs Beeton-esque guide to songs "in which...". Themes, events, and situations persist across the folk canon, and the visual references to the sea, alcohol and animals feel familiar, no matter the song.
I enjoyed sticking to a minimal colour scheme for this project, but adding some fun pops of colour to the illustrations. This persists as a theme across all 6 panels of the cover as well as the CD itself.
Album available at Haystack Records
The full exterior for the 6 tray digipak CD design (click for more detail)
The full interior, with text designed to be hidden under the central CD tray (click for more detail)
Burning Bright – Beats, Rhymes & Cuts
Beats, Rhymes & Cuts is a fantastic little album of Scottish hip hop, featuring vocal collaborations from around the globe. The beats draw from Blue Note jazz records, and the artists wanted the cover to reflect that. I had a highly enjoyable time studying Reid Miles’ work and coming up with something which (hopefully) feels similar in its bold and playful style.
As well as being released digitally, the album was also made into a limited run of cassette tapes, and I loved adapting the design and copy into a new form.
Album available through This Is Not Pop
primitivist – simulation/repeating patterns
A simple little bit of design using pre-existing art created by the musician, these two covers were nevertheless a fun project as they also led to a fantastic animated video to promote the album (which you can see over on my Motion Graphics page, here).
The art was created using Japanese suminagashi (marbling) techniques, and the musician was keen to incorporate the beautiful textures of the paper he’d used into the overall cover designs. I made use of digital textures and handwritten fonts to continue the soft, faded feeling of the original art.
Album available through Precog Records
the trouble ep
A cover for a digital release of some of Anders Ingram's blues performances, originally recorded by The Lathe Revival in Newcastle on a restored 1938 Presto Shellac Lathe.
The brief was to create a vintage-looking piece with references to Blue Note album covers and jazz posters of the 1950s. Anders kindly provided photographs of his guitar so that I could incorporate its distinctive shape into the cover. I also used the colours and shapes established in this piece to theme his Bandcamp page.
EP available at andersingram.bandcamp.com
burning bright – various releases
These covers come from a variety of smaller one-off projects through Burning Bright, an Edinburgh-based hip hop collective. They covered a range of styles, and the designs reflect that mix of musical and visual influences.
I enjoyed experimenting with different techniques here, trying out photo collage and digital painting alongside a more familiar vector-based style. I adore the fun mid-mod inspired colour palette I used for Jazz Loops, and leaning into a cartoony style for the cereal packet was a lot of fun.
A number of these releases can be found at Burning Bright’s Bandcamp
Others can be found through Mixcloud or MC Tickle’s Bandcamp
