It’s no secret that the lion’s share of lyrics in the rock genre are pretty mindless, traversing the same mono-dimensional themes, as if on autopilot.
When Emily Ulman approached me to design the artwork for her second album, ‘ Upping The Ante’, a first listen revealed a collection of beautifully written songs whose lyrics felt more like little acts of literature.
This observation was the basis of the CD’s artwork, which in turn took inspiration from my grandfather’s vintage book collection.
From the leather bound spine, to the fabric cover, to the metallic gold lettering, right through to the weathered, time-stained pages and old library sticker; every detail was photographed and scanned from original source material.
And as every great story book needs great illustrations, we had the good fortune of being able to incorporate some enormously charming line illustrations from Marcus Teague.
There was also a sticker on the back of the jewel case which came from a 1950s judo book that belonged to one of my uncles. It described the exploits of that author. Emily and I both agreed that it would be pretty funny to just substitute her photo and name and leave the rest of the copy exactly as it was :D
Client
Emily Ulman
Agency
Adrian Elton Creative*
Items
CD Art
Role
Concept
Graphic Design
Finished Art
Credits
Marcus Teague
Illustration
It’s no secret that the lion’s share of lyrics in the rock genre are pretty mindless, traversing the same mono-dimensional themes, as if on autopilot.
When Emily Ulman approached me to design the artwork for her second album, ‘ Upping The Ante’, a first listen revealed a collection of beautifully written songs whose lyrics felt more like little acts of literature.
This observation was the basis of the CD’s artwork, which in turn took inspiration from my grandfather’s vintage book collection.
From the leather bound spine, to the fabric cover, to the metallic gold lettering, right through to the weathered, time-stained pages and old library sticker; every detail was photographed and scanned from original source material.
And as every great story book needs great illustrations, we had the good fortune of being able to incorporate some enormously charming line illustrations from Marcus Teague.
There was also a sticker on the back of the jewel case which came from a 1950s judo book that belonged to one of my uncles. It described the exploits of that author. Emily and I both agreed that it would be pretty funny to just substitute her photo and name and leave the rest of the copy exactly as it was :D
