Album Cover

1. Inspiration
2. Album Art
3. Mockups
4. Process and Materials
5. About the Typefaces
6. Accolades



Majority of the musical inspiration came from the song verses— check out the public playlist for the full versions of the songs.

Project goals were to design a 12" vinyl cover for a fictitious band or musician.

Each student was randomly assigned a fictitious band/musician using a Random Wikipedia Page. The title of the album was also generated by the last 4–6 words of a randomized quote. I was assigned the following for the project:

Band:
How the Other Half Loves

Album Name:
To Stake Everything on Obtaining It

The genre of the fictional band is alternative pop/rock with indie influences. The curated playlist showcases songs with haunting undertones and melodies, powerfully anguished vocals (LP and AURORA especially), as well as lyrics that express a yearning for less than desirable relationships or situations to continue despite the hardship or pain inflicted.

Inspiration

The band name How the Other Half Loves is in actuality derived from a play by British playwright Alan Ayckbourn. This play depicts the consequences of an adulterous affair between three married couples, and themes of infidelity, deception, and disfunction in relationships are key components of the play. These motifs set the foundation for my conceptual inspiration.

I also wanted to play with the idea of halves or opposites to tie into the band name as well. I felt illustrating something that could be seen in two different ways simultaneously would be effective— something sensual yet subversive, beautiful yet harmful. This then led me to exploring classical art that depicted themes of infidelity and adultery like exemplified in Auguste Rodin’s The Kiss. Although the sculpture appears to depict romantic infatuation between otherwise innocent lovers, the figures are actually a pair of doomed adulterers from Dante’s Inferno and were ultimately stabbed to death upon their disloyalty being discovered.

I began looking through other sculptures by Rodin like the Torso of Adèle which embodies feminine sensuality. The sculpture is objectively beautiful yet causes the viewer pause as the figure is incomplete and texturally quite rough upon closer inspection. The liveliness of the gesture is most likely representative of pleasure, but the gesture could also represent pain with contextual manipulation.

I wanted to pair the vitality of the sculpture’s gesture with the antithesis or the other half of life: death. A black vulture often brings visuals of death, decay, and ugliness— all very much the counter to the beauty and vigor of the sculpture. Black vultures are also a species of bird that commonly mates for life, and I thought this aspect only added to the narrative being created through the work. Perhaps both the vulture and the female figure were once coupled with their other half, yet now are abandoned to survive alone (the vulture) or otherwise eventually decay away (the woman) as seen on the inner sleeve artwork.

Another interesting component that arose were the visual similarities of the album sleeve artwork and the Myth of Prometheus. Although initially a coincidence at first, the theme of betrayal in the Myth of Prometheus fits conceptually with the work as well. According to Greek mythology, Prometheus stole fire from the gods and gave this discovery to humankind. Upon the gods discovering his deceit and treachery, Prometheus was punished by an eagle that would consume his immortal liver each day for eternity. The moral of the myth is that an act of betrayal causes eternal suffering and retribution— a theme shared by the backstory of The Kiss.

The album sleeve artwork depicts a black vulture feasting on the torso of the female figure, and it is left unsaid whether she is dead or alive. The album name To Stake Everything on Obtaining It could quite literally mean staking one’s own life in the pursuit of loving their other half.

Auguste Rodin, The Kiss


Auguste Rodin, Torso of Adèle

Theodoor Rombouts, Torture of Prometheus

Album Cover and Back

Inner Sleeve

Vinyl Label
The vultures circle as the vinyl record plays.

Alternate Cover Concept

Alternate Cover Mockup

I relied heavily on graphite and watercolor sketches paired with digital imagery to create the album artwork. The drawings add a romanticized quality to the digital work and blur the line between reality and imaginary.

Figure Study:
The Kiss Detail Graphite and Watercolor

Figure Study:
Torso of Adèle
Graphite and Watercolor

(I had initially played with tearing the figure in half in early compositions, hence the tape.)

Figure Study:
Hand Reference Graphite and Watercolor

Lust
A menacing and high contrast serif causes both intrigue and unease.

FreightSans Pro
A classic sans serif workhorse typeface pairs elegantly with the feature serif when set in all caps with increased tracking.

Lamar Pen
A classical script based on 19th century penmanship with angular movement. Auguste Rodin’s sculptures were also created in the 19th century.

Accolades

My work How the Other Half Loves: Album Package Experience was awarded an Honorable Mention at the 2023 SOD Annual Student Exhibition.

Show acceptance and award juried by Emily Feazel (Designer of Exhibits and Special Events at the R.W. Norton Art Gallery in Shreveport, Louisiana).

This work was also published in Communication Arts, Annual Student Showcase Print Issue for March/April 2023.