Corey Jarell Art

Posted on: Aug. 1,2010

**Update – I met Corey and his manager Sheridan the other day and they slid me a copy of the promo disc. First off, the production value is really high and Corey has some singing and songwriting abilities. I was pleasantly surprised by the music. I was also real happy with how the artwork came out, especially the disc! Hot!**

Since the project title “Radical. Totally. Dude.” conjured thoughts of California I decided to go with a surf inspired, youthful, energetic look. I think it works, but I could be sleep deprived.

corey jarell cover

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Adventures in Counter-culture

Posted on: Jun. 22,2010

Here are a few of the unchosen comps for Blueprint’s (Weightless/Rhymesayers) upcoming album Adventures in Counter-culture.

The people at the label gave the thumbs up and Print expects to have a Fall release date. Next step is figuring out something bitchin’ for the packaging.

I’m excited to finally be able to share some of the versions that didn’t get selected.  I like each of them for different reasons and I think it’s neat to see the completely different directions we explored.

The Blue Note look

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This was the first swing.  Blueprint wanted to try a design that was based off on the style of old Blue Note soul records a la John Coltrane/Thelonious Monk.  He had his friend Bridget Brown shoot the photography for him.  One element I saw pretty consistently in the blue note art was stacked type.  Straight letters, nothing fancy or over the top.  I also tried to replicate the wear from the record that was present on a lot of the older sleeves. We used a duotone color effect on the image, and re-made the blue note logo for the treatment of the artist name.

The Globetrotter Collage
This was a concept all of my own so I take full responsibility for it’s failure or success.  Since I’m showcasing it here you can see that it was not selected.  I think the overall feeling was that it was a little too bright and cheery and didn’t represent the sound of the album. I had asked Blueprint for a list of some of his favorite cities/venues and then created a design based upon his adventures in touring and traveling. There’s also quite a bit of a Columbus local bias in the design. I like how this turned out.

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Apocolypto

After having a phone conference with the people at Rhymesayers, Print came back to me with some new direction.  As I previously mentioned, the first two options had been shot down. RSE felt like the album had a darker feel to it, and that the album art should reflect that.  We agreed.  The idea that was hatched on that phone call was to take some photos of Blueprint wearing a gasmask, and then build around that main focus with complimentary objects and create the feeling that he was breathing in all of the surrounding elements, which we thought should be futuristic/tech/culturally based. This particular version ended up looking more industrial, nonetheless I liked the result. I liked this version but thought that it seemed a bit overworked.

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