MidwestLove Art & Design

I’m really proud of this one, so I’m going to talk about it a bit.

I get the opportunity to write songs and play music with my wife Heather in a band called Venna. Our debut EP was just released on Common Cloud Records and some of the songs on this disc have been working their way towards a proper release for over 5 years. Needless to say we were extremely thrilled about this release and wanted to do something extra special with the packaging to celebrate it.

With the band’s aesthetic being very DIY and personable (shows are usually played in the corners of venues, off of the stage and away from amplification of any sort) we wanted to go that direction with the visual presentation of the music, right down to the recycled, eco-friendly packaging materials and rock ‘n roll zine-style photocopied insert. Here are some photos of the assembly process and the final pieces-

Heather took on the task of running each 8 page zine/insert through a sewing machine to give them a hand-bound look.

Every leaf and vine of the cover illustration was drawn in Illustrator and took about 5 days worth of non-consecutive work to finish.

VGKids in Ypsilanti, MI did a fantastic job of hand-printing the 1 color silk screen for the exterior illustration, as well as some complimentary promo stickers.

All the printed materials were assembled by Heather and myself and then lovingly wrapped in a coordinating green twine.

I can’t help but think that this is closer to how these things should be done more often…

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 27th, 2008 at 22:32 and is filed under Print, New Work. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.