2D Design: CD Cover

We had to re-design a CD cover for a band.  One of my good friends, Paul Marche, is in this amazing steampunk cabaret band called Faerabella.  They just so happen to have a CD coming out at the end of the month so I decided quickly that I wanted to work on a cover for them.  The cover had to be produced with black ink only and it had to have the name of the band and the name of the CD.  Other than that we had free reign.

The band themselves have some pretty cool imagery.  Paul wears this super creepy white mask when he plays and Mac plays this old cornet.  Dana, the lead singer, always wears dresses and seductive makeup.  I thought it would be cool to do a cover with Paul's mask, Mack's cornet, and a deep red rose that represents Dana.  The album's name is Lenora's Ghost so I thought of maybe playing on the Phantom of the Opera poster as well.  I drew a bunch of sketches trying to get the size and placement right.

After thinking about it a hundred ways I really just hated everything that I was doing.  I thought maybe if I simplified it I would like it better.

I think if I could have done the finished project digitally that this would have been my choice but I didn't think it would turn out the way I wanted in ink.  I just couldn't get it the way I liked.  I wracked my brain all weekend trying to think of what I could do and then the night before it was due I came up with an idea.  I thought about how the music sounded and what feeling I got from it.  To me their sound is like a Louisiana jazz funeral.  It's jazzy but somber and gives you a little bit of an eery feeling but you like it at the same time. Then it hit me.  A sugar skull!  As soon as I got home I started sketching.

I really liked this design but it felt to me like there was a disconnect between the style of music and the sugar skull.  When I think of sugar skulls I think of Dia de los Muertos and I think of mariachi music.  So I started thinking about how I could make it more representational of Faerabella.  A STEAMPUNK SUGAR SKULL!!!  I was really excited about this idea.

I loved it.  I put some images that are typically associated with steampunk in like the monocle, gears, and clock face.  I made the skull look metal by placing little dots around the seams and added a smoke stack for effect.   Here's the final result:

I sent it to Paul for his birthday and he loved it!  I'm actually really happy with how it turned out.

So go buy Lenora's Ghost by Faerabella :)