I was asked by my client Rena to design the album art for her remix of Sophie Barkers song Paper Thin. We sat down over drinks on a sunny day and discussed some ideas she had in mind and set a direction for me to create some exploratory images. Rena was interested in the Caduceus to support the sub-title of the remix which is “Music is Medicine“. I made some initial sketches and presented some concepts, and this is the direction we chose.
I decided to create this as a vector illustration with the use of minimal photography to fill in the background. It was clear that the snakes and feathers would need flexibility in how they were going to be scaled, so a vector illustration was the best way to approach the final image.Since the snakes were such a primary focal point I wanted to make sure the scales were detailed and would flow together nicely. I created each one independently and then created brushes of grouped scales that would allow me to flow all of the elements together in an organic fashion that would emulate the scales of a snake.
The wings and feathers were also a focal point in the design, so I created multiple feather brushes and painted them in individually to give them a unique flow and integrate with one another creating many interesting areas of transparent pattern that emphasized the motion and symmetry of each wing, but allowed each side to have its own unique characteristics.
The Poster was printed at 18″ x 24″ providing much more available space than the album art allowed. I took advantage of the larger space and arranged the typography to showcase the illustration without overlapping text over the image as was required with the album art.
