Overview
In the Spring of 2021 and throughout the summer, I was hired by the conductor of the Denison Wind Ensemble, Dr. Westover-Munoz, to design a cover for the ensemble's LP album vinyl, as well as the informational booklet inside.
This project was a carry-over from an assignment I completed a year earlier in my printmaking course where each of us designed a cover for the songs within the album. Some of those covers are featured in the images below.
This project was my biggest yet. I knew there would be a lot of eyes on my work and I was excited to show off that I was not only capable of creating a technically-sound vinyl but one that communicated living, breathing design representational of the sophistication and talent showcased by the conductor and wind ensemble I was hired by.
I chose to go with a dark theme with yellow accents to capture of the feeling of art deco while conveying a sense of cultural class.
I had never been responsible for so much text before in my career, so I was overwhelmed at first but quickly realized that with careful grid construction and formatting rules, any amount of text could be easily inserted into the larger design.
Takeaways
This was not only my biggest project but my longest project to date. I spent about 5 months exchanging emails, versions, and revisions with Dr. Westover and gradually arrived at a product we were both happy with.
My biggest regret with this project was not utilizing Adobe InDesign for the entire process. At this point, I was still overly comfortable with Adobe Illustrator and preferred to do my formatting in that program, when I should've been utilizing the superior text organization of InDesign.
Overall, I'm very pleased with how this project went and it was especially rewarding to hear the praise the wind ensemble gave as well as some of the staff within the music program at Denison. Walking into Dr. Westover's office to see a huge box full of vinyls with MY design on it was a bit of a surreal experience and a milestone in my career.