I designed the vinyl album artwork for Snakeskin's 2021 release Heart Orb Bone, which was produced and screen printed by State Champion Records. The album is a picture disc with a lot of little details I would love to share. The vinyl disc itself is a deep, gorgeous purple with flecks of color created from recycled vinyl scraps at the pressing plant.
The A-side label is a zoetrope. When you play the record the artwork on the edge of the label animates a heart transforming into an orb and then a bone, before looping back to a heart.
The cover features Snakeskin's Shanna Polley inside an orb, floating over an ethereal fog. The orb reflects Fort Washington Park, a park we used to frequent while coming up with ideas together. The album title is stylized as a pictogram using holographic stickers. I created these stickers and they were applied to the cover sleeve by State Champion Records. I used a blackletter font for the band name, it is fittingly called "Orbe."
State Champion Records' beautiful screen print is blue and white on black cardstock. I worked extensively with them to make sure my initially digital design would work as a screen print. It is a much more complex and detailed screen print than usual. As you can see, there is noticeable halftoning and the registration between colors isn't perfect, which I love. I think the natural imperfections of the print process complete the artwork.
The B-side of the record is a screen print -- the back side of the reflective orb on the cover. It shows the Hudson River and George Washington Bridge at a lookout where Shanna and I would spend time.
Below are some early explorations I did for the album artwork. One thing I loved about working with State Champion Records on the print design was how their requirements and restrictions created creative constraints that focused my work. While I had initially imagined a full color, digital artwork, I had to focus into creating something that would work with only two ink colors.
