Album Art: Hidden Pictures – Synchronized Sleeping

Hidden Pictures, a band I’ve been working with for a few years now, is launching their first full-length of super-catchy indie pop in about a week titled “Synchronized Sleeping.” I’ve finally got my hands on a physical copy and wanted to give you the first look.

I had a lot of fun working on this project as I hope you can tell.

The music has lots of layers (horns, keys, glockenspiel, steel guitar, etc.) so I wanted to do something that felt really eclectic, with no discernible era. A lot of the illustrations are pulled from the lyrics, which are thankfully very visually evocative. 

One concern was not making it too cluttered, and pacing the style across the different panels, as to not exhaust the viewer. I limited the illustration to two main panels and I think it solved the problem well enough, with an extra solid hit of color for the disc face to break up any feeling of monotony.  

So there you have it. It was pretty labor-intensive, but I’m really happy with the result and feel privileged to work for a band that allows a ton of creative freedom.

*note: special thanks to Brandon Schaefer and my brother Austin for some helpful advice/inspiration.