How To Talk To Your Album Cover Artist In 5 Easy Steps (A Facebook Conversation)

1. WELL. YOU COULD JUST LET THEM COME TO YOU ON FACEBOOK. THAT’S KIND OF NICE. RARE, AMONG ARTISTS. FACEBOOK IS NICE. GRANT IS NICE. NICE ARTISTS. 

Grant Jeffery
Claire! Congratulations on your super successful and excellent Kickstarter! The momentum of which has me all eager to throw my wizard powers into these album covers. Where do we start?

Brimstone Rhine image. A little gift from my brother Joel to celebrate the campaign launch a month ago. (((A MONTH AGO? Whoa. That one flew. )))

2. YOU PRESENT SOME IDEAS. 

Claire Suzanne Elizabeth Cooney
Grant!!! OH EXCELLENT! Okay, I had some ideas.

There are two EPs. Which will then be combined into a single album: an actual CD. What I was thinking is that we could have a separate image for each EP, but combine the images to create a single cover of the CD.

I had this idea that for The Headless Bride EP, it could be just that… A HEADLESS BRIDE with one arm outstretched. But truncated, right? Then the Alecto! Alecto! album would be that SAME ARM (cut off in the other image) grasping the head of a Gorgon. A Medusa head.

The album, the actual CD called Brimstone Rhine would then be the entire image of the headless bride grasping the Medusa head.

Sorry for all my grammar and spelling mistakes in this, as I am voice-to-texting, and not really doing a lot of editing.

[ETA: SINCE EDITED FOR BLOG, NATCH.]

Claire Suzanne Elizabeth Cooney
:/(
EVEN MY EMOTICONS ARE MISPELLED!!!

Grant Jeffery
no worries.
hahaha.
I like the concept of separate illustrations feeding into a single image, and I’ve always wanted to illustrate a gorgon head.

“Grant Jeffery” by Grant Jeffery. His Profile Pic.

3. YOU GIVE FAIR WARNING OF THE MATERIALS YOU’LL BE WORKING WITH.  

Claire Suzanne Elizabeth Cooney
Awesome!
I think the packaging is just going to be those brown cardboard slipcases. So simple line drawings with minimal color might be the best?
But I’m not entirely sure how all of that works! Perhaps you have better ideas!

4. YOU LET YOUR ARTIST GIVE YOU HIS INPUT BECAUSE THAT’S WHAT YOU HIRED HIM FOR BECAUSE HE’S A GENIUS. 

Grant Jeffery
I was thinking of doing something vaguely woodcut-like.

Claire Suzanne Elizabeth Cooney
OH SPLENDID!!!
I LOVE WOODCUTS!!!

Grant Jeffery
If that’s a style you’re cool with. I think it would look great on brown card, even better if it has a bit of a tooth to it.

Claire Suzanne Elizabeth Cooney
ALL THE TEETH!!!
HOT DAMN!
The songs have a lot of teeth in them. They are mostly about monster women who eat people. Or about monsters who want their women to eat them.

Grant Jeffery
Then there shall be teeth.

5. AFTER PRAISING HIM TO THE SKIES AND EXTRACTING PROMISES OF FANGED ARTWORK, YOU TALK SOME SERIOUS SHOP. 

Claire Suzanne Elizabeth Cooney
Do you want to talk Deadlines?
DEADLINES WITH TEETH?

Grant Jeffery
“Deadlines with teeth” sounds like a poetry collection of my nightmares…