Sleep Sister
We'd admired the work of creative music and sound design studio Father for a long time, so we were thrilled to get a call from them about art directing a new passion project they were working on.
As you'd expect, talented musicians like Freddy and Joe need their own personal creative outlet, and they were working on a music EP with other musicians under the moniker Sleep Sister. The band wanted to approach the project not only as a musical endeavour, but as a collaborative project with other artists and creatives. In Development was brought on board to define the visual world Sleep Sister could exist in, before engaging artists to collaborate on the project.
Working closely with the band, we carried out in-depth ideation on the kind of visual style that would best complement the music. The result was a framework that gave a clear steer on tone, mood and key themes, alongside a style guide covering artwork, graphic design, typography, photography and how the band would appear in their graphic output.
We also developed a range of topline scenes and iconography to act as creative springboards. These scenes explored the inherent beauty and vulnerability in melancholic themes such as longing, isolation, nostalgia, dislocation, stagnation and missed connections. Despite the darker nature of the themes, there's also a playfulness, arch humour and irony running through the work.
The band subsequently engaged renowned artist George Wylsol to produce original artwork for their as-yet-unreleased debut. This created the foundation for us to design digital and physical cover art (including a coloured vinyl concept), as well as promo animations and assets for streaming platforms and social media.