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 and founders of Father, Freddy Webb and Joe Farley need their own personal creative outlets and that arrived in the form of recording an EP 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 art direct the visual identity for the release and define the world Sleep Sister could exist in. Our work established a creative direction and blueprint for other collaborators working on the project.
Working closely with the band, we explored the different kinds of visual style that would best complement the music and the wider themes of the material. 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 also a direction on how the band could appear in their graphic output.
The foundation of the project was built around a collection of scenes and iconography to act as creative springboards. These scenes set out to explore the themes of the music and capture the inherent beauty and vulnerability in themes such as longing, isolation, nostalgia and missed connections. Despite the darker, melancholic nature of the themes, there's also a playfulness, arch humour and irony running through the art direction.
The band subsequently engaged Baltimore based illustrator George Wylsol to produce original album artwork for their as-yet-unreleased debut. This created the foundation for us to design cover art for the digital and physical release, including a coloured vinyl record album product concept. To complete the release package, our studio also created promotional animations and assets for streaming platforms and social media.