I began with the central idea of intention & obstacle as the bedrock of every good story. This reminded me of the concept of 'new earth' - lava flowing into a large body of water and cooling to create land. The juxtaposition spoke to me.

I'd taken a video with my iPhone 6S+ while a guest at a Beverly Hills residence that I felt coincided with the feel of the EP; a Chicago city kid all the way in Los Angeles. Using Adobe Premiere Pro, I edited the color of the footage and added a snippet of music from the EP, using the resulting video as a promotional teaser on social media.

I felt the initial cover was a bit too busy and decided to tone it down and concentrate on the typography and graphic styles for the title and artist name. So I went back to black.

I fell in love with the black/white aesthetic, but I needed a way to cleverly bring the concept of intention & obstacle back into the fold. Since the EP was heavily influenced by Chicago, I decided that the best way to visualize the theme of the project was to create a Chicago-style monopoly board that included many historic attractions from the city of wind. Coincidentally, I was approached with the opportunity to press vinyl records of the EP, for which this will be the cover. I plan to include custom plastic pieces as part of the vinyl release so the cover will double as a playable board game.

After the release, it was time to get the merch train rolling, and the commemorative t-shirt was the first stop. I wanted to improve on the aesthetics of my first promo tee, so I created a compelling flip of the color story from the monopoly board onto a mystic circle representing the native duality of each story built upon intention & obstacle --- heroes need villains, but they all coincide in a sort of perfect union. This merchandise is indicative of that theme.

The official website was to be completely redone, with all available outlets accessible, the subscription fields prominent, a clear link to the newest merchandise, and colorful call-outs for social media. From the creation of the music to the execution of the site and merchandise, this stream of creativity was all my doing.