Tennessee Ghosts is a studio album created by Mathew Gabel, performing under the stage name Joseph. I was commissioned to art direct and create cover art, digital liner notes for the iTunes store etc., and visual content for other platforms. Always very satisfying work, to collaborate and generate a visual compliment to creative output of another medium, matching a graphic aesthetic to an aural production, and the complex themes and tone within an album.
The stories told in the tracks, and the sound in general have a strong emotional pull, channeling global influences, layered multi-instrumentalism, laid-back alt-rock, sometimes melancholy sometimes bright and optimistic, with subtle electronic production and a strong dose of rust belt Americana – which forms a key backdrop and influence to the themes within the songs. So when it came to visualising this, there needed to be a warmth and texture present, but also a slightly kooky, abstract and dreamy quality. What we arrived at were some literal, and not so literal references to elements in the songs, colour palette, typography and iconography of the aforementioned cultural and physical topographies.