strahan and the good neighbors – eponymous – cd packaging

art director/designer: rob story, photography: karen ryan, illustration/elements: various found objects

karen shot a ton of beautiful shots for the back of the sleeve. i went with this one because it had all of the right nuances that would allow me to retouch the type into the scene and have it be somewhat believable. the scorpion was a little critter that was unfortunate enough to show up while i was staying at a friend’s house in the country. i hit it with bug spray and it kicked around in the poison for about 30 minutes before it actually died. i then straightened it out and scanned it knowing that someday there would be an opportunity to use it in a design. three years later, here he/she is.

the original cover design was going to be a little more psychedelic. here it is as a “rough” comp. doug felt like it didn’t really line up with the vibe of the music. so we re-concepted and ended up with something just as good. probably even better. mike hoffman was the illustrator who created the painting for the first version. someday we’ll use her for a poster or something.