One of my favorite albums is Live from Red Barn Radio I+II by Tyler Childers. His vocals and songs stick with me and speak to my soul. When I discovered our assignment was redesigning an album cover, I immediately knew this was the album I would choose.

I began by listening to the whole album all the way through and taking notes about the lyrics and songs. After the research was done, I started creating possible album covers. I knew I wanted the album to picture a white church due to the religious focus of the album. I tried different methods of creating the album cover, such as physical collage, digital collage, and digital drawing.

After many versions and ideas, I settled on an album cover. My cover consisted of a collage of Appalachian hills, the state flower of Kentucky, a church, and a bar. This album cover was meant to stress the duality of Childers’ connection to his faith and the place he calls home while struggling with hardships and addiction. To further illustrate this duality, I included album cover stickers that resemble the Kentucky quilt pattern filled with crosses and snakes. 

For me, this project was so much fun. I learned about what it takes to bring a design to life and the process of creating mockups.