This Pipe Dream EP Cover has to be in the top 5 of my favourite projects I have ever done.
When Harry sent over the song, my first thought was that it sounded like the 90s. I immediately envisioned a vintage convertible car riding in the sunset. He liked that direction and also asked me to include some funky illustrations as well somehow.
Then I didn’t know what illustrations I should draw, so started the work with the car and the background. I was so happy when I came across this image of a pink caddilac. I thought it looked perfect! Initially I pictured a red car in my head, but sometimes you find a stock image so nice that your vision just doesn’t measure up anymore. There was a bit of work with it, because it looked too asymmetrical at the bottom and it really threw me off as I looked at it. I had to copy one side, mirror it and replace the original parts. Blending it seamlessly with the rest of the car took a while because the little bars of the metal grid didn’t line up perfectly but at the end I got there. The ‘P1P3-DR34M’ license plate number was Harry’s idea which I thought was fantastic.
I balanced out the bright pink with a green background. (When in doubt, use completementary colours – they will always work!)
As for the illustrations, I wanted to create something crazy and fun. Like a weird dream where nothing makes sense and still, there is a sense of cohesion. The latter came from the lack of colours and the fact that I used only two different isograph pens: 0.2 mm and 0.8 mm I believe. Oh and I made sure that the elements are kind of in balance on both sides and finally, I connected them with the little bubbles. Without those there were just a bunch of random elements falling apart, rather than a cohesive picture.
The final step was adding the lettering, for which I used a font that completed the vintage vibes.
art from scratch 