Intro When we think of bands, we usually think of a group of guys or gals that start jamming together, writing some songs, they start playing some shows, and then record some music all in hopes to get a record deal. Now that’s probably true for a lot of bands, but not for the band we are talking about today. On this episode of the Judged By the Cover Podcast, we are going to talk about this great album cover, from the self titled debut album for the band Boston. Before we get to the design, we need to first talk about the crazy story behind this album even coming into existence. The album Boston was released august 25, 1976, and quickly broke sales records, becoming one of the best-selling debut LP in the US at the time. This album has won a lot of awards, and nearly the entire album receives constant rotation on classic rock radio. Think about that for a minute…most bands would love for 1 song to get that kind of play, but there are at least five songs on this one album that I know you have heard more than once on the radio. The album has been referred to as a landmark album of '70s rock and has been included on many lists of essential albums. From the info I got It has sold at least 17 million copies in the United States alone and at least 20 million worldwide making it one of the best selling debut albums of all time. How this album came to be is wild, like something out of a movie. I promise I will get to the design in a minute but as I dove into the story of this album I really felt it was important to share, to understand how remarkable it is. The Back Story Let me give you the story in a nutshell. The bands leader Tom Scholz got started playing guitar and recording his own demos, in a studio that he built and funded with his paychecks from his job at Polaroid. Yes that Polaroid. The camera company that doesn’t exist anymore. He built a very impressive studio, with state of the art equipment and started making demos for fun. He would eventually throw together a live band, play some shows, record some more music, but then it never really went anywhere. They sent out a lot of demos but got a resounding NO from everyone that they could get to listen to it. But Scholz persisted, he kept getting a couple of his friends to come in and sing and drum on the demos. He continued to make the demos better, and then things changed when they got the attention and help from promoters Paul Ahern and Charlie McKenzie. These guys finally got in front of the right people at Epic records, and got them to say yes!! (Fun side story, it was only a year or so earlier that Scholz got a signed letter from the president of Epic records saying that they were not interested…and Scholz never let them forget that) Now at this time there wasn’t real band, and technically they didn’t even have a name for either. Scholz and company had to throw together a band, pick a name, and get ready to showcase for the label, so that the label could confirm that this was a viable “act”….and some how it worked. They did have to cut some people at the labels request, but it was at this point that Boston was born. The label liked the demos so much that they wanted the album to sound “JUST” like the demos, but they were insistent that the band get in the studio with a “REAL” producer, and re-track the songs. Now it would seem for most budding rock stars that getting to fly out to LA and work with big time producer to cut an album in a real studio would sound like a dream come true… This made Scholz mad because he agonized over these recordings for years, perfecting to the point of almost wearing out the tape, because this was the time of actual tape recording. There were no computer recording programs, so he literally almost wore out the tape from all his recordings and rerecording. Scholz went along with the labels request and met with the producer, John Boylan. This is where the story gets even crazier. Some how Scholz talks the producer into a scheme to “trick” the record label. The band would fly out to LA and “record” with John, while Scholz went back home to his studio to polish up his demos and make them the best they could be. They did record one song for the album in LA, but the rest of the songs were recorded, produced, mixed and master in Scholz home recording studio. The best part of the story is that the record company didn’t find out until YEARS later. The producer was really cool and shared the production credits with Scholz. So to recap this crazy story, there’s not even a band when they get signed, also with no band name. The producer and band leader conspire against the record company to keep the integrity of Scholz recordings…and somehow this becomes one of the best selling debut albums of all time. What a story!! The Design I know you have been waiting to learn about the album cover design, that’s probably why you are here, So let’s get to it. First let’s talk about the designer. Paula Scher is credited with the design of the Boston album, in collaboration with illustrator Roger Huyssen. Paula Scher was the album art director at CBS records from 1972-82, and designed approximately 150 album covers a year. Yes you read that right, 150 a year!!! That’s a lot of album covers. What we have is an illustrated cover, the background is a dark space scene with stars and planets. At the bottom you have a planet that’s blowing up, and the main element is this groovy 70’s orange and dark blue color spaceship with light blue color booster flames. There are also 4 or 5 other smaller spaceships that look to be fleeing the scene of this planet that blowing up. This scene can be viewed a couple different ways, that the spaceships are the reason for the exploding planet, or that the spaceships are rescuing the inhabitants of the planet. Scholz the leader of the band prefers the second suggestion. Two other key design features are the city sky line in the “window” of the space ship. I think it’s safe to assume that is the Boston sky line. The other item is the band/album name Boston in this really kool typography on the body of the spaceship. That’s a touch that Scher is known for, her really kool typography. There was one element that Tom Scholz really wanted on the cover, and that is a guitar. To the designer this was cliche, and she couldn’t bring herself to do it. They did however come to a compromise and made the guitar into a space ship. Yes the space ships on the Boston cover are guitars turned upside down. The sound hole on the guitar is where the flames or boosters of the space ship are, and the headstock is the tail of the spaceship. Somehow I missed this fact for YEARS!!! Actually I didn’t realize that until this year, and thats mainly one of the reasons why I am talking about this cover. So to recap… its a starry space background, exploding planet, with guitar shaped space ships fleeing the scene. To me there is this great balance of complimentary colors with the blues and oranges, interesting element use of the guitars as spaceships, and the overall story it brings you to make up in your mind. To me, these are the reasons that make this cover great. Now there is one person who doesn’t see this cover as being great…and that’s the designer herself. Scher has been quoted as being mystified by the continued interest in the piece and saying “It was, and still is, in my opinion, a mediocre piece of work.” One thing I pull from this cover and this story, is the fact that the Band and the designer had some differences in opinion on what should go on the cover. They both stuck up for what they believed in, and still came to a very good compromise. If it was left up to the band, you may just have a guitar on the cover, and maybe nothing else. Instead the designer found a really kool way to use the guitar in the piece…and in my opinion came up with a really interesting element that people are still talking about today. Remember this album came out in 1976, thats 46years ago, and people “aka me” are just discovering the guitar shape space ships. So if you are a band or artist, with a song or project that needs a cover, I urge you to find a designer that can take your ideas and make it into something timeless. Someone that can take your guitar idea, and turn it into a space ship...like me! There you have it…what are your thoughts on this album cover by Boston…? Did you know that those spaceships were guitars….? Be honest you didn’t see it until I brought it up did you…? Near Miss Now let’s move on to my new favorite part of the show, This is Near Miss time. I’m going with the name near miss, because obviously these designs ended up being the cover for the song or album, but I feel like they really miss the mark from a design aspect. My first Near Miss victim is Garth brooks…..my hero, my man….and trust me I love me some Garth Brooks. What I don’t love is his cover for the album The Chase. I don’t even know if I can accurately describe this to those who are just listening to the audio. Garth is in the center of the album wearing a black and white blocky shirt. Same thing with the background it’s this blocky alternating black and white. Overall it also looks like a bad high school senior photo, which will be a topic for a different day. Then there’s the fonts. You have Garth Rooks in this arial OR AVENIR bold style font. The B in brooks is a scripty font, and the name of the album is at the bottom in the same script font. For being pretty simple, its got A LOT going on…and not in a good way. This album did come out in the 90’s, and unfortunately there isn’t a lot of design that came out of the 90’s that aged well. If I was going to make a change, that would make a HUGE difference, it would be to simplify the fonts. That weird script B at the top, in the middle of the name is just strange. Also that script font is terrible and doesn’t really fit the clean aspect of the cover design. This is a case of less, is more. So simplify the fonts, and that would make a huge difference on this cover. Thanks again for checking this out, and we will do this again…very soon.

One of my favorite things to create, and what actually started this business, is album covers. I love getting to visually communicate the story of a song or album through graphic design. To best show you the process for my custom cover art, I thought we could look at one of my favorite projects, the cover design for the song I Never Knew by Brent Crowe. This project is special to me because I got an inside look at the process of this song starting from a rough idea to a fully finished project, and I got to be a small part of the life changing process that this song is about. Consultation With any album/single cover design project, the first thing I do is a consultation call. This is my chance to get to know the artist, hear about the song, get some of the behind the scenes details, and then try to establish the vibe for the cover design. A big thing that I ask of my clients is to be able to hear the song, so I can really get to know it, its vibe, and draw inspiration from it for the cover as well. Once we know this is a good fit for both of us, I move on to the concept phase. Concept The concept phase can be the hardest part of the process, but it’s also the most fun. I always come up with two different concepts for my clients, one is usually using an idea from the artist, and then I work up my interpretation of the song/album. With this project the artist didn’t have a specific idea for the cover art, so I had free rein with my ideas. The song itself is about beauty being made out of or found in brokenness, and I wanted to visually represent that. The art of Kintsugi is repairing broken pottery using a lacquer dusted with gold. The ideas is not to hide the brokenness of the object, but to use it to highlight the history of the piece. In some instances pieces that have been repaired in this method are considered more valuable than before they were broken. I had only recently learned about this ancient practice, but it was the perfect fit for the theme of this song. Both my concepts centered around this idea, and the winning concept came from this image, can you believe anyone would say yes to a concept by justing seeing this sketch?!?!? Thank you Brent for trusting me and going with this option! Design This is where the real fun begins! Making a sketch or concept come to life is not an easy process, but I love the challenge in it. With this design I decided to get hands on. It took me a while to find the right piece for this project, because I wanted something simple, but not too simple. I had to paint the vase black because I wanted the gold to really pop on it, and for it to stand out from the white/grayish background. I set up for the photoshoot in my garage, and though it wasn't ideal, sometimes you do your best with what you have. Here is the best photo I have from the shoot (image to the left).. There were multiple steps in the shoot, I had to get photos of the vase unbroken, shots of it with the “gold” Kintisugi lines, and then I got to break the vase! There is a video on my website where you can see this process. Once I had all the shots, it was time to get into photoshop and make this come to life. I won’t go into all the boring details, but below is the finished product. Revisions All my projects get two separate rounds of revisions, to make any changes that the artist or client wants to see differently. On this project it was just a matter of getting the text right. Final Approval This is the finish line. Once I get the final approval from the client that the design is perfect, that’s when the final invoice goes out and the finalized files for the project get sent out once that’s received. A lot of work happens between that first call and the final approval, but its one of my favorite jobs to work Every project is a little different, but in the end they are all pretty similar. Do you have a project that you are working on, but don’t have the cover for it figured out…? Let me help, I can focus on what I do best, and you can focus on putting all your effort into making that song or album the best it can be!! Use the form at the bottom of the page to reach out and get more info.

How important cover art is for music in our digital streaming music world. In today’s digital world, we don’t interact with physical albums or cd’s very often. Most of our music consumption happens digitally through apps like Apple Music, Spotify, or Youtube. The stats show that on average 100,000 songs are being uploaded daily to these popular streaming sites….yes you read that right…100,000 a day!!! So my question to you is, how are you going to stand out in this sea of music? The answer…..with your cover art. Cover art is the visual gate way to your music, and it’s the image that people will associate with you and your songs. Just like anything in life, first impressions are key, and that song or album could be the first impression you make on a potential fan. Good music will always be good, but sometimes it takes great cover art to get someones attention long enough for them to give it a listen. So you may be asking, what can I do to make sure my cover art stands out…? #1 - Use Unique Images/Artwork The beautiful thing about album art work is that it is art. There is no right or wrong answer, because interpretations and opinions are always going to vary. With that said, you need to make sure that your image or artwork you are using is unique to you and your brand. Think about the story or emotion of the song, and use that as the starting point for your cover idea. Commission a custom art piece or work with a creative photographer to get the image that's just right for your project. #2 - Size Matters When thinking about your artwork, you have to think about how people are going to be viewing it. A photo or image may look really good when looking at it in full screen on your 14”-20+” computer screen, but how good is it going to look in a little 1”x1” square or smaller…? Is it going to still catch my attention at that scale…? #3 - Less Is "Usually" More There is always this urge to keep adding, and adding, and adding…….when it comes to design. There are instances where this “may” help, but the “Less is More” philosophy usually makes the biggest impact. I think this is said best by Antoine de Saint-Exupery - " A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away." If your cover art only has a split second to catch my attention, make sure there isn’t too much stuff getting in the way! " A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away. ." – Antoine de Saint-Exupery #4 - Hire A Designer, Like ME!! Yes, you are a creative person, and you have great ideas for your album/single cover art, but sometimes we can get in our own way of figuring out how to visually represent our songs and albums. In my, obviously biased opinion, the best way to make sure your cover art is the best it can be, is to hire a designer like me! This allows you to do what you do best, make great music, and let me create the cover art that best represents you and your work. I'm a musician myself so I hear and understand the art of music different then most. This allows me to really dive into the emotion and story of a song/album. I also have connections with great photographers, and artists, to make your cover art dreams come to life. You can learn more about my creative process by checking out this note . Different Options For Great Cover Art, For Any Budget! One of my goals with JW Creates, is to provide cover art options for every level musician and artist. With varying budgets and needs in mind, there are two different ways to work with me. First is my full custom option, and just as it sounds its fully customized to you and your song. You can find out more here . The second option is my Pre-Made Covers. These are templates that will give you that fully custom look, with out the price tag. These styles are first come first serve, so no other artist is going to get the same cover as you. There are options where you provide a photo, or not, and there is still some room to customize it to best represent you. Another big perk of the pre-made covers is the quick turnaround time. Check out my Pre-Made Cover art options here . Whether you decide to work with me, or attempt making your album art yourself, keep these ideas in mind for your next project!

Forget new year, new you....let's get your brand or business looking fresh and professional with a new website! A website should be more than just text and photos on a page. It must have a great user experience, strong call to actions, have great content and visuals, and needs to be updated frequently. Does your website have those things…? Do you even have a website for your brand or business…? Now I know you might be thinking, a website isn’t that important is it…? Let me share a few reason why I think a website is vital to your brands success in 2023. Find/Contact As a business owner myself, I know that it can be a challenge to find customers. Without a website, in todays digital world, people are not going to find you, your products, or your services. Most consumers want to be able to research a brand online before they ever do business with you. Even if your website is simply a place where people get your contact info, and find your social media channels, it will make a huge difference for your brand and business! Credibility Research says that 75% of people judge a companies credibility by its website design. What is your website saying...? Is it outdated? Is it hard to tell what you do...? If your website is hard to use and navigate, people are going to feel like it will be hard to work with your business. Establishing credibility is even more important for solo entrepreneurs and small businesses. We tend to spend money on, or with, people and companies that we trust, or are familiar with. If you don't have that name recognition that people know, or are new enough that people haven't had a chance to encounter you yet, you need to put your best foot forward to win over these potential clients. A professional looking, easy to navigate website that shows off and establishes your brand, products, and services will draw in more clients, and help you command a higher $ amount for your services. EVERYONE has a website This isn't the old peer pressure tactic, it's just the cold hard truth. Almost all your local and national competition has a website that displays their products and serivces. You might have a great business, but if no one knows you exists, they won't buy from you. To reach today's technologically skilled consumer, you have to make sure that they can find you! Linking this back to the credibility point, if your online presence is better than your competition, the more likely that potential customers are going to inquire about your services. Obtaining a very well thought out, and beautifully designed website is also a lot easier than it used to be. I make the process easy, and quicker than you might think, by turning it around in a matter of weeks, not months. Also the amazing tools that Wix provides on their platform, will make this a tool that benefits you and your business, and not an annoying hassle. This platform is easy enough that you will be able to run and manage your own site, or I can always stay on board to help with updates and changes in the future. To learn more about my process, and to see some examples of my work click here. Let's work together to make 2023 the year that you focus on your business goals, get your branding and messaging saying the right things, and let's create that professional, easy to use website your brand deserves!

My most common projects are logo and branding projects. To best show you my design process when it comes to branding, we are going to look at my most recent project for Kyle with Land of the Dad. This project was a lot of fun, and was for my first ever winner of my logo giveaway contest. Branding Vs. Logo What’s the difference you may be asking…? Let’s break it down. My most basic logo package is called Vector Logo, and it’s just a logo. Logos can take a lot of different forms, but this is just a standard logo on a single color background. Sometimes thats all you need, but in most instances you need more components to complete your brand. My branding package takes it a step further and gives you a logo that has multiple variations, usually it will incorporate an icon, colors, fonts, and so much more! These elements give you the building blocks for your visual identity, Let me show you how this came together with the Land of the Dad project. Concept As with all my projects, we started with a consultation call, where I discovered Kyles needs and learned about the origins of the name (Land of the Dad). During this call I learned that he needed the logo to incorporate some icons that visually described the four areas he talks about in his blog. We decided that the logo was going to have a badge logo style to it, and that it need to work well with his website, and social media channels. Concept 1 - The Compass My first idea was to create a concept that looked like a compass. The name Land of the Dad evokes ideas of adventure, and since it’s for a blog that talks about personal growth, marriage, fatherhood and need for community, an instrument that gives you direction seemed to be a great fit. I also found this great font that the “F” in “of” looked like it could become the hands of the compass. Though this was not the winning concept, it was definitely a great idea, and helped me to develop concept #2. Also it wasn’t as strong of a candidate to have multiple variations of the logo, like concept #2 did. Concept 2 - X marks the spot The second concept started with the idea of an icon, that is an X with the letters L - O - T - D around it. From there I worked through some fonts to find something that had good structure to it, but had some ruggedness to it. Again trying to tie in the idea of adventure. This concept was simple, very badge styled, but had potential to be used in a lot of different ways. It took its ultimate shape once I had the icons for the four topics of his blog. I put them around the X instead of the letters, and once I saw it in this form, I knew this was the one. The Icons We took this project to the full branding package and created some icons for his blog. He had some cool imagery in mind for his icons, the Tree, Wave, Rings, and the Anvil. I will let Kyle explain his reasoning for those elements, but I knew I needed these to really set his branding framework. Colors I always start my logo and branding projects in black and white. My theory is if your logo can’t look good in just black and white, then it's not going to an effective design. I got really excited when Kyle asked about bringing in color. We did initially have some different thoughts on colors for the brand, but I knew when I found this picture on Unsplash ( see photo left ), that these needed to be the colors for his brand. The photo itself evokes the feelings of adventure, and the colors were FIRE!!!! Not literaly, but there was something refreshing and awe-inspiring to it. According to color psychology - “Teal combines the calming properties of blue with the renewal qualities of green. It is a revitalizing and rejuvenating color that also represents open communication and clarity of thought.” What a powerful thing to communicate about a blog, through the use of color. Design The final design only changed slightly from the concept. The addition of the scripture reference at the top of the logo and box around the icons were the only major changes. Here we also established the various forms of the logo, the main logo, the secondary logo, and the icons. Every project is different, and it’s one of the reasons why I love what I do. Creating the visual identity for a brand, from the ground up, is one of the best things that I get to create. Having a clear and cohesive visual identity is a major key in creating credibility with your potential audience and/or customers. In a future post we will talk more in-depth about all the other elements that are involved in great branding, not just the visual identity piece. Do you need help with building the visual identity for your brand or project…? Is your current branding telling the right story…? Lets work together to establish an identity that communicates who you are and what you do. Use the form below to connect with me, and leave a comment about your favorite thing in the Land of the Dad logo. Also go show Kyle some love and follow him on his socials Insta & FB , and check out his blog here .

The group that put band logos on the map Guess who’s back….back again….. Welcome back to the Judged by the cover podcast. After what seems like an eternity, I am back to bring you examples of great album cover design, and some fun behind the scenes knowledge that I find along the way. I will also be continuing our Near Miss segment at the end of the show to discuss some unfortunate cover art design as well. You will notice that there is a slight format change. There will not be any video at this time. To be quite transparent with you guys, it was very time consuming and the stress added didn’t let me fully focus on bringing you quality content. You will still be able to get this in audio format on all your favorite podcast platforms, and the digital content will be on my website under the notes tab… jwcreates.com/notes . I will make sure to tag the link to the digital content in the show notes. As always, make sure you hit the like and subscribe buttons, and if you love the show please leave me a review especially if you are listening on Apple podcasts or Spotify. Today I’m focusing on a band that is credited with putting band logos on the map. Thats right, taking a page out of the business world, this band found a way to bring the same kind of thinking into the music industry, and established their identity around a really neat logo. This logo served as the band's chief visual icon from their second album onward, as it was one of the main subjects of every subsequent album cover, except the fifteenth album. The series of album covers in their catalog has been recognized as works of arts in their own right, and was described by Paul Nini of t he American Institute of Graphic Arts as a "real landmark in record cover design," If you can’t guess from those clues that’s ok….The band we are talking about today is Chicago. Between the band and their designers, John Berg and Nick Fasciano, they have put on a master class on how to take a great logo and make multiple album covers out of it. On today’s episode we are not focusing on just one cover, but I will show you how they cleverly worked this logo into almost ALL of their album covers. The band Chicago actually started out in 1968 as the Chicago Transit Authority, and a year later in 1969 shortened the name to just Chicago. The band in one form or another is still together today, performing shows, and at this point they have released 38 albums!!! That’s a ton of music! I didn’t really dive into the band and its history too far, because what I really want to talk about is this logo. The Chicago logo was designed by John Berg, who at the time had a very successful career as the art Director of Columbia/CBS Records. He was responsible for designing more than 5,000 album covers. He was recognized with four Grammy Awards and twenty-nine Grammy nominations, as well as design awards from AIGA, the Professional Association for Design, the Art Directors Club, and the Society of Illustrators. “John Berg: Album Covers, 1961-1985” was exhibited at Guild Hall in East Hampton in 2012. The logo was brought to life by the graphic artist Nick Fasciano. Berg said the logo was fashioned from a sketch with the original inspiration coming from the Coca-Cola logo, and the attitude of the city the band was named after…Chicago. The desire for creating a logo was to visually transcend the individual identities of the bands members, and reinforced that it was about the group as a whole. If you haven’t seen the Chicago logo, all you have to do is think Coca-Cola, with its rounded, swoopy letters, only spelling out Chicago. I love that the C wraps around the top of the H and incorporates into the dot for the letter I. It also has this simple inner stroke that adds some depth to the name. The logo itself is pretty simple, but the real magic is how they transformed it for each individual album cover. Now, I’m not going to talk about all 38 of their album covers, but I do want to talk about a couple of my favorites. Chicago 14 - The Thumbprint The thumbprint, as I’m going to call it, is easily one of my favorite uses of the Chicago logo. It’s simply a white back ground, with a black thumbprint, and the Chicago logo is embedded into it. To me, this is one of those instances of designer envy, and that I wish I would have thought of this first!!! It’s so simple and subtle, but very powerful. As I stated earlier, their identity is of a band as a whole, and to me this album cover reinforces that idea. Also I think it's kind of cool that you can also look at it as their identity is from the “City” of Chicago as well. John Berg was nominated for a Grammy for this album cover design and it is in the permanent collection at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. Unfortunately this album was a flop, and was one of the reasons Chicago got dropped by Columbia Records. At least the album cover design was awesome!! One small detail you will notice is that they don’t have album names, they go by number of order in which they came out, or by the imagery. The High-rise Building - Chicago 13 Chicago 13, features the logo as a high-rise building. On this cover, the logo is merged with the Marina City apartment Buildings. It’s a top down view of the building, at night, so you can see the lights from the cars driving past and from the other buildings as well. The coloring of the image is very monochromatic, its gray tones with the gold color on the logo and lights being the most prominent coloring. I tried to get more detail on how the artist created this cover, but there isn’t much info on the internet. When you mix the detail, the logo merged buildings, and this awesome monochromatic color scheme, it's a really exciting piece! Living in the age of photoshop and digital creation tools, I’m still am in awe of this design. How they were able to create this is 1979 just blows my mind, and just shows the creative talent of John Berg and Nick Fasciano! In my opinion this was the most creative use of the logo, in their album cover designs. The Candy bar - Chicago 10 Chicago 10 to me is the first really creative use of the logo. Before this album cover, there was some cool covers that had some intricate details, but I wouldn’t call any of them exceptionally creative. With Chicago 10, they integrated the logo into a chocolate bar, with the wrapper being torn back. I think it intentionally looks like a Hershy’s bar package, from this time period, so there should be a sense of familiarity in the public eye. I think this was a visual way of reinforcing the idea that they are as well known and common as America's favorite chocolate bar, and just as enjoyable to consume. The cover design was so successful it won John Berg a Grammy for Best Album Package. There are 34 other examples of how they took this rather simple logo, and turned it into different album covers, so you should go check out the rest of their albums here . Take a minute to imagine the experience this created for fans of the band. Most of these albums came out during the heyday of record albums and packaging, so when the band announced a new record was coming out, I’m sure there was some excitement around what it would look like. I can only imagine that on launch day, fans rushed out to their nearest record store to see the new cover. Also this probably has led to people keeping and collecting the albums as they came out. I’m sure this was also a lot of fun for the designers too! Having to come up with new and interesting ways to transform the logo, that tells something about the band, or the songs, or the overall theme of the album. These are the kinds of things that make me excited about creating album covers, and visual identity pieces for bands and artists, because there’s truly no one right way to do it. If you are a band, or an artist listening today, what I think you should take away from this Chicago logo, is how important it is to establish your “brand”. This logo was the visual identity piece that was key to reinforce the idea of “the band”, not the individuals, and they had the right creative team members that used it to create a unique experience for their fans. If you haven't established the branding for your band or are interested in creating the visual identity pieces to promote your band and music…This is where I come in. I can take the pressure off of your shoulders to create these pieces, and you can focus on what you do best, creating music! Let me help you be seen, get your music heard, and let’s create unique experiences for you fans to experience you and your music. To wrap up this segment, what do you think of Chicagos use of a Logo as their album covers…? Which of these covers is your favorite…? Did I miss one that I should have mentioned…? Near Miss - Country Goes Metal On todays segment of Near Miss, I want to talk about a new project, that you probably didn’t know exists. The cover is for a project called Country Goes metal. This project is headed by an old friend of mine, Ryan Hayes of Righteous Vendetta, and it’s actually a really cool project that is reimagining some of County Music’s biggest hits, as metal songs. I think I get the kitschy idea behind the album cover…..but its definitely not good. The main image on the cover is an emoji smiling face, throwing up the rock fingers, wearing a cowboy hat. Then you have the name country goes metal, in two different fonts, with COUNTRY above our smiley cowboy, Goes to his left, and METAL in a different font below it. All of this is on a white background with a thin stroke, black box around it. It makes you giggle, especially when you think it's also country songs, gone metal! I believe it was designed this way to give you a good laugh about the idea of the project, because country and metal are two genres you wouldn’t normally associate going well together. Ryan if you happen to be listening to this…hit me up, I have some ideas how we can make this thing look as awesome, as the music is. I highly recommend you forgive the cover choice, and go check out the project. So far they have released two singles, with a 8 song EP coming out March of this year (2023). If you love country music, metal music, or just love unusual mashups like me, you HAVE to go check this out!! That's it for this episode of the Judged by the Cover Podcast. If you have suggestions of album covers, both good or bad, leave a suggestion in the comments below or reach out to me at info@jwcreates.com . Thanks again for checking out the podcast, and we will do this again…very soon!

You already know that I love designing album covers. That was one of the main reasons I started JW Creates, but you may not know (yet) how much I love creating logo's and branding. Logos are one of my most common project requests, so I thought it may be fun to take you back to some of the logo designs that helped start my business, and share how they helped shape my branding process. Hat Creek Art Co. This is the first logo I made for someone other than myself. I don't even remember how I got the job, but I can tell you I was definitely excited and scared at the same time. It's funny to think back on this now, because I didn't have any "pro" applications like Photoshop or Illustrator, I'm pretty sure I just used an app on my iPhone to create this. Though it's just a simple logo, it was a HUGE step for me!! I finally made something for someone else, and they loved it. This one opportunity, made the biggest impact on me and my decision to start JW Creates, because it showed me I could do it. As for how this shaped my business, let's just say there was no business or process, so this was one of the sparks that started it all. T.E.C.H. Help At this point it almost feels like I'm lying to people when I tell them I'm not the entrepreneur type. I'm really not, but I have started more then one business in the last 7 years. The first business I launched was to help teach people how to use their tech products (smartphones, tablets, etc...). Though this was a fantastic idea, and I actually did help a lot of people, I discovered that I loved developing the branding, more than teaching people how to use their devices. Now I get to focus on the part I love! I get to partner with other individuals and businesses, and I get to help them create their visual identity. T.E.C.H HELP ended up being more than just a logo, it helped give me the frame work of what designing an entire brand looked like. It helped me to focus on the colors, fonts, messaging, and creating a cohesive package and experience that I can now help my customers create. Average Jo Guitars You may already know that I'm a musician, and guitar is my main instrument. I wanted to start creating content around guitar gear, and fixing up a project guitar I bought. So naturally I jumped right in to choosing the name, making a logo, and establishing the branding. (T his project was also my first attempt at blogging now that I'm thinking about it ). This project definitely takes a back seat to my creative business these days, but I definitely still have plans for this in the future. In the process of creating this logo, I learned that I loved the little details. I was very intentional with the shape of the guitar I used, font choice, and the name for the brand itself. When it comes to branding, and creating your visual identity pieces, all the things that seem little and insignificant now are actually important. It all shapes how your business is perceived by the client or customer that you are reaching. To this day this is still one of my favorite personal logos! Logo Design Process This is just a small sample of the very first logos that helped shape me as a designer, and establish a process of creating visual identity pieces for other brands and individuals. My process is very personalized, because my goal is to get to know you, and your identity to translate that into a brand. There's no cookie cutter templates, or rehashed ideas here, just a process that makes it fun and easy. To see more of my current work, and see the detailed process of how I will take you from start to finish, follow this link here .

Custom album cover design process for the band FACE - Faith At Christ's Expense FACE custom album cover There are some album cover projects that hit a little bit different, and this is one of them! I didn't know what to expect when I started working with the members of the band FACE, but I loved their band name and the meaning behind it. I also loved that this would be a project where my faith and creativity could collide and work together! Looking back on this project now that it is out, I can definitely say its one of my favorite custom album projects to date. Consultation The initial consultation is always important, to make sure that I understand the vision of the artist, and to gain insight on what will make this design project successful. A couple of the key take aways I got from our initial call were- They wanted the design for the album cover to become a visual branding element for the band. One of their main purposes with their music is to share their faith, so they wanted the album cover to be a tool/conversation piece. With these two objectives, the meaning of the name, and the theme of the music in mind, it was time to start working on concepts. Concept One of the first things that came to mind when they told me the band name, Faith At Christ's Expense, was a verse from the book of Romans. To paraphrase, it says "Through everything God has made, people can clearly see Him, and we have no excuse for not knowing Him." (That's Romans 1:20 if you want to read it yourself.) In simpler terms, no one has ever seen God's face, but we see Him in creation. The winning concept started from the thought of how do you make a face from elements of nature? I drew inspiration from other elements in the Bible, and a rough sketch started. For example, you have the dove which is imagery for the Holy Spirit, and the olive branch which is an image of peace and forgiveness. I knew that I couldn't make this imagine come to life the way I wanted, so I reached out to Reagan with Art by Rea ( see my concept sketch on the left, Reagans final sketch on the right ). I have worked with Reagan on a previous cover, so I knew that she could bring my concept to life. Compared to her other work, this was a rather simple design, so she was able to get a copy back to me very quickly and the band loved it! If you haven't seen Reagan's work, make sure you go check it out here . This main element of the face, helped check off our first objective, creating a visual identity piece for the band. This piece could become an icon/logo for the band to use on social media, and would look great on merchandise items like t-shirts. Design With the main element of the cover complete, I began to finish the layout of the cover. For this album there wasn't a separate name for the album, just the band name. One nerdy little detail I thought was cool, and the reason I placed the name where I did, was so when they have physical copies of the album, they can write in the name of the band. (see photo below). It's one of those tiny details, that help make this a tool, not just a cover design. Also the elements in the face design are intended to have meaning and symbolism that the band can use to talk about their faith. Custom album cover with handwritten text Like I said from the start, this was a special project because I got to infuse my faith in the design for this album cover. Also this project is special to me because it exceeded the customer needs, and met all their objectives in very creative ways. First and foremost we ended up with a custom album cover design that stands out, and will hopefully draw people into listening and buying their album. The face design is now the main visual identity piece for the band, so they can have a cohesive image online and on their social media accounts. Lastly, they have a tool to go along with their music, to share the meaning and message of their faith. Make sure you show the band some love, and go check out their music and connect with them here . Every project is a little bit different, but if you need a custom album cover for your project, or need branding for your brand or project connect with me using the form below.

Today on Judged by the Cover, I am looking at an album cover from one of my favorite albums of all time. It’s not one of the first covers I thought of when I decided to start this podcast, but as I dug into the what and how this cover was designed, I knew we had to talk about it. Also it helps that they just released the 20th anniversary edition of the album…so let’s dive in. Firstly, if you haven’t already please hit all the like and subscribe buttons, and if you could leave me a review on Apple Podcasts. Positive reviews are always very helpful for the show. Secondly, if you are viewing this on JW’s Notes, you can use the contact form below to tell me what you think of the podcast, and give me your recommendations for future episodes. Linkin Park Meteora Album Cover Meteora - Linkin Park Meteora is the sophomore album for the band Linkin Park. After their hugely successful first album, Hybrid Theory, they knew they had a big task on their hands to follow it up. And that they did. Meteora came out on March 25th 2003, and debuted at number 1 on the Billboard 200, and sold over 810,000 copies in its first week! At this point the album has sold about 16million copies world wide and is certified 7 x platinum. Talk about one successful album! I would love to talk about the music and why I love the band, but that's not why you are here. You want to hear about the album cover. At first glance, you would probably think there is nothing special about this album cover. It’s a sepia colored image on a black background. The image is offset more towards the top of the cover, with a lot of black space below it. Overlaid on the bottom of the image is the band name/logo, the name of the album (Meteora), and then the track list. The image itself is a guy with a respirator mask, crouched down, painting something on the ground with a can of spray paint. The background of the image is kind of non descriptive, but there are paint cans around the guy, and a ladder next to what seems to be a white wall. At first glance there is nothing that stands out to me or really catches my attention, but it definitely has Linkin Park vibes. If you have never listened to Linkin Park I know this probably doesn’t make sense, but give them listen and you will know what I mean. Before researching the album, or watching the Making Meteora documentary, I always saw this as an image of rebellion. Along the lines of adolescent angst that usually leads to acting out through mediums like graffiti. Also I never really knew or put much thought into who the man in the photo was. It would be easy to assume that this is one of the band members…maybe Mike Shinoda or Joe Hahn (both of which are artists who actually met in art school)…but that is not the case. The person in the photograph is the graffiti artist Delta, or also known by his given name, Boris Tellegen. Boris is a very talented artist who got his start in the graffiti world. His work caught the attention of the band, and they knew they wanted to bring him in. To go into more detail about how Boris ended up being the one on the cover, and why this image is so significant…we have to talk about the name of the album and the inspiration that lies within it. The name Meteora comes from a set of rock formations in Greece, that are spectacular in their own right, that also have these monasteries that were built on top of them. The rock formations are amazing to look at, with these shear rocky sides, and it blows your mind to think how on earth did they build these monasteries on top of them! It has this cinematic quality that is reminiscent of something within a fantasy world or movie. The band felt that the music they were creating had the same qualities. The massive guitar sounds, the range and emotion in the lyrics and vocals, along with the softer piano and electronic sounds tie everything together to create a cinematic force of music. In the middle of the chaos of recording the album, they took a break to work on this art installation, that would become the visual elements of the album, and possibly the cover. I will put a link below of a video they shot during this time discussing the process. This is where Boris came in to input his artistic ability. They brought in basically the whole band to be involved in painting these four huge panels with imagery, lyrics, photos, and other elements that depict the process of the album coming together. You had 4+ artist, working on a single piece, with very different styles…and they all had to come together to tell the same story. Within all of this, they also had a photographer grabbing photos of this process. They ended up choosing the cover photo because they said that there was a quiet strength and focus in Boris, in the midst of the chaos of this art installment, that perfectly embodied this album. In the process of creating an album, there are a lot of moving parts. There’s a lot of chaos in demoing, recording, creating a record, but the band was super focused and knew what they wanted the end product to be. This photo was the perfect embodiment of this focus amongst chaos that portrayed their Meteora. I love that the band had the foresight to document the process of creating the album, so we could have this glimpse of what goes into creating a masterpiece like Meteora. From the outside, what I would have considered to be a terrible choice for the cover of such a great album, really is the best choice to represent it. If you’re listening/reading this today the one thing you can take away from this album cover, is to know your vision, and find the thing/design/art that communicates that. Some people probably won’t get it, and that ok, but be ready to tell us why that thing works. Find a medium to share that story (blog, social media, or video) to bring your fans and prospective fans in the inside and let them in on the story. These are the things that will create real experiences for your audience, and create true fans of you and your music. Know who you are as an artist, know the story you are portraying through your music, and then partner with the right people to help share that story with your audience. Wether that's working with a talented artist like Boris, or hiring a graphic designer like me…I think every artist and band needs to have an outside voice to help bring their visual elements to life. Near Miss That brings us to everyone's favorite section- it's Near Miss time. For today's Near Miss, I decided to give the county artists a break. Our victim for this episode is Aerosmith, and their debut self titled album Aerosmith. There’s a funny story behind this cover that we will get to in a second, but let’s start with describing the cover. Aerosmith Debut Album Cover I’m not even sure where to best start with this because there is A LOT going on. The main body of the cover is this cloudy sky image. Think about what it looks like when you are in a plane, looking down at the clouds in the sky below you while you’re flying. On top of that you have a secondary square image of the band in the center…with a similar background behind them…literally just layered on top of the background. At the top is an orange band with the band/album name Aerosmith, and the font is black with white geometric wings on every letter. This thing is what I would call…..a hot mess! To quote Joe Perry, he said "Unfortunately the packaging was lame. We didn't even see the cover until the first printing. It was something that Columbia just threw together ... The whole thing was sloppy. It marked the start of our education in dealing with (record) labels." The label just threw this together! Obviously without any thought or care. There was also an issue with the first printing where one of the songs was mis-spelled, instead of Walkin’ the Dog, it said Walkin’ the Dig. This was corrected with a secondary printing, and then they ultimately updated the cover art completely sometime before 1975. Aerosmith Album Cover alternate version The alternate cover from the 3rd printing is definitely better, but also not great. It used the image of the band that was at the center of the original, with a similar font done differently for Aerosmth in red. Instead of each letter having the white geometric wings, the name Aerosmith has it at the end. Also the alternate cover said “featuring “Dream On” which was the single for the album and had a lot of success. The lesson learned here is don’t immediately trust your label, or anyone to simply throw something together for you. Your album/single is too important to just leave to chance. Especially in todays music world where you are competing with thousands of other songs that are getting uploaded daily. That's all for todays episode of the Judged by the Cover podcast. Please share this with your friends and family that love music, and album cover design. Also make sure to send me a suggestion of your favorite albums covers, and any examples that need to be discussed in the Near Miss segment.

Phil Hyland, singer songwriter and a great friend of mine, comes on the Judged by the Cover podcast to talk about his career in the entertainment industry, his band Girlfriend, and his new release Too Good. Hear a snippet of the song, and get some behind the scene info on the song itself. Too Good - Girlfriend Custom Album Cover It wouldn't be the Judged by the Cover podcast if we didn't talk album covers, and album cover design. We talk some of Phil's favorite album covers, and he gives us some advice on the importance of hiring the right people, and taking your visual branding elements seriously. Below will be some of the album covers that we discuss during the interview. What's your favorite cover from your personal releases...? The New Me - Girlfriend Girlfriend debut album - The New Me What's an album cover that you love...? Runner up favorite album cover You don't want to miss this one. From behind the scenes of Baha Mens "Who let the dogs out" photo shoot, to stories about playing some of the coolest venues in late 80's-early 90's New York. This is a must listen!! Connect with Phil at www.philhyland.com, and you can find the song Too Good on all your favorite music platforms or using the links below. Apple Music iTunes Spotify Who do you want to hear next on the Judge by the cover Podcast...? Let me know in the comments below.

Website design projects can be some of the most exciting and rewarding things that I work on at JW Creates. In this note I'll share how I break down a website project using my most recent website for the YWHAG Research Foundation. YWHAG Research Foundation home page Website design can feel very overwhelming for most people because there are so many different aspects to it. Not only does it have to look attractive and get peoples attention, but you have to think about things like; What content do I need on my website...? What's a web host...? Where do domains come from...? What's SEO..? How do I keep it up-to-date as my business and offerings change...? There are many other factors that come into play, and this is where having a partner in your corner, like me, helps take this stress off your back. My process focuses on your needs and goals, and uses that to create the roadmap for your custom website project. Consultation - Discover needs, define goals In my opinion, the first consultation is key to a successful website project. This is where I learn if I am the right fit for this project or not, and it's where I start discovering the website needs. Also one of my favorite things about the initial consultation is getting to know you! For the YWHAG Research Foundation site, I learned that the diagnoses of their son's rare disease was the inspiration for creating the foundation. They want to support people that are in the same situation as them by gathering resources into one place, and helping to raise funds to further research for this disease. I knew that we needed to use keywords that researchers and normal people would use when trying to gather information about the disease to make them easy to find. I also knew that we needed to make it as easy as possible for people to donate to the foundation. Project Roadmap - Timeline & Questionnaires From the beginning I will set a timetable for the project, with projected completion dates for certain parts of the process. Depending on the scope of the project, most websites projects are completed in 2-3 weeks. Now there are A LOT of factors that can cause that timeframe to be longer, but my goal is always to have it done in this timeframe. The project officially gets started once I get back the first questionnaire that helps me decide on design elements, website structure, design inspirations, and more. With this information, and the info from the consultation I can build the framework for the website. Usually the process of getting from blank sheet to website layout takes about a week. During this time that I am building the layout of the website, I send out another questionnaire with prompts for the copy/wording for the site. There's a lot of communication back and forth to gather things like logo files, photos, and any other content that is needed to complete the website design. Design - High quality custom design One of my biggest goals is always to provide a high quality, custom looking website design. I won't give away all of my tricks, but I have learned a few things that are simple touches, that I believe make a HUGE impact on your website design. Paint Splatter Texture Interesting Textures - One of my favorite tricks to use, in almost all of my website designs, is to use a texture of some kind to break up the different color blocks and backgrounds. On the YWHAG Research Foundation website it was this fun paint splatter design. You will see this splatter paint design on different color strips throughout the website design, and as most of the primary backgrounds. Thoughtful Use of Color - You don't have to deep dive into color theory, but it's helpful to know how colors generally get perceived or make people feel. For people facing the reality of a diagnosis of a rare disease, I really felt that we needed to help them feel hope and trust when they visited the website. Blue is a color that is commonly associated with trust, so I went with a light blue color, and paired it with a tangerine orange color because orange is energetic and hopeful. Together these colors build the base for the other design choices, and I left plenty of white space to make the design feel bright and airy. Blue and Orange colors on website Interactive Map Tools - Wix partnership & Tools A website is only as good as the tools it provides, and with my partnership with Wix we can supply the tools needed for your business to be successful. One of the biggest things is making sure people can find your website. The worst thing would be to spend all the time and energy in creating a beautiful website, and no one ever sees it. With SEO (search engine optimization) tools built right into the web host, and partnership with the #1 search engine in the world (Google), we will make sure your site gets seen. For the YWHAG Research Foundation, we also incorporated a blog, so they could easily provide new information and research updates for their supporters. We were also able to incorporate an interactive map that shows people known YWHAG cases around the world. These are just a few examples of all the other tools like contact forms, website analytics, and more! Are you ready for a website that highlights your brand or business...? Are you ready for a website that has the tools to drive people to it...? Don't know where to start...? If your answer is yes to any of those questions, use the form below to reach out and get your website project started! I only take on one website project at a time so make sure you get on my schedule today! Also use the link below to view the full YWHAG Research Foundation website. www.ywhagresearchfoundation.org

Welcome back to the Judged by the Cover Podcast, a JW Creates podcast. Today I have an album cover that I am really excited to talk about. As a hint, when I say the name Steve Miller Band….What imagery or album cover pops into your mind…? If it’s not a horse or a Pegasus….then you probably haven't listened to or looked at any of Steve Miller Band's album covers. That's ok because I was actually surprised at how few of their album covers had this imagery…but a couple of their important albums did…so that’s why it's stuck in my head. So yes today we are talking Steve Miller Bands, Book of Dreams, and we are going to start by diving into the history of the band, and how this fantastic album cover came to be. But first, if you haven’t done so already, make sure to like and subscribe on your favorite podcast platform… Also if you could do me a big favor and go to apple podcasts and leave a review for the show that would help me out a lot. History The Steve Miller Band formed in 1966, and they went on to write and record 10 albums in 7 years. They didn’t find any major success until The Joker came out in 1973. That album hit number 2 on the US Billboard 200 and the single The Joker hit number 1 on the Billboard hot 100. Normally when you hit this kind of success, most bands and artists would double down and take advantage of the momentum, but not Steve. Steve and the band were burnt out, and on the verge of quitting, so he told his manager to not book any shows or appearances for a year. He said that he needed time to rest, think, and write new music. As we are going to find out here shortly, this move is actually going to pay off big time!! Up until The Joker, most of Steve Miller Bands songs would have been categorized as psychedelic or even kind of folky. This album marked a significant change for the band going to a more melodic, rock and blues sound. This rockier sound would go on to influence the songs for the next two albums. During this break from performing, Steve wrote the songs that would become the next two albums Fly like an Eagle and Book of dreams. They never imagined that they would get two albums out of the material they wrote, His plan was to pick the best songs and make one album out of it…but there was too much good material. Steve Miller released Fly like an Eagle in 1976, had three big hit singles and hit number 3 on the Billboard 200 and is rated 4x platinum at this point. Book of Dreams Book of Dreams comes out in 1977, just a year after Fly like an Eagle, and followed its hit success. This album hit top ten on the charts in four different countries, and topped out at number 2 on the billboard 200. 7 songs from the album Book of Dreams end up on the greatest hits compilation album that comes out the following year 1978. I believe that Steve Miller found the winning formula in the song The Joker, and he took the time away from performing to transition their sound and writing style around it. The other thing that I believe lead to the major success of Book of Dreams is the album cover and imagery…so let’s get into that. CoverDesign I found an interview where Steve Miller talks about his album covers, and he stated that he loved to live in anonymity. At one point he had the #1 hit single in the country, but could still go to the grocery store, mow his front yard, or go to a local comedy show and most people didn’t know who he was. This was mostly because he didn’t want his face on his album covers. Steve Miller wanted to promote the mood of the album, not himself. When it came to the album cover for the Book of Dreams, Steve Miller went looking for inspiration. He found what he was looking for in a painting done by Stanley Mouse and Alton Kelley. Kelley and Mouse made a name for themselves in the 60’s and 70’s with their psychedelic music posters and album covers. Most of their work was done for the Grateful Dead, but they also created imagery for other bands like Journey. I'm thinking we will have to do a podcast dedicated to the work of these two guys, because there is some really cool stuff in their portfolio. At the time Steve Miller was working on Book of Dreams, Kelley and Mouse were running a t-shirt business that wasn’t doing so well. They knew they had one last chance to create a piece to save the business, so they came up with the image that would become the album cover for Book of Dreams. Lucky for them, when Steve came looking for inspiration for his album cover, he loved this image!! So let me do my best to explain it to you… In the center we have the master piece that is this white pegasus with these very colorful wings. (If you don’t know what a pegasus is it’s a horse with wings). It’s overtop what looks like a coin. At the very center of the coin is this very dream like sky with wispy clouds. Around this wispy sky is a rainbow colored ring with hieroglyphic pattern that is overlayed on top of it, and all of that is surrounded by a gold outer band. If you haven’t actually seen this cover, go check out the liner note page on my website, it will be linked in the show notes, because I know just words can’t describe how cool this image is. The text on the cover for the band and album name is also really impressive. The font also carries on this hieroglyphic theme, especially for the letters S, M, and B. All of this is overlayed a brownish red gradient for the background. I love how every element has this dream/fantasy like value to it. From the broad spectrum of color, to the wispy dream like clouds, to the crazy hieroglyphic style font. It’s like they created this pegasus image specifically for this album...but in reality they never knew what it would become until Steve Miller walked in the door. This album cover and packaging did so well that it won a grammy for “best album cover”. Normally that would be very exciting for an artist, that their work got recognized with an award like that…but the sad truth is Kelley and Mouse weren’t recognized with the award, it went to Capital Records and the art director Roy Kahara. In an interview Stanley Mouse said “…We were watching TV one night and we saw the Grammys and they said, “ For Book of Dreams , Roy Kahara , art director.” It won a Grammy but we didn’t win it . They didn’t even tell us about it. We had to see it for ourselves on TV.” As a cover artist myself, I hate to see the artist themselves not getting the credit they deserve for their work. The pegasus theme would go on to be featured on many of the Steve Miller Bands Compilation and greatest hits albums, and if you search for Steve Miller band merch it almost always has a pegasus on it. If you are a band or musician that is exploring for inspiration for an album or single cover, I think that one big piece of advice you can take from this cover is think outside the Book. I know even for myself, when you have a name like Book of Dreams to work with, it would be very easy to try and do something book related for the cover. What they did, using the pegasus, that could only be found in a dream, as the main character for the cover, is what makes this a great album cover. Also this is literally a piece of art created by Alton Kelley and Stanley Mouse, and I think the world needs to know that they are the ones responsible for this masterpiece on the cover of Book of Dreams. Thats it for the cover of Book of Dreams…now let’s jump into everyones favorite segment….its time for our Near Miss. Near Miss Today’s near miss victim, is one of my favorite bands from my adolescent years…and that is Creed. Growing up in the 90’s and the early 00’s, I fell in love with Creed because it felt like the rock sound that I loved, but it wasn’t my dads rock n roll. I know Creed is one of those bands that everyone likes to pick on, and that's not why I chose them. This album cover is probably more strange than you remember it being. The album cover we are looking at is for Creed’s Weathered album, and it is quite interesting. As a teen I guess I didn’t think anything of this album cover, and it probably wasn’t bad “quality” for the graphics in the late 90’s early 2000’s. But the more I look at it now the stranger it gets….let me try to explain it. The main element of the cover is a big tree, (we will discuss the detail of the tree more in a second), and the background looks very apocalyptic. There is this large orange/red sun in a brownish yellow sky and the ground in the is very rocky, There is a smaller tree, towards the back of the image that is being chopped down by what appears to be a man. He’s kinda of a blurry so it’s hard to tell. Also there is this ray of light shining on this blurry figure from that large orange/red sun. The big main tree at the front of the cover has the faces of the 3 band members super imposed on top of it in the bark. There are these two hands with a chisel and hammer that look like the band members faces are being chiseled into the tree. (As a side note, for some reason the arms that are doing the chiseling are very, VERY hairy!!!) Also all of the band members have these kind of weird blank stares. To make it even better, the faces on the tree are very poorly photoshopped onto the image, so it all looks very awkward. I loved this thought from faceoffrockshow.com “The name of the album means erosion by weather, i.e. bone, person, or anything else that is eroded by the weather. Reflecting the situation the band was in at the time of the album's release, the cracks began to widen and the end was near. But then we take a look at the album cover (which to tell the truth is one of the weirdest we've seen) and here we see the band members' faces engraved on a tree that looks like it's strong and formidable that is not eroded by the weather but rather, it seems to survive forever. Think about it…” A strong formidable tree, in a very weathered environment, that seems to last forever...maybe that's the legacy of Creed. The artwork for the album was designed by Mark Tremonti's brother, Daniel Tremonti, who designed all of the album covers for Creed. Normally I like to try and give some suggestions on how I would change it, to make it better…but honestly this one might be too weird to try and change. And maybe it just needs to be weird. One last funny side note…one of the first things that pops up when you google this album cover design, is this tweet from someone in 2016. They aren’t wrong, but maybe we need to dig deeper into this one and get more info. Would you like me to dig deeper into this album cover and learn more about Weathered by Creed….? Let me know in the comments section below. That's it for this months episode of the Judged by the Cover podcast! Thanks for listening, and we will do this again…very soon!