Design projects • • • sämäs Presents: “Strangers” and “Familiars”
Sämäs Presents: “Strangers” and “Familiars”
Album art and designs for “Strangers” and “Familiars,” a double album release by sämäs. Sam Carroll, Asia Lupo, Marc Mills, Arne Parrott, and Paddy King are sämäs. They write and perform original music inspired by the earth, the cosmos, and everything in-between, and their style has been called everything from witchy new age to transformative pop/folk music.
“Familiars” is an album of reimagined songs from past projects. “Strangers” is an entirely new album that pushes the boundaries of what the band was willing to explore for subject matter and genre. Together, they are a perfect balance of one another: known and familiar; strange and unknown. As a band that loves balance and opposites, it was the perfect pair—and as an artist who is drawn to concepts of linked opposites, this was right in my wheelhouse and I had so much fun creating this artwork.
The front covers I made for “Strangers” and “Familiars.” Sam provided the portrait photos of herself and Asia, informed me they were going for “linked opposite sides of the spectrum,” and gave me full artistic freedom to follow my creative intuition. It helps that I had a fantastic photography collaboration with Sam and her previous band, Sirena, so sämäs knew my photo-based art would resonate with their sound.
Before-and-after going from the original photos Sam shared into my final art pieces.
In addition to the album covers, sämäs also needed an update to their logo. They wanted to keep the general S logomark and sämäs logotype, but cleaned up and elevated with more realism.
More to Come
sämäs is currently running a Kickstarter to fund the production of their double album release!
Check it out because seeing my art on a physical media is one of the coolest things I’ve experienced, so I look forward to photographing the physical albums when they’re out :)