overview
Lucy Dacus is an indie musician from Richmond, Virginia signed to Geffen Records (previously Matador), and a member of the Grammy award winning supergroup, boygenius. Her third studio album, Home Video explores girlhood, disconnection from the one's own body and memory, and queer coming of age. As the creative lead for the visual campaign, I built out the illustrative visual world and brand to capture the intimate narrative of the album. The result was an nostalgic callback to the innocence of feminine youth while hinting at the discomfort of passing time and the alienation of distorted memories.
details & credits
Client: Lucy Dacus
Label: Matador Records
Category: art direction, brand/packaging design, illustration, photo
ALBUM ART AND PACKAGING
The ominous, almost sinister lighting of the front and back cover frame the bright, warm illustrated world they contain, paralleling the album's conflicting sentiments around formative memories, The deluxe vinyl packaging elements are built around intimacy, containing a handwritten lyric book, a sticker sheet, and a personal note from Lucy.
Process
I shot the cover art on medium format film at a local historic theatre called the Byrd, a landmark in the artist's home town. The VHS icon, album's mascot, was projected on screen in the theatre while the artist sat in the audience, moving during the exposure to distort her image.
Brand Guidelines
The illustrative, wistful, and feminine language of Home Video often contrasts the more eerie, fraught subject matter it depicts. The color palette primarily centers around blues and pinks, highlighting the iconic blue of early technological screens.
Logo
Pulling from the front cover and home movie iconography, the VHS symbol acts as a mascot for the campaign in various forms.
Animation
2D animation was a core medium used to add life to the illustration visual world of the campaign.
The animated music video for third single, VBS, follows a figure losing their tangle form as they navigate a series of landscapes. See more of the project here
Thumbs
Thumbs was a special release of a track Lucy had been playing live prior to the announcement of Home Video. The lyrics detail a gruesome fantasy of violent retribution against a friend's deadbeat father. With subject matter too brutal for literal interpretation, I created an animated version of the VHS mascot to use as a simplistic video loop so the lyrical narrative would command full attention.
(Secret) Release
After she first live debuted the track, fans created a twitter account called "Has Lucy Released Thumbs yet?" posting the negative answer to the question on a daily basis. VHS tapes containing the only the audio for the track and the loop were secretly sent to 100 fans one week before the unannounced release.
other media
