Record Cover Design
When local hardcore band Black Mercy asked me to design their debut album
“For the Man Who Has Everything”, I knew I had to deliver something as unique as the band itself.
I began by creating a linoleum block print for the cover with imagery inspired by DC comics’ Superman Annual #11 For the Man Who Has Everything which aside from being the name of the album was also the first appearance of the parasitic plant known as “Black Mercy.”
Although there is a wink and nod to comics in both the band name and album title, the content of the record is not light hearted. I needed to capture the raw nature of the music, the pain of the lyrics and the roots of the project as a whole.
The type face for the inside of the lyric sheets is folk goth which has both a hand done and creepy quality which I found matched the artwork perfectly. I created the artwork for the inside on Illustrator but did my best to mimic the ink block quality from the cover.
Expanding on a Theme
Once the record was finally ready for release I was asked to design some merch to be sold at the record release show. I also created a flyer for social media to advertise the event.
Tying it all Together
For all the promotional items I used Tomarik brush, a bold heavy typeface reminiscent of the big black sharpie markers their singer carries in his bag at all times.