TIME OF MONSTERS
Nate Topo, a musician from the Detroit area, needed artwork for his first album, Time of Monsters, as well as a teaser cover for the first single. His vision was just the right sort of bizarre, and I knew we could come up with something very cool together.
SKETCHES
Nate described what he was looking for- a wide open mouth with a portrait of himself sitting serenely on the tongue while shadowy monsters crawled up from the back of the throat. He wanted a cool palette, and we both agreed it was necessary to stay as far away from the iconic Rolling Stones mouth and tongue as possible.
As he would be releasing the title track a few weeks before the entire album, Nate also requested a cover for the single that tied in, somehow, with the rest of the album.
I provided Nate with two options. Both had the figure sitting calmly on the tongue of a giant open mouth. One had him checking a watch while the other was looking off into the distance. The single covers would be less detailed than the larger album, but would hint at the larger composition.
Nate loved the direction we were going in, and chose to move forward with the quietly contemplative figure and the tooth.
THE SINGLE
I decided on a palette of warm sickly greens and blues to convey a sense of unease. Heavy black ink work added drama while the contrasting bright red draws the eye to the hand-drawn text.
”But why a tooth??” everyone invariably asks. Consider it an Easter Egg for one of the details in the full album cover.
REFINING THE DETAILS
Nate had such a clear vision for this project when we met, and I wanted to make sure I got everything just right. He described the monsters as scary, but almost muppet-like; think Fraggle Rock or Dr. Seuss. That sort of character design is a bit outside of my wheelhouse, so I sketched out a whole page of different monsters for Nate to choose from.
THE ALBUM
The chosen monsters were arranged in poses almost akin to The Last Supper. Some are reaching, beseeching; others stare blankly or munch on forbidden snacks. All are menacing in their own way.
While Nate’s suit is torn he sits peacefully on the tongue, and his coloring bridges the gap between the blue of the monsters and throat and the greens of the viewer’s space.
Time of Monsters was released on streaming with physical CDs, and possibly a record pressing, coming soon.
BACKGROUND NOISE
I spent a lot of time working on this in airport waiting areas, so I wanted something to get me into the unsettling monster vibe, but also something that I could listen to in short bursts. I settled on going through my backlog of SPOOKED episodes. Spooked features true-life supernatural stories, told firsthand by people who can barely believe it happened themselves, and is hosted by the wonderfully creepy Glynn Washington.