I’ve worked with singer/songwriter Liz Simmons three times now in the last eleven years. The first time we met it was for her album with singer/songwriter Hannah Sanders (Simmonds/Sanders 2010), and then when her band Low Lily needed new photography for their album “10,000 Days Like These” (2018). During the session for Low Lily, Liz told me she was thinking about making a new solo-album, her first in close to 15 years, and we talked a little about the idea she had for the cover (blowing words at the viewer). I love working with musicians that have the seed of an idea and I told her I’d be ready when she was.
I had no idea that our session together would take place right before Covid-19 closed down the whole world.
Liz’s album is called “Poets”. She wanted a simple, elegant cover that displayed her blowing words at the camera - at the viewer that would reflect certain words or ideas that the album represented.
We blocked out a day at the studio and Liz brought some magnetic poetry that we would photograph independently of anything else. The photographs of the poetry would be use in post-production and placed in various places in the photograph to give it a three-dimensional quality as the word are blown towards the viewer. I would also photograph Liz holding some of the magnetic poetry in her hands to help ground the concept.
Liz wanted a very deep red color for the album. I had a large roll of crimson paper backdrop that had been in storage since I moved out of the old Picker Building studio and I knew that backdrop, along with using a few lights with some red gels on them, would really give her the pop and color she wanted for the cover.
Because we were concentrating on the poetry in her hands being the focal point, Liz’s face and body would be out of focus so that our depth of field felt right. The viewers eye will be focusing on the words and her hands. By making her face and body out of focus, it helps bring the viewers eyes to the counterpoint of the photo which is her hands.
I’ve done a few sessions like this in the past, and it always feels a little awkward when you are going through the images and the subject is out of focus. The images by themselves might have confused someone if they had been looking over my shoulder at the computer monitor, but these images were part of a concept, and that concept couldn’t be fully viewed until the post-production work for the cover was done.
Here are some examples that we took during our session:
I wanted to make sure we got images where it felt like she was blowing the words at the viewer.
Once we I knew we had that cover image locked in, we started thinking about images for the rear of the cd. I told Liz I thought that the back image should also be out of focus so that we can concentrate on any text that will be on the back. It carried the concept from the front, and it would give the rear cover a more dreamlike quality.
We basically just went freestyle on the images that would show up on the back of the case. I had a prism that I sometimes like to break out in a session because it reflects light and it refracts things that are around in the studio. I have some small led lights hanging from various beams in my studio, and by moving the prism around in front of my lens, it would pick those little lights up and would make them start to do all kinds of cool things.
I once again had to remind myself that these images were going towards a concept and that they were blurry on purpose (not because I don’t know how to use a camera!). I was really liking how the prism was picking up the little led lights in the studio.
Here are a few shots that really stuck out at me. I like how this is partially purposely set up, and the rest is allowing chance to follow through: the chance of where the little lights would reflect on the image.
I especially like this image because it looks like the lights are a melody that are coming from Liz’s mouth:
I had her sit for a few images and I put an apple box down and she found an angle and pose that looked nice and we did more with the prism in front of the camera lens.
This shot in particular stuck out to both of us; it had lots of great out of focus elements and the lights shining all over the composition and it gave lots of great, moody negative space (like, for instance, song titles on the back of a cd). Liz and I both noted this image down in our notebooks:
Once we both felt confident that we had what we needed Liz went off to finish recording her new album and she would check in with me every so often.
When the album was finished being recorded and produced, we started talking about the packaging design.
We had selected the image that would go on the cover. I asked Liz if I could give some input as to the cover text placement and I spent an afternoon doing a series of mock-ups showing different fonts in different places. I wanted something that felt like it belonged with the image - something that didn’t over power the image but worked within the parameters of the concept.
Here are some of the examples I made, with the original designers mockup on the far left.
The original cover mockup had overpowering text. The first six mockups I tried used mostly a hand script font where I tried different sizes and placements. I sampled the red of the hair light gel and made the title in red and Liz’s name in white. I did one test in a more typewriter font (seventh attempt) and the last three attempts I basically created a font that looked like the magnetic poetry in her hands. I really liked the last four mock-ups I did and Liz got back to me saying she really liked the cover with the typewriter font, though she’d like to see the title of the album also in white. I sent her the font name and she giver these mockups to her designer.
We also did some cleanup of the magnetic poetry. It expanded out and higher on the cover and I suggested blurring some of the magnetic poetry on the cover so that it felt like some of it was closer and some of it was further back, giving a three-dimensional element to it. That really gave some energy to the cover and also gave it a really good vibe.
A few weeks later, the cover was unveiled for “Poets”
Liz was getting ready to release the first single from Poets, “Who Knows Where the Time Goes” and wanted some graphics that she could use for social media to promote the single.
She really liked the image that was going to be used on he back cover, so I did some square mockups for a single cover to send to her to get her input:
She really liked the feel in the second mockup (top middle) and that became the basis for the social media banners promoting the forthcoming single:
A few weeks later and Liz emailed me the layout proofs for the album packaging:
Here is video of Liz opening the first batch of physical cd’s for the album. What a fantastic moment!!
And then, like magic, I got a package in the mail from Liz, and it had copies of the new cd as well as some posters. They looked fantastic!
I’m so glad I got to be part of this project. I’m so glad Liz loves working with me. I love helping musicians make images that are going to be used on stuff; cd and album covers, promotional posters … STUFF! Ever since I was a kid I would make elaborate mix-tapes for my friends with elaborate little cassette jacket artwork. This is me still doing that on a larger scale. I can’t properly explain the feeling I get when I get to make photographs and packaging for things. I can hold it in my hands and display it and say “I helped make this!”
Liz’s album “Poets” is out now.
Visit her website for more information.
Purchase the physical CD or digitally through her website.
Purchase her music digitally through all the digital outlets.
Track her down when she’s on tour. Her voice is like cream.
Tell her I said hi when you see her <3