context.

6 short hours. This was all the time provided to make this happen, something not unusual to the music industry but entirely unusual to my regular process. I had to rethink how I design entirely. Instead of broad stylistic changes and innovation, the focus was on precise, high impact additions that respectfully leave their mark.

The original cover was a still-life composition built around indulgence: food, money, guns, and overt luxury engaged around a central snake serving as Nudy’s motif. Safe to say it would not be a light challenge introducing new elements onto an already cluttered scene.

iteration and integration.

After deciding what made sense to remove, we had to figure out what made sense to include. To signify the presence of the two new artists, their chains were recreated to serve as the central motif of the new piece. Additional signifiers such as cherries were also added to shift the tone of the image.

Scale and placement were the two factors that provided the most friction. Everything needed to be set perfectly. Nearly a dozen iterations were produced in the tight timeframe, moving pieces sometimes only pixels apart between each until harmony was established. These constant revisions helped to better understand both my vision and the client’s, and eventually align them as one

concluding.

The final cover preserved the identity of the original release while also differentiating itself in a clear and notable manner. While “short-lived” is an understatement for this experience, it was an important lesson in quick thinking, rapid adaptation, and distilling decisions down to their essentials.