Prim Woes - Sun Dunk
Summer 2019 | Art Direction + Package Design
In the summer of 2019 I was approached by MPLS by dreamy bedroom-pop trio Prim Woes to design the packaging for their first EP, Sun Dunk.
They sent over the masters of the 3 songs they had recorded and I fell in love immediately. The songs were sunny and innocent, almost reminiscent of old Beach Boys records. Yet they had a certain gloom to them provided by a backdrop of heavily reverbed guitars and lyrics drenched in longing and unrequited love.
At the time I was really into the work of avant-garde designers like Eric Timothy Carlson and I knew that, Shelby (Guitar/Vocals), being a fellow designer, shared my appreciation. I also knew that I wanted the art to feel playful and have a certain sense of innocence while still hinting at a bit of gloom to match the tonality of the songs, both lyrically and sonically.
The band sent me hand-notated lyric sheets they had used during rehearsals along with a couple of promo shots they had taken - all of which were pieces I immediately felt drawn to. We discussed inspiration and general direction as a group and from there I began to concept out some covers.
The first round of concepts came together quickly. As you can see below many elements that ended up in the final piece were present from the beginning.
In the end the band loved this cover after only a few small edits. I was also really pleased to be able to use the noted lyric sheets for the inside panels of the cassette, adding a personal touch and a more intriguing reveal for fans.
In the end the cassettes sold out in only a few days. This remains one of my favorite projects to this day.