Feral Fields is a name I use for recording ambient music. I had been working on an album over the year and wanted to use the opportunity I had in our special projects course to explore what it would be like to do a full scale album launch. The idea was to design layouts for physical releases, some promo materials, merchandise, and look into the costs and logistics of getting cassettes and vinyl records pressed and merchandise printed. I wanted to treat this like I was running my own record label and better understand the process and business side of producing and promoting music.
Developing the layouts for physical media was an easy first step since I've designed for vinyl and cassette formats before. Both are relatively simple, photo based layouts. The cassette took inspiration from a cassette pressing of Brian Eno's "On Land" album. I had to decide on branding for my record label though. I decided to call in Found In Sound in connection with Puget Sound, the fact that music is sound, and that my music often features samples, field recordings, and found sounds. The logo is the top half of an audio waveform, which resembles a forested horizon. Below are some of the designs I created for merchandise and promo goodies like stickers and posters.
To top it off, for my environmental graphics course I created a pop stand display to hold tapes, records, and shirts. The stand would have an optional attachment for establishments with the space for it. The attachment contains a video screen and headphones to allow viewers to watch a music video for a track off the album. The stand features imagery from the album and the music video, both of which were shot at the Seattle downtown waterfront along Puget Sound. The video was produced the previous quarter for special projects.
