PROJECT BRIEF
Clients: The Bards of FoDLA
2014 – Freelance (Illustration, Graphic Design, Packaging Design)
2014 – Freelance (Illustration, Graphic Design, Packaging Design)
Commissioned by a group of musicians, the Bards of FoDLA, to design the CD cover art/packaging for their Celtic folk album "Sacred Oaks". They gave me the freedom to come up with a design inspired by the music they recorded and the album title they provided, but they specified the font for the titling. They selected Digipak as their printer/duplicator of choice and I incorporated the layout template specifications into my design.
![](https://cdn.myportfolio.com/52c340b2-e67f-40e2-9ed2-3e9e5bc9353d/dab2ad44-0f06-401f-9af6-d967ead3c55b_rw_1920.png?h=b8cc9c71c480599ad0993ce87eea5b3b)
HAND-DRAWN OAK LEAF & TRISKELION
![](https://cdn.myportfolio.com/52c340b2-e67f-40e2-9ed2-3e9e5bc9353d/6b158fbd-997b-410e-a1fa-312136d09c70_rw_1200.png?h=5c7806479fcd06dbe28aa7ecbd19abc8)
![](https://cdn.myportfolio.com/52c340b2-e67f-40e2-9ed2-3e9e5bc9353d/fcbb9990-d8d8-44c2-a574-2d566efe507b_rw_1920.png?h=aaa8bd5af5379cfedda7e405d4b4116a)
For the cover art, I took inspiration from the look of traditional woodcut techniques, the shapes of oak leaves, and a sacred, ancient Celtic symbol — the three-armed triskelion. I combined those elements into a graphic that would be the focal point on the CD front cover. A photo shoot was arranged with the musicians in a nearby nature preserve to get a photo for the back cover.
![](https://cdn.myportfolio.com/52c340b2-e67f-40e2-9ed2-3e9e5bc9353d/616f6e22-b5e3-4b10-9bca-1aad5a35e28c_rw_1200.png?h=ec5a7843dba2b5ec0d111fbed670c593)
I presented the band members a set of digital mockups showing what the final design would look like along with a printed and folded physical mockup of the CD case.
The CD is available for purchase on CDBaby.