Taxes: Retirement Home

Album design for Bay Area band, Taxes

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Photo of the CD angled at a distance on a back background. The CD cover has a painting of a ghost on it with the band name somewhat hidden in the fabric of the ghost
Standard top down shot of the CD cover directly centered.
Top-down shot of the CD packaging open: The CD is hot pink and has a shovel illustration on it. The Booklet is a dark navy whith a flower pattern and an arched window graphic in the center.
Close-up shot of just the booklet, opened, with the lyrics printed towards the center and flower pattterns on the edges
Close-up of the back of the CD case with the song titles listed at the bottom.
CD packaging (digipak) is placed vertically and open with its spine visible: Taxes - Retirement Home
Photo of the CD packaging (digipak) is placed vertically with the booklet open and showing the lyrics.
3-up preview of the single releases for: last call, foie gras and sancerre, and frozen lake

About the Project

Retirement Home, is the second album from Bay Area band, Taxes. I worked closely with Robby Cronholm—the lyricist, frontman, and creative force behind Taxes—to bring the album to life in its physical and digital form. Using a commissioned painting from Sam Bee as inspiration and a starting point, I designed the packaging based on the tone of the album and the painting itself.

Together, this project consists of a designed 4-panel digipack, an 8-page saddle-stitched booklet of typeset lyrics, a logotype, and artwork for 3 digital single releases. The logotype for the album was created using Sometimes Times by Boulevard Lab, and the lyrics for the booklet were typeset in Wolpe Pegasus.

This project holds a special place in my heart because it is the second album release I've designed for Taxes, the first one being, It Never Ends, back in 2014 when I was just 2 years into my career. Working with them, again, has been nothing short of amazing.

Project Credits

Album Concept by Robby Cronholm
Design Direction, Type, and Layout by Annie Szafranski
Cover Painting by Sam Bee
Cover Photography by John Volger
Printed by DiscMakers

Type Credits

Sometimes Times by Boulevard Lab
Obviously by OH no Type Co.
Wolpe Pegasus by Berthold Wolpe, digitized by Toshi Omagari of Monotype