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

Earlier this year, I worked with San Francisco-based band, Taxes, on their latest album, Retirement Home. I worked closely with Robby Cronholm, the lyricist, frontman, and creative force behind Taxes, to help bring the album to life by taking the painting he commissioned for the cover and turning it into a fully designed CD that would match the tone of the album and the painting itself.

For this project, I designed within a 4-panel digipak form, and designed an 8-page saddle-stitched booklet of lyrics that rested inside. I created a logotype for Taxes using Sometimes Times by Boulevard Lab, designed the layout for the album, selected colors, and typography, created additional illustrations to accompany the design, and typeset the lyrics within the booklet. Shortly after, I also created artwork for three accompanying singles “Last Call”, “Foie Gras and Sancerre”, and “Frozen Lake”, that visually accompany the album with their earlier releases.

This was easily one of my favorite and most special projects because woring with Taxes has been nothing short of amazing. Also, this is now the second CD I've designed for Taxes, the first one being back in 2014 when I was just 2 years into my career.

Project Credits

Album Concept by Robby Cronholm
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