[COMMISSION]
HEADSWIM - FLOOD LIVE
[Album artwork]
/2024
THE CLIENT
Headswim are a seminal English alternative rock band who made waves in the 1990s with their emotionally charged sound and cult single Tourniquet. After a 21-year hiatus, the band reunited for a one-night-only live performance of their debut album Flood at Camden’s The Underworld. In celebration of the event — and in recognition of the fan-led crowdfunding that brought it to life — Trapped Animal Records commissioned a live LP release on vinyl and CD, alongside a rare CD single of unreleased material.
THE PROCESS
The project called for a full suite of artwork: a vinyl LP jacket and gatefold, a 6-panel CD digipack, and a CD single. As the band’s first live album — recorded during their one-off reunion show after 21 years — the design needed to balance legacy with novelty. It had to sit within Headswim’s existing catalogue, while standing out as a collectible tribute to the fans who crowdfunded its release.
The band made several creative requests: they were keen to incorporate their original “scratchy” logo, hand-drawn by the lead singer’s late brother, and asked that fan photos from the night be included alongside professional shots. They also provided a fable-like short story about their reunion and a long list of crowdfunder names to be featured in the artwork.
To align visuals with these requests, I developed moodboards drawing from 90s alt-rock, vintage fanzines, and archival LP layouts. Early scamps explored various styles — the band gravitated to a look that blended high-contrast photography, collage, and clean typographic systems. The result was a visual identity that felt raw, personal, and grounded in the tactile culture of the era.
SCAMPS & INITIAL CONCEPT
LP JACKET
The LP cover draws from the aesthetic of high-contrast, grain-heavy photography and subtle psychedelic distortion. A blurred, fragmented image of the band performing is layered with a muted green/sepia palette, evoking the eerie atmosphere of 90s grunge. Although the band initially requested use of their legacy “scratchy font,” they ultimately opted for a bold sans-serif typeface for clarity and collectability, preserving the original sketch for internal flourishes.
GATEFOLD INTERIOR
The gatefold presented the most content-heavy design challenge. Alongside dozens of crowd-sourced photographs, the band provided a short story, acknowledgements, production notes, and a full list of over 100 fan names to be included as part of their pledge rewards. My goal was to honour this content while maintaining an aesthetic that felt cohesive, tactile, and intentionally designed.
I began by establishing a tight grid layout to organise the dense information, inspired by the layout logic of 60s and 70s fan-zines. The aim was for the viewer's eye to move freely through the imagery—nothing too blocky or linear—evoking the spontaneous, analogue charm of archival print ephemera.
Images were treated for high contrast, giving them the grainy, Xeroxed feel seen in zine culture, but without introducing halftone effects to preserve print clarity. These were paired with a classic, utilitarian typeface to reflect that culture.
CD SINGLE & ALBUM
The CD single presented a fun challenge—blending the LP’s visual style with fresh inspiration from 90s-era singles and vintage 7” records. A faux diner menu listed tracks as greasy spoon “dishes,” playing into the band’s humour and DIY energy. This playful design added a grassroots, unpolished charm that resonated with the band’s aesthetic.
For the full-length CD album, I adapted the LP artwork into a six-panel digipack. Preserving the full slate of written content in a smaller format required careful type scaling and tight layout work. Despite the reduced scale, the CD design maintained the same collectible feel, ensuring fans received a premium and cohesive product across all formats.