Client
Reese El Don (longtime client and friend)
The Challenge
To develop unique and conceptually rich cover artwork for Reese El Don's album "El Cantante." The project journey began in mid-2018 without a defined initial creative direction, requiring collaborative exploration to establish a compelling visual theme that captured the essence of the music.
My Role
As the designer and close creative collaborator, I worked extensively with Reese El Don over several months (particularly gaining momentum in 2020) to brainstorm and build the entire storyline and visual universe surrounding the album. My role involved translating these complex narrative ideas, inspired directly by the music and themes, into the final album cover artwork using digital illustration techniques. (Note: I also created artwork for related singles like "Grind Mode" ft. Reason during this period).
Concept Development / The Spark
After initial explorations, the definitive creative direction emerged following the release of Reese El Don's single and music video "Selena Og" in February 2020. This track became the catalyst for building a rich narrative universe to frame the album experience visually and thematically.
The Narrative & Vision
We collaboratively developed a core narrative: the listener embarks on a metaphorical flight where "Selena Og" cannabis is served. As this journey progresses through the album's songs, the listener experiences a culminating vision – a native woman materializing within the clouds, who then ascends into space as the flight reaches its apex. This narrative formed the conceptual foundation for the cover artwork, intended to visually represent the peak of this metaphorical, psychoactive journey influenced by the "SelenaOG" experience, even though the album title "El Cantante" and broader themes also incorporate Reese El Don's Afro-Latino roots and hip-hop influences.
Design Execution
Album Cover
Translating this narrative visually for the main album cover involved creating a starry, atmospheric space scene entirely within Procreate on an iPad Pro. Using real photographs of Reese El Don and Indigenous peoples as references, I illustrated the key elements: Reese El Don as an ascending silhouette and the Indigenous woman seated cross-legged upon a cloud, embodying a celestial vision. Special effect plugins were utilized within Procreate to generate convincing cloud and starry atmosphere textures. The overall style aimed for a surreal, reference-based digital illustration, employing a cool color palette dominated by greens, turquoise, purples, and blues to enhance the celestial, visionary mood.
Extending the Visual Universe: "Grind Mode" Single Artwork
"Grind Mode" Single Artwork: To maintain consistency within the established artistic world of El Cantante, I created the cover art for the single "Grind Mode," featuring Reason (formerly of TDE, known for associations with Kendrick Lamar, SZA, etc., and a previous collaborator with Reese). This artwork employed the same illustrative style and Procreate techniques used for the main album cover, featuring starry backgrounds and cool blue hues to evoke a cohesive moonlight effect. The illustration depicts Reese El Don and Reason standing together, with the biblical Jacob's Ladder extending into the background towards space, visually interpreting themes relevant to the track.
The Final Artwork
The final cover art visualizes the metaphorical effects of the 'SelenaOG' strain as described in the album's narrative journey. It features the ascending silhouette of the artist against a cosmic, starry backdrop, reaching towards the serene, cloud-borne Indigenous woman who represents a key vision within the album's universe, rendered digitally in Procreate with atmospheric effects and a cool color palette. Notably, the final cover artwork itself is purely visual, without integrated typography. However, for related marketing materials and posters, bold title treatments using the Roboto typeface were developed separately to maintain consistency.
Results & Impact
This project further solidified a long-standing creative partnership spanning over 15 years with Reese El Don, extending even into unrelated business ventures. The successful release and rollout of 'El Cantante,' featuring the artwork and marketing collaterals I created, served as a crucial launchpad for Reese's next major endeavor, 'TeslaRap' – a project merging rap music and Tesla technology, which we have been collaborating on since 2021.
