It is Christmas Eve and I’ve been waiting for months to Post this old design project I worked on back in the 1990’s at Sloan/Millman Productions. (I just found a bunch of old Pre-Digital print jobs that I had in the storage room.) This was typical of the projects I managed back then, when I would play the role of Art Director and Illustrator on the same job.
Sloan / Millman was well-known for cranking out a wide variety of high-quality Ad Design and Marketing work with amazing turnaround times. My years at that studio were wonderful for me as a Designer/Illustrator because the people I worked with trusted me and gave me plenty of room to try new things. Some of my favorite projects came from that place.
This was a CD packaging project for a collection of Christmas Songs published by the artist “Serah”. She was a Hippy-Dippy Singer from California, and came rolling in with her small entourage to meet “the people” working on her CD packaging project. We listened to her music for a mellow hour as she described the scene in her mind to me.
We wanted a look that harkened back to Old European culture. We needed a forest of Blue Spruce “Christmas Trees”. And snow! Lots of snow. But not too much snow. And we want a pair of loving Swans. And we want a romantic castle on the top of a mountain. Yes. All of that.
After working up some sketches in the studio with Creative Director Noreen Pero, I was sent home for a week to crank out a 3’ x 6’ acrylic painting on canvas that borrowed from the Renaissance as well as Northern European Art History. The great thing about illustrating with acrylic paints is the past drying times. That painting went straight to the photography studio at the end of the week and we were working on the design layouts the following week.
I’ve often wondered what happened to “Serah”. She did not become the next Big Thing. But this CD packaging… That’s what stands the test of time. LOL.