I was pretty excited to find this waiting for me in the mailbox today. It’s a promo copy of Harper Simon’s new album. Harper is a friend of a friend of mine and asked me to help out with the design.
The album art features an embroidered piece and drawings by Tracey Emin, photography by Autumn de Wilde and typography/design by myself with Ben Goetting of Vagrant Records.
The music sounds great, with many amazing players taking part. Harper’s dad, Paul Simon, makes an appearance, collaborating on the song “Tennessee.” Other players include Charlie McCoy (from Bob Dylan’s band), Sean Lennon, Lloyd Green (he played lap steel on the Byrds’ “Sweetheart of The Rodeo”), Eleni Mandell, Petra Hayden and Inara George.
This is his first album, but Harper has been making music his whole life. He toured with his dad on the Graceland tour, playing guitar to millions of people at just 12 years old.
The design is simple, giving way to the emotional value in the illustrations, photos and Harper’s words. We hoped to create a package that you would delve into while listening to the music, like you might with an LP from the 1960’s. There’s liner notes, lyrics and credits for the many famous musicians who contributed.
Here’s a picture of Harper performing at the The Echo last week. His album is available now on iTunes and in stores.
Update: David Letterman is a huge fan! With video.
