Lauren St. Jane's & The Dead Westerns "American Dreams" EP

This is actually a catch-up post. Last October, I had the pleasure of putting something together for Lauren St. Jane and the Dead Westerns for their American Dreams EP. This is the full sleeve design.

For me, it's always an interesting challenge when you attempt to use loaded icons like the Stars and Stripes or terms like "American Dream." What does this phrase mean, exactly? Well, it tends to depends a lot on who you are, doesn't it? For some, the American Dream is something to aspire to, to others an imperialist/consumerist/capitalist abomination. I have to ask whether the artist is being sincere or ironic. I must attempt to communicate those intentions, whichever they may be, in a clear (yet striking) manner. There is certainly a lot of room to err in such situations, and sometimes I think I'm just winging it.

That being said, I decided in this case that I wanted to communicate more of a sense of someone who would describe themself as being patriotic. Someone who proudly holds their hand on their heart at a ball game.

Of course, Lauren (and the Dead Westerns) certainly aim to push the pedal to the floorboard with their amped-up modern country stuff, so I wanted the design to be bold (and thus the old Colt revolver). At the same time, this is not a Toby Keith album (thank the Lord), so I did want to add a touch of something that seemed (at the risk of coming off as sexist) a little more classy and feminine (and thus the flowers).

To me, the design as a whole seems to play with this tension of using such a potentially loaded phrase in an album title. Is the American Dream all daisies and buttercups or is it cold steel? Petals or bullets? Is it both? What does it say about our efforts? About strength? About us?

Hopefully, it just says something nice about the music. I mean, for crying out loud, that's what I was hired to do.